Happy Mother’s Day

This much talked about place called Brooklyn, New York was beyond Ma. Z’s reach, but she was determined that her daughter Josephine gets there by ’the hook and the crook’. Mr. Leo assured her that when there, in addition to singing in his clubs, her daughter would ’cut’ records; her voice often likened to Sarah Vaughn’s; ’better dan’, most would indignantly retort. For Ma. Z’s part, she was relieved that her daughter would be far away from the athlete, to her, ’the running boy’, the village’s Great White Hope. Now, Josephine struggling uphill, amongst the debris and water, knows that she should get her mind off her macabre past, that’s flashing before her. She fixates her eyes on the old woman, Ma. Z, standing in the middle of her storm ravaged home. She desperately wants one last chance to embrace and wish her Happy Mother’s Day. Yvonne Jack is the author of Cheers, Don’t Push the Sister, and The Last Four Months.