The Mercy Seat (2011)
The Mercy Seat
“I used to say, Don’t forget this: Your mama died of a broken heart.
I had to tell Jonaphrene and the others about Mama because when it all happened they were too young. I’d take them down to the rocks by the water. I’d sit on the bank, upon the big slab of rock by the water, and gather the children around me. I’d tell them, Your mama was a beautiful woman, with small hands and brown flyaway hair that fell to her waist when she brushed it. Her skin was the color of thin milk with the cream skimm...ed off, and her name was Demaris.
Alone, on the rock, I said Mama’s name in silence over and over to myself.
I told them, Your mama was married in a dress of white linen and there were seventy-three guests at her wedding, and on the night we all left Kentucky, when she had to leave behind the cherry chifforobe her brother Neeley made her for a wedding present, it was another aspect that helped crush her heart.
Your mama’s mama was Mary Whitsun Billie and she was a blind woman. She went blind from a fever at ten o’clock one autumn morning in the Year of Our Lord Eighteen Hundred Sixty-seven, and she was born in London, England, where the King of All English-speaking Peoples lives.MoreLess
I had to tell Jonaphrene and the others about Mama because when it all happened they were too young. I’d take them down to the rocks by the water. I’d sit on the bank, upon the big slab of rock by the water, and gather the children around me. I’d tell them, Your mama was a beautiful woman, with small hands and brown flyaway hair that fell to her waist when she brushed it. Her skin was the color of thin milk with the cream skimm...ed off, and her name was Demaris.
Alone, on the rock, I said Mama’s name in silence over and over to myself.
I told them, Your mama was married in a dress of white linen and there were seventy-three guests at her wedding, and on the night we all left Kentucky, when she had to leave behind the cherry chifforobe her brother Neeley made her for a wedding present, it was another aspect that helped crush her heart.
Your mama’s mama was Mary Whitsun Billie and she was a blind woman. She went blind from a fever at ten o’clock one autumn morning in the Year of Our Lord Eighteen Hundred Sixty-seven, and she was born in London, England, where the King of All English-speaking Peoples lives.MoreLess
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