Fallen Grace

by Sadeqa Johnson

I believe that if you’ll just stand up and go, life will open up for you. —Tina Turner

Guilt had changed sturdy young women into wailing, wimpy damsels. No. She would not follow that path. She would take her chance with shame rather than live with regret.

“Where does it say in the Bible that having a baby out of wedlock is wrong?”

“All that singing and carrying on you do every week in the name of the Lord, and you’re going to put your flesh and blood out on the street because you’re afraid of church gossipers?”

“Yep. In the Bible, one of the Psalms says, ‘Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.’ I never hurt as bad as the night I went into labor, but when morning came, so did my baby. I named her Joy.”

Bubbles’s mother always said houseguests were a lot like fish. “They start to smell after three days.”

Bubbles nodded, though she was as scared as a hooker entering a church on Easter Sunday.

“But I do. He’s a man. They’re all the same. They take, take, take, and take. But no more. Tonight, you take our power back. For the both of us. Now fix your face and get up there and sing.”

“Don’t you let them win, Bubbles. You’ve earned this. Go claim what’s yours.”

She didn’t want to run in disgrace anymore, cowering from a family who feared judgment.