Black Cake

 by Charmaine Wilkerson

I found this a very interesting story.

It starts with a woman dying and leaving a tape for her children, one of whom she is estranged from.  The daughter comes back reluctantly.  She and her brother had been close but have drifted apart especially since she did not come back for her father's funeral.  We eventually find out she did return for it but had been beaten up by a lover and didn't want people to see her in that state.

The girl had fallen out years before when she couldn't settle on a career and especially when she announced she was gay.  She left home after her parents reaction to this announcement.

The mother's message tells them she had a past and a different name.  As a young woman in the caribbean her father, a gambler, was going to marry her off to the man he owed money to.  The girl is shocked that her father would do this to her.  When her groom dies at the wedding ceremony she runs away.  Everyone thinks she poisoned him.

She flees to England and then is involved in a train crash on a train to scotland.  She is assumed to be her frend, who has died in the crash, and goes along with the misunderstanding.  She gets a job, is raped by her employer and gets pregnant.  She has to give up the baby but is haunted by this especially as she ages.

She eventually runs into a boy she loved in the caribbean.  They both change their names and move to America where they marry and have two children.

The mother tells them she has tried to track down her lost daughter.  

The children are shocked at all this news, it takes them time to digest it.  The lawyer eventually tracks down their sister.  She is shocked by the news she has siblings and comes to meet them but then leaves

Evenutally she comes back and they share some of their mothers black cake.

This was a very interesting story.  I really enjoyed it.