Earthly Powers: The Adventure Begins

by DC Alexander

  I said “Stop” and he went still. His hand was bleeding and had skin hanging loose, it looked bad but he paid it no mind. I cut the other hand loose. “Now just sit there and move your hands. You stay there till I tell you to move, don’t try to get away, don’t touch the bag or take it off.” I picked up the gun, the knife, pliers, checked around to make sure I wasn’t leaving anything near him he could use to get loose. I backed up the stairs watching him and closed the door at the top. He didn’t move.

  Carl had been sitting out in the car. I went out and leaned in the window and lay the loaded shotgun carefully on the hood. It was dark enough nobody should see it. “Hey, Carl, what are you doin’ out here?”

  “Hey. You ok? Look, I been waiting for Earl to show, you aint got to deal with him alone.” He pulled out a paper grocery bag with the top folded closed and looked around to make sure nobody watched. He unfolded the top and tilted the bag to show me a huge, shiny automatic pistol, something chrome plated.

  I laughed shortly, it wasn’t really funny. “Carl, he’s inside, I got him down in the basement. He aint no trouble right now.”

  “Oh. “ He considered a moment, then “I’ll help you get rid of it. You already got a plan? You can’t leave it in the basement unless there’s some way to bury it there.” He was grim and determined.

  “What?” I stared at him blankly.

  “Rosalee, it’s ok, I’ll help you with the body. Here, set down in the car a minute and I’ll go in and figure something out.” He reached for his door handle.

  “No, he aint dead, I got him tied up!” That was touching. The cold, impersonal façade I was wearing slipped just a little.

  “If you’re willing, we’ll try to take him to go get the girls. He’s pretty stoned but he seems to mind good. Is there a car he might have come over in, or did he walk I wonder. Or somebody dropped him off?.” That last worried me, what if they were watching? The street was deserted, no cars parked, nobody lurking. Maybe he walked.

  Carl said “Sure, let’s go. How we gonna make him mind?”

  “I got him hoodooed, same as what he was doing, used his stuff on him. It aint been long enough yet though, we got to watch him.”

  He came inside and we got Earl’s feet loose, I held the gun and stood back while he untied Earl. I didn’t know if he could shoot if he had to. Earl obeyed perfectly but he was mindless.

  We got Earl in the passenger seat and I sat behind him just in case. I stayed ready for a sudden movement, an attempt to escape, an attack; I didn’t want to let my guard down and get taken by surprise.

  We found the first girl on Government street near I-65. She walked along the side of the road facing oncoming traffic wearing a t-shirt that showed off her legs. We pulled over and I said “Get in.” She had a little skirt on that almost showed her ass. She got in the back with me with no argument, and we went toward Tillman’s Corner looking for the next one. We had to hunt a while to find her. We got the last one loaded up and the back seat was crowded. There was no conversation. One of them started in to say something and I had told her to hush and that was the end of that. They sat quietly awaiting whatever happened. We took them to my house and put them in the living room. I put Earl back in the basement. It had taken a couple hours to collect them and was getting on toward midnight. I got my bucket with some bleach in it to clean up the mess in the living room and the basement.

  Carl came back with Wanda while I was down on my knees scrubbing the floor. They stood there watching me a second, then Wanda said “let me get your mop, we’ll help” and Carl said “Everything all right?” at about the same time. I looked up at him. I had to look way up and he got fuzzy looking and I felt something ticklish on my face. There were tears running down my face, I fell over and balled up and hugged myself and broke down and bawled like a baby. Carl set down with me and hugged me and patted me in the floor with the door open and I couldn’t bring myself to care. Wanda went in the bathroom for water and a cloth.

  Carl picked me up and set me in that damn stinking recliner. He made coffee and came back and kneeled down by me and held my hand till it was made. He fixed me a cup and brought it to me. Wanda patted my face and made soothing noises.

  When I had myself under control I said “Thank you, I needed that” like I was talking about the coffee. It was friggin midnight and I didn’t need coffee, it would keep me up what was left of the night. My nose was stuffy. I hated the way I sounded and my eyes still leaked a little. I felt like an idiot, damn what a girly thing to do.

  Carl said “What the hell did he do to you?” Mad, he was ready to do him in.

  “He didn’t do anything, nothin at all. He came in here pretty bad but I lured him, I had traps. I did it all. I reckon I’m a bad woman, I raped that man.”

  He was shocked, Wanda just kept on patting “There, it’s ok, it’s over and you are alright.”

  Carl said “They aint no way you evil, you just tryin to survive.” He sat on the arm of the recliner and held my hand that didn’t have coffee in it. I knew what was coming. He was trying to figure out how to say it in front of his momma. I came close to laughing through the tears.

  “Um, Miz Rosalee, how did you rape a man? Listen, you aint got to rape nobody, I help you out if you, um, if you need some relief or something like that.” he was trying hard as he could to be good. Wanda chortled, she pressed the cloth to her mouth to muffle it but she was shaking with the attempt not to laugh out loud.

  It was all I could do not to laugh but it would kill him if I did. “I didn’t mean no sex rape. I took over that man’s mind, or maybe his soul, now he’s trapped like I was.”

  Carl didn’t quite understand but that was ok.

  We sat and finished our coffee. I hadn’t had company before, not like this. It felt good. I didn’t think I would make a habit of it, not that good, but at the moment it was just what I needed.

  I asked Carl if he would go get me a few things I needed tomorrow and gave him some money. He was agreeable and asked if he could use the car for some of his stuff too. I told him go ahead, he drove me around, use it when he got ready. He was happy with the arrangement. He said “We partners, I gone help you out and look out for you. I be back quick as I can, you sure you gone be ok?”

  Wanda was concerned about Earl in the basement. I told her I’d rig something up so I could sleep, they went down and we wired him up to the boards, not so tight this time, told him not to fight it. They left after I assured them I’d be ok.

  We’d bedded the girls down in my living room best as we could, I had enough cover for them all, two on the couch and one in the recliner so we could finish the night. We’d tried to talk with them but we got nowhere. One of them was the girl who had sat in the man’s lap back at Earl’s place; none of them could have been over sixteen. They all sat wherever they were placed, staring, mouths hanging open. We didn’t get any response other than the blank stares. They’d all been hooking. They were all skinny and they might have sexual diseases. I didn’t know if they would ever be right again.

  It was easy dealing with them, just tell them what to do and they did it. We’d told Wanda who they were, or rather where we got them from. The only identification we had was that one was Elizabeth, one was Delicious and one was Jennifer. Who the hell stuck a kid with a name like Delicious? No way would that ever be anything but trouble.

  The next day Wanda took them in. I gave her a couple hundred dollars for whatever came up and told her I would help more when she needed it. I didn’t have room and I had Earl at my house, I had to do something with them so I could sleep nights.

  Wanda wanted to know what had happened to me. I told her I got hoodoo’d and it eat all the weight off me, she said “Girl, you package that it would sell better’n crack, everybody’d want some of that!” and cackled. I didn’t think a lot of people would want to go through what I went through to lose some weight. I really wasn’t thinking about how I looked now, I was shocked every time I got reminded.

&nbs
p; I needed to come up with some money, the past few days money had been running out like water. Earl was still sitting in the basement like I’d left him, hands wired to the board, on his back staring at the ceiling. I fed him some ham. It looked good, he ate it, but I couldn’t choke it down. I might fry up something later.

  I got a blanket and took a piece of memory foam down there. His face was covered with bruises and he was cut all up, he looked miserable.

  I asked “What am I gonna do with you? You got any money? I aint set up to feed and house no extra people.” He didn’t say anything, he was just staring. It was damn spooky. “Hey, Earl, answer me, you got any money?”

  He looked at me and said “I got some money.”

  “I need some money, I got to feed you. You got it on you?”

  “Wallet.” He tried to reach his back pocket but his hands were tied. It took a little struggle and it felt weird but I got out his wallet and looked in it. There was six hundred dollars in the wallet, mostly big bills. Is this all the money you got?”

  “ More.”

  “Can you get at it tonight?”

  “ummmm. Yeah.”

  “Go get me that money, bring it back here to me. Can you do that? Answer me, now” because I figured he wouldn’t answer if I didn’t tell him to.

  “yeah.” He tried to move but didn’t have much luck with it.

  “Stop. Let me untie you first so you can move.” He went still. I took the wires off, they weren’t as tight and I didn’t have to cut them.

  “Alright, go get the money and bring it back here.”He got up and shuffled for the door.

  “You take care don’t nobody rob you.”

  He didn’t pay me any mind, just kept walking slow. Good enough, if he came back with some money it would be a help. I couldn’t help but wonder if he could use the bathroom without me telling him? I didn’t want to get into that kind of stuff.

  Earl showed up a couple hours later, I heard him at the door and let him in. He had a blue plastic bank bag and it was tight and stuffed full.

  I took him back downstairs and tied him, then went to the kitchen with the bag. When I dumped it on the table it was a nice pile of money, some hundreds, lots of fifties and twenties and a scattering of fives and tens and ones. It added up to over eighteen thousand dollars. Some, maybe most, should go to the girls who were forced to earn it.

  I needed a new place to hide money, my little hole in the wall was getting full and it wouldn’t do to have it poking out advertising there was something in the wall.

  I’d wired Earl to the boards so he couldn’t get loose; I locked the basement door, put a chair against it so if it opened the chair would fall over, and went to bed. It was hard getting to sleep but I put it all out of my mind. I woke up a couple times in the night with bad dreams. I went on back to sleep.

  Soon as Carl showed up the next morning I sent him to the store to get some materials to build with. I give him a chunk of money so he could rent a truck if he needed it. He didn’t have a job. He’d been doing odds and ends and probably dealing dope for money.

  I checked Earl out and he didn’t have any infections and no fever. He was sitting against the wall in the corner with the light off. I couldn’t tell if he slept or not. When I turned the light on he didn’t blink, he continued to stare across the room.

  I said “I need you to act normal. When you need to go to the bathroom you go, you hungry get somethin to eat or let me know, drink when you need it. Can you do that?” He said “Yeah” and never moved his eyes, he just kept staring. I asked him, “Can you stop that starin shit and act like they somebody home, you a creepy lookin motha fucka like that!”

  He turned his head slowly to face me and said “Yeah”. There wasn’t anybody at home in his eyes, they were the glass eyes of a stuffed deer head. He was a little grey, faded out.

  “Is they anybody gone come lookin for you? You got a gang or anything like that?” I’d seen the other man over there. I didn’t know if he cared about Earl or not, I didn’t want any surprises though.

  “They two that check on the girls when they workin.” He actually turned his body when he spoke that time.

  I worked with him a while, it was a job finding anything out from him. The two men might or might not come looking for him; he gave them money to watch the girls; they made sure the girls got paid and didn’t get killed. They dealt dope on the side. Earl bought dope from somebody out of town and cut it and sold it. If he didn’t call them they wouldn’t show up. They might wonder about it, Earl was in charge of the dope around here. There might be customers looking for him and that was about it.

  Carl showed up with the materials. I needed the front door fixed or replaced where it had been broken, the back door replaced and a dead bolt on it, a door on one of the rooms in the basement with a way to lock it from the outside. One thing I wanted to try was cutting through the concrete somewhere down in the basement to expose natural earth. Carl knew people who could do the work so I hired him to get it done.

  I went over to Wanda’s house and checked on the girls. They could do simple tasks and walk around and answer questions but they mostly just sat where they were left. Wanda had them cleaning up and cooking. That might work out but she had to watch them close or they would run down and just stand wherever they stopped. Wanda was trying to find out who they were and where they came from. She’d send them home if she could and if they’re willing. They weren’t from around here, the ones from here were sent off somewhere and these were from Mississippi and Georgia according to Earl.

  Back at the house, Carl told me he had some business lined up when I could get to it, if I could find lost stuff. I told him we’d have to see; I didn’t know if I could or not, give me a chance to get these people out of the house and get settled down. I used to be able to find lost things, I’d think about whatever it was and get a feeling what direction it was in; follow the feeling till I came up on it and I was done.

  The work in the house had everything all messed up. There were two people coming in and out, toting stuff, drilling and getting in the way. The man working in the basement came told me “You know they a man in yo cellar? Up in the corner?” I’d remembered at the last second to untie Earl and put the boards and wire away, but I didn’t hide him.

  “Yeah, I know all about him.”

  “He be sick or somethin, cuz I telling you that man don’t be lookin right, he takin drugs aint he? I don’t hold wit nobody doin drugs and shit, if I see something like that I gots to report it, and that man lookin at me make my guts churn, he got a bad look to him.”

  I stepped up close to him and said “listen” real quiet. He got close to me, he was sure I was going to offer him something to keep him quiet; I spoke low and confidential, “That man give me some shit so I zombie his ass. I put him up till I want him for something. He does what I tell him, I point him at something and he gets it done. I got his soul in a jar and I take it out and taste it sometime, it tastes like lemonade and road tar and I like it.” I stepped back and looked him up and down and touched him with my finger then I licked my finger and tasted it. “Your soul tastes just like bacon, aint that somethin! What about you do a good job and mind your bidness and we don’t have no problem, wouldn’t that be good? ” I wanted to give the impression I could just barely resist taking his soul, or at least looking crazed enough to shut him up.

  “Yes ma’am, I was just wonderin, I wasn’t gettin in yo business.” He finished putting the door in the basement room and he did a real nice job. He charged me twenty dollars, which I thought wasn’t bad for the half day he spent down there.

  He and the other one were walking round my old recliner every time they came in or out and I finally told them that anybody that wanted the recliner could have it. I had no use for it and they all wanted it. They worked it out and took it out of there and I asked Carl to get me a couch and a couple easy chairs next time he was at the furniture store. I’d get rid of the old couch, and the new couch ne
eded to make out into a bed. I asked Carl how much the furniture would cost and he didn’t have a clue. I gave him three thousand dollars, I know the stuff is expensive, I said “Let me know what it costs, some of that is yours, you earned it. Hush, don’t say anything. I’m done with the subject unless it aint enough, let me know if you need more money.” He’d have to get someone to deliver it, if he dealt with the details I was happy to let him.

  Wanda brought Elizabeth over to my house and left her with me. I needed to see if I could fix the addiction; Earl said it would kill them. I had some of the powder from Earl. After everybody left for the day I took the girl out to the back yard and we set down in the grass, seeking my guide, I asked ‘are you there?’ and got a ‘yes’.

  I’d been thinking, I asked for its name or identity or description. It picked my brain and got what I wanted, it come back with some stuff. Its name/sign/feeling/description was almost ‘Dirt’, but that wasn’t complete. I got a lot of information in my head that just sort of leaked in there when I wasn’t looking, the name is a description of settled sand and dirt that touches on salt water and trees and grass and a whole lot more; it’s a description of cubic miles of dirt and roads and fields and places in the woods; some of it warm with the sunshine and some in the shade and some has waves rolling onto it. I replied ‘Dirt?’ It didn’t care. ‘Agreement/accord/fine’ we know who we’re talking about.

  I asked Dirt to look at Elizabeth without changing anything about her. Show me what it found. I put in curiosity about the addiction to the fetish and a desire to remove the addiction.

  The chemistry in one area of her brain had been altered. Many of the connections were covered with a greasy substance that prevented normal activity. There were a lot of misfires. The powder Earl provided contained something that weakened the coating. It appeared native to her body, like her blood, her body’s defenses ignored it.

  The fix was to remove the coating. Her antibodies could destroy the foreign matter if they could target it; they needed to be trained to ‘see’ the coating as foreign to her body. The process would overwhelm her body’s ability to remove the results if it wasn’t controlled.