Page 48 of Freedom's Kiss
Chapter 20
Florida, 1823
Life was like a river—always moving, never stagnant. Sometimes it flowed in a gentle current, one where a person could float on their back and look up at the blue sky and simply watch the puffy white clouds drift along at a pace of leisure. Sometimes it widened, allowing more water within its gates, welcoming all with open arms. But then there would be a bend, a turn in the direction of the flow, a fall of elevation where the river would be pulled down, its currents picking up speed, tumbling over craggy rocks—some smoothed over where no one cast along the ride could get a grip, and others sharpened to the point of cutting any who dared try. The river would narrow, thrusting water along at a death pace, only to spit its contents out the other side.
Looking back, Winnie could recognize each bend, each white-water rapid, and each time life had slowed enough to allow her to catch her breath. Losing Temperance, the war they’d fought and lost against the whites—those were tempestuous channels so narrow she thought she’d never break free of them.
She rubbed her swollen belly and looked down, but not even her toes peeked back at her anymore, and a smile tugged at her lips. Now, life was calm, if tension packed. Good, but with an ever-present darkness on the horizon, one she’d lived with her whole life. She wasn’t ignorant that another turn of the river was in her future, but if Nokosi and Martha had taught her anything, it was to enjoy every moment as it came and not to dwell on the past or future.
She lowered herself to the ground and lay back, the tall grasses offering a cushion for her aching body. She stared up into the sky and watched the wind lackadaisically blow the clouds across the canvas above. The life in her rolled, her too-tight stomach rippling. She covered the bulge with her hand and cooed, “Soon, little one. Soon you’ll have all the room you need to roam.”
Though that wasn’t exactly the case. Spain had ceded its rights of Florida over to the United States, and already the leaders in Washington were sending men to determine the fate of both the Native and Black Seminole. Though Nokosi tried to shelter her from such talks, she’d heard the whispering. Felt his presence ever near her as if he was afraid to let her leave his sight.
Slave owners were demanding their runaway property be returned to them, sending catchers to retrieve those who’d found refuge among the Native people. The government was even pressuring the elders to round up and return the Black Seminole that they’d called their brothers, that they’d fought alongside of.
Such talk caused her husband’s jaw to harden even more than normal, and she feared his teeth would be ground to nothing in little time. But the protectiveness he showered upon her as well as the other runaways warmed her heart. Though some of his people might consider Winnie and the other Black Seminole their slaves, her husband considered them a part of his tribe, his clan, and therefore family.
A shadow covered her face, and she tilted her head back, grinning when she stared up into the eyes of her husband.
Nokosi moved to her side and settled at her hip, placing his big palm over the back of her hand still on her middle, where the baby kicked against his tight confinement. “Our son is strong.”
“A warrior like his father.”
He looked out over the grasses, his body present but his gaze far away in another place. Too often she’d come upon him like this. Sometimes she worried that memories plagued him as they sometimes still did her. He didn’t talk much of past battles where he’d been made to take another’s life in order to protect those he loved, nor did he ask her to share about what it had been like as a slave. They simply accepted that some things were better left unsaid.
Now, though, she wondered if his absentmindedness was not pondering but listening to the drums of change that beat a cadence on the air and reverberated between their ribs. That foreboding of the river’s bend.
Winnie lifted her hand and rested it on her husband’s cheek, turning his face so she could look into his eyes. She couldn’t offer words of reassurance. Neither one knew if all would be well. Who was made aware of the future but God in heaven?
A pain stabbed her lower back, then shot to the front, where it wrapped around her middle. She sucked in a breath as she pitched forward and doubled over, her muscles contracting and stealing her breath away. Seconds passed all too slowly, and she thought the pain would rip her in half before it released her. Nokosi gripped her upper arm in support. Then little by little, her tightened body unwound, and the knifelike stabbing ebbed away. She felt unsteady even though she still reclined on the bed of a meadow, and her lips wobbled as she forced them to bow. “Seems our little warrior is fightin’ to get out.”
Nokosi’s face remained as solemn and unmoved as it ever did, except for a pinch along his brow. He shot a look to her middle, then returned her gaze with widening eyes. “It is time.”
She nodded, gritting her teeth against the sweep of another contraction. She wouldn’t cry out, though the pressure built. Her muscles tightened until she thought they’d snap.
As if she weighed nothing more than the babe itself, Nokosi scooped her up in his arms and started across the meadow on fast feet.
“Down, husband,” she panted as her body once again released itself from its constriction and she could breathe. “It’s good to walk.”
He paused, indecision carved into his face before he softened. “You are sure?”
She wasn’t sure of anything, but a need to move itched across her body. She’d seen other women labor to bring forth their children. Some swayed, some walked, but few held still until the time came to push the babe from their bodies. Winnie’s pains had only begun. It could be hours until she’d hold her little one in her arms.
“I’m sure.” She had to move, work out the kinks tightening in her back. Try to keep her muscles loose between the stabs of contractions.
He lowered her feet to the ground but kept an arm wrapped around her back for support. She leaned into him, allowing his strength to buoy her up. Each time a contraction hit, she stopped and doubled over. The fourth time the pain became too much, and she screamed out against the agony. Nokosi set his jaw and collected her once more against his chest despite her protests. Once they reached the village, he barked out orders, sending people scurrying to do his bidding. Martha rushed over, her face calm yet determined.
“Over here.” She directed Nokosi to the birthing lodge that they had recently erected for this occasion. Two upright poles supported the structure, a depression dug out beneath for the woman to squat or kneel, gravity helping bring the baby into the world. “I heard her screams and prepared.”
Nokosi carried Winnie into the lodge, then lifted her hand to his lips and kissed the back of her fingers. “Pakse.”
Hearing his special name for her imbued Winnie with strength. Another wave of pain washed through her body, and she gripped Nokosi’s fingers still in her hand. An overwhelming urge to push built in her pelvis, and she coiled in on herself. She reached for Martha on the other side of her. Her nostrils flared against the torment of labor. Sweat coated her body. Through gritted teeth, she managed to say “He’s coming” as she lowered into a squat.
Nokosi’s eyes flashed before he took up residence behind her, holding her up. He shouldn’t be there, but the babe was coming too fast. Martha moved in front of Winnie, hands ready to catch the baby. Winnie’s body shook with her efforts to push, but as quickly as the labor had come on, a small body slipped from her own, and she fell back into her husband’s arms in exhaustion.
Martha turned with a bundle in her arms, and all Winnie could see was her friend’s back. She met Nokosi’s gaze as he lowered them both to the ground and gathered her up to lean against his chest.
A hearty cry ripped through the hushed silence, and Winnie’s face split into a smile as tears of joy coursed down her cheeks. Martha wrapped the bundle, then handed the baby into Winnie’s eager arms.
