Unedited
Third Person
The looming, low sultry sound erupting from the darkening deep blue sky. Mama looks up as she rubs her full belly expectedly. Her eyes trace over the silver lining of clouds drifting over head. She feels it, in her soul, in her mind, and in her heart, it is time.
"How you feelin' mama?" She turns around to the sudden intrusion. She looks at her son, he is tall, lean, and darkened by the hard labor he just faced in the fields.
She takes a slow, heavy blink instead of responding to her curious little son.
"I reckon a storms a'comin mama, we should head inside" he urges her with his hands.
She shakes her head dismissedly and rests her dry overworked fingers into her son's matching ones. Slowly, she bends her warn out knees. Her knees now imbedded into the mushy soil as she continues to look up at the sky.
"Do you feel that Colis?" She whispers ever so lightly, the phrase nearly passed by his ear. He cocks his head to the side as he mimics his mama's actions. He dares not say anything, through his seven years of trying to grasp an understanding of the mother who named him Colis left him baffled every day.
'Please be a boy Lord. A brother I can play around with and wrestle with in the fields. A brother I can show him the ropes to how to grow up with the time. A brother I can scheme with to mess with the little kids in the big house over there across the field. Please Lord, please.'
Colis prays in his head as his eyes remain shut. A small smile threatens to show when he imagines mama coming out the room with a new baby brother. That's what they both wanted and surely if they prayed long and hard, God will hear them and surely he will give them what they want. Right?
Mama didn't pray this time, her face didn't display any emotions. She knelt in that position immobile, like a withering statue.
"Colis, my boy, a storms on its way. This will be a long hard storm baby. I need you to be the stronger one. Only one of us will make it to the end and one of us will get trapped within its eye. Don't let that one be you because I sure as hell will not lose anotha one of my loves." She croaks as she feels a sharp pain jolting for her womb.
I love you too my baby boy. She says in her head. Almost believing that the baby heard her, like their connection was much deeper, much stronger than ever before.
"Super time!" A distant man yells and with a flash many sweaty slaves gathered around one another and jog there way over the voice.
Colis quickly jumps back to his feet as he feels his stomach gargle at the mere thought of food. This would be his first time eating for the day. His breakfast was sacrificed to his mama. After all she was eating for two.
Soon, mama promised that his meals will be doubled, tripled, as long as they keep on praying. Instead of leaping over shrubs and racing with the others to get the first hot meal, he reaches a hand out for his mama. Her mood was different, off, maybe it's the pregnancy. Maybe it's because she fears the loss of another baby to the white man.
Little did Colis know there was much more involved.
He shrugs all assumptions off his shoulders to carry his mama's weight on them instead. They wobble over, trailing behind another man, his name was Zari. Many of his physical features resembled Colis' yet mama said that wasn't papa. Colis never met his real father, and unfortunately his baby brother will not know who his is either.
Colis wished before the nine months he was more attentive, more sneaky into finding the mystery man that granted his prayer for a sibling. All he wanted more was to make sure his brother would know who his father was, something Colis was unaware of.
When they got closer to the big white house from across the field they were greeted with a warm smile from their master's wife. She was too, carrying a child. Ever since she found out mama was pregnant she grown closer to mama, checking up on her to see how she was doing. This was strange, but gave her a glimmer of hope.
The heartfelt greeting didn't last long when the master, shot a glare towards Colis. He was always so hard on Colis who did everything he could to please his master and at one point he thought Master was beginning to trust him more. That assumption was thrown into the mass cotton field when he found out mama was pregnant. And believe, Colis did everything he could to find it again.
After dinner, Colis assisted his mother to the rickety cabin they shared with three others. As soon as they stepped inside the pitter patter of rain shifts into a cloudburst. The shed and the wind gently rocked to take an unsteady rhythm. Everyone else was lying down and mama was in a corner sitting with her head against the wall. Colis quickly checks the door to make sure it's secured.
He doesn't want anything happening to mama while he's asleep.
After, he helps her lie down on the thin faded sheets and wraps a blanket around her frigid body and slowly curls up on her side and rest his hand on his mama's bump. He smiles as feels the baby kick and he couldn't be the happiest.
Later that night the thunder roared causing Colis to jump up. The bright light from the storm forced its way through the yellow window and the rain protruded through the cracks of the cabin.
Mama lets out an ear piercing scream causing everyone to wake up from their dreamless state.
"The storm is here!" She screams, Her tears twinkled in the beauty of the lightning. Colis rushed to hush his mom by trying to sing her a lullaby. And when he reached down to rub her thigh, he noticed it was damp.
"Mama did you pee?!" He squeaks as he quickly wipes his hands on his pants. But before he could process what is going on he is shoved to the far end of the room as the adult crowd around his mama.
He orients himself and attempts to beat past the crowd. But that's when Daria, a slavewoman who is much lighter than the bunch. Most likely because she works inside the white house rather than in the field pushes him back.
"Listen boy, stand back. This isn't what you wanna see. She will be fine now let us handle this." She points in the direction where he was placed just moments before.
He sulks his shoulders in defeat then cringes when his mom lets out another antagonizing scream. He presses his face against the cold wood and begins to cry.
Why is mama crying?
Is she okay?
He croaks out a prayer and covers his ears. Yet even the praying and the plugging of his ears couldn't dilute his mama's pain.
Somehow his aching heart put his mind at bay and eventually his eyes fluttered close and his breathing slowed. His slumber was not peaceful but justified.
Lighting illuminated over the sweaty bodies as everyone works to assist mama through this moment. The storm is here, and it refuses to calm down.
She convulsed, and writhed as people kept urging her to push. Push they said, but that wasn't helping. She yelled and cried until there were no more tears spilling from her eyes. After what felt like ages, her breathing started to slow down, and her eyes fluttered shut. She wanted to reach out for her baby but her body was being held down; laden with fatigue, hunger, and worry.
It was cleaned up from all the thick murky blood that covered its face and was firmly wrapped in Daria's baby blue headscarf.
"Is it a boy?" Mama asks, Daria, eyes welled up with tears just silently hands over the new addition.
The lightened baby came out with a full head of curly hair. For some odd reason, it's eyes opened much earlier than expected. It..well, she peaks one eye open before showing both of her marbled, large, earth green eyes.
Mama wails out of contempt, anger, hatred. Her eyes does not match Colis' brown ones. They were different. They were what made her different. Colis awakes and his first instinct was to run to mama. His breath hitches when he sees the blood and his mama firmly grasping the tiny baby in her hands.
Instead of saying anything he returns to her side. The large eyes, the shapes of her lips did not match mama and he knew she was upset. Even though Colis wished for a brother, his smile was much larger when his little sister looked at him.
He expected the smile to be reciprocated. But instead she cries. Her screams, her bellows matched his mama's when she was in pain.
"I'll name her Darcy Orage" mama whispered.
That night the storm has shook, rattled, and disturbed the unspoken mixture of feelings in that rickety wooden cabin. The wailing baby mixed with the clashing of rain and thunder on the walls were so loud and obnoxious, no one heard the distant cries of another baby inside the big white house from across the field.
First two or three chapters will be in third person (and time jumps) before the real plot of the story begins! I'm excited for this story.
Dedication: beigeroses thank you for the cover and the encouragement to go with this idea ❤