Caul Baby by Morgan Jerkins (read any book .TXT) 📕

“We were just playing a game, Maman,” Helena called out from the top of the staircase.

“A game? What kind of game?”

“It was a game of—”

“I’m asking Hallow.” Maman leaned in toward her and blew smoke toward her side profile. “Hallow. I’m speaking to you.”

Hallow sniffled and regarded Maman. The fire from Maman’s blunt almost fizzled out, for she was taken aback by how much Hallow resembled Josephine in both eyes and character. For a brief moment, she saw her daughter, and that unnerved her more than anything else, since Josephine was not Hallow’s birth mother.

“Yes, Maman. It was just a game.”

“It’s not just some game. It’s sick. And I’m sick and tired of Helena doing this,” Josephine said.

Ignoring her, Maman continued talking to Hallow. “Well, you two can finish playing when we get back from our block meeting. I need you to be washed and dressed in forty minutes.”

“I get to go outside?” Hallow beamed.

“Yes, dear.”

“Do I have to?” Helena dropped her shoulders and whined.

“I was talking to Hallow and Hallow only.”

“Well, why does Hallow get to go and I don’t?”

“Because I said so. Now you get her out of your hair for two hours and you can do whatever it is you do up there undisturbed. See? Everybody’s happy. Now you, make haste.” Maman nudged Hallow toward the staircase. “I don’t want to be late.”

Hallow ran up the steps, and Helena purposefully brushed shoulders with her before Hallow went into her room. Once the door closed, Helena ceremoniously walked down the stairs, taking a brief pause at every step. When both feet were on the bottom, she placed one arm on the bannister and began tapping her feet.

Maman inhaled her smoke then blew it out of her nostrils. “You have something that you’d like to say to me?”

Helena rolled her tongue around in her mouth and mumbled, “Unh-unh.”

“If you have the nerve to step to me like a woman, then address me like one. Lord knows that you’re never at a loss for words with anyone else.”

“Nothing. Seriously. Nothing. I mean, she is going to be the one who runs this place when you die, so it’s only right you bring her up under you.”

“Don’t be jealous, Helena. It’s unbecoming. But it does have purpose.”

Helena narrowed her eyes and cocked her head to the side.

“Keep playing your little games with her. She has to learn to be tougher. She can’t be a pushover like Josephine. Understand?”

Helena grinned and nodded. “I hope you two have fun.”

“And Helena?”

Helena, who was starting up the stairs, looked over her shoulder.

“You haven’t told her about . . .” Maman’s voice tapered off.

Helena overacted a gasp and pressed a hand to her heart. “Of course not! I wouldn’t dare. That would ruin everything, wouldn’t it?” She laughed all the way back to her room. Helena was definitely her mother’s child.

Hallow returned to the foyer dressed in a red-checked dress, black leggings, and small boots. Her coily hair was wrapped in a bun with a matching ribbon tied around it, and a golden star pendant necklace adorned her neck.

“Well,” Maman said, visibly impressed. For all Hallow knew, Maman could have been taking her to the bodega or Laundromat, but she dressed as though she was going somewhere important. There were strict rules in place for whenever Hallow was allowed to go outside. The first one was that she would never be able to do so unaccompanied, even if she was just playing on the front porch. Every part of her body besides her head needed to be covered, no matter the season. If someone said hello to her, she was only to smile and nod. If someone asked her how she was doing, her response was supposed to be short and to the point. Any further probing and Hallow would have to go into the house and get the nearest adult family member that she could find. In either case, she would have to go back inside after the interaction was over. If someone so much as brushed up against her while she accompanied Josephine on a rare excursion, every part of her body would have to be searched once she got home to make sure her caul hadn’t been tampered with. Long stretches of time would pass until she would be able to go out again. But she had never went out with Maman.

The texture of Maman’s grainy palm pressing onto Hallow’s left hand excited her. Once the front door was open, the fresh light stung her eyes. The air was uncharacteristically clean, the outside a Saturday-morning kind of quiet. They walked alongside each other down the block to the basement of a small old Presbyterian church.

“What other games do you play with Helena, Hallow?”

“Many games. Sometimes she pushes me down the steps, but she always says it’s an accident. We’ll play a game of putting our hands on top of each other’s to see who will flinch first. I always flinch, so she gets to slap my hand as hard as she wants because I lost. Sometimes Josephine catches us and tells us to stop. But most times she does it when Mom isn’t even looking.”

“What is the purpose of this game?”

“She says she wants to see if I can do any of it without screaming or crying since I won’t hurt for long anyway.”

“And do you ever win?”

Hallow averted her eyes to the ground and shook her head.

Maman lifted Hallow’s chin and said, “And what do you do back to her?”

“Nothing. She said I’m not allowed to touch her. That me and her aren’t the same.”

“Well, that’s true. You wanna know why she said that, don’t you?”

Hallow didn’t blink.

“Because she almost died years ago. She doesn’t have as much caul as you. You’ve seen her arms and legs, you know. So if you hurt her, she won’t get better like you. You’re the more important one. We don’t want anyone trying to strip you. You’re the future. Our