Free Wildflower by Imari Jade

Marissa had her heart set on Disneyworld. She didn’t need a fancy honeymoon anyway, she had just married the man of her dreams, she had the best daughter in the world, and she carried the next generation of Patterson in her womb.
    “I have to pee,” she told Kolby. “We have to leave now.”
    Kolby picked her up and carried her to the car and drove her directly to the ranch house so she could empty her bladder. The rest of the guests followed because Sonya and Aliya’s father had prepared the wedding feast.
    Their parents seemed to get along better than she expected. Aliya’s mother had come out of retirement to sing at the reception and Harry played a tune on his guitar to commemorate their wedding. Marissa looked so pretty in her white flower girl outfit. Her father had woven bluebonnets in her hair. She and Kolby toasted with champagne. She didn’t get to drink any of it. Sonya had taken the glass out of her hand and gave her another one with milk.
    “Did I tell you that Kolby weighed twelve pounds when he was born?” Sonya asked as the women sat in the den talking when both mothers made Aliya come inside to rest.
    “No,” Aliya said. That bit of information she thought she needed to have a long time ago. No wonder the doctor kept asking her if her husband was a big guy. She had put on a considerable amount of weight, but had contributed it to her increased appetite. Sonya was smaller than her, where did she carry him?
    “The doctor had to put me on bed rest after my seventh month. I just couldn’t walk anymore, and Kolby lay on my bladder.”
    Aliya was just about to enter her seventh month. Her ankles were swollen and she lived in the bathroom.
    “All the women in our families have big babies,” Sonya continued. “Marissa weighed in at ten pounds.”
    Aliya looked to her mother for help.
    “You were five pounds and fourteen ounces,” her mother said. “You were my smallest baby.”
    There was a big difference between five pounds and twelve pounds. “Did you deliver Kolby naturally?” Aliya asked her new mother-in-law.
    “Ooh, lord no. I had to have a Cesarean. I couldn’t pass that big boy out of me. You look like you’re having a whopper too.”
    Twelve pounds ? No wonder Kolby was so tall and fine. Maybe Sonya should have told her this before she molested her son without a condom.
    “Did it take you long to recuperate after you had him?”
    “I’m still recuperating,” Sonya laughed.
    “Mama, stop teasing Aliya,” Genieva said entering the room. “You’re going to scare her.”
    “Aren’t you afraid?” Aliya asked her equally pregnant sister-in-law. Apparently there was something in the air around that time.
    “No,” Genieva said, sitting down next to Aliya.
    “You should be,” Hale’s mother said. “Hale was a big baby too. He weighed twelve pounds when he was born.”
    Genieva grabbed Aliya’s hand and squeezed tight.
    “Mother Christian, why didn’t you tell me that?”
    “Because I wanted grandchildren,” the older woman said. “You would have high-tailed it to another state if I would have told you that.”
    The rest of the women in the room laughed at their naivety and agreed.
    Aliya looked at Genieva’s belly. She looked like she was carrying twins.
    “It’s only one baby,” Genieva said as if reading her mind. “Now I understand why Doctor Pritchett keeps shaking his head when I go there.”
    “He does that when I go to see him too,” Aliya said. She tried imagining giving birth to Kolby’s son naturally. She shook her head to clear that memory. “I’m going to make sure he has plenty of drugs on hand when I go into labor.”
    “Me too,” Genieva said. “No wonder I look like a beached whale.”
    “You do not,” Hale said entering the room with Kolby. “You look beautiful, Neva.”
    “You too,” Kolby said to Aliya like she needed him to make her feel better. She hissed at him.
    “How much did you weight when you were born?”
    Kolby took off his