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Callaloo 24.1 (2001) 64-66



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Is in the Stars (for Lisa Photos)

Roberto G. Fernandez


"And now an important message that will make you feel like when he was twenty . . ." The cameras zoomed in to the applauding audience before breaking for the commercial.

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"We continue now with the second segment of our show. For those tuning in, we are having the pleasure of conversing and sharing with one of America's treasures, the mockingbird of country music, the sensational Amber Marie." The members of the audience jumped to their feet to give the singer a warm ovation.

"Thank you once more, Emma. And as I said before, thank you for inviting me to your show. For me, it's difficult to admit it, but that song I sang for you during the first half of the show, it's part of my life. And now Amber Marie, the country star, has also the right to empty her soul to her fans. Now, life smiles at me, but I had it rough, very rough."

Emma seemed to be searching for someone to the left of the stage.

"Morgana, could you bring Amber Marie some Perrier," she interrupted the singer.

"Here you are, ma'm," said Morgana as Amber Marie reached for the glass and looked at the surfacing bubbles before continuing.

"If you look closely at the skin of my legs and thighs, and I say only there because the rest of me is covered, you will notice two rows of faded stars. My mother made them with dye. It's hard to say it, but she wanted me to win a flag contest. She thought that if instead of dressing me like a flag she had me go as a living flag, we would win the contest. The prize was a week at a plush resort in the Ozarks, all expenses paid for a week. Mom was so tired of raising us six and working so hard in the textile mill, that this was her only chance to have some time off. Besides, all she did was moon about all the attention she would get in town." Amber Marie's forehead was covered with tiny sweat droplets.[End Page 64]

"I remember she put me in the bathtub and she dyed my whole body red. When I came out of the bathtub and saw myself in the mirror, I started shaking. She told me: "No one is gonna beat us, precious." My whole body was crimson, and then she painted two blue bars that went from my right foot to my left shoulder and from my right shoulder to my left foot. The two bars intercepted right at my belly button."

"Amazing," said Emma as she looked to the lights hanging from the ceiling.

"Then she took white shoe polish and painted stars inside the bars. I kept on crying, and Mama told me that if I kept it up I was going to be all alone in the world. That night I cried silently. When I woke up that morning, I couldn't get out of bed. I was chained. When Meemaw saw me, she screamed: "For goodness sake, Wavene! Don't need to chain her legs, just the hands is enough."

The afternoon of the contest, I sat on top of a bale of hay on the bed of Mr. Olsen's pick up truck. I waved to the crowds with my chained hands. Behind me there was a big sign that said: Yankees Go Home! I was paraded up and down Main Street, and the loudspeakers mounted on top of the pick-up blared the cotton song." The cameras focused on the only man in the audience.

"Mama was...

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