Gracie Honeywalker: Red

Land's sake, I ain't never seen hair that color before in my life. And in ponytails, too. Don't her husband tell her, she looks twelve years old in them ponytails? And as big as a house, too, gone to have a baby any minute now. Well, I tell them, come upstairs the house, you can do your lying-in in my bedroom. I'll midwife you, ma'am, just as long as you realize, I'm a colored lady. Ain't going to be easy, no morphine, no ether. Your baby's going to come out real hard. You up to it? So she looks at her husband, says Old Man Lacey says, Mrs. Honeywalker, she's the best around, white or black. And they nod their heads, come on in.

So I talk to her. She's scared as a kitten. Ain't before too long she's having pains five minutes apart, three minutes apart. Then comes the thunder. Thank the good Lord above. We need the rain something fierce. That rain three days ago didn't do no good. My grass's been dying out, my poor cows practically got nothing to eat. Now we'll get good grass for 'em in September. Might even last all the way to wintertime. Yep, we get a good rainstorm, even as the lady, her lying-in takes real long. Ain't before morning that the baby done come. A fine baby girl, beautiful blue eyes. They're gone to stay blue, too, I can tell. Her daddy's got blue eyes. She looks like him, too -- same square jawline. He's a handsome fellow, got to say, and the mother, she's something else. Can't put my face on it -- nope, I can. She's as bright as the summer moon above the night's sky. All the stars dancing around her, bouncing around the heavens.

Her red hair's all wet, all in tangles, so I bathe her after the baby done come. She says thank you, ma'am, you done mighty good and falls right asleep. Husband gets in bed next to her, falls asleep too. Nice couple. Like me and the old man when he was alive. Gosh, Albert died 35 years ago. I was a 45-year old widow with eleven children to raise. A widow's got to do what a widow's got to do. This woman, she wakes up before her man, wants her baby, starts feeding her milk. Tells me she's gone to name her Grace, cause that's what she feels. That's my name and I'm mighty proud.