‘He’s alive, Momma,’ Em said, hanging on to Momma now herself. ‘And it wasn’t a bird strike. It was just him being dumb.’
‘Never.’
We all sat down on the dust of the track at the edge of the red carpet. Momma cried into my back until my shirt was damp and I started to wish she’d let go of me, but I was too worried about her – and she was still too much of a stranger – for me to dare to try to wriggle away. So I just waited until she let go herself.
I may not have a father, but I have got the world’s most beautiful mother.
That’s our Momma – the White Raven. There is not a safer pilot in the whole world.
When the coronation was over, and we were allowed back on the airfield at the Addis Ababa race course, she flew us all to Tazma Meda and Beehive Hill Farm, two at a time. She didn’t seem nervous at all. I guess she just likes to be flying the plane herself. I went with Grandfather, and Em went with Grandma, and then Momma flew Grandma and Grandfather back to Addis Ababa together a week later to get the train back to Djibouti. They were badgering her right up to the moment they left about her going to live with Papà Menotti. As they were packing up to go (this is my earliest memory of Fiona Sinclair’s bedroom, which is where they stayed) they were still pestering her about him.
Momma stared out the window at Beehive Hill and answered patiently, ‘Orsino is still stationed in Italian Somaliland. It’s not possible for us to be together now that the children are here! They can’t live on an Italian air force base. He bought me the plane, of course, but I don’t owe him anything. We have an agreement.’
‘It’s called a marriage, Rhoda.’ Grandma sighed a little. ‘I wish we could stay longer. But I’m so glad we got here – thy real home. I feel better about leaving the children here in Tazma Meda. Addis Ababa wasn’t real. Not the city, not the coronation, not the cloud of men around you like ants at a picnic. I can see thee and the children will be all right here, Rhoda. Even without thy husband.’
If Momma can get along all right without a husband, I guess I can get along all right without a father. I have Momma and I have Emmy. They are enough to make a family.
Episode from THE SLEEPING QUEEN (December 1930)
Queen Morning Glory of Antemeridia was safely back on her throne but her kingdom was still in trouble. She was hungrier than normal people. She had been asleep for three years and she needed a thousand breakfasts to make up for it. She asked if someone would take a trip to the kingdom of Eclipsia, to bring back honey and coffee.
This was a dangerous job because of Eclipsia being so strange. Their honey came from beehives made of skulls. The skull hives hung in the coffee trees and the honey was harvested by the princes and princesses of Eclipsia. Every one of them knew how to throw a spear and they would kill you if you tried