Mother of Darkwaters: Book one of the Vessel series

by Tony C. Skye

  “And that you must not be worryin’ yurself over, Misses Julianna. Yur safe in here,” the woman attempts to comfort.

  Julianna turns her back to the table's end and hops her buttocks onto the edge. She glances down between her legs and stares at the drain. Her right brow arches slightly.

  “Yurself have been given so much sadness, child,” the voodoo priestess explains.

  Julianna's eyes begin staring through the drain as her eyes cloud with water.

  “Yurself need to be lookin' at me, Misses Julianna,” the woman kindly directs. She patiently waits until the girl's emerald green eyes look her way. Water drips down the girl's face.

  “Holdin' onto dat pain you'd be feelin' is not da same thing as releasing' yur pain,” Lady Lanecia instructs. “They'd be lookin' da same way sometimes. But they are not. Do you hear me, child?”

  Julianna's black wavy hair moves as she nods in solemn response.

  “Yur so powerful, child. You'd not be even knowin' it. And yurself be havin' great and wonderful things to yet be doin',” the priestess continues, “But there are first two things which be tryin' to stop yurself.”

  Julianna pushes her natural red side-bangs over her small elfish-like ears. She sniffles to hold the mucous at bay.

  Lady Lanecia's brows narrow, “See now, Misses Julianna. Yurself be releasing' yur pain with yur eyes. But yurself be holdin' onto yur pain with yur nose.” The older woman pats the table's end, “This be fur release, Misses Julianna. Release can be real messy sometimes. Release must be complete. If yurself does not learn this, then it be yurself who will keep ya from doin' all of those wonderful things dat can be done. And yurself is what be keepin' yur from yur release.”

  The voodoo woman gently pats the girl's right leg, “Now yur goin' to be needin' to listen to me real closely now, Misses Julianna. Yurself must be understandin' da concepts of whole and complete release.” Lady Lanecia removes her red hair-tie as the teen nods.

  The woman's hair expands like beautiful black cotton.

  “Very well, Misses Julianna,” the priestess continues on, “Release – as yurself be needin' to learn – is about emotions, yur spirit, and yur body. Yur tears and nose only be physical representations of yur hurt spirit. But yur spirit must first pass through to yur emotions before there can be any physical representation to be had.”

  “To be healin' yurself in da right way, Misses Julianna,” the woman instructs, “Yurself be neddin' to do everything in reverse of da hurt. It be yur body in which ya must first be releasin'.”

  Lady Lanecia points to her own body, “This is where people be holdin' on to their pain. And they don't even be knowin' it. They be thinkin' just because they have used da bathroom everything is okay. But it's not, Misses Julianna.”

  The priestess points with her left index finger to the drain between Julianna's thighs, “Release must be whole and complete. This means eyes, nose, and everything. Do yurself now understand da table, Misses Julianna? This business is dirty and messy. But it must be done fur a complete healin'.”

  “I - uh,” the girl stammers while looking at the drain, “I'm not sure I can do this.” She looks questioningly at Lady Lanecia, “Isn't there some kind of medicine I can take?”

  Cluck. Cluck. Cluck.

  Julianna and the priestess turn their attention towards the door. Martha stands there with a full grown rooster in her hands.

  “What is that for?”, Julianna dares anyone to say something she doesn't like. She notices the other two women exchanging knowing glances.

  “She'd be like yurself, Mrs. Martha,” the dark woman grins, “Just like yur first time.”

  Martha laughs, “This scared the living daylights out of me. I had all kinds of crazy thoughts going on.”

  Martha points in the direction where Frank had been standing against the wall, “The top of my list was that horrible-looking dagger over there.”

  Julianna glances over and sees all kinds of things that she didn't really notice until now. A hand-carved small wooden box sits next to a coiled up water hose. A dagger sits in front of it upon a stretched out white cloth.

  Oh gawd.

  “Whenever I realized the knife was for the bird,” Martha continues with her story, “I thought you were going to ask me to drink this nasty thing's blood because of the bowl you pulled from the box.”

  Hadn't thought of that one. Thanks grams.

  “You're welcome, dear,” Martha continues like she hasn't done anything unusual. Her granddaughter's brows are lifted as she stares in disbelief.

  “And when I found out you were going to put the blood all over my body, I nearly ran for the door. I was completely terrified by the whole ordeal. The idea of blood on my body, absolutely, was one of the worst things I could ever imagine.”

  Blood?

  Lady Lanecia laughs as she relives the memory with her closest friend.

  “Yes, Misses Julianna,” the priestess recounts, “Yurself be just like da Mrs. Martha.”

  “If you think you are nervous, dear,” Martha replays her thoughts of a time long ago, “Then you must multiply it over by a hundred times. That would be your grams sitting where you are. My, I was so scared. And the funny thing, there was nothing to be scared of at all. I was completely safe and just couldn't see it. All your grams could see was a horror scene trying to play itself out.”

  Julianna nervously grins as her grandmother's loving eyes connect with hers.

  “I was afraid of what I didn't understand. It wasn't familiar to me. All I had ever known was a nurse or doctor at some office somewhere. I sure had never met any voodoo priestess at her house before. And I definitely was not prepared for a release cleansing.”

  Julianna continues listening to her grams story, “But after I went through with it, I knew there wasn't a whole team of modern medicine doctors anywhere who could do for me what I did for myself by lying naked on that cold table.”

  “No one said anything about naked,” the teen objects strongly.

  “And what's the first thing that happens when you are admitted to a hospital?”, Martha counters. Julianna shrugs her shoulders.

  “Don't play that with me, dear. I know how smart you are.”

  Julianna sighs at her gram's loving chastisement. She looks upward with dread before looking downward towards the horrid drain.

  “Jules, honey,” Martha softly speaks.

  The teenager gives her grams a glance to let her know she is listening, but stares mostly at the drain.

  Martha explains the rules, “You don't have to do anything you don't want to.”

  Julianna immediately looks at her grams.

  “I would never do anything to harm you. Or let anyone bring harm to you.”

  Cluck. Cluck. Cluck.

  Martha wrestles with the fidgety bird, “These things are so awful.”

  Julianna grins at the humorous interruption. Her grams seems so sincere about her dislike concerning roosters. She watches as her grams, finally, regains control of the awful bird.

  Martha smiles, slightly embarrassed, “You are completely safe here. I want you to understand that.”

  “I believe that, grams,” Julianna answers.

  “If you decide to do this, you will experience freedom and control over your life unlike anything you have dreamed of. No modern medicine anywhere can do this. You are not being treated. You are treating yourself.”

  Martha pauses while struggling with the rooster and locks gazes with Lady Lanecia, “I'm going to strangle this bird before we even get started.”

  Julianna laughs. Even the Lady Lanecia smiles at the awkward scene.

  “You'd never be good with them, Mrs. Martha,” the priestess chuckles, “the rooster be yur life-long arch enemy.”

  Julianna's laugh becomes louder with the Lady Lanecia's heads-up of her gram's history.

  “I'm so glad this filthy bird and I can bring you two so much joy,” Martha condescends. She shifts and maneuvers the bird until she regains f
ull control.

  “All you have to do, Jules,” Martha pokes back at her amused granddaughter, “Is to lie down on that freezing cold table.” The woman smiles knowingly.

  The teen reaches back to feel the table where her body has not yet made contact. She gives her grams a hesitant look, “It really is cold.”

  “Oh now. You two be needin' to stop dat. It'd be yur body which warms da metal,” the voodoo priestess interjects.

  Martha rolls her eyes dramatically to give Julianna the indication that she has just said, 'whatever'. The girl grins slightly to silently say, 'You're right, grams. It's freezing.'

  Martha takes on a more serious tone, “This process is pretty messy. You're going to want to take your clothes off. I don't think you'd want to wear them later if you try and keep them on.”

  Julianna nods, but Martha can see her anxiety level rearing its ugly head up. The girl, however, surprises her by slipping off her black dress. Sitting in her underwear, Julianna questions her grams.

  “Are you going to stay with me?”

  Martha smiles, “Yes dear. I will be with you the whole time.”

  Julianna looks at her keys and new black amulet hanging around her neck.

  “Yes, Julia. We need to take everything off. You don't want to clean this filthy bird's blood off of anything.”

  The girl nervously removes everything from her body and lies back on the cold table. Her eyes remain fixated upon her gram's every move as her body chills from head to toe.

  “Put da rooster on da chain, Mrs. Martha,” the Lady Lanecia directs.

  “You'll be putting the chain on while I hold this vile thing,” Martha flatly states.

  “Oh, Mrs. Martha. Yurself be acting like this be yur first time doin' things,” the dark woman answers with a mixture of chastisement and humor. She walks around the table with Martha. Together, the two women rustle with the agitated rooster. Martha lets the beak go when they have the anklet chain in place. She looks at her arms.

  “That nasty thing about pecked me to death,” she declares.

  “Yes, Mrs. Martha,” Lady Lanecia agrees, “Yur life was in imminent danger from yur arch enemy.”

  “Don't worry, dear,” Martha comforts while glancing at her shivering granddaughter, “The chain's very short.”

  Julianna forces a grin with chattering teeth. She watches her grams walk towards the white cloth. Next to it – on the right side – Martha picks up a blanket. The red hair woman looks over to the voodoo priestess who is staring with both hands on are hips.

  “Don't you have chalk lines to finish?”, Martha inquires.

  “Yes,” Lady Lanecia responds, “I suppose I do. But I wasn't sure if yurself be lettin' this poor child suffer anymore.”

  Martha cradles the blanket with her right arm and points to the floor on Julia's right side.

  “You. Floor. Chalk.,” Martha directs, “I've got my granddaughter.”

  The Lady Lanecia lowers her hands from her hips. She turns and walks around the table to finish with her work. The voodoo priestess kneels by her chalk.

  “Da only thing yurself be havin' is a pain in my poor old backside,” Lady Lanecia complains. The woman grins when Julianna snickers with amusement.

  Martha flips out the folded blanket. She places the custom made blanket on her daughter. One side is for insulation. It faces outward. The other side is made of tarp material. The plastic side finds Julianna's bare legs.

  “And what are you laughing at?”, Martha winks as she carefully pulls the tarp-blanket up to the teen's waistline.

  “Y-you,” Julianna stutters.

  “Is that better?”, the older woman smiles.

  “Y-yeah,” Martha’s granddaughter answers with a nod.

  “I apologize for leaving you exposed up here,” Martha waves her hand towards Julianna's upper body while looking into her granddaughter's eyes, “Unfortunately, it's the only way we can do it.”

  “Th-th-th-thank you,” Julianna answers. She can feel the warmth forcing the chill bumps from her legs, but her upper body is still very cold.

  “It'll be alright,” the woman pats her granddaughter's left leg through the blanket. She turns and walks back over to the coiled up hose. Julianna watches while her grams attaches the hose to the faucet in the wall. The woman uncoils the rest of it and fixes the other end to the table.

  “We're not barbarians, dear,” Martha explains, “the water helps to keep you clean. But I'm afraid it's cooler than you might like.”

  “I can handle it,” the Julianna gladly accepts the sacrifice of body temperature for the thought of cleanliness.

  Martha adores Julia with her eyes before turning back around. She walks over to the white cloth where the wooden box sits. Julianna notices strange markings carved into it. Its rectangular shape is about a foot wide and roughly eight inches deep. The girl observes Martha open the lid on the top. She, then, reaches in to pull a wooden bowl from it. Julianna notices a very beautiful woman carved on the inside of the lid. Martha turns and sees her granddaughter’s curiosity.

  “Her name is Lilith,” Martha clarifies.

  Lilith? Where have I heard that name before?

  “Probably from the white books you have on your nightstand, dear,” Martha answers.

  “You can hear me,” the shocked teen observes.

  “Oh yes, Misses Julianna. Yur grams be hearin' yur screamin' alright,” the voodoo priestess points out.

  “I'm n-not screaming,” the girl argues.

  “Actually you are, dear,” Martha corrects, “But that's not something we need to learn today.”

  “C-can grandfather hear me, too?”, Julianna questions nervously.

  “No,” Martha answers while shaking her head, “It's a bloodline thing. But I try not to rub his face in it.”

  “It'd never be good to let a man feel inferior or left out,” Lady Lanecia joins in the conversation, “And don't be foolin' yurself, Misses Julianna. Da Frankie Dermott is a very clever man. He én Mrs. Martha have been together fur a long time. Two wonderful lovebirds.”

  “Yes,” Martha smiles while glancing towards the closed door, “Frank's a very good man. He never criticizes negatively. He always supports me.”

  Martha looks back to Julianna, “And just between us girls, he's my solid rock. The man keeps me grounded.”

  “Does he know?”, Julianna inquires further.

  “He does,” Martha nods, “But it is hard to understand something whenever you haven't actually experienced it.”

  “He doesn't believe you,” Julianna observes.

  “Oh da Frankie Dermott always be believin’ in Mrs. Martha, child,” the voodoo priestess says while making some finishing touches with her design on the floor.

  “Yes,” Martha agrees with a nod, “He believes.”

  Julianna smiles while Martha turns and walks over to the faucet. Her grams turns it on. The girl’s eyes widen.

  “Geezus! That's freakin' cold,” Julianna objects as the table turns into a freezer under her back. The voodoo priestess jerks from the girl's sudden outburst.

  “Scream in yur head, child,” Lady Lanecia answers, “Yur mouth be givin' en old lady heart failure.”

  “It's sssooo c-cold,” Julianna's chattering returns exponentially. She attempts to refocus herself by watching her grams mix herbs and spices from different containers out of the box. Their final resting place is in the wooden bowl.

  Pestle. Apothecary.

  Julianna names what she sees in order to fight off the cold.

  “And how do you know about these things?”, Martha inquires while mixing her concoction.

  “The Elder Ssscrolls,” Julianna answers through her shivers.

  “I'm sorry, dear,” Martha responds, “I have never heard of those scrolls. What are they?”

  “G-g-game,” the teen clarifies.

  Martha remains silent.

  “Eh,” Lady Lanecia responds, “Dat be what is wrong with this world. Children growin' up insi
de of those electronics. Evil.”

  Martha stands up and turns. Lady Lanecia is standing by the other side of the table next to Julianna.

  “I agree,” Martha comments, “But someone had to raise my granddaughter. Her father could barely dress himself. Let alone raise a little girl.”

  Julianna looks downward as the voodoo priestess pats her right leg through the blanket.

  “Yes, Mrs. Martha,” the voodoo woman agrees, “But dat little girl is not so little anymore. Da time fur games must stop. It'd be time fur hurself to be livin'.”

  Hello? I'm right here.

  Lady Lanecia locks gazes with her patient. She smiles.

  “Yes, Misses Julianna. Yurself is here.”

  “Well I know one thing is for certain,” Martha speaks as she turns to head for the faucet next to the one where the hose is attached, “If Julia doesn't stop yelling out in her head like that, she's going to wake up the dead. Then we’ll have a real problem on our hands.”

  Oh gawd. I really don't need zombies in my life right now.

  Martha and Lady Lanecia laugh.

  “Da Mrs. Martha should not be torturin’ her grand baby like dat,” the voodoo woman's white teeth shows through her wide smile.

  Martha turns on the hot water and places the bowl underneath the slow streaming water, “Sorry, Jules. I just couldn't resist.”

  “F-f-f-funny,” Julianna answers with a weak attempt of being condescending.

  “All ready” Martha announces as she turns the water off. She turns, walks over to the table's left edge, and pulls a lever by the teen's waist. Julianna feels a draft of air underneath her backside.

  “You didn't think we were going to make you lie in your own personal business, did you?”, Martha inquires lovingly. Her beautiful granddaughter smiles back her thanks for the reprieve of cold well water.

  With the bowl in her left hand, Martha tucks her right hand underneath Julianna's dark hair. She lifts the girl's head enough for swallowing.