Naleighna Kai's Literary Cafe Magazine NK Literary Cafe 2018 Mother's Day Issue | Page 68

Christine Pauls
excerpt from One Good Thing
CHAPTER ONE – 1975
The torrential downpour hit the roof with force.
Madelyn almost fell on her backside as she slid,
teetering back and forth to place a bucket for the water
that was trickling from the cracked ceiling above.
The house had been her grandmother’s for thirty plus
years and now, six months after her death; she was
there, trying to figure out what the heck she was going
to do with it.
“I can’t believe I have two sisters. Acting so
high and mighty they won’t help me fix up the place,”
Madelyn mumbled. “They the ones with the money.”
Georgina and Nola left the small town of Lula,
Mississippi, five years ago, moving up north to Harlem,
New York, to pursue singing careers. Madelyn, the
youngest sister, was left the responsibility of caring
for their mother Ophelia and Grandmother Estelle.
I’m sick of this, Madelyn thought while mopping
the large puddle. It was hard to believe she was just
thirty for how beat up she felt from working her
fingers to the bones trying to keep things afloat. Her
beauty was hidden behind the dingy white uniform,
old nurse shoes and untamed thick black hair that she
kept braided under a scarf. Her body was a shapely
size twelve on her five-foot-six frame, and her dark
skin shone with Vaseline. People said she looked like
the actress Cicely Tyson.
Madelyn worked as a seamstress for Miss Bessie’s
Boutique in town, a job she’d had since the age of
sixteen, and she was one of the best at it. She also
cleaned houses on some weekends and did ironing for