“What ‘bout Mama and Papa? Them think that is the spirits that free me too?”
Louisa did not answer immediately. She touched the raw tips of Nola’s fingers, the ones that had grasped the hot latch on Merlene’s door. She drew a sharp breath when she saw that the fingernails had lifted completely off the skin.
“Nola!” She eventually said, “Why you never just go there and leave like you said you would?”
Nola pulled her hand away. Louisa wouldn’t have understood. She hadn’t known them.
“What ‘bout Mama, Louisa?” she asked again.
“Mama believe me,” Louisa eventually whispered. “But Papa … Papa made us lock up your room. Him say that nobody must go back in there till Pastor say all the evil gone out of it.”
“Is that when them goin’ come for me? When they think all the evil gone? Louisa?”
“Nola,” Louisa finally spoke in a low whisper. “The witch come and tell me that she have you two days after the fire, when everybody already think that you burn up with the others. When she tell me, I run and tell Mama, but Mama tell me not to say nothing to Papa, or nobody! She tell me that we have to wait till everyting settle down before we tell them, that if they know you’re alive, them goin’ come for you. And this time, it going’ be worse, because you went back there.”
Nola stared at her sister, the reality of her words slamming hard into her head.
“Nola, them say we had to hold your funeral quick, quick,” Louisa continued, “so that the spirits couldn’t get a chance to come back. And by then … Mama say we couldn’t tell them again.”
“Funeral, Louisa?”
Louisa nodded, “Them never have no body, so them bury your clothes and all your tings. They say they weren’t leaving’ nothing for the spirits to linger ‘round in.”
Louisa’s head flew up at Nola’s gasp. She grabbed her shoulders tightly as if she thought Nola was going to faint. “The fire was bad, Nola!” Her voice begged for understanding. “There was barely anything left of your friends. Just a few bones … and their teeth.”
Teeth! Dear Grampy’s Sweet Jesus! That’s all that had been left of them! Nola grabbed the pail that Mad Aggie always left beside her and retched till she felt as if her very soul had been expelled.
Those beautiful smiles, that lip-nose that had warmed her heart, now just remnants within a scorched pile! She wanted to ask for the details—which section of the house had they been found in? Had they returned to the bedroom after they’d pushed her out? But while one part of her wanted to know, another part could not deal with the facts.
“Everybody think that the witch took up what was left of you. When them went there the next mornin’, they found her walkin’ through the house with all kind of tings in her hand. She was screamin’ at them, tellin’ them that God goin’ come for all of them. They thought she took you away.”
“What they did with what they found, of … of … Dahlia and Merlene?”
“The waitress that live in Nainsville come and take everyting back to Nainsville. She say she would dead first before she see them buried in Redding dirt.”
Biscuit! Dear Biscuit. She knew they wouldn’t have wanted to be left in the hands of those who’d despised them. Nola felt a deep nudge of peace within her. She remembered the hug that afternoon on Merlene’s lawn, the one in which Dahlia and Merlene squeezed each other with such desperation. Somehow, they had known that the end was near. They’d wanted to squeeze the last bit of goodness, the last ounce of love, out of life.
Nola pulled a palm across her wet face and sighed. “How long I been here?” She nodded at the shack walls.
“Three weeks,” Louisa said. “We keep you funeral last week Thursday.”
“Three weeks?!” The words slipped out so loudly that Louisa ‘sshhed’ her anxiously and jumped up to peep over the counter.
She soon sat back down with relief and whispered, “Nola, if you ever knew what you look like when the witch bring me to see you that day. She say that when she took you out of the fire, you was breathing out smoke, like the fire was inside of you.”
So it had been Mad Aggie who’d scraped her from the burning lawn. No dew angel after all. Nola felt the last essence of Grampy’s tale waft away. Sorry, Dahlia, I tried to keep it alive, but it gone now—gone just like you.
Louisa continued speaking, oblivious to the revelation she’d just given Nola. “Mama send me to see you, and when I look on you, Nola, I thought you was dead! You wasn’t even breathin’ good.” It was Louisa’s turn to sob. “I really thought you was going to die. I never know the day would come when you would be able to sit up again, and talk! And Mama, she never know what to do with herself. She wanted to come and see you, but them wouldn’t leave her alone. Every day, every minute, somebody was with her, and she never want nobody to know that you was here. She never want you to have to go through all those tings again. But Mad Aggie … Mad Aggie save you! She tell me, Tell your mama I fix this chile like new. No worries. You just keep prayin’ and Mighty One will do the rest. I can’t believe is really you sittin’ here with me.” She grabbed Nola’s shoulders and hugged her tight.
“What ‘bout Papa, Louisa? What Papa say when him hear that I was … dead?”
Louisa gently cupped Nola’s cheek and gave a deep sigh. “Him say that you get what you deserve, that you bruck out the house to go back down to the devil’s place, so you get what you deserve—brimstone and fire.”
Nola nodded into Louisa’s palm. Nothing had changed.
“And Delroy? You see Delroy Reckus?”
Louisa nodded slowly, “Nola, him never leave the burn-down house for one week! Him go there every day and sit down on the road side, in the middle of all the ash. Hours, just looking. ”
Nola grabbed Louisa’s arm. “Louisa, You have to tell Delroy that I didn’t burn up.”
“Nola! You crazy? Mama don’t want nobody to know! You want them to come for you and beat you again?”
“So, I must just stay in this shack forever? Live with the witch forever?”
Louisa shook her head. “Mama just want everyting to settle down. Right now, everybody talkin’ ‘bout you and the fire, and how God finally strike down the sinners.”
“God strike us down? Louisa, you know dat is Papa set the fire!”
“Don’t say that! The fire never start on the house. The fire start on the bar, and it spread! Them could’a come out, Nola, and they didn’t. Papa never kill anybody!”
“I know that him never mean to burn them up. I just want Delroy to know that not all of us died. Him know everyting, Louisa … ’bout Papa and me. Just please, please tell him, Louisa! Please!”
Louisa hesitated, then nodded. Nola flung her arms gratefully around her neck just as Aggie crept back into the stall, “Dark! Dark! Late dark!” she hissed. “Mind you make your fada come look for you!”
“When you goin’ come for me?” Nola whispered against Louisa’s ear.
“Soon,” Louisa whispered back. Then she stood and pulled the blue towel back around her shoulders.
“Louisa, you know that was Grampy’s towel?” Nola smiled fondly at the stained cloth.
Louisa removed the towel from her shoulders and placed it gently around Nola’s.
CHAPTER
25
After Louisa’s visit, Nola’s anxiety at being discovered in Aggie’s shack grew. She was becoming more and more impatient about the time of her departure. Every day she prayed, “Mama, come for me! Mama, please come soon!”
The message was given to Aggie by Louisa, who in turn gave it to Nola—she could not return to her home. Papa was still too enraged to be told about her rescue. So Nola was to leave the village to be spared Papa’s rage. She was to leave with Slugga when the headmistress left town the next evening. It was exactly four weeks after Nola had left her house to tell Dahlia and Merlene ‘goodbye’.
Nola absorbed the instructions from Aggie, asking no questions. Not if Mama and Louisa would come to
say ‘goodbye’; not how she would face a strange world with her ugly, burned face. None.
The morning of the day she was to leave found Aggie quiet and watchful. Nola woke to find the woman squatted over her, staring with glazed eyes. From then on, the eyes never left her, not while she peed in the paint can, not while she washed up with the river water, not while she sipped her mug of hot cocoa.
She lookin’ for someting, Nola realized. She think I’m sad to be leavin’.
Little did Aggie know that there was no more sadness left in her. It had all been spent. Fifteen years spent. She was as numb as when the cold spark had crashed into her.
Later, as they sipped peppery calalloo-cocoa soup, Nola finally asked the question she’d wanted to ask for weeks.
“Why, Aggie? Why you live on the sidewalk and make people think that you’re mad. Why you want people to be ‘fraid of you?”
Nola watched as the lips pulled back into that half-snarl, half-smile. “People think Aggie mad? What ‘bout Nola? Nola think Aggie mad too?”
Nola studied the weathered face—the dark, piercing eyes, the yellowed teeth and dark gums, the sparse brows which furrowed with concern when she’d moaned in pain.
Nola shook her head. “No. No Aggie, I don’t think you’re mad at all.”
Aggie gave a soft chuckle. “Well, you wrong! Aggie mad! Mad like the dark in the night! Mad like the ripple in the river! Mad like the Son who nail pon the cross! Mad just like the Almighty One say Aggie must mad!” She threw back her head and downed the rest of her soup with a noisy gulp. “All of the Lord’s people mad! World not our home, you know, so we have to mad to live here ‘mongst the sinners! True home in heaven with Mighty One. World ‘fraid of us mad people ‘cause we know the answers. Mighty One talk to us. When shit a come, pee-pee have to wait!” She flung her head back and cackled up at the foil chimes. “It’s the ones who not mad have the problem!”
She cackled again, and this time Nola joined in. They laughed till they had to hold their bellies, bits of green calalloo speckling their teeth.
It was not until she felt the rough shake of her shoulders that Nola realized she’d fallen asleep.
“Near middle night, now. Come. Time! Time!” Aggie whispered.
Nola looked around in confusion and shook her head to clear the foggy daze. The last thing she remembered was Aggie telling her to drink all the soup for strength, then—nothing. Aggie had put something in her soup, sneaky woman that she was! Whatever it was, it was still in her system, for her head felt as if it were floating above her shoulders, like a balloon on a string.
“Put this on,” Aggie hissed. “Can’t go on bus ride in that wrap-up cloth.”
Nola blinked at the pair of faded orange sweat pants and brown leather slippers that the woman held up. Aggie shook the pants at her impatiently. “Make haste! Don’t want you to miss taxi!” She pulled Nola forward and roughly tugged at the knot at her back. She sniffed. “‘Memba something, them think Aggie head mix up, but Aggie no mix up! Aggie live on street ‘cause people can’t watch Aggie. People ’fraid of Aggie! So Aggie watch them! Nobody trouble Aggie in this house on road, ‘cause nobody want this house on road. Nobody want old cloth on Aggie body. Only Aggie want it. Nobody come with no jealous, jealous over Aggie, nobody envy Aggie … and Aggie no envy nobody! Aggie have eye on village from this spot on road, right in middle of them, and them don’t even know that Aggie watchin’ them!”
Her fingers moved deftly, unwinding the cloth from Nola’s body, then lifting her legs to haul the fabric from beneath her. “‘Memba the Son when Him walk on this earth, carry nuttin’ but robe on Him back, slippers on Him foot. And to this day, that Man is King, with nuttin’ but slippers on Him foot!”
She wagged a finger at Nola’s face. “You! You think you sad ‘cause you think life bad for you. Cry plenty, cause you think nobody love you, nobody want you. But the Mighty One plan it like that! Mighty One have big plan for you! Him nuh want you here with these sinners, chile.” She directed her wagging finger at the doorway. “Them hold you back, make you no hear what Lord voice say, ‘cause you only worry ‘bout what them think, what them goin’ say, what them goin’ do! No, no! Lord nuh care what them think! When you go from here, you make sure you listen! Listen good for that voice tell you what to do!”
She gripped Nola’s shoulders. “You think Aggie nuh see you? You think Aggie nuh see you walk past? Aggie see you—‘fraid of world, ‘fraid of village, lookin’ to see who watchin’ you, hurryin’ home before fadda beat you!”
Nola stared in shock at the wizened face. Another face she’d shunned. Another face that had made her see beneath the rat-race that she’d called life, and showed her something worth living beneath it.
“Aggie,” she whispered, “I … I glad that is you save me from the fire. Nobody else would’a take care of me like you did, Aggie. You … you save my life!”
Aggie hmmphed and turned away to fuss with the waist of the sweat pants. “Aggie do it for Lord. Do it for Dahlia!” she mumbled. “Dahlia say, Nola good fren’, Aggie, talk to me when everybody else laugh!”
With that she hauled Nola up unto her legs and pulled the sweat pants over them.
The last time Nola had smelled the outdoor air, it had reeked of smoke and death. Now it was sweet. Headily sweet to her nostrils after lying so long beneath the pungent blanket of herbs. Aggie supported her with a wiry arm as they walked down the empty main street.
She could hear the rush of the river, amplified by the heavy silence of the night. Nola looked neither left nor right; not toward the hole-pocked road that marked the way to her home, nor at the purple scarred tree-tops that marked the site where the pink house had once stood. She looked straight ahead as Aggie led her past the familiar track that led to the river, past the Spence’s Razzle Dazzle store, past the Redding Secondary gate, past the decapitated bus stop. Her legs buckled, and Aggie ffsshhed as she helped her to sit on a night-chilled rock on the roadside. She spread Grampy’s towel like a blanket over Nola’s trembling legs. The moon seemed to wink down at them from between the branches of the water-pump trees. Nola stared up at the mellow light, realizing that as exhausted as she felt, it was good to be outside again.
Aggie stood beside her, also staring silently at the sky. Nola was stunned by the sudden sadness that overcame her as she thought of saying ‘goodbye’ to the woman. They had formed a bond. Aggie had shielded her all this time from a world that would have preferred to see her disintegrate into soot, and then happily bury her teeth. Nola reached out and touched Aggie’s arm, running her fingers up the taut coil of tendons till she gripped the elbow. She wanted to ask her to allow her to stay, to allow her to remain hidden in the shack during the day, then walk the streets with her at nights, but she knew it would have been impossible.
Nola heard the crunch of car tyres edging towards them. The bright glare of its lights pierced her lids, her nostrils flared from the combined scents of old gasoline and sweet air freshener. She heard Aggie commanding the driver to switch off the engine before he woke the village, she heard the slam of a door, followed by crunching footsteps approaching the rock. Nola’s nostrils flared again as it detected the thick, powdery scent.
“Come, time to leave!” Aggie commanded, giving Nola’s shoulder a rough shake.
Nola slowly opened her eyes and stared at Aggie squatting before her. Then her gaze lifted towards the wide shadow standing in front of a battered grey car. The dusky-beige mask was not there. In its place, just dusk. Dusk, with darker freckled spots across the nose and cheeks. Neither were the green-framed glasses on the face, clutched instead in a tight fist by the wide hips. Without them, the eyes seemed so tiny, lost within the roundness of the cheeks.
The person who looked like Slugga waddled up to her and hesitantly touched the top of her head.
“Nola, my child, I’m so sorry … I didn’t realize …”
Aggie ffsshhed loudly and brushed Slugga’s hand away. “Nuh sorry!” she said
. “Nuh sorry when Mighty One make plan!” She slapped Nola’s knee. “Sometimes when fire bun, everyting turn to ash. Everyting get black and ugly! Ah! You think it no good! But listen, when that ash stay and mix up with the dirt, it make that dirt rich! Good farmer know to wait! Wait for that soil to get rich, and then when he plant, he yield plenty. Plenty yield from that burn up ash!”
Aggie removed something from the cloth wrapped around her waist, releasing the hem that had been caught up to expose her knee. She held up a small roll of pink sateen and pressed it into Nola’s hand.
“You take Lord’s medicine with you, for life or dead! Just memba, one in the meal will heal, two in the head will dead!”
The car horn blasted and Nola almost dropped the package in fright.
Slugga swirled to face the taxi. “Youngsht mansht,” she hissed, “We’re picking upsht a very sick person here, and it’s going to take some timesht to getsht her in the vehicle. If you wish to earn the goodsht money that I’m paying you, then sit yourself in that car and wait! If notsht, please feel free to go back to Nainsville, and I will find other meansht of getting us where we needsht to go!”
The driver blinked, opened his mouth to speak, then snapped it shut and sank dejectedly back into his seat.
Nola tried to stand, and Aggie immediately began to help her to her feet.
“No, no …” Nola wheezed, pushing at Aggie’s bony chest. “I want … do this … by myself. I want walk out of here on my own.”
Aggie cackled proudly and slapped her leg with glee. “You see?” She pointed at Slugga. “You see how the Lord workin’ a’ready? The girl ready to go! Of course she ready!”
By the time Nola made it to the car, she was breathing like an old truck.
Aggie placed Grampy’s towel on her lap, then she put a hand on Nola’s cheek. “You ask why Aggie live on street,” she whispered. “One time Aggie did love till her heart beat boom, boom when she see that face! Aggie did love, till Aggie never know where Aggie start and where him end! Aggie only joy in life was to make him happy. Aggie do everyting him say. Him say, Aggie, that nose of yours spread out too far when you smile, so Aggie stop smile. Him say, Aggie, that skin of yours get too black in that sun hot, so Aggie stop go outside. Then … Aggie gone! Him suck up all of Aggie! But the Mighty One have too much tings for Aggie do on this earth for her to disappear! Mighty One take Aggie back! Mighty One lead that man to someone else, someone that have nose that stay straight as a stick when she smile! Mighty One free Aggie before too late!”
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