The Sun Sister (The Seven Sisters #6) - Lucinda Riley Page 0,197

in Philly – was centred around the church. It was like one great happy family and I had a whole load of aunties, uncles and cousins who weren’t related to me by blood, but through Jesus. Then I went to Harvard, moved into the world of Big Bucks and felt big with myself – bigger than my family, my church and the Lord himself. I decided I didn’t need any of them, that the church was some human conspiracy to keep the working man down and in his place – I’d read some Karl Marx at Harvard.’ Miles gave a deep throaty chuckle. ‘I was a total asshole back then, Electra. Anyway, you know what happened next – eventually I found my way back to Jesus and my family. You ever sing with a choir?’

‘Are you joking?! I’ve never sung in my life.’

Miles stopped right where he was in the street. ‘You cannot be serious.’

‘I am. As a kid, I used my vocal chords to scream, not sing, so my sisters told me.’

‘Electra’ – Miles lowered his voice – ‘you simply cannot be a black woman who doesn’t sing, even if it’s not in tune. In fact, I can’t think of one single guy or girl I know who doesn’t. It’s, like, part of our culture.’

Miles began to walk again, then a mellow sound came out of his mouth. He was humming just three notes.

‘You try.’

‘What? No way!’

He hummed the three notes again. ‘Come on, Electra, everyone sings. It makes them feel happy. “Oh Happy Day”,’ Miles suddenly sang out very loudly and perfectly in tune. I looked around at the passers-by, and they took no notice as Miles continued with a melody even I recognised.

‘I’m embarrassing you, aren’t I?’ he grinned.

‘Yup. I told you, I didn’t grow up in a household that had your traditions.’

‘It’s never too late to learn, Electra. And one day, I’m gonna take you to church and you’re gonna see what you’ve been missing all these years. Right.’ Miles’s long legs stopped abruptly in front of a brownstone. ‘This is it, Hale House, where your pa found you.’

‘Oh, er, right.’

‘And that there,’ he said, pointing at a statue of a woman with a very kind face holding out a hand towards me, ‘is Mother Clara Hale. She’s the stuff of legend around here. You were born in 1982, weren’t you?’

‘Yeah.’

‘I was just trying to work out whether Mother Hale would have been here when you were. And yes, she would have been.’

I glanced at this woman who may or may not have held me in her arms, then read the words engraved on the plaque next to the statue. Clara Hale had initially cared for her own three children, then begun taking the neighbourhood children into her care. Eventually, she had started looking after babies whose parents suffered from substance abuse and HIV. Apparently, in 1985, President Ronald Reagan himself had called her a ‘true American hero’.

I turned to Miles. ‘So the fact I was found here . . . does it mean that my mom was an addict or died of AIDS? Like, did she take in regular babies too, or what?’

‘I don’t know, but yes, she was known for nursing babies of addicts – especially heroin – through their inherited addiction. Having said that, no baby was ever refused entry, and I’m sure many desperate new moms beat a path to her door whether or not they were addicts.’

I looked up at Miles, wondering if he was just trying to make me feel better.

‘Wow, right, well . . . Should I take a picture or something? Post it on Facebook and show all my fans the place where I was found?’ I rolled my eyes at the irony, but I was suddenly feeling close to tears.

‘Hey, come here.’ Miles pulled me close to him and gave me a hug. ‘You don’t know anything right now, so stop second-guessing. Maybe it’s time you went off and did some research on your long-lost family.’

‘Perhaps,’ I said, not really listening because I was soo enjoying the hug.

‘The good news is, honey, that wherever you came from, you turned out to be a real success story. And that’s the most important thing of all. Now,’ Miles said, pulling away from me and looking at his watch. ‘At the risk of seeming rude, how about I put you in a cab? I have a heap of work to catch up on after my three weeks of being AWOL