Mizzie (U R Never Alone): Volume 2

By Margie Greene-Moss

This book is based on a real-life story. Time goes by, and it seems suddenly you are all grown up, at least in age. You realize you have missed a lot of your blessings because you did not know what life meant. Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). Mizzie goes through life by trial and error. But before it is too late, she learns the value of a Godly life. The earlier your eyes are opened, the more you can see.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781647011932

Book preview

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Mizzie (U R Never Alone)

Volume 2

Margie Greene-Moss

Copyright © 2020 Margie Greene-Moss

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

Conneaut Lake, PA

First originally published by Page Publishing 2020

This is a work of fiction based on a real life. The names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblances to actual persons—living or dead—or actual events is purely coincidental.

ISBN 978-1-64701-192-5 (pbk)

ISBN 978-1-64701-193-2 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

It was the image of a Man from His waist up. Mizzie could only see the right side of His face. His back was to her. His collarless white shirt had sleeves just like the choir robes they wear at church. The collarless shirt was so white it shone like the brightest sun on a cloudless day. The Man’s image stood in front of a big Circle. When the Man’s image faded, the Circle began to go round and round. The Circle had many sparkling colors. To Mizzie, the Circle was big; actually, it was about twenty-six inches on the thirty-inch-wide door.

As the Circle twirled, the many sparkling colors bounced off one another. It was an amazing and mesmerizing sight. The Circle stayed a while, twirling and twirling, as Mizzie stared at it. She never said a word. She just stared in amazement and awe. She was four years old and had the cutest round face with big brown eyes and a dainty little nose. She had short dark-brown hair, just enough to cover her head. Her hair will never grow long. Her mother, B. (short for Beatrice), said her hair would grow long. About every other day, B. would patiently grease Mizzie’s scalp and pinch her hair up in little plats (name for braids in the South). Mizzie was in bed when she saw the Man and the Circle. She lived in Ma Flo’s house on Price Street in Macon, Georgia. Ma Flo was her step grandmother. She lived there with her grandparents, her mother, her brother David Jr., and Carrie.

The image of the Man and the Circle was on the back door over two jackets that were hanging there on a big nail. The bed faced the back door of the house that opened to the kitchen and outdoors. Mizzie was not afraid of the images. When she saw them on the back door, a feeling of happiness came over her.

Finally, Mizzie decided to go and get her mama, B., so she could see the pretty Circle. She turned over and slid down the side of the bed to the little step her grandpa made for her. The bed they slept in was high off the floor. She later learned that the bed was high to avoid the cold drafts from the floor. The homemade mattress was thick and made the bed even higher.

Mizzie ran to her mothers’ side, excited, and tried to tell her about the Man and the Circle, but B. just looked at her and kept right on talking about something else.

Children are pure in heart. The Bible says, The pure in heart shall see God. Many years later, Mizzie realized it was a vision from God. The man in the vision is Jesus. The Circle was a symbol of God’s eternal love, an amazing love that has no end. God made a pledge that morning to Mizzie. God pledged to always love her and to always be with her. Over the years, Mizzie thought of the images, but only very briefly, mostly during stressful times.

B. was a little anxious at the time Mizzie was tugging at her skirt. She was talking to Ma Flo (Mizzie’s stepgrandmother) about David Jr. He seemed to have a chest cold. He was just over two years old. David Jr. had a terrible rattle cough and a slight fever. To Mizzie, B. did not seem to care, so she never mentioned the Man and the Circle again.

It must not be important, Mizzie thought.

The next few days, because David Jr. (her brother) was sick and she could not play with him, Mizzie played in front of the house in the dirt, alone. While playing in the dirt, she disturbed some roly-poly bugs, then she saw a balloon. She wiped some of the dirt off and tried to blow it up. She could not blow it up; there was too much dirt. Mizzie took the balloon in the house to wash off some more dirt so that she could blow up the balloon.

She said, Look, Mama, I— Suddenly, she was off her feet, and in her mother’s arms, and B. was running to the water pitcher and basin.

That’s not a balloon. That’s nasty! Stick your tongue out. Open your mouth. B. washed Mizzie’s mouth out with soap and water. Then she gave Mizzie a bath and put her to bed. B. lay down in the bed with Mizzie.

Don’t ever pick up anything from the dirt and put it in your mouth. It will make you sick, she told her daughter.

When Mizzie turned two years old, her brother David was born that September. So Mizzie was two years and two months older than her brother. Mizzie was David’s big sister in more ways than one. She was responsible for her little brother. She had to help him eat; she wiped his hands and face before and after meals and anytime they got dirty. Before leaving Georgia, Mizzie developed a big dislike for taking her brother, David Jr., to the outhouse. She hated waiting for him to poopoo or teetee, but her mama would get at her if she left him in the outhouse by himself. Most times, it was very hot in there, and the flies were relentless. As soon as she helped her little brother get his pants down and up on the seat, Mizzie began saying, Hur-rup, Junior, hur-rup. She made a song of it while she fanned the flies, with her hands and arms waving in the air, Hur-rup, Junior, hur-rup.

Those that don’t know what an outhouse is, it’s a tiny structure with a nonflushable toilet. It’s basically a wood bench with a carved-out hole over about a four-foot-deep hole in the ground.

Mizzie and David Jr. were inseparable, except when B. let Mizzie go to the country. Ma Flo had a sister who lived on a farm with her husband and three sons about twenty miles away. The name of their sons were Amos Jr., Marlon, and Matthew. David Jr. hated it when Mizzie went to the country with Aunt Bell and their uncle Amos King. He would cry and cry. He didn’t cry because he was left at home. He was welcome to go with Mizzie. Junior was happy at home and did not want to leave, and he did not want anybody else to leave. If he saw any one of the family leaving, he would start crying, and he could be heard way down the road. Everyone in the family would have to sneak out when Junior was not looking. Because he cried so much, David Jr.’s belly button stuck out almost two inches.

Mizzie was four years old, and like most four-year-olds, she noticed everything. From her bed in the farmhouse, Mizzie could see Marlon in his bed at night. Marlon was almost fifteen, and he was the middle child of Aunt Bell’s three sons. The three boys and Mizzie each had separate beds in the country farmhouse all in one big room. She could see Marlon moving a lot in his bed under the white sheet. His bed was under a window. On nights when the moon and stars were bright, Mizzie could see Marlon really good. Aunt Bell said not to take toys to bed. You go to bed to sleep, not play, she said. Mizzie was determined to see what kind of toy Marlon played with at night so she could tell Aunt Bell. Every time she watched, she would fall asleep before she saw the toy, or sometimes, she would forget to watch. In the mornings, she would look under Marlon’s bed for the toy or whatever he played with at night.

Mizzie would spend a week at a time whenever she went to the country. Aunt Bell enjoyed having a little girl to care for. She would sew dresses for Mizzie, shampoo her hair, and make her ice cream. She had enough patience to help Mizzie churn milk to butter a lot of times.

Mizzie’s step grandmother house was an old wood-frame house with two big rooms and a kitchen. The outhouse was a couple of yards away from the house. The house was on Ward Street, and from the back porch, across the field, they could see the front porch of Little Richard Penniman’s house. Little Richard was not allowed to play with B., Paul, or Carrie because they were poor and because their family did not have an education. Little Richard went on to become a musician, singer, and songwriter. He is an influential figure in popular music and culture even today.

The front room was where the family received company. This was the same room they would all sit in during a thunderstorm or just heavy rain. They turned the lights off and sat in the dark for fear that lightning would strike the house because of the electricity and that the house would catch fire. Sometimes, Ma Flo would cover her face with all her long silky jet-back hair and walk around the dark house with a flashlight under her chin, saying, Woooo, wooo. Carrie, Ma Flo’s adopted child; Paul, B.’s brother; and B. would run around the house as if they did not know it was Ma Flo and as if they were afraid of her, the monster. Other times, Ma Flo would amaze them by brushing her hair in the dark, and the static electricity sparks would fly.

The second room was the bedroom. They all had a bed in that one big room. Mizzie slept in the bed with her mother and her brother. When Nathan, Mizzie’s grandpa, got really sick, they moved their bed into the front room. In that way, Ma Flo could take care of him and not wake everybody in the house. Nathan had a stroke and could not help himself. Mizzie would sit at his bed in the front room and hold his hand for a long period of time, just sitting there. Everybody said Ma Flo took real good care of Nathan. Sometimes, a neighbor or midwife would come and sit with Nathan so Ma Flo could do something else, like cook a special meal.

Step back a little until before Mizzie was born…

B. was sixteen years old when she gave birth to Mizzie. B. was considered kind of tough, a little tomboyish, growing up. She never liked the idea of somebody getting best over her or her baby brother, Paul. And Beatrice could beat her brother in climbing trees any day of the week. She hated to lose. When B. was eight years old, she stood about four feet tall and weighed fifty-five pounds. She was a cute little girl, but even then, she was not shy about bending her arms and flexing her muscles. B. was there when her mother was dying.

B.’s mother, Mollie, was eight months pregnant. Mollie started having pain early one morning, and she was having some bleeding. B. helped her daddy, Nathan, take care of her mother. B. was worried, but she did not cry. B. would run and return with anything her father needed to help her mother. She watched out for her brother and kept him out of the way. She helped her daddy on the farm, doing most of the things her mother did before she got so weak.

It was early in the morning when they started to the doctor. Nathan got the horses hitched up, and he got feathers and wool in the wagon for Mollie to lie on. Then he picked Mollie up from the bed and carried her to the wagon. Nathan kept a shotgun in reach all the time. Nathan was a protector for all he cared for. Because he took his role as a protector very seriously, he kept his shotgun near. When he said over my dead body it was clear he meant it. He loaded water and food and his shotgun in the wagon. B. and Paul got in the wagon with their mama. They headed to town to see Dr. Marshall. Mollie was quiet on the ride to town. Every now and again, she would look at her children and smile; she did not want them to be sad or to worry about her. When Mollie looked up to the heavens, she saw angels—a beautiful band of angels. She thought about a song she sang solo in church many Sundays.

Swing low, sweet chariot, (coming for to carry me home.) / A band of angels coming after me.

(Coming for to carry me home.) Mollie knew she was going home. A little after dinnertime, they were at Dr. Marshall’s house. Dr. Marshall sent for a midwife. In her eighth month, Mollie delivered their baby girl stillborn. The family stayed overnight in Macon; the wagon ride was rough. Neither Dr. Marshall nor the midwife could say why Mollie still had such a heavy bleeding.

The next morning, Dr. Marshall said quietly to Nathan, shaking his head, I’ve seen this before. There is too much bleeding. We can’t stop it. Nathan took his family home, praying in his spirit that the doctor was wrong.

When Mollie didn’t get any better but begun to get worse, B.’s daddy took her mama back to town again to see the doctor. After her mama was situated, lying down in the back of the wagon, with hugs and kisses, Beatrice and Paul were left alone with instructions.

Anybody comes by here, tell them I’m out back fetching watermelons. Tell them to come back when he come home. Stay close to the house. Don’t go in the woods. Then he pointed to Paul and said, Listen to your sister, boy.

Paul said, Yes, Pa. And he glanced at B.

Beatrice was responsible because she was the oldest. She was eight, and her brother was six years old. There were no neighbors to be seen for miles. Nathan did not have time to spare. If