Now Stella even more busy slaving inside the Great House. She still take me with her, but she pay me little mind. Leave me to crawl round and round the entrance hall, the dining room, the drawing room, the hallways, the stairs, the bedrooms, the many rooms she cleaning in. The youngest slave girls taking turns, making sure I don’t cause no trouble. Fall asleep under the divan in the parlour hallway. Sometimes Mistress Margaret come in the room where Stella cleaning, have words with her. Look down pon me with a frown. If is Massa, them slave girls move me quick outside to the verandah.

A few seasons pass and Stella turn more and more grumpy. Her belly swell up big and round. She can barely do much work. Make me worry if she sick. Calla come to visit, notice me fretting, tell me is a good thing. Soon I going have another pickney to play with. And when Stella start sweating and moaning and bending over like she in one big pain, Massa tell old Phoebe, the head house slave, to send word to Doctor Watson, just in case. But Stella, in between the breathing, the moaning and the pushing, let it be known she not going have any of Doctor Watson shiny instruments anywhere near her.

‘None of him min-is-tra-tions,’ I overhear her say to Massa, almost with pride.

Stella instead tell me, ‘Mek haste, go fetch Calla.’ The only one she trust.

After all, is Calla who help bring many baby them into this world. Not just black baby, but backra baby too. Not just on Rock Pleasant, either. She get called out to help for miles round, specially if is a difficult birth.

When Stella start screaming and moaning, Calla rub her back, wipe her face. Reach in between Stella legs to feel the place where the baby going come out.

‘Why you scream so much?’ she ask. ‘Second child easier and this baby not so big. Not big like little Will sitting outside on the step.’

Stella get angry. ‘Why you let him?’

‘A man pickney need to know bout the pain him cause when coming into this world. It help to soften up him soul.’

I don’t want to, but Calla make me sit on that step hour after hour while Stella scream her lungs out, even though the baby not so big. Is a hard thing to hear you mama scream like some wild animal. And the glimmering light up and I come to understand, when I get born, I cause her the same pain. Make me wonder if that is why she don’t seem to like me so much no more.