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Ellen Morris

Alice


Reba Faye Ward, the dearest lady I have ever known, and the next is Mamie Ward. The only two women in the world that were superheroes. They may have been just my heroes, but that was enough. It only takes one person to change the whole, I wonder how many people these two lives have changed.


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The Birth of Alice

     It was a cold crisp autumn evening, Clementine was feeling sharp pains.  It was the first signs of labor. Claire, short for Clementine, was missing her mom.   Peter and Claire moved to Pike, Kentucky over four years ago.  The trip to West Virginia was a hard one.  So, they only got to go once a year.

     Claire wasn't going to get any sleep this night, the baby would be there before dawn.  So, she told Peter that it was time for the baby to come.  He left the house to get his sister Amelia. 

     Peter's two daughters, from his first marriage, were there, but they were not that much help.  Peter had been married two times before Claire. He married Zoe, which he told Claire was the love of his life.  She had found out that Zoe also was from West Virginia and that her family still lived there.  Elsie and Florence were only six and seven years younger than Clair. 

     Elsie was married to Claire's brother Harry and Florence was married to Gavin, from Kentucky.  Peter had two boys by Zoe also.  Brian and Edwin, they were younger, they were in their teens.    Claire was knocking on thirty.  Brian was nine and Edwin eight when Peter and Claire had got together.  Claire was a teacher, so she thought that raising two boys wouldn't be a big thing.  She was wrong.

     Peter was mean, he took the older children side, even if they were wrong.  Claire's father, Roy made Peter and Claire get married.  Peter and her brother Harry worked on the train line from Kentucky to West Virginia, they were brakemen.  So, Harry and Elsie got married in West Virginia.  

     Which Peter was there and had to have a place to stay, so Roy invited him to stay at his house.  Claire had to get up early in the morning to go to school, then when she came home, she had to do work around the house.  Roy owned a sheep farm and needed help.  Claire's mom, Rosie, was ill and had been for years. 

     Rosie couldn't do much, she was so frail.  Roy ignored the problem with Rosie and started drinking.  Peter was a drunk already, so he fit right in.  Claire waited on them hand and foot, so when Claire went out to the barn to milk the cow, Peter followed her.

     Peter was six foot, four inches tall, and weighs in at two hundred and twenty pounds.  Claire at four foot, eleven inches, and weight seventy-nine pounds.  So, when Peter came into the barn, he took her, and it was like making a rag doll do whatever he wanted. 

     Claire was in pain the next day, she didn't go to her classroom.  Some of the pupils from her class came to see if she was alright.  They found her crying in the barn.  It was just two girls who had come, Tonya and Connie, and they started helping her.

     The two girls tried to comfort Claire, but they could tell she wasn't going to tell them what had happened.  As they did the work Claire stopped crying.  The work helped, with her mother sick, and her father a drunk.  Having to take care of her four brothers and younger sister, plus now the wedding.  She was exhausted, she decided that all she needed was to sleep.

     She told the girls she would be at school tomorrow, she was feeling better with them around.  The girls smiled and asked if they could help with anything else.  Claire thought for a minute and said, "If you could get me a bucket of coal that would be great."   The girls told her they didn't mine and did what she asked.

     The next day was Friday and after the weekend, everything would go back to the way it was.  The wedding was great, and Claire met the rest of Peter's children.  She felt better than Peter and his family was going to be out of her life for good, the only one she would have to deal with was Elsie.

     Claire didn't want anything to do with Peter.  Elsie told her that Peter had just got a divorce from his second wife.  According to Elsie, Anne's mother was a witch.  Anne's mother told Peter to leave one night after he had come home drunk, yet again.  Anne had a little boy and named him Clive, Elsie was sure they would never see him.

     After a month, Claire didn't have her period, so she knew she was pregnant.  She told Roy and Rosie what had happened that night.  Roy was so angry he took his gun and headed up in the hills and started firing at nothing.  Claire had told her baby sister, Lydia the night it happened. Her other brothers came in when they saw Roy going up in the hills. Jack and Berry listened to Claire and become angrier than their father.

     Jack and Berry packed a bag and was about to start out to Kentucky when Roy came in and told them to bring Peter back because he was going to marry Claire.  Claire protested, but the men were not going to let a sister or daughter of theirs be treated like a whore.  Either Roy was going to shoot Peter or Peter could marry his daughter.

     So, Jack and Berry took off, they would pick up Harry on the way and make that good old boy pay for what he did to their sister.  Three weeks later, to Claire’s dismay, she was married to Peter.  Her dad told her she would get over it and eventually learn to love him.

     Grace finally came along, and Peter was fine with her, she had blonde hair and brown eyes.  She looked just like her father.  Then shortly after Grace came, Claire got pregnant with Vincent, who also looked like Grace, except he had hazel eyes.  Peter took them to Kentucky to live near his daughter's.

     In January, Florence started telling Peter that while he was in West Virginia, Claire wasn't at the house when she would come by to visit.  It didn't matter how many times Claire told Peter that Florence was lying, Peter, wouldn't believe her.  Peter started calling Claire a whore because Claire was with child yet again.  So, this kept Clair upset the whole time.

     Florence was so convincing that even, Brian and Edwin believed her, and they were there at the house the whole time Peter was gone.  Peter had Claire in tears for months.  Claire had lost weight with this baby.  She was praying everything was going to come out okay.

     Peter had finally got back with Amelia, Peter’s sister, and Claire felt she was more than ready to have the baby.  They went to the back bedroom, Elsie and Florence were making breakfast for everyone.  Claire had gone all night without having her, surely this morning, she would come.  Gavin, Florence’s husband, took Grace and Vincent to Peter's father's house. 

     Claire and Gavin were born on the same day.  Claire couldn't believe that Florence birthday was the day after her own, but then Florence married a man with the same birthday as Claire’s.  What were the chances of that happening?  

     Claire felt that there was something not right with Peter having a daughter with a birthday the day after hers and being six years younger than her.  Claire wondered what Peter was thinking when he came to the barn and forced himself on to her.  Peter knew Claire's birthday because they had just celebrated it when they had met.  Claire figured that was the reason Florence hated her.

     In the front yard, Peter’s brothers and sisters were waiting for the new arrival.  Along with Clair’s brother, Harry.  Peter was telling them that he thought Claire had an affair while he was in West Virginia.  Harry got mad and said his sister wouldn't do that.  Peter said, "According to my daughter, Florence, she did."  Harry shook his fist at Peter and told him to shut his mouth!

     Eva, Peter’s sister, said, "Peter, you know yourself that Florence is nothing but a liar.  Your wife is a saint, how could you even believe she would do that?  I live right down the road, you don't think I would have heard something from someone else other than your daughter.  Claire and I go to church together."

     Peter said, "If that baby doesn't look like the other two, we have, I'll know."  The others looked at him and sighed.  As they were talking, they heard "push!"  Then they heard the cry of the baby.

     Eva said, "Peter go see your wife and baby.  Then bring the baby to us so we can see what you have."

     Peter sighed and headed for the front door.  As he walked up to the stairs Elsie, who was pregnant also, came out the front door and said, "Come on Dad, come and see the baby."

     Peter walked in and went to the bedroom.  Amelia handed the baby to Peter and he took her.  He looked at Amelia and she said, "Girl."  Claire said, "Her name is Alice."  Peter looked at her and said, so who does she really belong to."  looking at Claire.  Amelia looked at him and said, "What are you talking about, she looks just like you."  Peter handed the baby back to Amelia and said, "Over my dead body," and walked out of the room. 

     Claire started crying.  Amelia handed Alice back over to her.  Amelia said, "Claire doesn't let that brute get you down."  She looked up at Amelia and told her what Florence had been doing.  Amelia got so angry she went to talk to Florence about her behavior.  The baby started crying so Claire got up and washed her in a wash basin.

     Eva came in and changed the bed.  Claire was still holding on to the baby, then the two of them settled down in the bed and she fed Alice for the first time.  After Alice was finished Eva took Alice and put her in her own bed.