The Darkest Child

by Delores Phillips

I saw my mother climb from Velman Cooper’s car. Her face was ashen and her eyes were dull. She looked like death struggling up a mountainside. Never in my life had I heard such rage under one roof as I heard that night. Sam wailed like a strong, full-grown man—the worst sound in the world. Grief and anger wrapped around his chest and sputtered and hissed with his every wail. It seemed to suck the air from his lungs and the blood from his heart. My mother enfolded him in her arms, and together they slumped to the kitchen floor. Sam clutched her shoulders and clung to her as though something inside of her could give him relief. “My baby, my baby,” Mama cried, and that went on for what seemed like hours until Sam’s arms fell weakly to his sides.

Oh? The mother has feelings of compassio ? Empathy? Woah