Washing and Weeping

By Mae Basha

Before she reaches the door way Carmen can see Martha pacing in the kitchen as she reaches the full arch of the door, Carmen sees Mrs. Helen sitting looking defeated. Carmen is wondering what Martha told Mrs. Helen? Martha looks at Carmen who stand there emotionally spent. Sue Lang and Mi Lang are holding hands behind her. Betsy and Mary Washin

• Language: English
• Publisher: Global Summit House
• Release date: May 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638210498

Mae Basha

Born in Mississippi, Mae Basha', a circuit provision engineer by day and a talented writer by night, grew up in Santa Monica, California. As a young girl, she would write make-believe stories of her imagination. Mature early in life, beyond her age, she would isolate herself in thought while others her age would play. Mae feels it is time to free her imagination and share it with the world in this, her first novel.

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Copyright © 2021 Mae Basha’.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by reviewers, who may quote brief passages in a review.

ISBN: 978-1-63821-050-4 (Paperback Edition)

ISBN: 978-1-63821-051-1 (Hardcover Edition)

ISBN: 978-1-63821-049-8 (E-book Edition)

Some characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to the real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Book Ordering Information

Phone Number: 315 288-7939 ext. 1000 or 347-901-4920

Email: [e-mail]

Global Summit House

www.globalsummithouse.com

For my mother — Mary Jackson

Thanks to my family and friends

Demetrius and Sedrick my sons

Charlene and Geneviève my friends

You can hear the whistle of the train slowly approaching the platform.

Netta and Martha are sitting lock arm in arm. Netta has her head resting on Martha’s right shoulder. Netta knows the approaching train means something is about to change.

Although the two women are cousins, their relationship is greater than sisters.

Tears wells in the women eyes.

How sad and deserted Netta feels as she unlocks her arm from Martha’s. She walks to the edge of the platform and looks down the track with anxiety knowing the train is coming but wishing with all her heart and being that it would never arrive.

‘How strange it is leaving Netta here,’ Martha is thinking. Leaving her here is bittersweet. Martha watches Netta as she folds her arms. She relives the impact of Walter’s funeral and the torment that Lucille is going through, which will have a defining moment in Netta’s life.

Even now, as they wait for the train, Lucille is heavily sedated in deep unrest. She is reliving in her dreams the day Walter died. Her hands clench the sheets, balling her hands into a tight fist. Her head is pressed deep into the pillow, moving, twisting her head from side to side, and pressing deeper and deeper into the pillow. Her heart is pounding, seeing a dizzy red haze.

‘She sees herself, shadowing her, connect to her body but not touching the flesh. She is standing over herself as she watches Paul lifts her upward off of her knees. As she stands, she hears a loud buzzing and the sawmill whistleblowing the alarm…’

Lucille’s sleep is caught in a battle with her nightmares. Her spirit knows that this is a dream. Her spirit stands like a guard over her reality, as her conscious and subconscious mind is fighting about what is real and what is not, as the nightmare causes her to relive that fateful day Walter died. The dream is stopping and starting over and over again, playing like a movie in a dimly lit room. Her breathing is pumping her lungs up and down. She is running…

‘Lucille reaches the lumber mill. The doctor and other towns people are there. Adley, who is covered in blood, sees Lucille running down the hill and runs to stop her. She is fighting to get past Adley. Soon Paul is there, helping to restrain her at Adley’s request.

Help me to keep her back. It’s Walter. He is hurt, hurt bad! She doesn’t need to see, Adley says, panting for breath.

Lucille falls to her knees and screams out, Walter, Walter! in hopes that he can hear her and take comfort in knowing she is there. Adley looks at Paul, moving his head from side to side in a slow, pitying motion. Paul closes his eyes to fight back the tears. For what seems like hours, they stand still in that one spot, waiting for a word from the men crowded around Walter.

Paul notices the large blade lodged in the wall across from the saw safety stand. He knows he cannot ask Adley to explain now, but something has gone very wrong.

Mr. Gordon, the supervisor, comes to Lucille.

Come with me. Please, come with me? he requests in a soft voice. Lucille cannot move, and falls backward, fainting. When she becomes conscious, the doctor is waving smelling salts under her nose.

Where is Walter? Where is he? Lucille demands. Mr. Gordon takes both of Lucille’s hands in his. Walter is gone.

Lucille lets out the wail of a wounded animal. She tries to run out of the room to go to where Walter is lying. All four men are wrestling with her to hold her back. In the struggle, the doctor says, Hold her arm! He takes a hypodermic from his bag to inject her.

Lucille is pulling and yelling, No, don’t, I need to see Walter. Soon her cry fades as the medicine takes control. She hears a loud buzzing and the sawmill whistleblowing the alarm as they lay her on the old leather couch that Mr. Gordon has in his office.

Paul beckons to Adley to go outside with him. On their way down the hill to the body, Adley shakes his head in disbelief at what his eyes have witnessed that day.

What happened? Paul begs. Adley takes a deep breath as he starts to tell Paul how the accident came to happen.

"We had just finished adjusting the blade. Everything looked safe and secure. I was on the other side of the saw. I remember Walter bending down, and he had his back to me. Someone turned the saw on. It starts to shake as the speed increased. Then the blade bounced off, moving forward into Walter, cutting through his arm and face. He stood up when he heard the buzzing, started to say something and raised his arm. The blade was moving so fast it only stopped when it hit the wall.’

With the blowing of the train whistle, Martha impatiently sits, pulling at her gloves watching Netta watching the train tracks. Come sit with me, Martha extends her hand, reaching out to Netta. Slowly, Netta turns and walks toward Martha. What’s on your mind? Martha continues.

Netta hesitates. For a minute, she slowly speaks. Just thinking about Mama, I hope she does not wake up until I get back home.

Netta, I want to tell you something, something Mrs. Helen is always saying to me. Always look for the maximum potential in everything, good or bad. Always look inside yourself, always look around yourself, and find the best thing for you that will prosper you. Let it be something you can achieve in or with, always learn, and always move forward. To yourself, be true.

Netta feels the tears roll from her eyes down her cheek.

By this time, the train is coming into view. Martha ready her heart to leave as she fights the tears that are now blurring her vision. Martha continues, Netta, I will always be there for you. I now know why you ran away. It was not because of rebellion, but because you were trying to survive and protect yourself the best way you knew how. The strangest thing is, Aunt Lilly knew, and she told me more than once that you would seek and find me. She always thought you were my reincarnated mother because you look so much like my mother when she was your age.

﴾Lilly passed away. She was Martha’ aunt, and Nettia’s grandmother.﴿

When Netta hears Martha say these words about Lilly, Netta remembers the things Mrs. Helen said to her the day she sent Sissy away. The shuffling of the train coming to a stop helps Netta to keep her thoughts and lips by not speaking of the things Mrs. Helen had told her about Martha.

Martha is Ms. Helen’s ward.

Netta kisses Martha on the cheek and hugs her.

Martha, with a cracking voice, whispers, "I will write you." Then Martha turns and boards the train. Martha finds her way down the narrow corridor inside the train. Number eight, the signs read, as she opens the small door to the sleeping car. As the