by Suzanne Popp
Then Lily Wonder, the first born child, fell ill.
CHAPTER 23
LILY IS LATE
At first Lily had diarrhea and a fever. Then she could not eat and everyone advised them to cut back on her water, since it was going right through her. Myrna did not follow this advice, instead giving the child tea made with boiled milk. When Lily did not improve, Festal harnessed the donkeys, put Myrna and the child on the cart and galloped the five miles to the clinic. By the time they arrived, Lily was unconscious. Myrna was frantic. The doctor tried to give Lily fluids, but it was too late. Lily was gone. He asked Myrna to come into the examining room and be checked. She did not have dysentery, but she was pregnant. Within a few minutes of examining her, he reported to Festal.
“We could not save your daughter. This diarrhea is difficult to treat and you did all the right things. Only an antibiotic might have saved her. You will need to watch the other children and your wife. She is distraught with grief, but she is also pregnant with twins. She should stop nursing the baby and save her energy for the next children. We will watch her closely and she must come in for checkups. Even though she has had easy deliveries in the past, this is what we call a high risk pregnancy. Do you understand?”
“Yes. You mean I could lose my unborn children and my wife as well.”
“Yes. Bring her in once a month so we can make sure everything is going well. I am so sorry you have lost your little girl. I know she was a happy and a healthy child until this illness. I would recommend you get some help for your wife as well, as she should do no heavy lifting and should avoid getting too exhausted.”
“Thank you, Doctor. I will take care.”
Festal suddenly leaned forward and hugged the doctor, then hid his face in his sleeve before going back inside to gather up his daughter and wife. It was a quiet drive back to the ranch.
When Dodge heard of Lily’s death, he sent word that he was coming and offered to pay for the funeral. Festal told him not to come, the child was his, he had brought her into the world, and she would be sent out of it with his labor.
Festal spent the night digging the grave for Lily, and buried her next to the gate, and the wall on which she would sit to welcome him home every night. He regretted every harsh word he had said about having daughters, although he still thought there had been some spell cast on Lily. He hugged each of the girls and tucked them into bed, telling them that Lily would be in heaven and would hear their prayers each night. He then went in and took Myrna in his arms.
“I am sorry that I ever said I was disappointed in our girls. I hope both these babies are girls and I pray for God to forgive me for not being grateful for all my children. I pray that these children will both be girls.”
“Both?”
“The doctor told me we are having twins. He wants to see you each month, and you need to stop nursing Daisy. You need to be strong for them to make it.”
Festal was sure that his complaints about having girls was a curse coming back on him, and now with twins, he might even lose the mother. He was superstitious about having twins and was sure they would be sterile if they lived. This had been the case with cattle twins, as the government inspector of livestock had informed him when one of the heifers he purchased never produced a calf. Festal felt guilty that he had not abstained and given the mother more rest. Day and night he hovered around the rondavel. He did not sleep in the small hut he had built for himself. Instead, he lay outside the doorway, listening for the mother to call for him, hushing the children when they cried, and awaiting his fate. Life had been too perfect. All the old shame and guilt returned to him. It was all unraveling. He lost weight and became increasingly nervous and peevish at the slightest provocation. The children began avoiding him and even his hunting dogs would sleep out by the calves.
He comforted Daisy in the night when she wanted to nurse, and gave her small sips of boiled milk with sugar. She went back to sleep and Myrna was able to sleep through the night. He went to town to the nursery near the market and bought a plumeria seedling. The fragrant blossoms would remind him of his devotion to his family. Together with the girls, he planted it over Lily’s grave and put a circle of stones around it.
That afternoon, he went to the pastor at the Full Gospel Church and took him a bull calf. He asked the pastor if he could baptize the children, and pray for Lily. The pastor assured him the child was in heaven, and that he would be happy to baptize all the children, and pray for the unborn twins. He also suggested that Myrna would need some help once the twins were born. Festal thanked him.
That night he asked Myrna to read him a verse from the Bible. She was tired and the kerosene lantern gave off a yellow beam that made the words hard to see. But she read him Psalm 16:6 that said, boundary lines are laid for you in pleasant places, and indeed, you have a beautiful inheritance. He had no idea what this meant, but as he tended his cattle the next day, and fed the calves that evening, he pondered the meaning. He had no fences on the range where he pastured his cattle. The lines must be a spiritual boundary that was laid down for him. A boma where he would be safe. The twins and all his children were his inheritance. If he could understand and believe this, he would have a beautiful inheritance. He let the idea rest in his mind, seeing what other meaning might come to him.
Each day, Festal and Myrna boiled water and milk for the children. They were careful to wash the dishes with the water from the boiling pot. None of the other children came down with the dysentery that was sweeping the village. Five other families that they knew also lost children, including Lottie. Death from diarrhea was an everyday occurrence and Festal was paralyzed with the fear that he would lose Myrna and all would be lost. Myrna was numbed by the loss of her daughter, and only the determination to have the other children survive, and to successfully deliver her twins kept her sane. She made herself follow a routine with her housework and childcare, so as to allow time to visit the women in her village and comfort them, as they had been so kind during her loss. It was difficult not to console herself by nursing Daisy, but she followed the doctor’s instructions and in the heat of this dry season, her milk stopped flowing. When Myrna switched the baby to more solid foods and boiled milk, Daisy’s screaming also ceased.
CHAPTER 24
TWINS
Six months later, Myrna began having contractions and Festal rushed her to the clinic, after taking their three daughters to Lottie’s house for safekeeping. Festal was afraid to say anything to the nurses and paced the floor of the waiting room, only to hear the strong cries of one child, then the next. The doctor called him to come and hold his sons. Festal was faint at the sight of the blood and the cords, which the doctor had him cut. He could hardly glance down to see their maleness. When he did, they were huge. No one else remarked on this, so he was silent and let up a fervent prayer of thanksgiving. They were healthy. Maybe they would not be sterile as he had feared. The two boys were soon washed and placed on his chest for warming, while the doctor stitched Myrna’s tears. Myrna asked him what he wanted to name them, and without hesitation, he called out, “Samuel and Reuben.” Myrna gave them their character names, Self Control and Kindness, after the fruits of the spirit.
Within a week they headed home with the twins strapped to Myrna, and Festal walking beside the donkeys to keep them from bouncing the cart and its cargo around. Festal was very relieved to have Myrna safe after the delivery of the twins, and most grateful that both were healthy. He did not boast of having sons, but went immediately to the church and made the donation of a bull. The pastor welcomed him and said when he was ready, they could baptize the boys, and the other children as well. He asked if Festal had located someone to help his wife, as she would be exhausted continually nursing two babies and caring for the young girls. Festal told the pastor he had notified Uncle Dodge to find him a helper.
CHAPTER 25
DODGE PRICES GIFT
Dodge stopped in at The Big Banana Bar. The counter was covered with small bubbles of
Omo where the barmaid scrubbed at the surface with her cloth—cleaning up the spills and food from the night before. Her hair was pulled back in a black knit bandana that framed her small, heart-shaped face. An indigo cross was tattooed between her eyes. She had a hesitant smile which she infrequently flashed, and when she did, it showed a gap between her front teeth. Her gums were also tattooed indigo. Between her full lips was a chewing stick, which she removed when she saw Dodge watching her.
“Do you want a beer?” she asked.
“What is your name?” he countered. “Do you have anything else to offer?”
“I am Gift. We have barbecue eggs and fried yam, but the chicken is finished.”
“Give me a cold Mosi and a plate of yam. How much do I owe you?”
Gift wrote down a number on a slip of paper, put it on a saucer, and slid it across the wet counter.
She counted out the change from the bills he handed her and placed it on a plate, then reached to open the beer for him and pushed a plate of yam slices across to him, along with a small napkin. Her full breasts hardly cleared the counter. She was less than five feet in size.
Dodge watched her movements, noticing that she was not as slim in the midsection as her thin arms and long legs would indicate. It looked as though someone had already gotten to this one, was his ungarnished thought on the subject as he chewed on his makeshift lunch. Still, she was young and she might be a good second wife for someone. She might be a good worker. He would talk to her employers when they came back. She was not his type as she didn’t seem to be one for conversation. He disliked a girl who didn’t put herself out to please a man. He glanced at her again, and asked, “Do you have a husband?”
The girl jumped at the question. “No.” she said. Full stop. No information offered. Well, he would get a better idea about her when he saw her with people she knew. Dodge knew how to bide his time. This might be the proper servant to help out his niece. Festal had been asking about getting a girl to help her. If this girl was pregnant, that might settle her down to spend time caring for the children. Who else was going to care for her or the child? Dodge took his time sipping his beer. He was in no hurry. He noted how the girl methodically counted the money in the till, made her note of the amount, closed the drawer, and then continued her cleaning tasks. She went over the counter with a dry towel, then buffed the hardwood with it and placed the napkins in their holder. The salt was low. She filled the small pedestal with more salt, placing a cracker inside to keep the moisture away. When she had gone over each of the items in the tiny bar, she pushed her hands in her apron pockets, then asked if he was finished with his glass.
He handed her the empty glass and watched her wash it, dry it, and return it to the row of six glasses on the shelf behind her. It didn’t occur to her to encourage him to drink more, or spend more at the bar. He kept watching her, seeing the effect it had on her. She turned her back on him and stepped behind the curtain. No, she wasn’t flirtatious and she wasn’t shy in the least. Dodge prided himself on his ability to understand women. This one was clearly a methodical, conscientious girl from the country. She was here because she served a function, like the lantern on the hook at the entrance to the bar, or the kerosene refrigerator below the counter. She could be replaced by the owner of the bar by any of a hundred more personable young women. She was not an asset to what should be a pleasure setting. Dodge satisfied himself that his plans for her would benefit all of them.
It was over two hours before anyone came in. It was not a man. It was a middle-aged trim woman carrying a large purse covered with eye-catching grommets. Gift promptly relieved her of her bundles and poured a glass of tea with sugar for her. The woman did not ask Gift about the day, she could see things were as usual for the midmorning hours. Still, there was a good looking man sitting at the counter. Flo asked him if he needed anything.
“Is the owner of the bar about?” Dodge asked.
“Yes. Is there something I can do for you?”
“I want to talk to the owner of The Big Banana,” Dodge repeated.
“You are.”
“I see.” Dodge was nonplussed for a moment. This woman did not resemble the girl in any way, but maybe this was the girl’s sister, or worse, her mother. “I am interested in finding a girl to assist one of my relatives,” he said. “What would it take for you to let Gift come and work for my mother?” he asked. He didn’t want to indicate who the real party was, the price might go up.
“What kind of work are you proposing?”
“My mother needs some help with various chores, nothing too heavy, but more than she is able to do for herself. She has an extra room and it would be full time work.”
“I need the girl. She is indispensable to my business.” Flo looked sideways at Dodge to see if he was buying this story. She had been worried about the girl’s expense. If she was pregnant, this could be a good way to pass the problem on. Not that the girl wasn’t a help, it’s just that other girls could fill in with her duties, and with a baby coming, passing on the girl to an elderly parent could be the ideal situation.
She offered Dodge another beer. “Of course, I wouldn’t want to stand in the way of the girl’s advancing herself.”
Now that Dodge saw that the owner had no real ties to the girl, the only thing to be determined was the price. “Are you going to be in tomorrow? I will need to make sure my mother has not found someone else to fill the position.”
“I should be around in the afternoon. Let’s say around 2:00?”
Dodge nodded in agreement and Flo refused payment for the beer. She collected his glass and he left to go and locate Festal.
Festal had been fretting about in the mercantile store for over two hours; waiting for Dodge to return. When he saw him coming, he dropped the clippers back in the bin and rushed towards him. Dodge could see his eagerness, and his attempt to conceal it.
“Did you have any luck finding a helper?” he asked.
Dodge nodded slowly, then began to bait the hook. “She is a little younger and a little smaller than you might want,” he said. “I promised her guardian it would be light work, and she would be well cared for. I didn’t discuss the cost, as I wanted her to see it would be an opportunity for the girl to get ahead. She is a pretty big help with the business at the shop as she runs it herself and has not had time or opportunity to become a town girl.” Dodge tilted his head to see how this non-information affected the older man. He knew that Festal had probably been a little overwhelmed by the rapid growth of his family. Five young children, including the set of twins, could be overwhelming, especially after being single for so long. Dodge wanted the man to picture a young and unspoiled woman joining their household. There was no mention of the bar or Dodge’s suspicion that the girl had been serving Flo’s customers upstairs in the evening hours or when business was slow.
“I can’t go too high, you know I paid a ransom for Myrna. Not that she wasn’t worth it,” he quickly added.
“Oh, nothing like that. This is an orphan girl without family or expectations. She will consider herself very fortunate to have such a situation. We are talking housekeeper and maid here. I was going to have you suggest a price, but I may have to help you. I would say a bull, two goats and a barrel of beer should work to get the transaction started. Of course, her brothers or a relative may demand more if they get wind of this. How does that sound?”
Dodge was thinking that Flo would settle for a barrel of beer, but there was no point in wasting the profit that was to be made in these arrangements. He could feel his palms itch in anticipation of the trade. He had left some room for Festal to counter the offer. Festal did not ask to see the girl, but he wasn’t willing to part with a bull. They settled on two goats and a barrel of beer. She would arrive at their compound the following morning, provided Flo would agree.
Flo did agree and Dodge spent a pleasant evening with her before delivering Gift to Festal.
When Festal returned home, he presented Myrna with a
servant, a girl of thirteen named Gift.
“She is to do the heavy work and help you with the children,” he explained. “Dodge located her for us.”
Myrna looked at her husband in disbelief, then waited until he left to question the girl.
“Have a seat. Have you eaten? “
“Yes, my stomach is satisfied.”
“What is your name?”
“I am Gift.”
“Have you cared for children?”
“Yes. My mother had six.”
“Where is your mother now?”
“She is late. All my brothers and sisters are late.”
“Then you have come to find a home. You are welcome. You will help me care for the children and do chores. Are you able to read?”
“I was taken from my school when I was eight. I have only finished one form.”
“If you would like to learn to read and do math, I can teach you. You will sleep with me in this room and you will be safe.”
“What shall I call you?” Gift asked.
“You can call me Myrna, or you can call me sister, it is up to you.”
“Thank you, Sister,” Gift said looking down at her hands.
“Do you know how to prepare food?” Myrna asked glancing over at the sleeping twins.
“No. My older sister helped my mother with that. I can pound corn and carry water. I also can figure change.”
“Those are good skills. Do you believe in God?”
”Yes, but I have lost him lately.”
Myrna glanced at the girl’s profile and saw that she was not as slim in the waist as her arms and long legs would suggest. Another baby, just what this house needed. She stifled the thought as she remembered Lily and what she would give to have that child back in the rondavel, and gave thanks immediately for her fortune in having healthy twins.