All of a sudden it got quiet for a split second, then it sounded like God just pounded our house open with his fist. The doors flew open and the wind hit. I had my eyes closed. Prayin’, cryin’, holdin’ Tracy close to me. She was cryin’, but I couldn’t hear her. It’s like it happened so fast. I just knew we was all dead. The tornado had come through and tore up everything. Big Mama was prayin’ so hard she forgot to stop when the storm was over. We got up off our knees and looked around. Everything was gone. Wasn’t nothin’ left but us in the middle of the floor. There was nothin’ left but us and the washboard. I couldn’t believe it.
I stood up with Tracy, and she was still cryin’. It was like we was outside. Trees was pulled up out of the ground. Other houses down the road was torn all up. Money Road was a wasteland. We looked around to see if anyone was hurt, and we was all still livin’ and breathin’. Shook up, but we survived. There wasn’t no way a tornado had come through and took everything but us. This was surely a miracle wrought from the hand of God. We had a few scratches, but nobody had no broken bones.
Big Mama looked at us and said, “God knows what he’s doin’—always.”
And I believed that. We all was walkin’ around, lookin’ under stuff to see if anyone was dead or hurt or needed some help. I’d just slapped a titty in Tracy’s mouth, when I looked up and seen this white woman runnin’ over to us, cryin’ and carryin’ on. She seemed like she was in some kinda shock. I’d never seen a white person cryin’ so hard. She walked up to us, askin’ if we was okay or needed help. She said she couldn’t believe we was still livin’. She handed us a brand-new twenty-dollar-bill.
“Y’all are so blessed,” she said.
She wiped her face and went and got back in her truck. Then all of a sudden I looked up at the sky, and the sun came back out again. It was brighter than ever before. I knew God didn’t put us there to be miserable, so what was our true purpose in life? Our only happiness was the sun, I think. It gave us hope to keep pushin’ forward. Every day we saw the sun, we knew we’d made it through. We was born to live and be happy under that beautiful, glistenin’ sunshine in the delta.
About the Author
Erica Sandifer has a bachelor’s degree from Mississippi Valley State University, where she learned to develop and magnify her writing talents. In 2013, Erica began working at Turn Row Book Company, a job that helped transform her into a structured writer. There, she began to read more books and learn new styles of writing. The blues would play over the loud speaker, which eventually inspired her to write the poem, “Delta Woman, Dammit” while working one day. Through passion and experience, she hopes to inspire other writers and citizens of all creeds for generations to come.
Sunshine in the Delta: A Novel Page 10
