Trouble's Child

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Praise for the Writing of Mildred Pitts Walter

Because We Are

A Coretta Scott King Honor Book

A Parents' Choice Award Book for Literature

“Walter draws readers into a complex situation with finely paced writing, good integration of themes, and an understanding of the feelings of young men and women.” —
School Library Journal

The Girl on the Outside

A Christian Science Monitor Best Book

A Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies

“[Walter] re-creates the tenor of the times from both black and white perspectives and gives the incident immediacy for today's younger teens …” —
Booklist

“We are moved … by the courage required of these children and their parents …” —
School Library Journal

“A moving, dramatic re-creation of the 1957 integration of a Little Rock high school as seen through the eyes of a black girl and a white girl.” —
Booklist

“A vivid story … written with insight and compassion, its characters fully developed, its converging lines nicely controlled.” —
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Second Daughter

“Based on a real case, this admirable historical novel is unique for the perspective it lends to the Revolution and its profound impact on the lives of all Americans.” —
Kirkus Reviews

Trouble's Child

A Coretta Scott King Honor Book

“Walter immerses readers in Martha's internal struggle, holding their attention to the last page. The quickly paced text utilizes the native dialect, further adding to the aura of the isolated island setting as Walter shows how ritual and superstition dominate.… While Martha's particular problems are unique, adolescent readers will easily empathize with her predicament of feeling confused by the pull from so many different directions at this stage of life.” —
School Library Journal

Trouble's Child

Mildred Pitts Walter

The folk-tale,
Strength and Power
, told by Titay is loosely based on a tale collected by Zora Neale Hurston in
Mules and Men
, first published in 1935.

To my friends,

Marie, Karen,

Margie, and Barbara

ONE

The small building that served as both church and school on Blue Isle was ready for the last event of the school year. Martha surveyed the room and smiled. The rough hand-hewn pews had been dusted and arranged in neat rows. Pine board walls were covered with wild azaleas; their fragrant honeysuckle sweetness filled the room. Ropes of pink, green and white crepe paper crisscrossed the ceiling beams, adding to the festive air.

The noise behind the flimsy curtain on the makeshift stage announced the arrival of the children. Martha rushed backstage and said she would tie the crepe paper bows on the girls' dresses. She could see that the teacher, Miss Boudreaux, had her hands full.

“Oh, I'm so glad you're here, Martha,” Miss Boudreaux said. “I don't know what I'd do without you.”

“I don't mind hepin, teacher,” Martha answered softly.

Crepe paper crackled as bows were tied and flowers pinned. The noise and excitement in the place reminded Martha of the time she had stood behind the curtain, nervously awaiting her turn to appear on the stage.

Now her role in all this confusion was a different one. She listened to the teacher doing last-minute coaching and felt a tinge of sadness. She had been out of school now for a whole year, having graduated from the eighth grade. She missed studying and being with her teacher. She and Miss Boudreaux understood each other. They liked each other, that Martha knew.

The people on Blue Isle believed that a child born in a storm was born to trouble. Miss Boudreaux, aware that Martha was often taunted because she had been born during a storm, gave Martha special attention. She encouraged her to stay after school to erase the chalkboard and to talk. During Martha's last year, Miss Boudreaux let her help mark papers. When she was out of the room, Martha had been left in charge.

Now Martha stood in the middle of the confusion watching the teacher trying to control her temper as she cautioned students to keep quiet and still.

She sho pretty
, Martha thought. Miss Boudreaux's green dress was lovely with her green eyes, light complexion and her long brown hair.

Noise from the front of the curtain blended with that behind it. Martha peeped through the curtain. Titay was just walking in and Martha felt a rush of happiness. Titay was her family. She watched as Alicia, Gert and the other women gathered around Titay and felt proud to be a Dumas.
Eveybody loves m' granma
, Martha thought. Then she noticed Cora LaRue turn her head away as Titay walked by.
Well, all cept Cora
.

Ocie, a friend and former classmate, was down front with Tijai, who was called Tee. Beau, another friend, was just behind them. Martha knew that the empty space beside Beau was being saved for her. Everyone on the island expected Beau to ask for her hand.

Ocie was turned in the pew so she could talk to both Tee and Beau. Tee's dark eyes sparkled as he looked at Ocie. Everyone could tell that they were engaged to be married.

Miss Boudreaux, having somewhat quieted the children, joined Martha at the curtain.

“Tis almost full,” Martha said.

“I'm glad. I just hope we do as well tonight as we did with your class last year. But your class was special. I miss y'all.”

Martha felt a surge of warmth and a longing. She wanted to tell her teacher how she missed studying and how she wanted to go on to high school. As if the teacher knew what she was thinking, Miss Boudreaux said, “Martha, what are your plans?”

“Oh, teacher, I don't know. I sho would like t' go on t' high school.”

“Well, there's St. Joan's. But that's fifty miles away.”

Martha felt that there was little hope of her going that far. No one that she had ever heard of had gone away from Blue Isle to high school.

Miss Boudreaux smiled and said, “I just bet when I come back this fall, you will be engaged to some fine young man and ready to follow in the footsteps of that wonderful grandmother of yours.”

“Oh no, teacher, don't say that. I wanna go way from this place.” But Martha knew that now, because she was fourteen, the pressure on her to get married would increase. Every girl on the island was expected to announce her readiness for marriage by the age of fifteen. This announcement was made by showing a special quilt pattern. Once engaged, a round of quilting parties was given in the girl's honor.

“I wanna finish high school, yes,” Martha said.

Miss Boudreaux looked at Martha with a sad smile, as if to say, getting away won't be easy. She put a hand on Martha's shoulder. “Thank you so much for helping back here. We must start now. Go out front and listen so you can tell me honestly how it was.”

When Beau saw Martha, he waved. “Over here, cha.” Through his happy smile she saw that quizzical frown line on his forehead. In spite of the two pox marks on his olive-tinged face—one on his nose and the other on his chin—by village standards, he was good-looking. Like Miss Boudreaux, Beau was a mulatto.

Tee greeted Martha warmly too. In Martha's eyes Tee was better looking than Beau. She liked Tee and was more at ease with him. Maybe that was because nobody expected her to marry Tee! He and Ocie were laughing and teasing, and Martha wished she could be as carefree and talkative with Beau as Ocie was with Tee.

“I shoulda knowed you'd be back there hepin the teacher,” Beau said, and laughed as Martha sat beside him.

“That's Martha,” Ocie said. “Still shinin up t' the teacher.”

Martha, stung, tried to smile. Tee, sensing Martha's hurt, said, “One thing sho—Martha can teach rithmetic good as Miss Boudreaux.”

Suddenly the place was hushed. Miss Boudreaux was before them. Martha settled to become an attentive critic.

Later that day she walked with Ocie on the dusty rutted road toward the trail that led to the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf lay about two miles from the houses that were built high above the ground, protected from floods. The girls were on their way to join others on Blue Isle in saying goodbye to Miss Boudreaux. During the school year the teacher came to the island by boat each day.

Just as they came to the trail leading directly there, a gust of wind caught the dust up into a whirl that twisted around and around in a twirling funnel. The twisting wind raced toward Martha and trapped her in its middle, then just as quickly twirled away, high into the air.

“A devil's whirl,” Ocie cried. The people believed that a person caught in a middle of a whirl of wind would see the devil.

Martha, flustered by the wind, busily dusted her clothes and smoothed her hair.

“Did yuh see the devil?” Cora's harsh tone surprised Martha. Where had she come from so quickly?

“I had m' eyes closed,” Martha answered quietly, unnerved by the sudden appearance of Cora and the question.

“Don't lie. You saw im cause that wind choosed you.” Cora looked at Martha with positive contempt and hurried on.

“Did yuh really see the devil?” Ocie asked with fear in her voice.

“Wid all that dust n grit? I tole yuh, I had m' eyes closed. You don't blieve the devil's in somethin like a puff o' dust, do yuh, Ocie?”

“Yeah, and you better blieve it too.”

Martha realized that she should not have asked that question. She walked behind Ocie silently on the trail that led to the Gulf.

Many of the sixty families on Blue Isle were represented at the gathering. Some had come by pirogue, a small boat hollowed out of a log. This small boat was the most commonly used transportation on the island.