Don't read this unless your ready to see how my brain storms. It may not make sense, but it's a brains storm, so deal with it.
Anna & Noshi belonged to the Algonquin Indian tribe, near Ontario Canada, referred to as Anishnabek before the French arrived.
Anna was the daughter of the tribes medicine woman
Noshi was the third son of the Ogima (chief)
They were married for only a few weeks when Anna got pregnant. She found that as her pregnancy wore on, her belly grew more than other women's and that she was far more in tune with nature. Surprisingly in tune.
Anna had a difficult time delivering her quadruplets, even with her mother's powerful help.
Anna passed a way a few days after her daughters were born. She named them: Numees (sister), Hurit (beautiful), Etu (sun), Tiponi (child).
Noshi was devasted at the loss of Anna, and though he tried to be a good father, he was clumsy with his girls. For weeks, he tried to learn how to feed & bath them, Change them & entertain them. Finally, he gave in and turned them over to their grandmother while he set off to hunt for food with the other men.
As the months went by, the girls gained quite a bit of attention from the rest of the tribe. While their father was busy hunting, they would play with the other babies. Their eyes, which their grandmother thought would change as they grew, was the most surprising part of them. Numees had green eyes, the color of the leaves in spring. Hurit's eyes were grey like the morning sky. It would have seemed that Etu's eyes were completely unremarkeable, until she looked at you, and her deep brown eyes appeared to be lit from within by the golden sun. Tiponi, who was still a bit smaller than her sisters had eyes of the brightest blue anyone had ever seen.
Their father spent that summer hunting, but every night he would come home to them. The girls began to understand that he would be home soon by the way the sun sat in the sky. They all loved each other very much.
Summer turned to autumn, which turned into winter and they began to see more of him. He helped to teach them about their world. Numees grew fond of the dirt under her feet and the trees over her head. Hurit became obsessed with the birds and the sound of the wind. Etu would be hipnotized by the pattern of the sun and the way the night fires danced. And Tiponi would splash around in the water until her father or grandmother dragged her from the stream.
That winter, the girls, less than a year old, grew stronger and more capable than any child in the tribe. And as spring, and the end of their first year came, they were walking and helping with chores that children twice their age were struggling with.
The snow melted and the trees bloomed, and one day their father didn't come home.
Though the girls were smart for their age, they didn't understand what was happening.
Then the white men came.
The whole tribe was in chaos. The white men came and burned down huts. The beat the men and women and took the children. As the girls watched the men tear through their village their fear took over. Their grandmother witnessed as Numees controlled the earth, Hurit the wind, Etu the fire & Tiponi the water... just before she died.
All of the children were collected into a cart and carried back to the ships. The French men took special interest in the four beautiful baby girls with the wild colored eyes. So, once on board, they gave them to the chamber maids to care for. There was one couple in particular who was very nice to them
It seemed like an eternity that they were at sea, constantly wishing for escape. Just babies and all they wanted was to be free, to see their family again, to not be surrounded by these people who looked nothing like them.
Without knowing it, Hurit & Tiponi brought on a severe storm. The winds gusted and the ocean raged. As the ship tossed around on the waves, Etu spread fire through the ship. The men scrambled to get cargoe and captives off the ship. There was chaos once again.
The little girls were huddled together, terrified. The French couple who loved them so much, tried to help them into the boat, but the ship was pitching and the people were scrambling, pushing and shoving. They managed to get Numees, Hurit & Tiponi onto the life boat, but Etu was lost.
They sailed slowly, waiting for rescue. Luckily, a large Spanish ship came upon them and let them aboard. It took another few weeks for them to reach land, by which time the girls were almost 2. When they reached land, the Spanish Captain demanded to take Numees as payment for their passage. With no choice, the French couple gave her to the Captain who was going to take her home to his wife who desperately wished for a little girl among her 4 boys.
From Spain, it was a long journey to the French couples home in the city of Paris. The couple tried to keep the girls well, but found that they were very hard to keep care of.
They met a young woman from a small island of the coast of Great Britain. When the girls were sleeping, they gave Tiponi to her to take home. The woman took great care for her, but Tiponi was very sad.
The first year was very hard, but eventually the three girls adjusted to their new lives. The memories of their first few years began to fade until they were little more than dreams, but the feeling that they were missing something never left.
The Spanish couple who took Numees, moved their family to the tiny town of La Matanza, Spain and renamed their new daughter Tierra which meant earth.
The French couple who kept Hurit remained in Paris and renamed her Abella, for she would constantly gaze at the sky.
Etu was lost on one of the other lifeboats and nearly sold into slavery in Africa until the camp she was held in caught fire. She was rescued by a Hebrew slave who renamed her Serefina, after the fire that saved his life, and smuggled her back to his wife in Jerusalem.
The woman who brought Tiponi back to her hometown of St. Agnes, England, renamed her Coralina.
To be continued...
