chapter 13

"So, it was love at first sight," Judy quipped.

"More like love at first fall," Ebony smiled. "Pretty soon, we started dating regularly and became something of an item."

"But, there was more than that," Judy continued.

"Yes," Ebony nodded. "For the longest time, I've always wondered why the women in my family always had psychic powers which caused them to blimp out so much. Nobody in my family seemed to care about my family's past. All I know was my ancestors came to this country as slaves in the early 19th Century. Past that, they've lived all over this area since. But, there's few records of my family's past."

"So, how did you find out?" Judy asked.

"The first thing I did was have a DNA test," Ebony replied.

"According to this test," Malcolm looked at the results. "Your genome is mostly from the Tropical part of Africa, very close to where I've been doing summer studies."

"That's interesting," Ebony nodded with interest. "What have you been doing there?"

"This part of Africa was somewhere which Europeans last explored," Malcolm continued. "We've found there was a civilization but long since had been assimilated by larger tribes in the area. But, we have come across some graveyards in that area. as well as the usual artifacts one usually finds that points to that civilization. Studying the graves, we've found men, women, and children and something unusual."

"What's that?"

"We've found in many graves of the women," Malcolm explained. "Those women's bones were found to have conditions similar to people who have been super morbidly obese. It was most likely, their weight grew so big that they weren't able to survive for long."

Ebony looked at herself and her obese body and internally wondered if that's where her ancestors came from.

"That's not all," Malcolm continued. "While the women in the current tribes are, on the average, no heavier than any other women in Africa ..there is a local legend of a women who was a seer who was cursed to gain weight until she died whenever she used her powers. They say that her daughters, granddaughters, and multi-great granddaughters did the same until the time of the Slave Trade came where no one knows what happened to her."

"I don't know much about my family before they were slaves," Ebony wondered aloud. "No one in my family seemed to care much about where my family came from in Africa. Then again, most of the women in my family died young from being so fat they couldn't move."

"Does that mean, your ancestors may have came from there?" Judy asked.

"I don't know," Ebony shrugged. "It's possible. But, Malcolm is going on another archaeological dig in the same area this summer and he wants me to go with him."

"Do you want to?" Judy asked.

"Of course, I do," Ebony smiled. "After I finish my latest tour. I've always wondered why the girls in my family turn into blimps. The doctors can't find anything, so maybe someone in Africa knows?"

"Let's hope you find out something, Ebony," Judy quipped. "That would be a more interesting story. Maybe I'll go with you!"

"Maybe Corvette will come as well," Ebony quipped. "She always wanted to go on a trip with me!"

***TO BE CONTINUED***