by DC Alexander
Miz Roberts said “I smelled somethin when I come in this mornin but I forgot about it, that bitter smell in the back of your throat?”
“Yeah, you might have got used to it so you don’t smell it but it’s still there. Let’s get her out of here, she aint breathin good.”
She said “We can put her in my bed. We’ll move her now if you think we should. “
“The further she is from in here the better for her, that smell is horrible.” I wasn’t getting any inspiration as to what to do. If you’re going to dream about something like this and it comes true there ought to be some sort of guide or clue, this was frustrating and scary.
One of the smaller kids standing outside the room stuck her head in and said “It’s that bag in the dresser. She took it off yesterday and put it in there.”
Miz Roberts opened the drawer and pulled out a little drawstring bag on a leather string. “Is this what you talkin bout, Lisha?” The little girl nodded shyly, she wasn’t used to being the center of attention.
Miz Roberts handed me the bag. I didn’t know what to do with it. The thing almost filled the palm of my hand. The size of a lemon, it felt dangerous, hot and smooth, sticky and slimy and dry at the same time, like a snake warmed from lying in the noonday sun. The drawstring on the top was loose and it was half open, I took a finger and worked it wider to look inside. It was hard to see into it. My palm itched where the bag sat. I thought “That’s my left palm, I got money coming.” It would be nice to get some money I wasn’t looking for. I can always use some money.
I almost saw what was in it, I thought I might need to get under a light so I could see it better but my eyes were watering. I squeezed my eyes partway shut to cut down on the glare.
Somebody shook my shoulder. I shrugged at the hand, meaning ‘stop that!’ The hand again, insistent, shaking me, distant and unimportant. I ignored it. I needed to see what was in the bag.
The bag zipped out of my hand, gone, I looked up in surprise and Carl held it away from himself by the drawstring as he left. Mine! I needed that. I moved to follow him and Miz Roberts blocked me with her body. I didn’t want to hurt her but she was in the way. I tried to move her aside gently but she caught my arms and leaned close to my face talking to me.
“Rosalee! Rosalee! Answer me girl, I know you can hear me, look at me now!”
I cleverly said”Huh?”
She said “what’s wrong with you? Can you hear me?”
I said “yeah I can hear you”, or that’s what I meant to say, what came out was more like “huuuuuhhh”. Confused, I struggled to say “get me out of here” and she must have understood me, she walked me out the door. If she hadn’t been pulling on me I would have stopped, I couldn’t keep what I wanted to do in my mind. I kept getting lost in thought.
The fresh outside air cleared my head. It was a couple steps down to the ground, and suddenly all I wanted in life was to get my feet on the ground. I staggered that way and she just barely kept me from falling down the steps.
I slid my flip flops off. The fog lifted. Carl was standing out by the road ready to run if he had to, I didn’t see the bag anywhere.
I felt a questioning presence with no words, but a feeling of questioning kind like “Need?” It wasn’t anybody talking; it was something I’d had before, but never this clear. It wasn’t words. It was a feeling of strength recovered and wounds covered with new skin and not hurting, health and strength. I tried to project “Yes, Please and thank you” trying to match the way it was doing. The drugs in my system turned around and seeped back out, I pushed them and the blood they contaminated out, as natural as breathing.
My feet were sunk into the grassy dirt so the tops of my feet were even with the ground. I felt strong and rooted, filled with power and strength. I could sense deep down in the ground as though it were my skin, I understood how it all worked without seeing the pieces; if I wanted to I could get down to the individual grains of dirt but there were a lot of them. I could sense things at a great distance by turning my attention that way, almost traveling, but I was used to using my eyes to see with and this didn’t use eyes, it was something else totally new and strange and yet familiar. It was like putting on an old shoe I hadn’t worn in years that fit perfectly.
I sensed the bag sitting by the curb near Carl. It was seeping something nasty out, maybe some sorta fog or vapors, I couldn’t tell more than that about it. The air was not mine, only those things of earth. That was a strange thought and I couldn’t tell if I thought it or not. The bag would keep for now.
“Carl, Miz Roberts, yall bring Stephanie out here to me and I think I can help her.” Miz Roberts stood on the little porch looking at me, she wasn’t buying it. She probably thought I was crazy. Carl came closer but he stayed out of reach “Miz Rosalee, you aight now?” cautiously.
“Whatever‘s in that bag is some bad shit, that’s what’s wrong with Stephanie. Just that little touch and breathing it got to me. I’m over it now, if you bring Stephanie out here she will get alright, I can fix her. Look here where I was holdin that bag” I held my palm out, the reddened patch was fading but the blood showed plainly; they could see what it had done “It’s goin away now, but it was some kinda poison.”
My sight had changed, I was seeing through things and into things. Carl and Miz Roberts were surrounded by auras, hers was burnished gold, solid and strong, it had been compacted by the trouble and it showed her determination. She wasn’t going to give up, whatever happened she would be there like a rock.
Carl was green and lighter, but strong and solid. He hadn’t been tested and strengthened by adversity as much as she had. He had tremendous potential and he was a good man.
They went inside, to get Stephanie I hoped. I didn’t want to lose touch with the ground, I knew if I lost contact with the earth I’d lose whatever it was I had. There were things wrong, dead spots where there should be life, things out of order. It wasn’t right. I might be able to fix some of it, I had no idea how, but I’d be willing to try it. It was unclear just what was going on but it felt like some sort of discussion, maybe a negotiation of terms. I wasn’t sure what the terms meant or who I negotiated with but it was important.
They came back with Stephanie supported between them. They walked her one step at a time by leaning her and pushing her along. She was wrapped in the blanket off the bed and it hung down on the floor, they tried to kick it along with them and stumbled from it getting under their feet.
Her aura was dim, green with overtones of yellow, thin and insubstantial. When her foot met the ground I could read her better, I put my attention on her and I could feel her veins returning blood to her lungs, her heart pushing it out carrying air, the way the poison coated the cells and diverted the life intended for them.
I caught her and lay her on the ground and put my hands on her shoulders. She weighed nothing. The cover was in the way so I pushed it aside, Miz Roberts made a sound of protest as I put my hands on her bare chest. I felt Carl look away.
My point of view sank into her and I saw a coating on the smallest pieces of her, preventing blood and air from getting in. I concentrated on removing the coating from her cells, envisioning the stuff welling up through her skin and running off on the ground. I pulled just the barest smidgen of the strength I felt in the earth into her and it came willingly with a sense of satisfaction.
Stephanie writhed lying on the ground, she bent her head back and opened her mouth and heaved like she was puking. The tendons stood out like wires under her skin. She squeezed her eyes closed and clenched her fists and drew her knees up to her chest with her toes bending back in hard cramps. Her heart accelerated under my hands like a small bird fluttering.
Her aura strengthened where my hands were on her chest. Miz Roberts grabbed my shoulders to pull me off her and it felt like the gentlest of touches. I was immobile, solid. She said grimly “Git yo ass off her right now, you killin her!”
A sick, ugly sheen welled up and covered Stephanie�
�s body. The foreign matter coating her insides came oozing out. The smell was intense. It had morphed into something that contained rotted blood, rust, the taint of aluminum, and a bitter smoky scent like an oil fire.
Miz Roberts recoiled “Jesus help us, what that is!” choking, Carl turned his head to get out of the stink and coughed. Stephanie was covered with a fine sheen. She looked like she had been rubbed down with oil, she put her hands on her face and rubbed her eyes and stretched her legs back out “Oh god my eyes burnin, oh god that hurts, it’s burnin my eyes out!”
Carl got up “I’ll get something for her eyes.” He stood to go inside, grateful for something to do. He staggered and fell sideways catching himself with a hand on the porch. He said “Momma, get away from that before it makes you pass out” weakly. He leaned forward and crawled on the porch.
Miz Roberts sat back on the grass, leaned to the side and rolled away gasping for breath.
I didn’t inhale. I wasn’t holding my breath; I just didn’t feel the need to breathe. Looking at the oily coating on Stephanie and thinking about how to get it off, I had a train of images; water beading on it and trapping the stuff against her skin, a rag wiping it and smearing it, those weren’t good options. Oil, from fat, from animal or vegetable it didn’t matter, it would lift the stuff off the skin and leave a barrier.
I said “Yall get me some oil, cookin oil, bacon grease, whatever you got, if you got something we can pour on her it would be best. We don’t need water on this.”
Carl got to his feet slowly and hung on the door to the house. Miz Roberts was trying to get up and not having much luck.
A small crowd had gathered around, despite the early hour. Adele Stevens said “I got some stuff, I be right back” and took off running. Adele was good people, she lived down the street, we called her DeeDee or Dee. I hadn’t talked with her since we were in the seventh grade, but I guess we were still friends. If she hurried back with some oil she was damn sure my friend.
I said “Yall stay back, don’t breath this stuff, it’ll make you sick.” I inhaled after speaking and felt the slime of the vapor in my nose and throat and down in my lungs. I wrapped it and ejected it from my body and it showed as a sickly sheen on my arms, it came out like sweat.
DeeDee ran up out of breath with a big plastic jug of cooking oil, she unscrewed the lid as she reached it to me with her head turned away from the fumes coming off Stephanie. I grabbed the oil with one hand and said “close your eyes tight, girl.” She had her hands over her eyes. I started on her forehead pouring the oil on her. I could see the slime sloughing off her. The oil adhered to her skin and spread to give her a layer of protection. I proceeded down her body washing her off.
I pinched her nose closed so I wouldn’t choke her and poured it over her mouth and nose, she wasn’t fighting me. She kept her lips tight shut. I went down over her neck and chest. The contaminated oil oozed to the ground and soaked in, I got her arms wet down and pulled the blanket out of the way so I could get to the rest of her.
Some helpful soul kneeled down and covered her chest with a shirt, I heard Dee telling people “Yall get on back, you don’t need to see this, go on now. Somebody get me somethin to cover her with.”
She had panties on. I sloshed the oil on her heavy and went on down her legs quick, she was aware enough to want to cover herself, I helped her turn over, helping hands grabbed her at her arms and I knocked them away “You don’t want to touch her, this stuff will make you sick.”
I rolled her over. She was light as a feather but slick from the oily coating and I had to grip hard with one hand to turn her. She helped what she could. She sprawled out on her belly with her head turned to the side, breathing through her mouth. I sloshed the oil in one big continuous, thick stream over the back of her head, onto her bare back and down over her butt and legs. Somebody had come up with a sheet held out blocking the view from the growing crowd and said “Can I cover her up?” It ought to be all right, the stuff would soak into whatever we put on her. “Yeah, go ahead.” I got up off my knees, I had oil on my hands and legs, the ground was coated with oil, the stench wasn’t as bad but it was still present.
Stephanie was breathing better and her heart had settled down into a steady, slow pace. She was still weak but just tired now that the venom was out of her. Her aura covered her in a tight shell, she shivered. Chills ran up and down her body.
Miz Roberts had gotten up to her knees, still weak. I turned to her, “We need to get her inside, but yall don’t need to go back in your house with that stink. Get them all out of your place and air it out.” I could tell she wasn’t tracking yet. “Dee, can you help ‘em out?”
“Course I can, you didn’t have to ask.” She went over to Miz Roberts and helped her up, Carl tried to help but he was clumsy.
Stephanie sat up wrapped in the sheet and the shirt. The sheet with the oil on it was transparent and she was as naked as if she had nothing covering her. I helped her up, “I’m going to take her to my house, she don’t need to be out on the street like this.”
The place she’d been was shiny and showing colors like a rainbow on the grass. The ground was saturated with the oil and poison mixture, I thought of it sinking down where it wouldn’t hurt anybody, the earth dried out as I watched it sink into the ground.
Stephanie was too weak to stand alone. I half supported her and walked her down the street to my place, people clustered on us, some wanting to help, some wanting to take advantage of her no doubt.
I got her inside my house and closed the door. I took her to the bathroom and removed the oil soaked sheet, sat her in the tub and turned the water on in the sink to warm up. I took the sheet to the front door and tossed it in the yard.
The water was running hot when I got back so I turned the shower on her. She picked up the bar of soap and said “I got this.”
“Aight, call me if you need me, I’m gone make coffee.” I left her.
I went to the kitchen and left the door open so I could hear if she hollered. The clock on the microwave showed 7:22. It seemed like a lot longer than an hour. I rigged up the percolator and started the coffee working, I needed something better than the automatic coffee maker would put out, the percolator is more trouble but it makes better coffee.
The expected knock on the door came when the coffee was about ready. I went to let them in. Carl and Miz Roberts and Adele stood on the porch, I said “yall come on in and set down.” I didn’t let on it bothered me to have people in my house, but I wasn’t set up for company; it was cluttered, and I wasn’t comfortable with people looking at my stuff, it felt like an invasion of my privacy. This was a special set of circumstances though. It couldn’t be helped.
I told them “They aint room in the kitchen, yall find a place to light in here and I’ll bring the coffee in.” Dee followed me into the kitchen, it was good timing. The coffee was dark and perking fast so I cut it off. I pulled some cups down from the cabinet. Dusty, these hadn’t seen use since Grammaw died. As I rinsed them out, Dee took them and poured them full and sat them on the table. I hollered “How do yall take it?’ and we rigged them up and toted them out.
I said “Miz Roberts, just push that stuff out of your way and sit down, don’t pay no mind to the mess.” She stood uncomfortably by the front door.
She said “Rosalee, call me Wanda; that’s my name. If you want you can call me Momma, I’m more used to that anyway.” She half heartedly shoved some books and newspapers out of the way on the couch and sagged down, still showing the effects of this morning’s business.
Carl was perched on the end of the couch. I handed him his coffee and went back for mine, Dee had her cup and one for Wanda.
I come back in and they all went silent suddenly. They’d been talking about me. I set down in my recliner and they looked at me expectantly. I said “Yall don’t be lookin at me like that, I aint got anything to say. I need some coffee.” I slurped a drink. It was so hot it took the skin off my tongue, I exclaimed “Oh
shit!” as I leaned over and let the coffee run out of my mouth onto the floor. I hadn’t thought about how hot that percolator got the coffee, I didn’t use it all the time and the automatic pot didn’t get it nearly that hot.
Dee snorted a little, trying not to laugh, then Carl looked at her and kinda giggled, and then we were all laughing, and I couldn’t help it, I set my coffee down so I wouldn’t spill it, my whole body was jerking. I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes, Carl was hitting his leg and rocking with big braying laughs and Wanda leaned over and held herself and chortled. Dee cut loose and hung on the door frame shaking with peals of laughter.
The laughter eased up and Wanda picked up her coffee, “God, I needed that, this has sure been a day.” She bowed her head over her coffee cup and tears fell from her face, she sat there quietly crying and Carl sat next to her on the papers and books and put his arm around her “Momma, it’s alright now, it’s gone be ok, she alright.”
She said “I know, son” and looked at me. “It is goin to be alright? She’s goin to get ok now? Is it over, that’s what I need to know.”
I said “Feed her up good, let her rest a day or two and I think she be good as new. All that stuff’s gone out of her now.”
They looked at me expectantly and it made me uncomfortable. “Now what? What yall lookin at me like that for?”
Wanda looked at the rest of them and they looked back at her. She asked “What happens now? We got through this, but we all got kids here, this stuff gone eat them all up if it aint stopped.”
Dee turned loose of the door and come over to me and knelt down “If they’s something I can do, I’ll help. I got a thirteen year old a man was talkin to yesterday when she rode her bike down the road here. She come told me about it, but what happens next time?” She put her hand on my knee. “We got people stalkin our young ’uns. The drugs and gangs is bad enough but we know about them, this here is somethin else.”
They sat there lookin at me. I didn’t know what to tell them.
