Black Cake: A Novel by Charmaine Wilkerson

Author:Charmaine Wilkerson
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2022-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

ETTA PRINGLE KICKED OFF HER sandals and stepped onto a wooden platform set in the sand, waving to the crowd as she walked. The applause gave way to the sounds of her childhood. The sea, the palm fronds in the breeze, the memory of her mother’s voice, admonishing her. A young lady never removes her shoes in public! her mother would have said. Etta smiled at the thought, then braced herself for the deep tug of nostalgia. At least her mother had lived long enough to see what Etta had accomplished. To see her grandchildren growing up. To believe that all was well with her only daughter.

Etta lifted her face to breathe in the sun and opened her arms. The crowd cheered. Just twenty-four more hours and she’d be on a plane out of here. With her mother gone and her brother in England, Etta had no reason to linger, even though she was the one who had wanted the ceremony to take place here, in her hometown, in this cove where it had all begun. And where so much had gone wrong.

“Etta Pringle isn’t just a local girl who’s made good,” the prime minister was saying. “Etta Pringle is a woman who has conquered the world, one swim at a time, starting with this bay right here.” Someone shouts her childhood nickname and Etta laughs and gives a thumbs-up.

“And now,” the prime minister said, “this homegrown champion rightly nags politicians like me to do more to safeguard the environment, because no sea, not even ours, the most beautiful in the world, is immune to runoff, to the plastics, to the rising water levels, to increasingly severe weather.”

More applause, then a medal, then the naming of this stretch of beach after Etta Pringle. Etta looks out past the waves frothing against the rocks. This was the bay where a much faster, bolder swimmer had led Etta past the seven-mile mark for the first time and made her realize who she was destined to become.

Etta had swum across the Strait of Magellan in Chile, circled New York’s island of Manhattan, crossed the English Channel, and survived the icy waters off the Siberian coast, the first black woman in the world to have made all of these crossings. She had raised two children with another woman at a time when such things were not mentioned. She had spoken to entire stadiums full of people about overcoming obstacles. But there was one obstacle in her own life that Etta had never been able to overcome.

Etta scanned the crowd. There they were. A couple of the Henry boys. There was always someone from the Henry family hanging about, waiting for someone to slip up, waiting to offer their unique brand of assistance at terms that could never be repaid. There was a whole new generation of Henrys now, people who lived to exploit other people. People who enjoyed holding a grudge. Which was why Etta needed to get away from this island.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.