Through Tender Thorns by Barbara Morriss

Author:Barbara Morriss
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bygone Tales Publishing
Published: 2021-05-19T16:00:00+00:00

“Well, Maizie Bean, I been to these places,” said Meadowlark as he ran his finger along the circled towns on Maizie’s map. “I learned some real, honest blues down there. Played piano with a cat named Muddy Waters. His name like that muddy ol’ Mississippi, yessir. But if this map was your mama’s guide to Glidewell Ranch, looks like it was the Yazoo River that haunts your memories. Look here, all these towns are on the Yazoo or near the Yalobusha River. Those are the lazy rivers you been singing and dreaming about.”

Mary noticed that just north of a place called Vicksburg was a tiny symbol of a house on stilts. The town of Vicksburg was circled and there was a large, heavily drawn X next to the name of the town. “Maizie, looks like Vicksburg was where your mama started. Do you think that could be where your mama and daddy are from?”

Maizie shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“It makes sense. The X is telling,” James interjected, shaking the ice cubes of his after-dinner drink as he sat back down on a cowhide chair surrounding the low table. “You know the adage X marks the spot? Look, no other towns, although they are circled, have an X. I think Vicksburg is a very important town in your mama’s life. And you and your mama ended up a long way north of Vicksburg.”

“That’s true,” said Maizie, her eyes glued to the map.

“Up a lazy river, child. Don’t forget.” Meadowlark moved closer to Maizie and with his index finger, he traced the river all the way to Tennessee.

Maizie watched, shaking her head, as his finger zigged and zagged along. “I don’t know why my mama never talked about where she was from. She said I was a child of the earth and I was from love, goodness, and light. She’d say, ‘Maizie you aren’t from nowhere. You are here is all’.”

“Mamas sure do know how to say it. But sometimes Mamas just can’t say the truth. ’Cause you’s not from nowhere, Maizie Bean. You is from somewhere. And it is comfortin’ to know where that somewhere is. Why you think your mama not want you to know where you from, Maizie Bean?”

Maizie shrugged a second time and remained quiet.

“Perhaps she was trying to save you from something painful, Maizie. That’s what mamas do,” Mary suggested.

“She told me about my daddy, how he was murdered. So she didn’t save me from that, and that was painful.”

“What’s your daddy’s name?” asked Meadowlark.

“I only know his last name was Freedman. My mama only called him ‘your daddy.’ ‘You got yourself a fine daddy,’ she would say.”

There was a deep silence as the three adults exchanged glances.

“Whenever I asked for more, my mama would stiffen and then she’d say that I knew all that I needed to know. ‘Does no good to hold on to the past,’ she would say. ‘I’ve learned that the hard way,’ she’d say,” explained Maizie. “After a while, when I was older, I just didn’t ask anymore.

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