'Will the baby die, Mama?'
'Babies can be born early and be strong, honey.'
'But it's usually the other way, isn't it? It's my fault,' I moaned. 'I wanted to be out of here so much, I forced the baby to hurry.'
'Nonsense,' she said.
'It doesn't deserve this. It's not the baby's fault. It didn't ask to be born this way,' I wailed.
'Gabrielle, stop this right now,' Mama commanded. Her face was firm, her eyes blazing with authority. 'If you're going to lie there and worry about everything, you'll make it harder and more dangerous for both you and the baby, honey. Trust in God now. It will be what He wants, and we will do what we can. This is not the time to be weak.'
I swallowed back my tears and nodded.
'I'm sorry, Mama.'
'Okay, honey.'
'Where's Daddy?'
'Your father is downstairs with Octavious Tate. He jumped for joy when he heard you might be giving birth.'
'Why?'
'Another opportunity to ask for more money. He's been sitting on this like a fat hen on a fat egg, just waiting for the chance to put the squeeze on the man. I don't know who to dislike more for it, your father for his greed or Octavious Tate for what he's done to you. The man deserves to have your father on his back, but your father ain't doing this to get justice for you. I'm sure he's gambled away most of what he took from the Tates and got himself into new debt.'
'It just gets worse and worse, Mama. Maybe it was all my fault.'
'Nonsense, and don't you even think it,' she snapped.
'Let me try first,' I said.
'Good girl.'
She helped me to my feet.
'Suddenly my stomach feels ten pounds heavier, Mama, and my legs feel like two sticks of lard.'
Mama laughed. I breathed easier. With her at my side now, I wasn't afraid.
Of course, I was still like someone poling in the canal for the first time. I was excited and anxious to do well, but I didn't know what was around the next bend.
8
Mine for a Moment
In anticipation of my arrival, Gladys Tate had Octavious move a second bed into her room and place it beside her bed. Mama said she heard Gladys tell Octavious to tell the servants it was for Mama because she would have to be at Gladys Tate's side continually now. Neither Mama nor I understood why Gladys didn't just move to another room for the time being or put me into one of the guest rooms, but the bed had been prepared and was waiting. After I entered the room, the door was kept locked and only Octavious and Mama were to be permitted into the room. Gladys insisted the curtains be kept closed, and of course, she ordered us to keep our voices down.
Gladys was impressed with how difficult it was for me to come down the stairs to her room and the effort it took to get me comfortably situated in the bed.
'How soon could it be?' she asked Mama, and Mama told her it could be hours or could be days.
'There's a strong possibility it's false labor and it'll take the remaining weeks it was meant to take. We'll have to wait and see,' Mama said.
Nevertheless, Gladys told Octavious to go out and forbid the servants to come up the stairs.
'In fact,' she decided after a moment's thought, 'discharge them, all of them, immediately;'
'Discharge them?'
'Give them all a week's holiday,' she insisted.
'But what am I to say is the reason?'
'You don't have to give them a reason, Octavious,' she replied haughtily. 'They work for us. We give the orders. Just do it,' she snapped, and waved her hand at him as if he were one of her servants, too. If there were any doubts as to which of them ran the house and their lives,, those doubts. died.
'But . . .' Octavious looked to Mama.
'I told you the bleeding doesn't always, mean the birthing's coming shortly,' Mama explained. 'A week, two weeks, who knows?'
'I don't care,' she told Mama, and turned back to, Octavious. 'Just have everyone out of the house. I don't want anyone to suspect anything. I've come all this way convincing people it is I who is giving birth. I don't want to risk any mistakes, any accidental discoveries,' Gladys insisted.
