The Old Hotel, Part Seven, Rude Awakening

My earliest memory is set in Belle and Joe's dog trot log cabin. I remember floating out of the baby cradle. I had been in that constrictive human baby body for four long earth months. I wanted to return to my home of light. I escaped the tight flesh and moved about freely. The room flickered with oil lamps. I floated over my mother and her mother, sitting close to the cast iron wood burner. I saw Mama Gordon rocking in the nursing chair and Mother sitting in a straight wooden chair, beside her. Out the window I soared. Out to the night. Below me the ground glistened with moonlit frost.

Their front sides baked by the fire, while their back sides were cold. Belle Gordon drowsed while Victoria droned on about a dress that she was planning to sew. She had the Butterick pattern and a length of striped linen from the Woolsworth in Jackson. Belle snored once, then jerked abruptly alert. She went to the little crib in the far corner of the room, where new baby Jan slept. The child was as cold as ice and her breathing slow and shallow.

Returning to the nursing rocker and the small circle of wood heat, she clasped the fading infant to her love beating heart and wrapped herself and the babe in a wool shawl.

"Victoria, your baby is almost frozen to death. No, I will hold her, she will warm up soon."

I was joyous to be back to my true home. Vibrating to a symphony of light. Then after only an instant of peace, I was sucked back and anchored in that infant flesh cage. Waves of healing circled from my grandmother's heart. I was resigned to the body, and then, I glowed with Belle's love, and knew that I would be in that flesh vehicle for many Earth seasons.