I watched the woman. She moved around the yard from tree to tree, hunched over and groaning; her body rocking in a motion that didn’t seem to soothe.
“It hurts me so bad,” she would moan out every once in a while.
I was walking beside my mama who was making a pattern around the yard
“Lawd have mercy,” the woman cried pitifully, reaching out to another tree that offered no obvious comfort, but perhaps propped her up so that she could reach the next one without falling down.
Me and Mama weren’t the only ones out there in the green, participating in that mournful choreography. Other women were also weaving through the grass and trees like distant attendants, keeping watch. Their steady, solemn murmuring accompanied the lady’s sporadic outbursts. This was underscored by the crunch of fallen needles that used to hang on the looming pines, whose fragrance lent itself to the occasion.
No one went up to the lady that we were all revolving around. I think Mama said her name was Sister Prentiss. Everyone circled about, keeping some preordained space between us and the moaning woman.
I didn’t know what it all meant. Mama said her son had been something called ‘kilt’ in a place named Oversees – which I guessed was a long way from Macon, Georgia. I just knew that kilt was a real bad thing and Sister Prentiss was never going to see him again.
I didn’t know why I was the only one of the four girls with my Mama. If it wasn’t all of us, my big sister Shirley was usually with me. But I had been picked out to be with the walking women. It must be something that grown folks did when bad things happened. I needed to watch real careful so that I could do it right when I got big.
We walked for a long time. I got tired, but I didn’t want Mama to have shame with me if I couldn’t keep up. Finally we went inside where we could sit down. I was still glued to my mama’s side, waiting to see what was next, nervous for what I might be called on to do.
It seemed like it was okay for people to touch Sister Prentiss, then. The women rubbed her arms, and put their hands on her shoulders, and tried to get her to eat. They surrounded her; a forest of ladies. She still rocked and moaned and asked the Lawd to have mercy. She just did it sitting down. I think something inside her belly was hurting because she kept bending over holding on to it. I didn’t know what kilt was, but it surely made people sick.
They never did get Sister Prentiss to eat anything, at least not while me and Mama was there. But when someone brought her a glass of water, she took it.
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