God Has Spoken (4 page)

And Tiny did, but not for the reason Aunt Madge thought. A few days later, Tiny dragged her still bruised body to Dolly's house, only to be informed by her mother that Dolly had left the day before for Kingston.

“And I hope she never comes back,” Dolly's mother said with apparent relief in her voice.

Tiny looked at her with disgust before she walked away. She wasn't sure who she was more upset with . . . Dolly for leaving without even a good-bye or her no-good mother who did not care what happened to her teenage daughter.

Over the next few weeks as Tiny's tummy grew, she used a piece of an old sheet and wrapped it tightly around her swollen belly until it was as flat as a board. She attended school as normal and every afternoon she was home helping Aunt Madge with chores around the house. Aunt Madge was elated to finally have her niece back.

“I wish Dolly all the best wherever she is,” Aunt Madge said one morning to herself. “Tiny can now move on with her life, and I won't have to worry so much about her again.”

Aunt Madge's words couldn't be further from the truth.

“Lord, have mercy!” Aunt Madge yelled as she dropped the bucket of water she held in her hand, water splashing everywhere. “Tiny, what is that?” She pointed at Tiny's swollen tummy as if it wasn't obvious.

Aunt Madge was outside when she heard the spatter of water in the bathroom and knew Tiny was having a bath. As it was her turn next, she dipped the big, plastic bucket in the water drum and carefully took it into the bathroom. There she got the shock of her life when Tiny's pregnant belly greeted her at the door.

Tiny's wet body slid down into the bath as she began to sob. “I'm sorry, Aunt Madge,” Tiny said. “I'm so sorry that I let you down.”

Aunt Madge ran out of the bathroom, horrified.

The roller-coaster ride Tiny had been on for the last five months had literally left her nauseated, light-headed, and drained. She had watched in alarm as her body changed in preparation for motherhood. Not knowing what to do or where to turn, Tiny decided to hide her secret for as long as possible. But not anymore. “Maybe it's for the best that Aunt Madge finds out,” Tiny whispered as she looked down on her big stomach. “I can't do this anymore.”

Even though she knew she was in a lot of trouble, a sense of relief flooded Tiny's body. She no longer had to tie a sheet around her stomach, enduring the discomfort all day. No more lies, no more secrets. Well, maybe a few secrets . . . like the identity of her baby's father.

Aunt Madge grabbed the light pink sheet from Tiny's small bed as she ran past, wrapping it tightly around her waist before she proceeded outside. This was a practice by the older generation of Jamaican women; to ban their bellies and bawl as an expression of the tremendous grief they bear. With her hands on her head, Aunt Madge marched circles around the yard as she howled like a wounded, rabid dog.

Tiny watched her aunt through the window and cried even harder, her wet body now wrapped in a towel. To see Aunt Madge in so much pain was almost more than she could bear. As Aunt Madge's cries grew louder, so did Tiny's.

Finally, Aunt Madge knelt down on a large rock that pierced at her knees, but her heart was in too much pain to care about physical pain, and she began to pray. “Lord, this is too much for me to deal with,” Aunt Madge began. “I done fail that chile there, and now her life is completely over. Please give me the strength, dear God.”

As Aunt Madge prayed, a sudden calm washed over her as the Holy Spirit gave her comfort. Suddenly, Jeremiah 1:5 came to her troubled mind.
“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”

“No one is a mistake,” Aunt Madge whispered as she digested the verse. “I might not like the way and time this baby was conceived, but God knows best.” Slowly Aunt Madge got up off the ground and went back inside the house, where a terrified Tiny was now hiding in the closet.

“Tiny, come out, sweetheart,” Aunt Madge said as she sat on the edge of her bed facing Tiny's.

Hearing the love and affection in Aunt Madge's voice, Tiny poked out her head from the closet, her brows knitted in confusion. Tiny saw the warmth in Aunt Madge's eyes and knew although she was disappointed in her, she wasn't going to forsake her.

Tiny quickly exited the closet and took a seat on the bed, facing Aunt Madge, her protruding stomach resting on her lap.

“Who did this?” Aunt Madge asked as she pointed to Tiny's stomach. “Who is the father?”

Tiny's eyes grew wide in fear. “I . . . I . . . I don't know,” she lied.

“What do you mean you ‘don't know,' Tiny?” Aunt Madge questioned. “Are you afraid of him?” she asked after seeing the fear in her niece's eyes. “Did he threaten you or something?”

Tiny whimpered softly, her eyes tightly closed, shaking her head from side to side. She folded under her lips and refused to say another word.

Aunt Madge gave a big sigh. “I am not happy about this,” she began. “And quite frankly, I don't even know how we are going to get through this. But I'm going to trust the Lord.” Tiny stared at her apologetically. “It will be hard, but God never makes a mistake.”

Tiny jumped off her bed and ran across the room. She hugged her aunt, the only mother she knew. For the first time in months, Tiny began to have some hope.

The next morning as Tiny stared down on her engorged tummy, she knew she could not go back to school. It was an era when pregnant girls were not allowed to stay in school, and Aunt Madge had forbid her to tie down her tummy because it was harmful to the baby. So Tiny stayed hidden at home, missing the last year of high school.

Tiny had also stopped going to church. She did not have the heart to deal with the whispering, the pitiful stares, the tongue-lashing, and the nasty gossip. But most of all, she was scared to see Officer Gregg and ashamed to look at his wife. Tiny was aware that she was the talk of the small town. Aunt Madge was also being labeled as a bad mother, and this put Tiny in a deep depression.

“My niece, please don't listen to what people say about you,” Aunt Madge told Tiny one morning before she left for the market. Aunt Madge was a small-time farmer who sold her yams, bananas, sweet potatoes, breadfruits, sweet corn, ackees, oranges, mangoes, and grapefruits at the market in town. “The only opinion that matters is the Lord's.” Aunt Madge did everything to get Tiny out of the funk but to no avail. She cooked all her favorite dishes, but even her delicious meals tasted like cardboard to Tiny. She ate just enough for the baby's sake, got very little sleep, and worked around the house from morning to dawn, pushing her swollen body into exhaustion.

The nights ran into days and days into nights, until late one afternoon Tiny's life was interrupted by the sharpest and worst pain she'd ever felt. “Woiee!” she screamed as another pain shook her body. “Lord, have mercy. Aunt Madge, I'm dying.” Tiny thrashed her legs around frantically on her bed, her arms waving wildly in the air as one contraction after another assaulted her body. Her thin nightgown clung to her body and was drenched in sweat.

“You are not dying, sweetheart. You'll get through this. Just take deep breaths until I get back,” Aunt Madge replied. “I have to run and get Miss Mandy.” Miss Mandy was an elderly midwife who had delivered many babies for the women in the community for over three decades.

Tiny watched helplessly as Aunt Madge rushed out the door. She needed her aunt to stay by her side, but she knew she had to get the midwife. They could not afford to go to the hospital.

Across town at the Falmouth Hospital, a dedicated Officer Gregg was with his wife who just also happened to be in labor. The same night that Tiny had told him she was pregnant, when he finally got home, his wife also informed him that she too was pregnant. However, where he had tried to kill his teenage mistress, he lifted his wife high into the air and squealed with happiness. That was very good news . . . unlike Tiny's.

Now, months later, surrounded by her doctor, nurses, and her dedicated husband, Mrs. Gregg was getting ready to give birth to her first child.

Alone at home, Tiny whimpered in pain as another contraction hit. Her frightened eyes stared helplessly into the ceiling as she pleaded for God to take her out of her misery. “Woieee!” Tiny screamed again as she twisted and turned on the small bed, sweat pouring down her face. “I can't take this anymore. Aunt Madge!”

A few minutes later Aunt Madge burst through the door and rushed over to Tiny. Tears filled her eyes as she watched her niece bathe in anguish. Miss Mandy wobbled in after her and went straight to work.

After a few agonizing hours in the small semidark one-bedroom house, little Dupree came into the world at 10:30 p.m. on January 25th, 1979.

And around that same time, on January 25th, Anthony Gregg Jr. was born. There was a big celebration at the hospital by the proud father, the delighted grandparents, relatives, and friends of the newborn.

One mother was elated while the other was tormented. Was this a premonition into the lives of these two innocent children?

“Waaaaah!” the baby yelled as she kicked her tiny legs in the air. “Waaaaaah!”

“Tiny! Tiny!” Aunt Madge shouted from the outside kitchen. “The baby is crying, chile.”

Tiny ignored her as she sat in the yard under the hibiscus trees, staring out into the bushes below the house.

“Tiny, go and feed the baby.” Aunt Madge's voice traveled from the kitchen into the yard.

Tiny sucked her teeth loudly and rolled her eyes. With her arms folded around her tummy, she stretched out her legs and nestled her head against the bark of the tree.

Aunt Madge came out of the kitchen as the baby continued to cry and looked at Tiny. “Girl, don't you hear the baby crying?” Aunt Madge asked sternly. “She is hungry and probably needs to be changed.”

Tiny continued staring mutely at the bushes without even glancing at her aunt. With a deep sigh, Aunt Madge shook her head and wiped her wet hands on the apron around her waist. Without another word, she turned around and walked up the steps, into the house to attend to the baby. This was fast becoming a regular practice.

It was five days since Baby Dupree was born, and Tiny hadn't touched the baby once. In fact, she totally ignored the child. Aunt Madge could not understand what was going on.

“I think she just needs some time to get used to being a mother,” Aunt Madge had said to her good friend, Mother Sassy, just the day before. “This is a big adjustment for her.”

“Hmmm, if you say so,” Mother Sassy had replied skeptically. “As far as I can see, there is no bond between Tiny and that baby. She even refused to name her own child.”

And that was true. When Aunt Madge had asked Tiny what name she would give the baby, Tiny turned her head away without a response.

“How about Dupree?” Aunt Madge had suggested enthusiastically. “I think that's a very unique and cute name.”

Tiny shrugged her shoulders and rolled over on the bed, pulling the sheet over her head.

But Aunt Madge was optimistic. “Everything is done in due time,” she said to Mother Sassy. Aunt Madge wondered when that time would be due.

The next day as a weary Aunt Madge walked along the narrow, dirt road to the house, balancing a big basket on her head, the screams of the baby reverberated in the air. That day was the first time she had left Tiny and the baby alone to go to the market. With a deep frown on her face, Aunt Madge quickened her steps. As the baby's cries grew louder, the weariness forgotten, Aunt Madge broke out in a trot. Placing the overloaded basket by the front door, she hurried into the house.

A foul smell assaulted her nostrils as she entered. Aunt Madge quickly walked over to the distressed baby lying in the middle of the small bed and realized the odor was coming from her. “Tiny! Tiny, where are you?” No response. Aunt Madge's eyes scanned the room for Tiny, but she was nowhere to be found.

In record time Aunt Madge changed the baby's diaper and lifted her tiny body into her arms and over her shoulder.

“Shhhh.” Aunt Madge rocked the screaming baby gently as she prepared her formula. Tiny had blatantly refused to breast-feed after the baby was born.

“Tiny, you have to breast-feed the baby,” Aunt Madge had told her moments after the baby was born. “Not only is breast milk the best, but we really can't afford to buy baby feed.” But her words went in one ear and tumbled out the other.

“Okay, my little one, here we go.” Aunt Madge sat on the edge of the bed with the baby in the crook of her arms. She placed the bottle into the baby's mouth and the hungry child latched onto it. As Dupree sucked greedily, the tears welled up in Aunt Madge's eyes. She realized that the baby hadn't been changed or fed for the entire day. “I wonder where that girl went leaving the baby alone,” Aunt Madge mumbled.

Meanwhile, Tiny sat on top of a huge rock that towered out of the middle of the river. The sound of the running water beat into her troubled mind. Her shoulders shook as she cried uncontrollably.

“I can't do this anymore,” Tiny murmured. “I just can't go on like this.”

Shortly after Aunt Madge left Tiny alone that morning, the baby began to cry. Tiny took one look at the little, wiggling creature on the bed and shrieked in fright. Right before her eyes, the baby transformed into a monster. Gnashing its long, sharp teeth, the big, bulging, red eyes spun around wildly in its elongated head. The short frog-like legs thrashed around as it snarled at her. Tiny's feet came alive as she fled from the house and down the hill, her eyes wide in terror. Dodging through the bushes and ducking around trees, Tiny ran toward the river. She had to get away from that scary thing.

As if in a trance, Tiny swiftly waded through the waist-high water, the angry strong current pulling at her feet. Upon reaching the tall, large rock, she slowly clawed her way to the top. With her legs folded under her body, her clothes soaking wet, Tiny shivered as she sobbed. She looked down at the seemingly small trees below and the little houses in the far distance and breathed a sigh of relief. She was safe from the creature.

And there Tiny stayed for the entire day; hungry, agitated, crying, and mumbling to herself.

 

 

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are,” Aunt Madge sang as she paced the floor, gently rocking the baby in her arms. A few minutes later, she placed the sleeping child on her own bed. As she changed the soiled sheet on Tiny's bed, she kept looking at the doorway, willing Tiny to walk through it. But she did not.

Night fell like a black bedspread over the countryside and Aunt Madge began the worry. She lit the small kerosene oil lamp and waited. With both hands on top of her pounding head, she restlessly paced the small house and prayed fervently.

“Tiny!” Aunt Madge shouted through the opened window into the night. But the only sound she heard was the echo of her own voice. “I have to find her,” she muttered. “Please, God, don't let anything happen to her.”

Aunt Madge took one look at the sleeping baby before she went and pulled on her shoes sitting at the top of the steps. Softly pulling the door closed, she walked outside into the kitchen. Aunt Madge quickly grabbed the bottle torch she kept in a corner and lit it with a match. The bright flame illuminated the darkness as a strong kerosene scent filled the air.

Peering through the night, Aunt Madge slowly made her way down the hilly terrain that led to the field. One hand held the torch over her head while the other clawed at the bushes to prevent her from falling.

“Tiny!” Aunt Madge screamed over and over as she made her way through the trees that slapped at her face. No response.

Finally, Aunt Madge heard the sound of water and knew she was near the river. She swallowed the lump that rose in her throat as she fearfully made her way toward the running water.

“Tiny! Tiny, where are you?” No response.

Standing at the edge of the river, Aunt Madge held the torch higher over her head, looking around frantically. Suddenly she spotted something up ahead in the middle of the river. Unable to see what it was, she stepped out into the water. Scrambling toward the object, her heart hammering in her chest, she struggled to keep her small body upright against the fast-moving water. As Aunt Madge got closer, a lone figure curled up on top of a towering rock came into her view. It was Tiny.

Relief washed over Aunt Madge. “Baby, come on down,” Aunt Madge said gently as she stared up into the haunted eyes of her niece, barely made visible by the lighted torch. “It's going to be okay.”

Tiny shook her head and rose unsteadily to her cramped feet. With her arms outstretched at her sides like a pair of wings, her eyes dancing crazily in her aching head, she stepped closer to the edge of the rock.

Aunt Madge gasped. Her heart leaped in her chest. “Tiny. Please don't,” Aunt Madge pleaded. “I won't leave the baby with you anymore.”

“It's not a baby,” Tiny's raspy voice rang out. “I don't want to take care of it.” She took another step closer to the edge.

“No! Tiny, please don't do this,” Aunt Madge begged. “Please.” Aunt Madge glanced down at the shadowy water tugging at her body and shuddered. Beneath her feet and all around her were sharp rocks of various sizes and shapes. Also, the water wasn't deep enough for a dive from that height. If Tiny jumped, she would no doubt break her neck.

“Tiny. Tiny. Listen to me, sweetheart.” Aunt Madge edged closer to the foot of the rock, rapidly blinking away the tears that clouded her vision. “Don't jump. Please, I'm begging you, don't do it.”

“I can't take care of it.” Tiny's voice was a little above a whisper, her vacant eyes still staring out in the distance. “Please, don't make me.”

“I won't,” Aunt Madge replied. “I'll take care of her.”

“You promise?” Tiny asked in a childlike voice, her wide eyes locked with Aunt Madge's terrified ones.

“I promise, baby,” Aunt Madge affirmed with a small smile, her free hand extended to Tiny. “Have I ever broken a promise to you?”

Tiny fidgeted as she looked down undecidedly at the outstretched hand.

Aunt Madge's legs trembled as she waited nervously. “Please, God, don't let her hurt herself,” Aunt Madge prayed softly under her breath. “Please, bring her down safely.”

A few agonizing seconds went by before Tiny slowly crawled down the rock, landing with a small splash in front of Aunt Madge. Instantly Aunt Madge's arm reached out and pulled Tiny in a tight embrace, crushing her shivering body to hers.

“Thank you, Lord,” Aunt Madge said. “Thank you.” Tiny's warm tears wet her neck as they stood in the middle of the river crying.

“Aunt Madge.” Tiny pulled away slightly from her aunt to look into her eyes. “Do you know that thing is not really a baby?” she whispered as if she was revealing some classified secret. “It's an alien that's trying to kill me.”

Aunt Madge's mouth popped wide open. She saw the crazy look in Tiny's eyes and became alarmed. “What?” Aunt Madge squeaked, her breathing labored as she took deep gulps of cool air.

“Yes.” Tiny leaned in closer to Aunt Madge's ear. “As soon as you left for the market this morning, it tried to eat me.”

“It did what?” Aunt Madge croaked.

“Oh, yes. Don't you see, Aunt Madge? It's going to kill us. I think we better kill it, before it kills us,” Tiny said.

“The devil is lie!” Aunt Madge exclaimed. “Sweetheart, don't you go anywhere near the baby . . . hmmm . . . it. Remember the Bible says thou shall not kill. You get it?”

Tiny nodded absently as if in a stupor.

“Come on, baby.” Aunt Madge took ahold of Tiny's hand, and together they wobbled out of the water onto the riverbank. Wearily, they walked back home.

“The poor chile is acting crazy because she is not taking good care of herself,” Aunt Madge said to herself later that night after Tiny went to bed. “I have to make sure she gets more rest and eats proper food.”

With the problem diagnosed and a treatment plan decided on, Aunt Madge felt a little lighter in her spirit. But two days later, exactly a week after Baby Dupree was born, Aunt Madge found out that her prognosis wasn't a good one.