Is He My Mother’S Child?

By Ginny Johnson

An intriguing story where the maternal identity of a young boy is uncertain; the paternity unheard of or unquestioned. Red, the accused mother, seems to live a life on trial as she struggles to raise a house full of children her husband leaves behind after a premature death. Revelations in many forms will bring on a surprise verdict and ultimate contentment to the forgotten child.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jul 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781532028328

Ginny Johnson

Ginny Johnson grew up in a small town in the South and witnessed many small-town blues similar to those in this book. She survived against the odds by going to college and learning how to be gainfully employed as an educator. Writing has always been a priority for her to learn as a scholar and to teach in her vast work history. Her teaching/administrative experiences extend from elementary education through the college level. Her favorite being in middle school education has urged her to develop this quote: “When the middle is well and good, the past has been repaired and the future is being prepared.” She has been recognized with numerous awards, including “Teacher of the Year” and “Magic School Teacher.” This is Ginny’s second published book. She dedicates all her wisdom, faith in God, industriousness, love for mankind, and integrity to her parents who provided a loving and nurturing home. Their close-knit family ties will always be remembered, leaving a legacy for her to pass on to her children.

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Copyright © 2017 Ginny Johnson.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-2831-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-2832-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017911028

iUniverse rev. date: 07/14/2017

Contents

Preface

Chapter One Curiosity Killed the Cat

Chapter Two Till Death Do Us Part

Chapter Three Daddy’s Gone Home

Chapter Four Guess Who Came to Dinner?

Chapter Five A Blue Wreath Goes Up

CHapter Six Another Blue Wreath

CHapter Seven The Plagues

CHapter Eight Dum-Dum, Dee-Dum

CHapter Nine A Pink Wreath Goes Up

CHapter Ten Two Blue Wreaths Go Up

CHapter Eleven Blue and Pink Wreaths Go Up

CHapter Twelve Addition and Subtraction

CHapter Thirteen A Blue Wreath Goes Up

CHapter Fourteen Pink Wreaths Go Up

CHapter Fifteen The Clearinghouse

CHapter SIxteen The Second to the Last Draw

Author’s Note

PREFACE

Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. – Isaiah 49:15

The greatest tragedies are those that come from real life, and the following story is no exception. Over my lifetime, I witnessed the curse that haunted the Prioleau family. Decade after decade, I watched the funeral wreaths appear on that front door, heard the wailing of the survivors in the church pews, and felt year after year the lingering evil that shadowed the family. I was there when Red denied the boy who claimed to be her son, and I saw the end of that long tragedy more than fifty years later. Red, Jimmy, Elroy, Jackie, Ramon, Ethel, Dora, Edward, Jon, Anthony, Consuela, Suzette… I saw the curse bring bitterness and pain to all their lives. This is their story.

CHAPTER ONE

CURIOSITY KILLED THE CAT

In a very small village community in the South during the pre-Depression era, a young lady named Queen Elizabeth Dodson, better known as Red, grew up. Her name evolved because of her very fair-skinned complexion. She was the middle child of seven children to sharecroppers. They lived on the white man’s property and worked the fields for income to sustain the family’s meager budget. A mill existed in the community a few minutes away from their house where white and black men worked. The blacks were exclusively laborers or handymen who took on menial tasks to enable the white workers to produce in the more prestigious positions. Naturally, the salaries were incomparable. These men worked from sun up to sun down, living as boarders in nearby family housing units.

Red’s home was within walking distance of the mill. The men would gaze upon her and her sisters, as they were very attractive young ladies–eye candies, to be sure. They craved the men’s attention and would make frequent trips back and forth to be whistled at or stared upon in a seductive manner. Each subsequent trip brought them more and more within reach of the mill workers, older men who desired these village girls, but had no interest in marriage. When their father finally caught wind of these rendezvous, his wrath was exuded. He sounded like Rumpelstiltskin in the valley when his name was discovered, and his anger resounded throughout the whole community, maybe the whole state. In spite of their father’s threats, though, Red and her sisters continued to sneak visits. We all know that whatever is done in the dark will come out in the light, but these girls were fearless, or unbelieving, of any negative consequence that could possibly occur.

Red, in her late teens now, began dating a young man named Jimmy Prioleau from a nearby town about 10 miles away. She had gone to Gritsville to visit a relative and ran into a handsome young man who was nothing like those old bags at the mill. He was a real catch! It wasn’t long before they were an item. Jimmy visited Red’s family’s home regularly: two to three times a week, Wednesday nights and Sunday afternoons, as certain as sunrise. Jimmy observed enough of Red’s family activities to notice a curious pattern in the family relationships. Red was always the designated caretaker for her littlest brother, Elroy. Jimmy pondered this situation for several weeks before finally mustering up enough nerve to ask Red the ultimate question:

"Red, why do you always have to look after Elroy? You have to feed him, change his diaper, put him to sleep, or whatever he needs. Is he your baby?"

No, no! Why would you think that? He likes me the best of my sisters and brothers. My mother and father are too busy. I-I just love my little brother. I like kids, too. When I get married, I want to have a lot of children. What about you?

She had done well soaking him into the syrup. Jimmy held onto his quizzical face; however, his love for her was at the point of her turning water into wine or calling a snake a staff and he chose to believe her. He worshipped the ground she walked on. He did not have any thoughts of that ground on which she treaded biting back because she had proven to be the one true love he had found. Her smile after her comment to Jimmy reassured him that she thought the world of him, too. This seemed a romance in Heaven right here on earth.

In the weeks after he asked about Elroy, Jimmy noticed Red seemed to withdraw from her caretaking responsibilities