I told Lin all these things and more, as we walked to the dorm room from the admission’s office.
Lin looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, "Angel, I'm gonna miss you so much, most of all, but I know with your greedy self, you won't stay away from mama's fried chicken and collard greens for long, so you'll be home before I know it. Besides, now I can be mama's and daddy's baby and not old Mira." She smiled her fairy princess smile at me then and we both nearly fell over laughing.
Sitting on the bed in the small dormitory room I started to think over the decisions I had made that had brought me to this point. Tomorrow was the start of all the things I had dreamed of for myself. All I had to do was go out there and let things fall into place but was it that simple.
Had I made the decisions or had they been made for me. Aunt Elmira was gone, but I still had my dreams haunting me. I spoke out loud, "What good are the dreams, what are they leading me to? Why is the witch still riding my back?"
All these thoughts and more filled my head until I didn't want to think anymore. I decided to go out and see what the new campus had to offer instead.
I walked down the tree lined sidewalk and just took in the sights and sounds of the city. State University was situated right smack in the middle of downtown Atlanta. After I walked about half a block, gawking at everything I saw, I saw a huge tree almost standing in the middle of the sidewalk.
I supposed it was such an old tree that they just built the sidewalk around it instead of chopping it down. Even for September, the tree was still brilliantly crowned in emerald green leaves. The air around the tree seemed to shimmer and dance and I thought I saw someone standing on the other side of it.
I walked slowly down the sidewalk and yes, there was someone standing there. I was about twenty feet away, but I could make out a face. The face looked familiar to me, not as if I had met him before, but more like I knew who he was supposed to be.
Suddenly he turned and looked in my direction. He wasn't one of my many cousins. He certainly wasn't Jimmy Johnson. But I knew somehow, deep inside me he was someone meant for me. Yes, he was meant just for me.
Who Commanded?
Without a Doubt
I saw dazzling crystal clear light
Emptied from a cloudless sapphire sky
From that same sky now ashen, rain
And I wondered, who commanded?
I saw liquid more precious than gold
Shower down over all the earth
All nature was thoroughly nourished
And I wondered, who commanded?
I felt frozen flecks of wonderment
Glide by my now cooling cheek
More diverse than the blades of grasses
And I wondered, who commanded?
Amazingly, now came sizzling lightning
Lashing daggers beyond my reasoning
Followed by sound so bold and fearsome
Again I wondered, who commanded?
Now a peaceful breeze sailed by my brow
Soothing the strange fear from my face
Heralding a majestic grandly power
Without a doubt I knew, who commanded!
A Boy and His Dog
Slender Brown Hands
THE SMALL BOY WHISTLED for his dog; he knew if he didn't come back with something for supper this time, he would get a whipping. He was old enough to carry his daddy's old shotgun, but not quite old enough to use it properly.
He didn't have a real name for his dog, it being the runt of the litter and discarded as a proper hunting dog by his father. Therefore, the little boy named Eddie, gave the dog his name.
Eddie was also the runt of the litter in his large family of seven brothers and three sisters. Life was hard when you had a mother and father and just a few siblings, but it was insanely hard without a mother, and you are the youngest of the brood and your birth signaled the end of that mother.
Eddie loved to hunt in the woods behind the old barn, beside the farm house he and his family barely scratched out a living on.
His father was a carpenter by trade but grew vegetables and grain for the many mouths he had to feed. Eddie's one chore at the age of nine was to flush out any small animals that could be used to help feed the family. He carried his father's oldest, rustiest shotgun, but his daddy never gave him the proper training on what to do with it.
He wasn't sure if the gun was even loaded. So his dog Eddie, along with his gift, were the tools he used to get at the quail, rabbits, wild turkeys, and occasional possum that would sometimes fill their plates.
Eddie's father believed you had to be good for something or you didn't eat, and he saw the dog, and sometimes Eddie himself as being a waste of what little leftover scraps they had.
Eddie kicked at the old stump that sat rotting in his path. He whistled again for his dog and called out hesitantly. "Eddie, you old dog, where did you get to?" He looked around and stood silent for a moment to hear any signs of his dog. He used his gift and concentrated hard on the whereabouts of his Eddie.
A rustling in
