Wilma Gabriel

Wilma Gabriel is a fictional character in the Ananse Series. She is the supporting character in Ananse, His Seed Goes Astray and Illusion of the Madu.

History
An aspiring gospel singer born out of wedlock, Wilma May Todd is the only child between her mother Denise Burns (née Johnson), a nurse and her father Watson Todd, a blues-rock singer and later a photographer for an adult magazine.

Wilma’s childhood was not a happy one. At age 14 her parents split up and Denise married a sewage treatment plant worker named Mathis Burns. At age 15, Wilma told Denise that Mathis had been molesting her and Denise slapped her down. Wilma ran away from home leaving behind her two younger step-siblings, Anton and Amber.

Wilma found solace in New Faith Church, where Pastor and Momma Gabriel became her new parents. Wilma stayed with the Gabriel family until Denise left Mathis and got an apartment with Wilma, sharing joint custody of Anton and Amber. While in high school, Wilma got a job at a local Christian book store and became a member of New Faith Church.

Pastor saw Wilma as a decent young woman and jokingly asked which of his sons she’d like to marry. Wilma chose Tayron, and Tayron chose Alex Retibeck. But Wilma discovered that Alex was plotting to frame Tayron for rape and recorded Alex telling her cheerleader friends about it. Wilma inadvertently saved Tayron from Alex, only to doom herself in a marriage she’d grow to hate.

Ananse
Wilma married Tayron when he was still a State Trooper, but ended up with a security guard. After the break in, the beating and losing the baby, Wilma started down a slippery slope of depression. Followed by an auto accident that gave her epilepsy and rendered her disabled, Wilma turned to food as a substitute for sex and solitude as a surrogate for love.

Although she is told by her gal pal Valerie to leave Tayron, Wilma can’t bring herself to do it for two reasons: she’s curious about what Tayron’s hiding from her about his family and she doesn’t want to see her man end up with Alex Retibeck again.

Wilma’s behavior is sometimes odd; she talks to herself when something is bothering her and she shouts at her husband when she feels he doesn’t want to listen to her. She uses the bible as a shield, a crutch and a blunt tool that she has no idea how to sharpen, much less use to defend herself. She is always right just because God says something is wrong. But, when she’s wrong, it’s just that unsaved people don’t understand her as a born-again Christian.

Wilma has also expressed desires to be an exotic dancer. Why she is aroused almost all the time, Tayron has no real idea. The only thing keeping her around is her curiosity about the spider-creature that is after her husband (and soon her) that was said to have come out of the same plant where Tayron is taking part in a DNA human study. She wants to have children someday, but dreads another miscarriage and Tayron leaving her before she can leave him.