Little Girl in a Big StormA Story by Carol CashesI live in Biloxi, MS and was here during Katrina. This is potentially a true story.A Little Girl
In A Big Storm Las’ I saw of my mama wuz when she push’t me out tha
upstairs winder. Tha water had come down
our street so fas’ and deep; it wuz right under tha winder and I wuz really
scar’t cuz I knew how deep it had ta be to
reach that winder and I always get scar’t in deep water. Tha wind wuz howlin’ so loud and tha water
sounded like it wuz roarin’, like a lion or a bear, you know, sump’n real big and mean. Mama, she yelled at me ta jus’ let the water
carry me where it will, that if I didn’ fight it, and watch’t where I wuz
goin’, I’d be aw’right and that she’d
catch up with me in a little while. Somethin’
‘bout the way she said she loved me scare’t me even more; then she put this ole
lifejacket on me and tied it real tight.
It stunk real bad; Daddy usta keep it in the bottom of his fishin’ boat
and it smell’t like ole dead fish and
beer. Right ‘afore she let me go, she kiss’t my hands and shoved
me away from tha house. I started
cryin’; I never been so scare’t in all my life.
The wind and rain wuz so loud, I couldn’t even hear myself cryin’ and
screamin’ for Mama over and over. That
water wuz movin’ so fas’ and turnin’ me ‘round and ‘round till I could hardly
tell which direction I wuz goin’. I
could feel my legs and arms scrapin’ stuff I couldn’t see under tha water and I
tried to pull my knees up but I couldn’t do nothin’ but wrap my arms ‘roun’
Daddy’s ole lifesaver and hug it as tight as I could to my ches’. I felt like a tiny ant in the Mississippi
and I wuz jus’ hopin’ that I would get close to somethin’ I could grab or hold
on to. I couldn’ cry and keep a lookout
for some kinda anchor so I jus’ tried to concentrate on where I wuz goin’ and
hopin’ I didn’ end up too far from home since the phone had quit workin’ sometime
‘afore the water hit and Mama had tol’ me more than once that she would blister
my butt good if she ever caught me hitchhikin’.
At the thought of Mama, I could feel my chest tighten up like it does
when I’m workin’ up a good cry, but I
knew I needed ta pay ‘tention like Mama tol’ me, so I tried ta swallow it down but it jus’ seem ta get stuck in my
throat and I felt like I wuz gonna choke on it. It seemed like a long time ‘afore everythin’ slowed down
enough for me to really see where I wuz goin’.
I thought I saw the top of Beau
Jon and Martin’s house, they lived a coupla blocks over and it look’t like somebody
wuz on the roof but the water wuz still movin’ fas’ enough ta keep me spinnin’
‘round, so I didn’ see who it wuz. Now I wuz’nt cryin’ for Mama no more; I wuz jus’
cryin’. I wuz ‘memberin’ when I watch’t
The Wizard of Oz las’ Sunday, and Dorothy sees that ole witch ride by outside
the winder. I jus’ knew that if I saw
that ole witch or anythin’ like her, I wuz gonna die, and I didn’t want to
die. No sireee! Las’
Sund’y, Brother Jake wuz goin’ on about hellfire and damnation and stuff like
that and how bad people went to this lake that wuz on fire. I started ‘memberin’ my sins and I knew that
I’d pro’ bly be goin’ for a swim in that ole I wuz startin’ to get tired and tried to close my eyes, but
not seein’ what wuz comin’ wuz worse than seein’ it, so I jus’ started prayin’ like I never did in
Sund’y School. Pleeze, God, don’ let me die, I swear I’ll be good to Jody even when he
tears the head offa my Barbie doll ‘cuz he’s
my brother and I’m ‘posed to love and forgive him no matter what he does
and I won’ sass my Mama no more, and I’ll try as hard as I can to love my Daddy,
even tho everyone says he ain’t worth a plug nickel and he kill’t my lit’l
orange kitten, Dreamsicle, when he
step’t on it one night when he wuz drunk. I wuz jus’ promisin’ God everythin’ I could
think of that him and the Baby Jesus would want me to do when all of a sudd’n,
I felt a tug behin’ me and I could feel that I wuz bein’ pull’t agin’st the way
the water wuz movin’. I couldn’ see
behind me and I jus’ knew it wuz a big ole alligator or a shark or sump’n and I
thought I might fain’ right then for sure, but it wuz only a few minutes an’ I
felt these big ole warm hands wrap ‘roun’ me and pull me up outta the
water. My heart wuz beatin’ to burst and
I jus’ closed my eyes real tight so’s I couldn’ see who wuz gonna kill me or
rape me or any of those horrible things that my cousin Jada tol’ me happens to
girls who are out all alone and can’t get away when really bad men catch ‘em
and tie ‘em up. I musta fainted or at least pass’d out cuz when I opened my
eyes, I wuz wrap’t up in a ole blanket and I wuz in a wheelchair layin’ in this
ole lady’s lap. I could tell it wuz inside
and dark and I thought I could hear her singin’ real sof’-like under her
breath. Then I thought she might be
crazy like this movie I watch’t one time
with my cousin Jada ‘bout these people who lock’t up this ole lady in tha attic
and fed her scraps and bones and stuff and she wuz bad-crazy. I tried to wiggle outta her lap, but she
ssshhh’ed me and held me right tight agin’st her and said that I wuz aw’right,
now, and ta jus’ be still and rest since
it look’t like I’d had a pretty rough ride in that ole water and I’d need my
strength later. Sump’n ‘bout her voice
kinda ‘minded me of my ole Grannie Lou; she’s dead now, but she usta sing to me
at night when I’d sleep over sometimes and she would rock me ta sleep in her
big ole rockin’ chair that wuz older than her. I could tell by her hands with her ole crook’id fingers that
it wuzn’t her that pulled me outta the water and I look’t ‘round to see where I
wuz and who wuz there with us. I could
see this guy leanin’ out this little bitty winder and I couldn’ tell if he wuz pullin’ up somebody else or jus’ hangin’ out
the window like my Mama and my cousin Jada would do when it comes a good loud
thunderstorm. After a few minutes, he
pull’t his head in and turned ‘round to look at us. His face wuz red and his hair was scraggly
and he didn’ have no shirt on, jus’ a ole pair of jeans and some work boots, but he smiled at
me and tol’ me that it wuz sure a lucky thing that he wuz lookin’ out when I
came sailin’ by. That’s what he said,
that I wuz “sailin” by - like some ship in them ole pirate movies that Jody
likes. He came over and squatted down in front of me and the ole
lady an’ tol’ me that his name was Willy Terrell and that the ole lady holdin’
me wuz his mama, Delilah Terrell, though ever’body called her Miz D. and that I
should too. I felt like it wuz my turn
to say sump’n, but I couldn’ seem ta get my mouth workin’, which sure woulda
surprised a lot of people. He musta
understood, though, cuz he jus’ smiled at me, and tol’ me to res’, there wuz
plenty o’ time for inter’ductions later.
He said that when the storm had pass’d, he’d take me home, wher’ever
that wuz, and for me not ta worry no more.
I woulda thought that I cried all my tears out, but I felt my eyes
stingin’ and I didn’ want them to see me cry like Kenny, Jada’s little boy, who
wuz two and cried all the time, so I jus’ clos’d my eyes real tight and I didn’
even know it when I went ta sleep. I think my dreams wuz really jus’ ‘memberin’, like my brain
wuz tryin’ to sort it all out so’s I could maybe make some sense of it
later. Daddy had left early yesterday mornin’
ta hep my uncles tie up they shrimp boats in tha back bay, and me ‘n Mama both
knew that he’d be beer-drunk by tha afternoon and would stay wid them on one of
the boats. Jody help’d me put all the
lawn chairs and Kenny’s outside toys in his room, and all the plants in the
front room ‘afore he took off after Daddy. Mama was quiet, which wuz weird ‘cause storms
usually made her eyes sparkly and her and Jada would be kinda giggly-jumpy. My Granny Lou had tol’ me that all tha women
in our fam’ly had this ‘finity for storms and thunder and lightnin’. ‘Cept for me, I always hated ‘em and wanted ta
be under tha covers or hidden somewhere’s durin’ tha really loud ones. Anyways, I heard Mama and Miz Joan from nex’ door
talkin’ ‘bout maybe we should evacu-wate, or somethin’, but Mama said no, that
tha ole house had stood this long, one more storm wuz jus’ one more storm. ‘Round noon-time, the neighborhood wuz real
quiet, folks that didn’t usually take off had loaded up they cars with they kids
and dogs and cats and took off for tha Interstate headed north. I think that wuz when I started ta have this
niggly-wiggly feelin’ in my stomach, but Mama kept me pretty busy so that I
hardly had time to notice it at first. It didn’ start ta rain ‘til later that night and you could
really hear tha wind a’blowin’ through tha trees and tha roof gutters. Mama let me sleep on tha couch while she sat
up and play’d solitaire until the power wen’ out. When I woke up it wuz dark like it wuz really
early in the mornin’ but Mama said it was ‘bout ten and tha storm wuz jus’
startin’ to blow in. She fix’d me some
peanut butter and crackers when we saw that water wuz comin’ in tha front
door. We had jus’ push’d towels up
agin’st tha bottom of tha door when we heard this really loud roarin’
sound. Mama look’d out tha winder and I
never seen my Mama look scared, but she did then and started yellin’ at me ta
grab stuff and run upstairs ta her room.
I could see water risin’ up pas’ the winder sill and had jus’ grabbed a
pillow and some blankets when tha front door burst in and water came gushin’ in
like a waterfall that I seen in a movie once.
It knocked me off my feet, but Mama grabbed my arm real tight and pulled
me up the stairs. She tol’ me ta get up on the bed and stay there, that she
had to go back downstairs to get some stuff and she’d be right back. I wouldn’ even look out the winder while she
wuz gone, jus’ stared at tha picture of the mountains and some deer facin’ her
bed. Soon I heard her runnin’ back up
tha stairs and she wuz carryin’ that ole life jacket and a plastic bag filled
to burstin’. I never did see what wuz in
the bag, she jus’ grabbed me up and started tellin’ me that she loved me and ta
jus’ let the water carry me… When I woke up this time, it wuz some quieter, but still
raining. Willy musta picked me up and
carried me to tha little cot that I wuz layin’ on. Miz D had rolled her chair over ta the winder
and there wuz no sign of Willy. I got up
and walked over ta the winder. Miz D
looked up at me and her pale blue eyes were filled with tears, only they didn’t
roll down her cheeks - jus’ stayed right on her eyes makin’ ‘em look like they wuz
underwater. She said that Willy had gone
to get somebody to help us out tha house or a ta get a boat but he’d been gone
for a long time and she wuz getting’ worried.
She said he’d jus’ jumped in the water and started swimmin’. This wuz twice in one day that I seen a grown
up bein’ scared like me and it made me feel strange, like the rules of tha
world got changed and I weren’t ready. © 2017 Carol CashesAuthor's Note
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13 Reviews Added on June 10, 2017 Last Updated on July 15, 2017 Tags: fiction, southern dialect AuthorCarol CashesBiloxi, MSAboutI'm very cynical, jaded, just this side of bitter and the only reason I haven't crossed that line is a good man loves me. I am extremely empathetic, but seldom sympathetic. I can be a ferociously lo.. more..Writing
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