by Dan Foley
Charlotte thought about the gris-gris that hung around Melvin’s neck. “Like his?”
“Not one like his, his be ... different, cause of da power. Yours be for luck and protection,” Mose told her as he brought out the same bag Wolf had drawn the alligator tooth from. “Now reach in here and bring out da first thing you touch.”
When Charlotte hesitated, Wolf took her left hand and nodded at the bag.
“All right,” she finally agreed and reached inside.
“Don’t show us what it is, just put in this bag,” Mose told her and handed her a small, leather pouch similar to the one Wolf wore.
Charlotte reluctantly slipped her hand into the offered bag, then got a puzzled look on her face. “It’s empty,” she told Mose, and withdrew her hand.
“Is it? Try again,” he told her.
This time when she reached in, a she found a small, cloth bag. When she drew it out she could see it was tied closed with a small red ribbon. After she put it into the pouch Mose had given her, she detected a faint aroma of cinnamon and cloves on her hands. Then Mose gave her a small, golden key. ”This key be for da front gate. There be no lock, but if you have this key, that gate will always be open for you. Without it, you never find this place.”
Then he turned to Wolf. “Now you give her somethin’.”
Wolf was at a loss. What should he give her? Then he knew exactly what it should be. He took his own gris-gris, slipped his fingers inside and extracted the red stone the woman in the white shroud had given him when he was in St. Louis Cemetery Number 1. Charlotte gasped when she saw it. She felt a tingle and a flash of heat when Wolf slipped it into her hand. She quickly placed it in her pouch along with the bag of herbs.
“Now you give him somethin’ to replace what he gave you,” Mose told her.
Without hesitation this time, Charlotte removed a small golden locket from around her neck and placed it in Wolf’s hand. It was the locket he had given her after the prom when they had stayed in the Quarter for the weekend. This was the first time she had worn it since then. Now it was his turn to wear it. It went in his gris-gris, taking the place of the red stone.
“That good for a start. You can add to that when sometin’ call to you. Don’t worry, you’ll know when it be right. An’ don’t tell anyone what you put in there. That be yours.”
“Not even …?” Charlotte started to ask.
“Not even Melvin,” Mose answered before standing up and announcing, “Now, lets have some supper. I know that boy don’t cook, so Charlotte, why don’t you help me in da kitchen. He can go out and get us desert. Maybe some praline, hey?”
Wolf knew better than to challenge the old man, so he left to fetch a batch of pralines while Charlotte and Mose headed for the kitchen.
Once they were inside Mose pointed to the familiar that was still perched on Charlotte’s shoulder. “You goin’ to have to give that fellow a name. Little Wolf is not a proper name, it more like a nickname an’ too many people know it. Name’s is powerful things. He needs a secret name, a name only you and him know.”
“Why do I ... ?”
“Because he yours now, that why. So think of a good name, a powerful name, a name he can be proud of.”
“All right. Do I have to do it now?”
“Not right now, but soon.
“There be one more thing I got to warn you ‘bout, an’ you can’t tell Melvin ‘bout this till after he deal with that Old Ben. There be a woman down there. Her name Renee La Pierre. She got da power too, an’ she be strong. She be watchin’ that boy, you be sure of that. She leave him alone as long as he don’t get too strong because she know I come after her if she do. But she will come for him if she think he getting powerful enough to challenge her. Once he beat Old Ben she know he strong. That’s when you tell Melvin ‘bout her.”
“But you said she wouldn’t come after him because you’d come after her if she hurt him.”
“If Melvin that strong, it might be worth it to her. She don’t want ‘nother one with da power runnin’ round down there. Right now she da only one an that make her a queen. What she really want to do is steal that boy’s power. An’ if she get his power, she be stonger then even me.”
“I don’t understand, why can’t we tell him now?” Charlotte demanded.
“Cause he got to concentrate on that Old Ben. He can’t have no distractions. After that business done, he can deal with her. I tell you this now because she be lookin’ at you too if she know you be with that boy. So, you watch out for her. That Wolf on you shoulder help you with that. He let you know if she come round.”
“But how can I not tell him when I told him never to lie to me?”
“You don’t got to lie to him, just don’t offer da info’mation.”
Charlotte was quiet on their way back to Bayou La Pointe. “What’s wrong?” Wolf finally asked. Usually he was the quiet one and Charlotte the one who kept their conversations going.
“Just a lot to think about.”
“No lie, there,” Wolf responded.
“What happened when you were fighting that ghost in Jackson Square? You looked like you were losing for a long time.”
“I guess I was,” Wolf admitted. “But I won, that’s what matters.”
He would have let it drop there, but Charlotte pressed him for more. “I know you won, but I want to know how. I want to know what you did. What you felt.”
What I felt. “It’s not ... physical, at least not at first. It’s physiological. They invade your mind. They show you their death, they show you your death over and over in different ways. They show you your body rotting in the ground. They look for triggers for your fear. If they find one, they dig into it, twist it, force you to face it. Then, if they get a foothold, they attack your body through your mind. They add pain to the fear. Now you can feel the things they’re showing you. Their ultimate aim isn’t to kill you, it’s to destroy your mind and take over your body, make it theirs. They want to live again through you. The one I fought showed me how it would use my body and then, when it had used me up, kill myself.”
“Jesus, that’s awful. How did you stand it?”
“I just kept fighting, pushing back. He thought he had won and let up a little too soon. That’s when I struck back, or rather my power did. It felt like my blood was on fire. It shocked him. Then my mind exploded with power. That’s the only way I can explain it. I fed his own fear and hate back to him, over and over again until he was a whimpering shadow of his former self. That’s when I let him go. He fell out of me, but I stayed in his head. Before he could escape I scattered what was left of him with a mental surge.”
“Jesus,” was all Charlotte could say.
“Did you see anything, anything at all?”
“Only you. It went on and on. It scared the hell out of me. You looked like you had grabbed onto a live wire and couldn’t let go. When you dropped to your knees I begged Mose to help you, but he said it was your fight to win or lose. I hated him for that. I don’t know what I would have done if you had lost.”
“He was right. I had to do that myself. I had to know I could do that on my own. If he had stepped in, I would never have the confidence to face Ben, or any other ghost that might challenge me. Now I do.”
“What about the other thing, people who have the same power you do?”
“I don’t know. Mose is the only one I’ve ever met. Well, him and my grandmere, but she doesn’t count. She would never hurt me.”
21 – Bubba
“What the fuck happened to your hand?” Skeeter demanded when he sat down at the picnic table.
Bubba held the hand out for Skeeter. It was swollen and turning black. “That fucking thing that woman had bit me. Just two little pricks. I didn’t think anything of it. When I woke up this morning it looked like this.”
“Man, you gotta’ see a doc about that. What if it was poisonous?”
“That’s why I’ve been wa
iting for you. I can’t drive with it like this. I need you to drive.”
“My car’s up on blocks, you know that. Where’s your pickup?”
“Still got a flat. Damn.”
“You got no spare?”
“That’s flat too.”
“Well, looks like you’re shit out of luck unless we can find you a ride.”
Bubba looked up in surprise when a woman’s voice asked, “How’s that hand doing, Bubba?” It was the woman from yesterday, the one with the thing that had bitten him.
“Look at it, you bitch. What the hell did that thing do to me?”
“Ah, Bubba, is that anyway to talk to a woman? If I was your momma I’d slap your face for that.”
“Well you ain’t my momma, so fuck you.”
“No Bubba, fuck you. And I do think you need to learn some manners,” Renee La Pierre said as she made a short slapping gesture. Bubba’s black, swollen hand jumped off the table and slapped his face. Shock, and then fear, registered in his eyes.
“You,” she said, pointing to Skeeter, “come with me. NOW!” she added, when he was too slow in responding. That was enough for Skeeter. He got up and followed her inside Stella’s crab shack.
“Out,” she told Stella when they were both inside. Stella didn’t have to be told twice.
Renee took one of the two chairs at the small table inside the shack. Skeeter went to take the other, but stopped dead in his tracks when Renee’s creature jumped onto it and hissed at him.
“You see that fool out there? That could have been you if the boy’s familiar had bitten you instead of just scratching you.”
Skeeter shot a nervous look outside and asked, “What can you do to help him?”
“It’s too late for that. And besides, I might have need of him — and of you.”
Skeeter looked nervously from the door to La Pierre. “What do you want from me?”
“I want you to keep an eye on the boy who did that to you. His name is Melvin Lobo. He lives with his grandmere up in Bayou La Pointe.”
“I can’t do that. That’s twenty miles from here and my car is broken.”
That drew a scowl from Renee and a growl from the creature on the chair. “I don’t care how you do it, just do it. If you can’t, you can explain to my darling why not. Do we understand each other?”
Skeeter didn’t answer, he just nodded his agreement.
“Good, then you better get going. And don’t think of running. My assistant has tasted your blood. She can find you anywhere, any time.”
Skeeter started to say something, but when the creature growled at him he shut his mouth and left. “Send Stella back in,” Renee said to his back.
Stella came in a minute later, wringing her hands and trying to avoid the witch’s gaze. She actually flinched when La Pierre told her to sit. “Skeeter is working for me now. I’m going to meet him here every morning. Any other time I want to talk to him, I’ll call you to arrange the meeting.”
“What about Bubba?” Stella asked.
“Don’t worry about Bubba. He won’t be a problem.”
When Renee walked outside, Skeeter was sitting at the table with his friend. Bubba was staring at his hand and crying. The discoloration had spread to his elbow. “I’m going to expect reports from you every day. Be here at nine o’clock every morning,” she told Skeeter. “If I want to see you any other time, I’ll tell Stella.” Then she turned her attention to Bubba. “I’ll be seeing you soon.”
“You working for that bitch now?” Bubba demanded when Renee was gone.
Skeeter looked his friend dead in the eye before answering, “Yeah. She didn’t give me much of a choice. It was either do what she wants or she was going to turn that thing that bit you on me.”
Bubba shuddered at the thought of the woman’s creature. “What does she want you to do?”
“Keep an eye on that guy. The one we had the fight with.”
“What about me? What about this?” Bubba demanded, pointing to the blackened hand that lay like a dead thing on the table.
“She didn’t say anything about you,” Skeeter lied. Bubba was his friend and all, but he wasn’t that good a friend. He’d dump Skeeter like an empty beer can if their roles were reversed. “But hey, gimmie the keys to your truck. I’ll get a tire for it and drive you to the hospital. Maybe they can do something for you.”
“Where you gonna get a tire for my truck?”
“I’ll steal one off old man Donner tonight. He never drives that truck anyway, so he probably won’t even miss it.”
“Okay,” Bubba agreed. “But you’re gonna have to get the keys out of my pocket. I can’t get them with my left hand.”
When Bubba stood up, Skeeter could see the bulge the keys made in his jeans pocket. It was uncomfortably close to the bulge in his crotch. “Come around back,” he said, and started walking toward the back of Stella’s catfish shack. “I don’t want anybody to see me digging around in your jeans like some fuckin’ queer.”
“Yeah, right,” Bubba agreed and followed Skeeter. When they were behind the shack, and out of sight of the road, Skeeter tried to slip his hand into Bubba’s pocket.
“Jesus Christ, can you get these things any tighter? How the fuck did you even get them on with that hand?”
“I slept in them. I couldn’t get them off last night.”
“Shit,” Skeeter complained as he struggled to reach the keys. When he did, he had trouble getting his hand back out. When he got a look at them he knew why. There must have been fifteen keys on the damn ring.
“Which one’s for the truck?” he asked, shaking the mass of keys in front of Bubba’s face.
Bubba reached out with his good left hand and picked out a worn Ford key.
Skeeter wrestled it from the ring and tossed the rest back to Bubba. “You put them back. I ain’t doing that again.”
Bubba did, stuffing them in his left side pocket. Then they went back to the picnic table.
“I’ll get the tire tonight and pick you up here in the morning. Be here at nine,” Skeeter told the big man and left him sitting at the table.
22 – Moving In
“I’ve been thinking about what Mose said about other people with your power being a threat to me,” Charlotte said on the drive back to Bayou La Pointe.
Wolf glanced over at her. He had been worrying about the same thing. “Having second thoughts?”
“Second thoughts? No. I was going to suggest you move in with me. I’d feel a lot safer if you did.”
Move in? That was something Wolf hadn’t considered. It was a scary thought, but he was going to have to move out of his grandmere’s sooner or later. Maybe sooner was better.
“Well?” Charlotte said when he failed to answer.
“Uh, yeah. I guess that would be a good idea.”
“Well, you don’t have to if you don’t want to you know.” Wolf could tell by the tone of her voice that she wasn’t all that happy with his answer.
“No, I mean yes. I think it’s a great idea. You just took me by surprise. I’ve never lived with anyone before.”
“Never? Where did you live in the navy?”
“On the boat when we were on patrol, or with a bunch of guys. But never with a girl.”
“You’re living with your Grandmere right now.”
“Not the same, and you know it.”
“I hope not,” Charlotte answered with a wicked grin.
“When do you want to do this?”
“No time like the present. We can drive to your grandmere’s, pick up your stuff and tell her you’re moving in with me.”
“Okay,” Wolf agreed, and realized he had just made the second biggest commitment of his life.
They rode in silence again until Charlotte asked, “When are you going to deal with Old Ben?”
“Soon. Very soon,” Wolf answered.
“So, you two movin’ in together?” Grandmere said when
Charlotte told her of their plans.
“Yes,” Charlotte answered, nervously awaiting the rest of what the old woman had to say.
“Good, get that boy out of here. I love him, that’s for sure, but this place is too small for two. Besides, since he left, I’m used to livin’ alone.”
Wolf looked shocked, but Charlotte saw the slight smile that creased Grandmere’s face.
“You just make sure you take good care of that boy.”
“Oh, I will,” Charlotte told her and returned the smile.
And, just like that, Gandmere moved on to other things. “You two eat yet?”
Wolf shook his head. “Not yet. We were going to get po-boys.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You goin’ to eat here. Charlotte can help me while you pack your stuff up. I got dirty rice, andouille sausage and fresh okra. Once you moved out, then you can eat po-boys.”
Wolf looked to Charlotte and she nodded her agreement. “Fine,” he said and went to his room to pack. There wasn’t much, everything he owned was either in the trunk of the Torino or could fit into his sea bag. He still had some old clothes he had left in the cabin when he left, but most of those were too small for him now. He had sold, or given away, all of his navy uniforms and hadn’t got around to getting anything new since coming home. He was done well before dinner was ready. When he came back out of his room with what little he had, Grandmere shooed Charlotte out of the kitchen, telling her to join him on the porch.
“That’s all you’ve got — one, what is that, a duffle bag?” Charlotte asked when he sat down across from her.
“Sea bag. In the navy we call it a sea bag. And yes, that’s it. Why?”
“You were in the navy for seven years and that’s all the personal property you have?” She sounded astonished.
Wolf just shrugged. “There’s not much room to store stuff on a sub and I lived in a furnished house with a bunch of other guys when the gold crew had the boat. I’ve got some junk in the Torino, but I never needed much.” Then he smiled and added, “at least I don’t come with a lot of baggage.”
