The doctor took a needle from a drawer, wrapped a large rubber band around my arm and drew a vial of blood. Setting the tube aside, she pulled a pad from her smock and wrote out a prescription. “I’m giving you a broad spectrum antibiotic that should help. I want to see you back in a few days. Sooner, if you’re not improving.”
I nodded feeling a suffocating wave of anxiety ripple through me. I sucked in a quick breath.
Dr. Lea smiled and placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “I’m confident you will be feeling better soon, but just as a precaution, you’ll want to stay clear of your little brother for awhile. Typhoid isn’t contagious the same way as other viruses are, but until we know for sure what this is, we should minimize your contact with other people. Wash your hands and be sure others in your home do, as well. If your brother shows any signs of being sick, I’ll want to see him right away.”
“Thank you,” I said as she left the room.
I took a deep breath to steady myself before trying to stand. A knock on the door sounded just as my feet touched down. Wolf stuck his head in. “How’d it go?”
“Not bad, I guess. At least we may have some answers.”
“What do you have?”
“She’s thinking I got something from the pond and it’s best if I’m not around Benny for a while. It’s treatable with antibiotics, but it wouldn’t be good for a toddler to get it.”
“I knew it! You went downhill so fast.”
“Oh, great, thanks.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Wolf’s gaze traveled over me. “You still look good, its just that ...”
My cheeks flamed.
Wolf grinned. “Hey, I made you blush. At least you have some color in your face now, even if it’s bright red.”
Ugh, why did I have to be so abnormal?
“Walton’s Drug Store is across the street. We can get your medicine and grab something to drink.”
“Cool, I'd die for a cherry soda right now.”
We walked in silence. My mind racing. The pavement felt harder than usual, pounding the soles of my feet as we walked. The drug store, made of brick, sat on the corner of a sleepy intersection. A loud bell jingled as we walked inside. The heavy scent of cinnamon and apple greeted us. Near the door, I spotted rows of scented candles in country themed baskets. Behind them, stood a rack of T-shirts, postcards and other souvenirs.
We found the pharmacist at the back of the store. After a short wait, we paid for the pills and Wolf bought us a twelve-pack of cherry cola. I took three capsules at once and washed them down with a sugary soda.
We drove to Wolf’s house, my whole body aching. Benny played in the backyard with Mrs. Bodine and Wolf’s dog. I bit my lower lip, watching my brother. I had to get well and quick. I couldn’t bear to be without him. If only Mom would come home, I wouldn’t have to leave him with a stranger.
Mrs. Bodine looked up as we approached. Her hands were caked with mud as she helped Benny shape sand castles in the dirt. “How did it go, dear?”
“Good, I think.” My heart sank. “But I can’t be around Benny until I’m finished with my antibiotics.”
“Well, you just take your time and heal up. I can keep Benny for a couple of days and you can call or check on him whenever you like.”
“Are you sure it’s not too much trouble?”
“Not at all, now I have his diaper bag and things. Is there anything he’s allergic to that I need to know about? If not, I’ll keep him fed, fat and happy.”
“No, nothing that I know of. He likes to take a nap around noon.”
Mrs. Bodine nodded and stood, brushing the dirt off her velour pants. “I have some soup for you on the back porch. Don’t forget it. Chicken broth is just what you need.”
“That sounds great,” I said, swallowing a lump in my throat. I would’ve done anything to have a mother like this. “Thank you.”
“Oh, it’s nothing, really.”
Wolf kissed his mom’s cheek. “Thanks, Mom. See ya later.”
He ran ahead of me and Mrs. Bodine tapped me on the shoulder. “Thank you for befriending my son. He’s had a very rough year. This is the first time I’ve seen him smile in a long time. Wolf puts on a big show, always playing the tough guy. But, deep inside, he’s hurting.” Her eyes watered. “He changed after his father’s death. He became such a loner. I worried he’d never be the same again. Now, thanks to you, I see the old sparkle coming back to his eyes.”
I didn’t know what to say. I rubbed at the back of my neck, feeling uncomfortable.
“Dharma, come on,” Wolf called.
“Better go. Thanks again, Mrs. Bodine.”
Wolf’s mom smiled and nodded as I hurried to the pickup.
Wolf opened the passenger door. I climbed in and he shut it quickly behind me. He jogged around the front of the pickup and hopped behind the wheel. He slipped the key in the ignition and with some coaxing, the truck cranked to life. We started for the old house. All the while I kept glancing at the seat beside me for Benny. I hadn’t been away from him since the day he came home from the hospital. Tears welled in my eyes.
My body racked with chills. A horrible ache traveled through my legs, spread into my body and head. Hopefully soon, the pills would take effect and I could be with Benny again.
Droplets of rain splattered against the windshield, turning into a downpour. Wolf switched the wipers on high and we bumped along the gravel drive leading to the old house. Up ahead, a cloaked figure crossed the road and into the ditch on the other side. Wolf slowed and the figure turned. The hood fell away and I stared in disbelief.
Mom!
“Stop!”
Wolf stomped on the brakes. I grabbed the dash, my face inches from the windshield. The truck snaked sideways, spraying gravel and mud until it slid to an abrupt halt. The wipers beat back and forth in time to my pounding heart.
“What’s wrong?” Wolf asked.
I peered out the blurry window, catching a glimpse of Mom’s yellow rain slicker as she ducked into the woods. I gripped the door handle, wrenched it open and raced after her, rain splattering my face. “Mom!”
She paused, with her back to me, then continued through the dense thicket. “Mom! Wait!” I screamed, sandpapering my tender throat. “Please!”
She ignored me, forging deeper into the swampy brush.
Skidding on the wet gravel, I found my balance and charged into the thicket after her. Vines lashed at my legs and thorns tore at my flesh like claws. Shrugging off the pain, I battled through the brush. I struggled to keep up. Why was she running from me?
“Please, wait!” I croaked.
“Dharma!” Wolf yelled, his voice muddled in the heavy rain.
I couldn’t stop now; I might lose her. I pressed on, stopping only briefly to catch my breath. My throat burned like I’d swallowed battery acid, every muscle ached. I stood at the backside of the pond now, across from the old mansion. Paint peeled off the rotten siding, like a serpent shedding its skin.
Wolf called again, his voice booming through the brush. I couldn’t wait for him. I had to keep going. Blood streaked down my cut and stinging legs. I pressed onward, determined to find her.
The thicket opened onto a beaten path. Mom was just ahead of me now, pausing every once in a while to peer over her shoulder and smile. Why was she doing this to me? Chills attacked my body, sawing at my bones.
“Mom, please,” I begged, sounding so hoarse it came out in a rasp. I staggered past a wrought iron gate, dangling on its hinges. A few feet ahead, smoke billowed from the chimney of a shack. My head swam; my eyes didn’t want to focus. The world tilted and I felt myself falling, spinning into an abyss. Soft grass broke my fall, and I stared up at angry clouds, heavy with rain. Fighting to get up, I rolled onto my side. Blurry feet rushed toward me. Mom?
I closed my eyes and darkness swallowed all.
My spirit lifted from my discarded body and I hovered above it, watching it bob up and down in the clutches of the swam
p, lifeless eyes staring up at me, mouth gaping open, lips turning blue.
I jerked awake, gasping, clutching my throat and looked around. Where was I? How had I gotten here? I was sitting in an oversized chair, a quilt on my lap and an energetic fire crackling near my feet. A steamy cup of water with a green teabag brewed on an end table beside me. Wolf and an old black woman peered down at me.
“You awake, child?” The woman’s soft brown eyes filled with concern. Tiny lines crisscrossing her forehead deepened.
“Where am I?”
“This is my home, honey,” she said. “I’m Ms. Sassy. Sassy Smit.”
“Where’s my mom?”
Sassy planted her hands on her hips and nodded. “It was me you were chasin,’ not your mama. I tried explaining, but you were in a world of your own.”
“No, I saw her,” I said hoarsely, searching the small shack. A stone fireplace dominated the room, with dented cast iron pots hanging from spikes driven into the wooden hearth. An empty rocking chair with a pale blue afghan sat beside the woodpile. No sign of my mother.
“You’ve been touched, child. Touched by the Devil himself. If we don’t do something about it soon, it’ll take you over.”
I struggled to get up and raised half way out of the chair.
Wolf placed a hand on my shoulder and leaned in close. “Please, just listen to what she has to say, Dharma. Ms. Sassy has lived here all her life. She might be able to help.”
I narrowed my eyes at the woman. “What are you talking about?”
She lowered her voice. “You’ve been hexed, and with an awful powerful one at that. You see, child, there is nothing stronger than an old curse. And what you’ve been cursed with is as old as time itself.” She picked up the cup and handed me the tea. “Drink this. It’s not a cure, but it’ll help.”
I picked it up and sniffed the liquid. My plugged nose wouldn’t allow me to smell anything.
“Go on, child, and drink it! It ain’t poison.”
Warm waves of soothing steam rose into my face. I took a small sip of the minty liquid and swallowed carefully, letting it soothe my painful throat. “Thank you.”
She nodded and pulled up a chair. “Now tell me, have you been messin’ around that pond?”
“Yeah, I had to dive in it, to save my baby brother. Why?”
The old woman’s eyes widened and her mouth gaped open. “You jumped in that pond? My lord, child! Where’s the baby now?”
“He’s at my house, Ms. Sassy,” Wolf said. “And he never was in the water, Dharma only thought she saw him fall in.”
Her eyes hardened. “Is that true, child?”
I nodded, too sore to speak another word.
“Well, it don’t surprise me much. It was a trick to lure you into those vile waters. You keep that baby away from there—you hear me? The little ones are the most susceptible to its dark magic.”
“You really think Dharma’s cursed?” Wolf cocked his head in disbelief. “Because the doctor said it was a bacterial infection.”
Sassy stared hard at me. “I know she is, just by lookin’ at her.” She leaned closer, and I smelled the tang of lavender soap. “A long time ago, when this place was still in dark times, and my people were slaves on that plantation, Mrs. Cobb and her children spent the better part of a week planning a surprise birthday party for the general. Come the morning of his birthday, the general didn’t come down for his breakfast. He’d been feeling poorly but no one really knew how sick he was. Deathly poor, he was in fact.” Sassy sighed. “My great granny and the other slaves wanted to put all the party things away, but Mrs. Cobb wouldn’t hear of it. She couldn’t bear the fact that she’d never be able to throw the general his surprise party. She didn’t want anyone in that room. It was special to her and she loved it.”
“Why?” Wolf asked. “What was so special about it?”
“The general had built it for her, added a whole floor to the house, just to host her fancy ballroom dances. She wanted the first party in it to be in honor of her husband, and when there could be no party, she wouldn’t let anyone set foot in the place.”
Sadly, soon after the general died, the Missus and the kids also fell deathly ill and died of cholera. Before the Missus took her last breath she ordered the ballroom sealed, vowing that no more laughter would ever be heard in that house again.” Sassy’s gaze hardened. “Lots of folks knew that ballroom was there. Most everyone was superstitious about the curse, or scared away, that’s why it was never touched.”
“So is that who’s supposedly haunting the house?” Wolf asked. “The ghost of Mrs. Cobb? Is she the one that put a curse on it?”
Sassy tossed a log on the fire. The embers snapped back to life. “No, it ain’t Mrs. Cobb’s ghost that haunts that place. Mr. and Mrs. Cobb were kind-hearted folks. They treated their slaves well, almost like family. No, it’s the one that killed 'em all that haunts that place.”
“I thought you said they died from cholera?” I rasped.
“Oh, they died of cholera all right, but it was by no accident that they got it, child. No, they were sickened by an evil slave, a woman the general adopted as a child. A child he thought of as one of his own. Her name was Sabine, and she came from the Ashby plantation. Crooked old Mr. Ashby had a passion for slaves right off the boat from Africa. He was a preacher, and liked 'em wild so he could break 'em to his Christian ways. He was far from religious. He was cruel and insane, afraid of no one, not until he encountered one strange young child. In fact, she unsettled him so much he condemned her to die. Mr. Cobb heard word of old man Ashby’s plan and rescued her. From what I was told, she was only five years old.”
“Five?” I wheezed.
Sassy nodded and poked at the fire with a stick. “She had a gruesome passion for killing things, and cutting them up. Birds mostly—baby birds. She liked to tear them apart and eat them raw, feathers and all. Some said, she still hungers for them, even from the grave.”
My stomach churned, remembering the dead birds in the bedroom.
Wolf’s jaw hardened as he echoed my thoughts. “We found a whole mess of them on the third floor,” he said.
Sassy’s eyes turned cold. “Don’t surprise me none. Old man Ashby declared her evil but the kindly general saw her as a mere child. An innocent. But all the other slaves knew there was nothing innocent about her. Some say she was really an old voodoo priestess disguised as a youngster. The general brought her home to the Missus. Sabine was a bewitching child with large dark eyes and nut brown skin. She quickly became part of the family and grew to womanhood. When she turned twenty, the general even put her in his will, like she was his own. He declared that upon his death all the land down near the swamp, including her cabin, would be hers and hers alone.”
A window slammed shut behind me and I jumped, almost spilling my tea.
Sassy stood up, her big round eyes searching the shack. She cleared her throat and continued. “Sabine wasn’t about to wait for the general to die. She snuck into the cholera hospital, stole some soiled rags and tainted his lemonade. She knew that the general, being especially fond of it, would drink more than his fair share.”
“How did she get caught?” Wolf asked. “I mean, who would know?”
“She bragged to the other slaves about what she’d done. They were plenty scared, and with good reason. Mr. Cobb’s brother, Eleazor, was like day is to night compared to the kind old general. He was beyond cruel and hated all blacks. So all the other slaves came together and turned Sabine in, to save themselves.
“Eleazor Cobb hanged Sabine from a cypress tree in the middle of the pond. Hangman’s Tree they call it now. But not before she cursed the waters around her. He wasn’t afraid of her threats and left her there to rot, as an example. They say the stench was unbearable, even after her bones fell into that bog. Anyone foolish enough to come close ended up at the bottom.”
I gagged, thinking about all those bones and the water I had swallowed. No wonder I had gotten sick. Sassy pick
ed up my empty cup and refilled it from a kettle hanging over the fire. “Later that night,” she said, setting the kettle down. “A terrible fog moved in, seething through cracks in the old house like foul breath, gaining a sly entrance at every opening of a window or door. Sounds were muted, shapes blurred. They say that fog hung on for days, suffocating and concealing the familiar world, blinding and confusing the people in it until Sabine’s evil spirit penetrated every inch of the old house.”
Shuddering, I raised the teacup to my lips. Something splashed in the amber liquid. A cold sweat broke out across my brow as I peered into the cup, taking a closer look. The waters cleared and I spotted it lying in the bottom. My hand shook.
A scream ripped from my throat and the cup clattered onto the floor.
“What’s the matter?” Wolf said.
“There’s an eyeball in it!”
He grabbed the cup and the eyeball tumbled out onto the floor with a thud. Wolf bent down, picked it up, and rolled it around in his hand before handing it Sassy.
“That’s not an eyeball, child,” Sassy said. “The curse is makin’ you see things.” She held out her hand. Something bloody and white rested in her palm. “It’s a tooth,” Sassy said. “And it’s not just any tooth.” She pointed to my mouth. “It’s yours. Unless you want to lose them all, you better listen up.”
I rolled my tongue around my mouth, tasted blood and found an empty socket near the back. Pain shot into my jaw where a molar used to be. My stomach dropped. I’d always had nice teeth. Mom hardly ever took us to the dentist, and I knew if I didn’t take good care of them they’d rot out of my head. Last year, I even had them whitened.
“Look, I don’t mean any disrespect, Ms. Smit, but I really don’t feel good. I just want to get back to the house and rest. The doctor said I’d be fine in a few days.”
“It’s only gonna get worse. Don’t you wait too long to come back and see me.”
Wolf blocked the door. “Dharma, wait, listen to what she has to say. I mean, what can it hurt? I don’t like the feeling I get in that house. And what if it’s true?”
River of Bones Page 8
