Cursed to live....AGAIN

Prologue-Rachel

Prologue

New Orleans- 1939

Rachel

"Momma, Where'yat?" Were the first words I heard coming from her perfectly shaped lips that she took from me. I was standing right in the foyer dusting as was my usual routine.

"I'ze right here, chile o mine." I answered her in my thick Creole accent, causing her to spin in my direction with a wide grin on her face.

If she wasn't the spitting image of me, I didn't know who could be. We had heavily carried the features of our Afro-Carribean ancestors. We both had brown skin with long curly hair and slanted eyes. It got us both lots of attention from the menfolk around here and their wives. The latter didn't take too kindly to us but we went on about life, smiling and treating them the same way we would any neighbor. I didn't look much older than my daughter as I was married off at fifteen to an older man and had her a year later. None of which was unusual in our day.

Now, my husband, God rest his soul was the typical one in a lot of ways. He treated me fairly and cared for us better than we deserved some would say. He practiced as a doctor here in town and for the towns to East of us as well. He even went down in the bayou and cared for the people who lived out there. I swear there wasn't a person that he had not stiched up or delivered for miles in any direction. Even though he had taken his fair share of payment in boiled Crawfish Ettouffee, he made a good living money wise and had bought us this here Victorian house after our first son was born.

With him always away seeing to some ailment or other, it left me to see that the house was one seen fit to live in and make sure our children flourished and I did both. I was the perfect doctor's wife. Escorting him to affairs with the higher society and hosting them in this here house too. Mama had taught me well and I knew my place. A sudden heart attack had taken him from us and even though I was never wholly in love with the man, it shocked and hurt me to my core. He had been aloof with me as well most times. I never thought he truly loved me the way a husband ought, but we were kind to each other, and he cared for us. He loved our babies more than life and that's all I could ask for. When he died, I realized just how much he did love us.

As a young woman with four children, my first thoughts were how I would feed my babies. He had always taken care of the bills and the money so how was I to know about such things. I had never even finished secondary schooling. I just knew that they would be see in the good doctor's wife on her hands and knees scrubbing the floors of the white people in the rich ward who cared nothing for us as we were too haughty.

Then, as if heaven had sent down a blessing, Mr. Winstead Leevy, who clerked for the courts and was almost a lawyer came by with a will from my poor deceased Henry. It turns out that the house and the automobiles were paid for right out. All four of the children had funds that would see them straight through college and after and there was even a fund for me so that I wouldn't have to take a job. I could continue to care for my children here at home. You wouldn't imagine the weight that there took off of my shoulders. In a manner of speaking, he had left us in a state of wealth. My pa had a good job on the train but there were ten of so mama and daddy had taught us to feed our family with hunting, trapping and fishing. You couldn't tell as I stood here, waist just as small as my daughter's in my dress that was a gift from my husband for my birthday two months before he died, but I was hardly 'fraid to get my hands dirty. I also knew how to sew and make clothing. I decided that if I wanted our family to remain in the way he left us, I would use what mama and pa had taught and teach my children as well.

Now, I had my own small business where I made dresses for every occasion for special order and I made our clothes as well. I was so good you wouldn't be able to tell it hadn't come off of a rack. My boys knew to fish, gather crawfish and to build as well. But I let all my babies know that school came first. We hardly spent the wealth he left but watched it grow and we were still just as fashionable, proper and happy as we ever were.

"Look what I done found at the door for you, again." Rueann teased me.

The only daughter of my four children called to me as she came skipping in the house, her books in her one hand with the other behind her back. She was eighteen and ready to go off to continue her learning at the North Carolina College. I didn't know what I would do without her here underfoot. I loved that she was doing what her father and I wanted, education first, marriage and children later, but I can't lie and say that her leaving and going off so far wasn't weighing heavily on me.

"Show me gal.." I answered sitting the duster down.

She backed just far enough away from me before her smile turned to a frown.

"Uh naw, I'ze knows dat face dere girl. What is it?" I wanted to know.

"I just want you to be careful is all, mama. I know he likes you, but he has a wife and she is not to be trifled with. She tells fortunes and they always come true. Some say she can even help them do it or curse someone if she's crossed."

She was talking about the wife of that very same clerk that had brought us the news thatmy husband had left us money. He had commissioned me to make two dresses for his wife and a matching suit for him for when he would celebrate his becoming a lawyer which he thought to be soon. He wanted to wear it to be sworn in at the courthouse. I had turned in the first dress and the slacks of the pants and ever since he had been leaving little gifts to say thank you at the door.

"Chile you ain't said nothing I don't know. The whole ward knows that she messes with them cards. I have no interest in crossin' her, okay? Now, what is it today?" I asked her, a little too eager to see what he had left this time.

Slowly she brought her hand from behind her back, and it was a dozen white magnolias. All I could do was smile. I knew that it was wrong of me, but he had been stopping over some days and we would smile and laugh and talk about life over food and I was enjoying his company a little too much. I had always been lonely as my husband was always gone and when he was here, our conversations were very surface. His patients, the children and the weather. Winfred made me feel, oh I don't know, heard and wanted. Lord forgive me he belonged to another but I knew that if we kept on in this friendship, His dark skin, white teeth and brown eyes would make me falter. From what Rue, my nickname for my only daughter, had just said to me, I knew that I wasn't hiding it as well as I thought. His almost daily gestures surely weren't being overlooked either.

"He just my friend and customer. You know they leave gifts from food to bushes girl." I tried to argue. "See, look at the card here now, see he's just thankin' me since his wife loved the dress and he says right here that he wants to place two more orders. When people who feed you want to say thank you, you accept it with a smile. I told her.

"Excepting we don't need him to feed us mama. I know daddy left us well off. I love that you have your own business and want us to leave wealth behind for generations and all, but now..." she paused as I crossed my arms daring her to question me further. "Just be careful mama." She told me, kissing me on the cheek and leaving me with my gifts.

I just sat there, lookin' at my flowers and knowing that it was just as she had said. He was saying more than thank you. He was saying that he had been thinkin' of me and the truth was that I had been thinkin' of him too. But he was married, and I had to respect that, didn't I?