Diary of a Wildflower Read Online Free Page A

will use for making
quilts.  She lines and pads them with worn out blankets.  She makes
sheets and pillow cases from muslim.  Trula and Roxie embroider the pillow
cases.  Me and Nell are learning how.  We fill the pillow cases with
chicken and goose feathers.
    Mommie’s
belly is so big now, she is having a hard time bending over to pull stuff out
of the bag.  She looks so pitiful I want to hug her and tell her I love
her.  Instead I go over and start reaching things to her so she won't have
to bend over.
    We
are working together quiet when of a sudden she clutches herself down between
her legs and groans.  Oh…oh…oh!  Then she tells me to go fetch
Trula.  And not tomorrow.  Right now!
    I
run to the cornfield for Trula, and she sends Luther for Aunt Sue.  When
they come back, Aunt Sue says Trula has to help out with the birthing. 
She’ll be sixteen in December, and that’s old enough.  Trula cries out NO,
NO, please NO.  But Daddy makes her do it.  To see Trula cry hurts my
heart.
    I
forgot all about the bluebird, but when it’s nearly dark I see Samuel coming
across the mountaintop, walking tall against the sky.  I run to meet
him.  I tell him about Mommie.  He makes long, deep breaths and takes
my little dirty hand into his big one.  He says he is wore out and did not
find work this trip, and now we're about to get another mouth to feed.
    So
here we are again, me and Samuel and Roxie and Nell all sitting out on the
porch in the dark waiting for another baby to be born.  Daddy and Luther
are in the barn with a sick cow.  Charles and Jewel went to bed the
dirtiest young’uns you ever saw, because Trula was too busy to tend them. 
Roxie has brung out a lamp and lit it, and the millers are flitting and flying
against it.  Samuel is telling us fine things he learned from books, but
his mind is upstairs with Mommie.  This time she does not make
noise.  We have not heard her cry out even once.
    After
a while there’s a sound at the door and Trula comes out holding a bundle in her
arms.  There’s blood on her dress.  Her hair has come down from on
top of her head, and hangs
    in her eyes.  The red rough lines on her hands are
plain to see in the lamplight.  She slumps against the door frame, and
Samuel jumps up to keep her from falling.
    She
pushes the bundle at Samuel and says, ”Here’s y’all’s new little brother. 
His name's Daniel.”
    Next
morning Trula and Roxie fix a big breakfast for everybody.  Daddy has not
gone up the stairsteps to see Mommie and baby Daniel yet.
    Aunt
Sue is still with us, and she asks him,”Old man, how come you don't go up there
to see your wife and your new boy?”
    Daddy
says the steps are too steep for him to climb right now.  He just woke
up.  But he'll go drekly.
    Before
we can eat, Aunt Sue makes me and Roxie and Nell take Charles and Jewel to the
washing spring and give them and ourselves an all-over scrubbing.  The
washing spring is a good piece further on past the drinking spring. 
Standing naked in it, we wash with lye soap.  We are so nasty.  The
lye burns our skin, but the cold spring water is a balm.  There’s an old
sad willow tree with its weeping branches nearabout hanging down in the
water.  We shiver in the shade of the willow, and shake the wet off of us,
just like my sweet Dixie girl used to do.  Then we go into the sunshine
where the wildflowers grow, and dry ourselves.
    While
we are eating breakfast, we see Uncle Martin through the window.  He has
come to walk Aunt Sue back down the mountain.  Daddy goes out on the porch
to meet him, and we hear him telling Uncle Martin that he’s gotta see the new
calf that was born last night.  Says it’s the prettiest calf ever
was.  Says he’s sure to get top dollar for it at the cow sale next
year.  So the two of them go into the barn to see the calf.
    That
makes Aunt Sue so mad, she starts muttering and mumbling about calves and
babies.  Samuel pats her shoulder.  Aunt Sue