Sanctified Blues by Mable John

Author:Mable John
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780307419200
Publisher: Crown
Published: 2007-12-18T00:00:00+00:00

The Athenian

I stay. I mop. I wash. I sing the songs Mama sang—“We’ve Come This Far by Faith,” “How I Got Over,” “I’m Gonna Treat Everybody Right Till I Die.” Thinking of Mama, I sing as I prepare Maggie a dinner of chicken and rice. For the rest of the day, she and I don’t exchange a word. That night I sleep peacefully. The next morning I hear her crying in her bedroom. I gently knock on her door hoping I can comfort her, but her only response is, “Leave me alone.” That afternoon we go sailing on a friend’s yacht.

She describes her friend as a fun-loving billionaire. “He always puts me in a good mood,” Maggie says. He’s a tall Greek gentleman in his early sixties named George Mikos. He has bushy eyebrows and thick dark glasses and wears a colorful ascot. He’s jovial and talkative and eager to please Maggie.

“This is Albertina,” she tells Mr. Mikos. “She’s been helping me out.”

I don’t know why I’ve been invited along. I don’t know if my role is servant or companion. I don’t really care because this is my first time on a yacht and I’m excited. The thing is huge. On the side of the ship I see the name written in flowing gold letters: THE ATHENIAN. There’s a captain who wears a white and gold hat, and a cook below. At least I won’t be cooking. The yacht is painted pale blue and is much bigger than my house in Watts. There are three bedrooms and a living room with zebra-skin couches. Piped-in opera music is playing. I don’t know much about opera but it sure sounds good.

As the boat floats on the superstill waters of the Caribbean, Maggie, Mr. Mikos, and I sit on the upper deck where we’re served afternoon tea and cakes. The blue of the sea bleeds into the blue of the sky. We’re enveloped in blue, a sun-bright blue that is breathtakingly beautiful. Like God, the blue is everything; like God, the blue is everywhere; like God, the blue inspires the imagination and has my soul singing His praises.

Our afternoon on the ATHENIAN seems to be chasing away Maggie’s blues. For the first time in days she is talkative. In the extreme. She strings together all her sentences and speaks without pause or reflection. “Albertina and I are writing a book,” she tells Mr. Mikos. “A spiritual book, or maybe a personal book about the evils of the Black church. Isn’t that right, Albertina?” She doesn’t give me even half a second to reply before continuing her rapid-fire rap.

“Albertina and I share a common trauma. We were traumatized by the paternal fathers who still run the church for their own profit and worldly pleasure. Yes, Albertina will be the first to tell you that the church is corrupt, it does far more harm than good, and it’s about time to expose its vicious hypocrisy. We are sisters in a crusade against Christ, you might say, or at least the Christ our forefathers have foisted upon us.

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