Trouble's Child by Mildred Pitts; Walter Page B

Wisps of white hair showed beneath her head scarf, messily tied. A rush of anguish flooded Martha. Why not ask forgiveness and go back to the rounds with Titay?
    Her grandmother broke the silence. “Fogit yo way, Mat. Marry the stranger and take m’ place. Don’t let Cora put er way on this island.” Then Titay was quiet. The silence thickened. Finally Titay pleaded, “Say yuh do it, Mat … bring peace to us.”
    Martha still said nothing. She sat, knowing they were miles apart. Her mind flashed to another time when they had been at serious odds. She was then almost twelve, being pressured to confess her sins and be born again. Martha did not know what that meant and would not confess. Then she had spent nights on the mourners’ bench as if she were alone in the world, with prayers and rebukes around her. For days the women, including Titay, avoided her as if she were a leper. Still she had waited. She had to know that some change had come in her and in her world.
    But that storm had passed when on faith she had been baptized and restored to the good graces of the island.
    Now she felt the tears burning in the back of her eyes and stinging her nose as she realized that she had always been a thorn in her grandmother’s side. What would save her this time? She could not rely on faith for she knew . She had not sinned. She had acted to save her life and the Marraine . That was good. She would not marry Hal. If Ocie and the women chose Cora to deliver their babies that was their right. She would leave this island one day soon, she hoped, with her grandmother’s blessing.
    Martha was so set on this idea that she was startled when Titay pleaded again. “Say it, Mat, say you’ll fogit yo way and marry.”
    â€œGranma, I don’t want t’ marry now. I wanna go way t’ school.”
    â€œWho fill you wid all this crazy notions? Where yuh git yo ways?”
    â€œFrom m’ own heart.”
    â€œGirl, don’t yuh know, you can be fooled tryin t’ learn yo ownself?”
    â€œWho can I go t’, Granma, t’ ast things?”
    â€œTis not our way, t’ ast why or what be.”
    â€œWays change.”
    â€œYou done come t’ a lot o’ knowin all a sudden,” Titay said. “Whyn’t yuh say you’ll marry?”
    â€œCause they’ll think me a liar. I didn’t do nothin wrong.”
    Titay lost her patience. “Yuh go gainst the island, be lone wid a man and say yuh do nothin wrong?”
    â€œI saved m’ life.”
    â€œN played in the hand o’ the wicked.”
    â€œAw, Granma …”
    â€œGirl, don’t yuh know yuh can’t tear down the walls and the roof o’ a house and the ceilin stay? If you don’t marry that man you know what’ll happen to yuh? Nobody’ll want yuh. Who’ll want sich a hand? What’ll yuh do?”
    â€œIn time somebody’ll want me fuh what I am. Things change, Granma.”
    â€œYou’s a woman,” Titay shouted angrily. “That yuh can’t change. A man want a woman that keep his way. And where yuh think yuh gon go? Mongst strangers?”
    Martha said nothing. The only sound in the room was that of Titay’s labored breathing. “Alone and lonely be fuh ole women like me,” Titay said as if talking to herself. “Mat, yuh young. Yuh needs arms fuh shelter.”
    â€œOh, Granma, listen, I heah you, yoself, say, ‘A woman who got no place t’ put er hand fuh support, put it on er own knee!’”
    â€œYou say words in the right place, but tis doin the right way that count, Mat.”
    â€œYou want too much from me, Granma.”
    â€œTis too much t’ keep the way? T’ marry that man?” Titay sat still for a moment. Then she said, “Yuh know, you think yuh wise, don’t yuh? But mind you, Mat, no one wise is wiser’n er own people.”
    The silence in the room now was