by catt dahman
“You need dat baby born so you can be more wifely and cook worth more’n a shit again,” Amadee growled at Jenny.
Jenny sighed.
“You don’t wanna be wifely?”
“Seems iffin I aint, you’re mad ‘cause I ain’t having a baby, and iffin I am, then I am havin’ a baby and am tired all de time; I can’t win.” Jenny rubbed the dirt by the porch with one bare toe.
“Other womens do it,” Amadee said, “you be fine after you foal. Let’s make ya some of the teas you likes, and maybe dat baby will decide to come out.”
It was rare for Amadee to suggest making her tea or offering to help make it. It was unheard of, and, yet, this one time, even though he was in a bad mood, he offered.
Jenny struggled to her feet to follow him inside, fear clawing at her because she just knew this was going to turn out badly. It was a vision that was as clear and bright as the moon. Her size and swollen feet made it difficult to hurry after him.
“Let’s see… we’ll have…what? Dis?” He set a tin out, pulled out a jar he sniffed, and knew it was lemon balm, which was easy and calming for the stomach and tasty as well.
“I’ll brew it.” Jenny tried to scoot into place, but Amadee used a shoulder to bump her, saying he had it, and he was capable of making tea.
He decided against the spearmint and peppermint leaves. Medicinal herbs were over to the side in the cabinet; they were tea leaves made of herbs grown, harvested, dried, and crushed. Some herbs worked as both medicine and enjoyment. Some didn’t, and some were for poultices only.
Jenny saw him reach into the back. He never bothered with herbs or cooking. He pulled out the small tin and sniffed, “Maybe this…smells ok….”
“Not that one,” she snapped, too strongly, too quickly, too sharply.
“Why?”
“It’s…more for de female issues.”
“You are de female,” Amadee said. He could smell sneakiness at a five-mile distance, it seemed.
“I don’t like it so much….” Jenny lowered her eyes, making him more suspicious and curious, but if she looked at him, he would see panic. She should have said it was something else or poured the tea out on the sly. If he knew she had black cohosh, he’d likely kill her.
“What is dis?”
“Ummm. It’s a…something like…for cramps….”
“No name fer dis?”
Jenny gulped. She wasn’t used to lying to him because he was always quick to catch a lie and because she really only had one thing to keep a secret. She couldn’t think of any herbal name to say. So in remaining silent, Amadee knew this was important.
He shook the tin in her face, “I said to tell me what dis is?”
“Nothin’.”
“Then we’ll brew it, and you take de big mug of it, and drink it afore me.”
“I….” Jenny stammered and didn’t know what to say now. She couldn’t drink it, or she’d lose the baby and likely die as well.
“Or I’ll drag you done to the neighbor, and we ask her.”
“It’s an herb…helps with female problems, and if I drank it, it would hurt me and dis baby.”
Amadee mused. He wasn’t brilliant, but he wasn’t simple. “Effects the girly parts, I see. Now why it be here? Candy Lynn! Come ‘ere.”
Jenny began to shake.
Candy Lynn came inside, “Hmm?”
“Sniff dis, and tells me what it be.”
“I dunno, Daddy. Smells…funny…I never had it.”
“Go on to your room. Close de door,” Amadee ordered. He was becoming furious because he knew it was something pertaining to women that his girl child didn’t know of, and that scared Jenny badly. It had to be a big secret. He pinched Jenny’s arm until she cried, “Tell me now.”
“I took it for to keep being wifely, Amadee. I thought we’se needed some time fer us without so many babies.”
“It’s heathen birth stoppage?” Amadee hissed and gasped with shock. For those years, he had actually wondered if his parts were fallow, and it was witchcraft the entire time; Jenny had used something to prevent becoming pregnant. It was worse than a slap in his face, and he groaned as he took the facts in. In one of his smarter moments, he had a realization, “And it would damage you now? Dis makes for abortions?” He ended the sentence yelling, his face bright red with fury.
“It…it can.” Jenny dodged the question.
Amadee grabbed her hair and rolled it in his fist. He popped her in the nose, making blood fly everywhere, “ Did you?”
“No…no…no….” she screamed as he hit her in the mouth, breaking a tooth that had, up to that moment, survived his fists. Her cut lip oozed blood down her skin with the torrent from her nose.
“Did you…abort de baby…and…do…evil magic…with dis ‘ere…herb?” At each pause, he smacked her face while yanking at her hair. She screamed, but the children knew to stay out of the room.
“Yeth, Yeth, I did. I couldn’t take the a-baby ever year, A-adee; let ‘e go,” she tried to speak with her mouth swelling, nose swollen, and cheeks beginning to puff. He slammed her face down on the chipped counter, breaking all facial bones.
“You witch,” Amadee yelled. He used her hair to slam her head into the cabinets and floor for a long time. He let her fall to the floor. Bitch had tired him out having to teach her to behave. He looked at her curiously; she was dead. That was something, “No letting’ a witch for to live.”
He wondered casually and calmly what he would do and if Candy Lynn could fix decent meals and care for the other children until he married again. He had a drink of ‘shine, and then he noticed Jenny’s belly wiggling and balling up. He had forgotten the baby. Carefully, as he would cut open a deep or gator so to keep the meat untainted (there was an art to rendering), he took his sharp knife and opened Jenny’s belly and womb, and there was a boy baby.
That was a good thing to have a son. Once he cleaned the baby, he dragged Jenny’s body out to the shed and settled it in a basket and called for Candy Lynn to come mop away the blood. He told her that her mama died giving birth and let her cry some until it was on his nerves.
He fashioned bottles for the baby he named Clovis. He married Leonie. He taught his stepchildren the family traditions, but he never let Candy Lynn participate or see it. He knew he was always correct, so he took his rights, as any man should. He knew a few things: he knew that while he was as nature and God intended, it wasn’t a great state of life because his life was tainted by Jenny’s witchcraft, deceit, and evilness. He knew Clovis would never be pure or perfect.
But he believed Candy Lynn was as near as perfect as a girl child could be. When she dried her tears that night and gently held Clovis, singling sweetly, Amadee knew that in all the swamp, she was the only light and greatness.
As long as she stayed good, then he was, no matter what he did, saved.
He favored Candy Lynn, and she was an obedient, good daughter, but she was always wary. She kind of made herself forget that night but always felt her father had a rough side.
“I haven’t thought of that all these years. I saw every bit through the keyhole and just forgot….”
“You blocked it out. It was too horrible,” Beau told her.
“How could I? But I remembered it all. He killed her, and I knew, but I didn’t know the whole story until now when I remembered it all at once. The girls weren’t that bright; Lougenia was fairly smart, and Clovis….”
“What was he like?” Marie asked.
“Quiet. He didn’t cry. He didn’t do much. He liked watching the water when nothing was happening, the moon shining, the wind blowing, anything; he just always watched and didn’t say much and didn’t do much. He was always like an empty jar.”
“Waitin’ to be filled,” Virgil said softly.
Chapter Fourteen: Cleaning Crew
No one on the houseboat except one knew that the storms that day turned back rescuers again and that there had been almost a revolving door of responders. As soo
n as a group came back in, they became seriously ill with lung and throat problems, vomiting, headaches, and diarrhea. The waters were so toxic from the chemical spills, rotting bodies, trash and sewage that breathing it or being in it caused illnesses, and nothing seemed to keep some bad air or bad water from getting to the rescuers.
The triage centers and hospitals were overrun with not only victims of the hurricane but also with the rescuers, people bringing in supplies, and people from neighborhoods that were not flooded but were fouled by the bad air. Clouds of dangerous vapors threatened not only the southern section of Louisiana, but also South East Texas, and Mississippi, and Alabama.
The ground was saturated, but rainstorms battered the states almost every day. There seemed to be no dry place for the refugees, injured, sick, or the helpers. The idea of cleaning up and doing anything more was almost a joke and impossible. There were areas still underwater; most were still waiting for help, and body recovery, which would be necessary before moving forwards.
People all over the world criticized the actions of those trying to rescue people and calling them murderers; they said the rescuers had no respect for the injured or the dead. How could they understand how deadly the air and water was? It was if Hurricane Harrison had cleansed the entire shoreline of the US from Texas to Alabama.
The hunters, five in number, swam to look for food. The storms irritated the sharks, and food was not forthcoming.
In the houseboat Abagail sighed, “I knew something bad was coming, worse than the storm.”
She was in pain; her hands were wrapped like mittens but looked a little better than the day before. She knew her hands would heal, but the young people had asked her to come listen to what they said would sound crazy, but which scared her.
Abagail listened and asked for certain parts to be repeated as she took in the facts. She found everything about Clovis interesting. Marie translated as Candy Lynn repeated again the odd words Frank said. Abagail became teary-eyed as they talked about Frank but was forced to repeat the words he last said.
“What do you think, Mama?”
Abagail thought hard, “I think it means this is some great power that doesn’t consider itself to be evil but is the one who cleanses. This hurricane and the fish, they all has taken all kinds of people. This entity is the same. Remember, Sodom and Gomorrah may have housed some good people or some not-so-bad people, but they were all destroyed. We’ve all defiled ourselves with flesh of man.”
“I didn’t choose that, Mama. We didn’t know.”
“I know, Toby, but failure to know is not an excuse. There is no excuse. Once you have eaten of man, it is done. It’s an abomination.”
“That isn’t fair,” Beau said.
Abagail chuckled, “I know. But maybe this being doesn’t care about being fair. When you mop the floor, no floorboard is left unwashed. You do it all. Understanding the problem don’t make it any nicer for us. It may be nothing, but Frank thought it was the problem.”
“And what do we do?”
“I’ll have to think on this. Right now, watch Clovis, be aware, don’t let anyone get into your head, and don’t go out alone. Candy Lynn, your mama’s parents and grandparents…tell me about them.”
She thought hard. It was so long ago since she had seen them; after her mother died, Amadee allowed no more contacts, and they were bitter with him for what he did and because he had her ‘buried’ like trash he wanted to hide. “There was a loose board, and Mama hid things beneath it: a few dollies, little bones in a pouch, tins, and jars. Packets. It was a secret, and I never told. The things may still be there but under the water,” Candy Lynn remembered.
“And her parents?”
“They were strange, secretive. Mama once said her father was powerful. I thought that was about he had a good job or friends…something like that.”
“Did your mother heal? Deliver babies?”
“No. I don’t know. I don’t recall. My grandmamma did; I remember her talking about it, and she and Mama laughed at some things I didn’t understand.”
Abagail thought it was possible Candy Lynn’s mother and grandmother and maybe her grandfather practiced voodoo, which was a mixture of Catholicism, herbal treatments, sacrifice, candles, colors, and dancing with chants and drums.
“Boker,” Candy Lynn said. She remembered words and tried to make sense of them, “My granddaddy was someone who put spells on people.”
“Before the storm was there blood? A sacrifice of an animal?”
Vigil groaned, rubbing his face and closing his eyes, “A girl that Buford picked up. He killed her, and that one time, Amadee and Buford wanted Clovis to participate and share the tradition. Clovis helped.”
“That isn’t animal sacrifice; that’s a person,” Toby shook his head.
“It was the day before when they said it would be a small storm, and we all decided to stay, but then it was too late, but we didn’t know. It was huge.”
Abagail said that all at once the forecasters said the hurricane grew and would devastate the coast, “That was the blood, but that wasn’t an animal who died.”
Virgil slapped his forehead, “The little raccoon,” he explained about Ghislaine’s pet that Amadee left to drown, “and that’s when Clovis became stranger than before. What does it mean?”
“It may mean that Clovis…all Jenny’s children, are the children of a powerful shaman. You weren’t trained, and maybe it isn’t within any others, but it could be in Clovis. He was born as Jenny died,” Abagail guessed.
They stopped speaking as a hard thud sounded beneath them.
The five predators, trying to do their jobs, slammed into the hull several times each, weakening boards and causing breaches. They all crowded onto the back deck to see what was happening without facing Amadee and Buford.
Although it was late evening, they saw the fins rising and falling with a solid bump each time one swam close and then dove.
“They want to sink us,” Marie said. She couldn’t help but turn and look upwards to where Clovis sat. He was a child of eight, so why did the child with mental disabilities, the child who usually drooled and stared into space, meet her eyes? His green eyes were alight with malevolence. He had to be cruel and merciless to finish his work as his helpers tore the boat apart.
He stared at Marie. He glared.
“What?” Beau felt a piercing at his back and turned to see Clovis watching them.
“Ghislaine, come down from there, and get to cookin’ for your daddy and Buford.”
“Why’re you all out here?” Ghislaine asked.
“Getting air,” Toby said.
“I don’t wanna. I wanna stay here.” Ghislaine set her jaw and stayed where she was. She liked the soft rain, the lightning had stopped, but the thunder rumbled soothingly. She didn’t mind being soaked and didn’t know what else she would do anyway if she didn’t sit up here and look over the endless floodwaters.
“Get your ass down here, “Leonie said.
Ghislaine ignored her mother. Leonie didn’t like the idea of beating children, but this was why Ghislaine always seemed to be whipped the most-- when Amadee was in a foul mood. The girl was stubborn and disobedient at some of the strangest times.
“I’ll get her,” Virgil growled as he climbed up to the upper deck to pull her down and make her go inside the houseboat.
Clovis glared, but Abagail saw the glare was pure evil as anyone else would think. Everyone would see that menacing glare and take it for malevolence and a wish for misery, but it was far less and far more than that. There was a look of unconcern, no mercy, no understanding, and no kindness. It was less than apathy.
Abagail thought that when she poisoned fire ant hills, she must have the same uncaring, albeit, curious, expression on her face. When she smashed a bug, she had the same slight disgust but sense of entitlement to stop the bug’s life because it was vermin.
No mere child could withstand that level of unconcern. No little one, aside from a fledgl
ing psychopath, could show such blankness.
Virgil was halfway up to the deck when one or more of the big fish hit the hull. The houseboat shuddered and slid in the waves, and Virgil fell over the side. Candy Lynn, Leonie, Beau, Abagail, and Ghislaine splashed in as well.
“Amadee, you dumbass, everyone fell in,” Toby yelled as he grabbed ropes and lifelines. From a distance, he heard Amadee and Buford running to the back, their boots thumping, but Toby and Marie knew they had seconds to get everyone out of the water and away from the sharks.
Ghislaine let loose a huge, whooping scream as the water around her turned crimson instead of its usual brown color. She pushed and slapped at Virgil, who was next to her.
Toby reached for his mother, knowing that as he hung upside down with Marie holding his legs, that a shark was likely to snap his head off at any time. For his mother, though, he would take the chance and stretch. She cried as he grasped her hands, her tender, blistered skin slipping away, but he ignored her pain and pulled her upwards, praying a fish wouldn’t go after her legs.
Abagail thumped up onto the deck and cried with pain and fear, but Toby didn’t pause to check on her, “Swim.”
Leonie, working her way over, stopped and screamed as one of the sharks bit her foot away. As soon as it had done that, it spun to go after Candy Lynn who thrashed, kicking and splashing with her hands. Virgil was almost out of the water and motioned to Beau to keep going as he turned back for Candy Lynn, but Leonie was closest to Candy Lynn, and birth daughter or not, Candy Lynn was one of the only two good members of the family clan. Leonie loved Candy Lynn as a daughter, as a good, loving daughter.
Leonie’s shin was on fire, or so it felt like, the pain so enormous and over whelming that she was almost to the point of her nerves going into deep shock so she felt nothing.