Free Flight of Fancy: Cora's Daughters by Mercedes Keyes

not ever again alone… you res’ – I take care of you. Ah, my sweet, precious Asiza… I take care of you.’
    Surely it was the Lord’s voice saying those things to her. Surely in her death it was the Lord’s tender lips touching her brow – the way her mama’s lips once did. The Lord made her feel that wonderful sensation of being…loved. The way her mama loved her, loved them all.
    “Mama… what I'mo do mama – what I'mo do? I kill'em mama, I kill'em all – 'cause they gone hurt me.” She whimpered, feeling sorry for herself, because now – she couldn’t wake up, couldn’t get up.
    An answer came to her, but it was not from her mama, but from the Lord again, who said so softly, so gently – ‘Your mama gone now – but you got me… shhhh, you got me. Nobody gone hurt you ‘Seeza... not anymore, shhh – not anymore, you got me.’
     

Asiza sat up with her eyes wide open, looking around. She felt a tad bit drunk, but she was awake. She saw, and smelled, the burning tallow of the candle at the same time. It sat across the dark room she seemed to be in.
    Her mind was a complete wash – drawing nothing but a blank. All she could do was sit still and look around her, trying to figure out what was happening. There were thin strips of light shining down from above, as if through cracks in the ceiling – with dust fairies and specks dancing before her.
    It was a strange, dark and dusty room.
    Her neck felt floppy and weak when she turned her head this way and that – looking at everything, still dazed and lost.
    She finally looked down to see that she was sitting in the middle of a big tick mattress that lay on a floor.
    Covering her legs was a threadbare sheet and also different, against her skin, a thin chemise that was soft, clean and delicate. It seemed months ago that she’d worn one of these, not since her days at Clover Grove.  
    She noticed something else, reaching up, she felt her thick hair. It was clean and parted down the center with two long braids hanging down over her breasts to her waist, stopping just before her lap. She held the ends of both in each hand, gently stroking them, trying to get her brain to think, to remember. She didn’t get it, because not only was her hair clean, but her skin was too. She felt as if she’d had a bath but didn’t remember giving herself one. For that matter, nor had she a clue as to where she was. “Lawd… what done happen, where I’m at?” She asked softly, as if he would answer her. He didn’t, not right away.
    She had to pee.
    Looking around the room, she spotted a chamber pot. Crawling to it, she saw it was empty, so squatted on it and started peeing. Done… she saw a bucket of fresh water and a cup nearby. She crawled to it, brought it back to the chamber pot. Sitting on it she used the cup – dipping it in the bucket of fresh cool water and then poured it on her privates to clean herself – using her other hand to make sure and wash herself good. Once – twice, three times – front and back the way her mama had taught her and her sisters to be clean.
     

Next, kneeling by the bucket of fresh water, she splashed and washed her face, her finger tips going into her ears and behind them. She cupped water, sucked it into her mouth, squishing it about through her teeth and then leaned over the chamber pot and spit into it. She did that a few times as well.
    Coming away… there were folded cloths stacked on a small bench. She took one and dried her face, her hands and her private place. Her stomach growled.
    Above – a trap door opened, flooding the dark room with light. Covering her eyes, squinting against the brightness of it, Asiza tried to look through her fingers to see who was coming. While she hadn't a clue as to what was going on, not for a moment did she feel fear. That was due to it being the big man descending and carrying something.
    “Ah, you awake. Hungry?”
    Her stomach growled again, no way to deny that she was.
    “I use