Fallen Grace

by Sadeqa Johnson

But how do you silence a newborn? Bubbles didn’t know.

Keeping custody of her daughter depended on it, because there was no way she was giving up her baby.

the House of Magdalene, a maternity home for unwed mothers-to-be where the mission was to assist “the prostitutes; the troubled, lost, and fallen women; and the wayward girls.”

She had given birth and surrendered her baby to the nuns nine months ago but had been sentenced to work off her debt at the House of Magdalene’s laundry room with no release date cited.

She didn’t want to hit a woman of God, but she would go to any lengths to save her baby.

Ray, the man whom her parents had denied because he was her high school janitor, eight years her senior,

She would take her chance with shame rather than live with regret.

We stole a baby, for Chrissakes.” “She’s my damn baby.

Her mother swigged. “We’re behind on the rent. You wanna be out on the streets?” “How about you get a job? And stop selling your daughter?” Gertrude screamed hysterically.

“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?”

“I hate to do this to you, baby. I really do.” “But not enough to not do it.”

“I should have fought harder to keep my son. I’m such a coward.” Her voice cracked. “You did what you were told.”

If Talitha had taken one look at Joy, she might have changed her mind.

Meanwhile, the same righteous and holy man was out on the town, gallivanting with another woman, while her mother waited at home with her shiny new appliances.

“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.

declaring that this moment was for them. The girls who went away and were left behind.

She didn’t want to run in disgrace anymore, cowering from a family who feared judgment. She wanted to stand tall for all the young ladies who ended up pregnant and alone. Bubbles wasn’t the first, and she certainly would not be the last. She wouldn’t disappear.

Bubbles smirked at his hypocrisy, but she had not come to shame him; she’d come to change him.

“How about what was done in the light, Sister Rita?” Bubbles asked. “The Bible teaches us that children are the ultimate blessing from God. So why condemn her mother?”