by Diane Butler
She had put the girl’s canoe under her porch when she first found her, hoping that no one came by and identified it. She did not know who these people were but she knew that they were vicious and if they were new to the area they would not know of her reputation as a voodoo herbalist. They would not be afraid of her or respect her as the inhabitants of the marsh did.
At four in the morning she packed her pirogue and left Cowboy with the girl. She had brought most of her potions, ointments, tonics and herbs knowing that antibiotics came at a high price. It worried her that she wouldn’t get through the winter with her depleted supply since the girl had already used many of the items that she would have sold or traded. Spring was a long time off to wait to replenish what was essentially her income.
She was nervous while paddling the bayou, knowing that it was the time that the spirits gear up for their last fright, joke or mischief before daylight. They start out slow but gain confidence during the night and build up to a frenzy. By this time they are in high spirits and would have become more powerful especially if there was a strong moon which feeds them. She was thankful and relieved when the sun began to rise and she saw that she had not missed any hidden channel.
She knew where the other settlements were, both on water and those hidden further back. She started checking as she passed each shack to see if an unfamiliar pirogue or canoe was tied in front or if any place looked newly abandoned. Some people, people who were already unstable would sometimes wander off and never return to their shacks, especially if they managed to trade for moonshine with Lou. For years now she expected Crazy Pete’s cabin to be abandoned since he became more paranoid each year, but she could see smoke from the chimney of his shack.
She reached Lou’s store by 10am and had one of the men who was sitting on the front porch to unload the pirogue of her wares including jerky that she had made from Cowboys beaver. She would have liked to have brought the pelt too but she found the girl as naked as the day she was born so she used the pelt to make slippers for her feet.
Lou raised his eyebrows when he saw Shoes come in the door. “Shoes, what brings you here in winter? Don’t usually see you until spring.” He looked over the supplies that had been put on his counter, “and I’ve never seen you bring in this much stuff before. You aren’t thinking of leaving us are you, and you’re depleting your supply so you can move on?”
“Not moving on. Got cabin fever. Had to get out,” Shoes said as she turned her back on Lou and began to inspect the wares in his shack. But Lou was suspicious and continued to politely question her.
“Haven’t had a problem with Sousson-Pannan, have you? Are they starting to accumulate upriver? The Henderson’s on the eastern side near Metairie cleared out saying it was becoming too dangerous.”
Shoes shook her head and continued to go through his wares, “No trouble with Sousson. My place is safe.” She saw some dress material that she could make the girl another housecoat but what she really needed was winter clothes and boots for her. However that would be a dead give-a-way to Lou and the less Lou knew the better.
“Did you have something specific in mind that you are looking for Shoes?”
She walked over to the counter and made sure no one else was about to come in. “I need antibiotics to put into some of my potions to make them stronger. I figure the stronger they are the more I can charge for them and my trade will go up. But they can’t know Lou. Don’t want my reputation ruined. These are hard times and call for hard measures.”
Lou smiled, “Always the thinker you were, Shoes. Great idea, in fact I’m doing it myself. Only have one bottle of antibiotics but I don’t sell by the bottle anymore. I sell by the pill. How many pills would you like?” Shoes knew this was a con since most antibiotics were taken for ten days. She could get by with seven pills, but she saw a hard deal coming up and wondered if the girl was worth keeping alive and putting her own survival into jeopardy.
As Lou was packing her purchases in a box he gave her a warning. “Had a group of five men come by that you should be careful of. They’re not from around here and do not know our ways, have no respect for anyone. Damn scary group with machetes and daggers. Their English is broken and I think they crossed the border from South America. They know swamp life, but they don’t know these parts. I put my rifle on the counter as soon as I saw their canoes pull up to the porch and that’s the only reason they showed some respect but I half expect them to come back and rob me. Personally, I hope they get lost in the swamp but they were good traders. That’s where this weed came from,” he said as he packed the marijuana into the box. “Haven’t been able to get any of it since Crazy Pete left. I sent one of the guys over to check out Pete’s place but he couldn’t find the grow or any trail leading to a patch. Pete had it well hidden for an old coot.”
Shoes stopped in the doorway and turned back, “I saw smoke from Crazy Pete’s place. If these guys had weed, then they have taken over Pete’s place, maybe murdered him. I can’t get around them going back, must go right by their place and that makes me nervous since they don’t know me. Maybe when I get back to my place I’ll call up my deity and ask them to peek in on the occupants. “
“Don’t hurt them too badly, Shoes” Lou chuckled.
On her way back Shoes noticed that the stove had gone cold at Crazy’s Pete’s place but did not notice anyone outside and hoped that they were not watching her or that she would encounter them in the swamp. They had not found her shack hidden on the narrow leeway but if they were as good as Lou said, they would smell her smoke and search for the source.
It was a grueling six hours back again but at least she only had an hour of darkness before reaching her place. She stood on the pirogue and unloaded her purchases on the porch when the coyote came out to meet her. “Any trouble while I was gone, Cowboy?” she asked, not expecting an answer. “You look calm so I guess the girl is still alive.” She tied the boat to a pillar and took the three steps to solid ground then circled around to her porch.
The stove was no longer burning but Shoes had put three blankets on the girl and knew that Cowboy would have attempted to keep her warm. She took two of the pills out of her pocket and pulled the girl into a sitting position, putting her own body behind the girl’s back to hold her. At first the girl was unresponsive and Shoes could feel that the fever had returned. She poured some water on the girl’s neck and started rubbing her shoulders. “Come on; come on girl wake up just enough to get these down.” She kept rubbing the girl’s neck until Roxanne started to sputter and finally opened her eyes. Shoes put the pills in Roxanne’s mouth and the bottle of water to her lips but it spilled down the girl’s chin. “Drink! Get it down. Swallow it, come on swallow.” Roxanne choked but came awake enough to start drinking on her own.
Shoes was rebuilding the fire when she noticed that Cowboy had disappeared. She had never fixed the broken latch on her door, had never felt threatened in the Bayou but tonight she wedged a piece of wood against the door to hold it shut. If Cowboy came back she would need to scratch at the door.
She put a pot on the stove and began to add her own special herbs which worked for her Conga deity of witchcraft. She only needed enough heat to cause it to smoke but while waiting for the mixture to blend she went to the girl and turned her over to study her back. The symbols that had been both carved and tattooed into the girls back had confused Shoes from the beginning. She knew what each symbol meant but it did not make sense to have them both together because they contradicted each other. There was a large carving of a circle with a star in the middle which meant ‘Death’. But in the lower right, at the 5 o’clock position of the circle there was a tattoo in the very small shape of a four-leaf clover which meant ‘Luck’. Why would you put both luck and death together? It just didn’t make sense and then to carve the letter ‘S’ on the girl’s face for ‘Scarlet’. Why would you curse her with both death and luck?
At that moment she heard a scratching at the door and opened it to have Cow
boy drop a dead raccoon at her feet. The coyote lifted her nose to smell the pungent aroma beginning to fill the room and immediately backed away. “Thank you Cowboy. You always seem to know what is needed.” Shoes picked up the raccoon and shut the door, wedging the wood into the floor and against the door again. She went over to Roxanne and using the blood of the raccoon she drew the same symbols on the floor that were on the girls back.
As many times as Shoes had performed this act it had never been with the symbol of death before and she was nervous but she retrieved the pot from the stove and set it in the middle of the circle. Then she sat down and leaned over the pot to breath in the fumes, pulling a blanket over her head to trap in the smoke.
By putting the pot in the middle of the floor with the same symbols that were carved into the girl it would lead her to the people who had placed those markings and Shoes needed to find out if it was the same men who had taken Crazy Pete’s place. Her visions were always blurred during these rituals but she could usually piece the scene together to know where she was or who was before her. Sometimes she could hear actual conversations and see people without being discovered, but at other times she was visible as she sent her “little ones” in to do their mischief.
She leaned over the pot as it smoked and began to rock back and forth as she chanted the words of her forefathers. The pot began to throw off sparks that turned into little spirits who began to circle around Shoes waiting for her to levitate or for her spirit to leave her body and join them. Her spirits were no bigger than the size of a man’s thumb and they began to hover over the girl and chat among themselves. Shoes could tell that they were in awe and excited to begin their quest so they encouraged her to rise from her human body. She was beginning to feel faint when finally she felt her spirit let go and rise to join her little ones.
Her spirit flew through the walls and outside her cabin, pausing only long enough to see that Cowboy was sitting on the porch watching the fire-fly glow of her little ones. Shoes emptied her mind of all things and was soon pulled towards the girl’s captors. It was not surprising that she was carried toward Pete’s cabin and in her current state she was there in a matter of minutes, passing one other spirit along the way who was on their own quest. She put out her hand as they passed one another in the dark sky and although their spirits could not make contact they let their hands pass through one another as a greeting.
Shoes paused outside Pete’s cabin as she could feel evil gathered inside. A sickening, violent wave of darkness hit her and she knew that she had been drawn to the right people. She hoped that her spirit would be seen by these intruders because she wanted to frighten them out of her den, her coven and the surrounding area to make it safe again. She flew to the window and looked inside to see five men, two of which were still awake and talking. They spoke in a language that she did not understand but she thought that she heard the word ‘Luck’ mispronounced at least once.
Neither she nor her little ones could cause injury to a human but they could provoke enough mischief that the human would accidentally injure themselves. Shoes flew through the wall of the cabin along with her glowing little ones and was immediately spotted by the two men who were awake. She smiled knowing that if they saw her then she was a black shadow with a green outline and white face that would blur as she traveled or moved swiftly.
The men began to yell, waking up the others as she twirled about the room kicking up dust and knocking things over. Her little ones could make contact with humans and they began to touch and poke at them but no matter how much the men swatted at her friends they were too fast for any human to hurt them. The men became hysterical trying to grab up their supplies and protect themselves at the same time. One drew a gun and began firing only to hit their lantern which fell to the floor and immediately caught on fire. They ran to the door and Shoes let them drag their pirogue to the marsh and get in while she saved up her energy.
She knew she had only a limited amount of time and strength and wanted to save it until she was sure that they turned away from her swamp before unleashing her finale. She followed them at a distance and held her little spirits back until she saw that the men were becoming comfortable with the idea that they had outrun her. She quickly flashed across the marsh changing her shape into a coiled snake that kept striking toward them. The men began to scream again, one yelling “It’s not real!” but no one was paying attention to him as they used their paddles to flail at the image.
She immediately changed her shape into the face of a coyote snapping, growling and drooling at the mouth as it snarled at them showing its teeth. Some of the men fell into the water while the others quickly rowed away leaving them behind. Her little spirits gathered up Spanish moss hanging from the trees and dropped it over the men in the water who quickly became tangled up in it. In their panic to escape they became trapped in the moss and their efforts to swim became more difficult.
Shoes could feel her body becoming heavier and knew that she was running out of time. She quickly flashed toward her cabin but could feel that she was losing strength and sinking lower toward the marsh. She needed to retire into her body or she would die while her body sat on the floor of the cabin. She needed just one more burst of energy to make it and was starting to panic when a dark shadow quickly passed through her making her gasp. She turned and saw a kindred spirit on the way home from her quest and waved to thank her for sharing the power she still had. It was enough strength to propel her into her cabin and reenter her body which had collapsed on the floor.
***
By the first of February the small group was no longer able to go outside of the plantation house because of the constant traffic of Z’s. Food was dangerously low although Caleb had killed a few squirrels with his crossbow at the back of the house where zombies had not ventured. But these zombies were not traveling from east to west; they were coming from the north out of Baton Rouge and going south. Once they reached the Gulf it was anyone’s guess as to whether they would become immobile or turn around and come back.
“It concerns me that they are coming from the North,” Lucky said to Toby. “Your Paper Mill is north of Baton Rouge in mid-Louisiana and that would cancel out the theory that they are moving east to west and that the Mississippi would stop them. If they coming out of the north then the Mill could be just as surrounded as the plantation is becoming.” When they had been forced out of New Orleans the number of people who had gathered there on a casino ship had been much larger. Toby knew of both an abandoned Paper Mill and of the plantation where he thought they could be safe but many were in disagreement as to which location would be best. As a result several smaller groups had branched off in their own boats with the largest number of people going to the Paper Mill.
“Don’t you think you should make a run to the Mill, Toby?” Larry asked. “Just to check it out and make sure that it is safe.”
“Can’t see wasting fuel just for a trial run and not getting any supplies.” Toby answered. “But we can’t bring supplies in here without the Z’s seeing us and swarming the house. No, I think that the first time we show ourselves to Z’s we will be making a final run for it. In fact, with what few supplies we have left I think we should pack them up for the trip and leave now. We have kept the boats stocked to keep us alive for a few weeks so why wait until we run completely out of food here? I think we should make a move tomorrow night or even during the day if we see a break in the herd.”
There was silence and then Brandon spoke up, “I won’t be going with you.” They all turned to look at him. “I’ll stay on Jenny and pull her further out into the river and drop anchor. I’ll fish on the river and perhaps cruise up and down the river to scavenge for other supplies but my home base will be to drop anchor off shore of this plantation.” He pulled a chair out and sat down at the dining room table. “I’m not leaving Roxanne behind. If she’s alive this is the place she will try to reach. I don’t want her coming back to an empty place.”
Gretchen step
ped up and put her hands on the back of an empty chair. “We could leave her a note or a map, or both.”
“Or you could come back periodically and check to see if she’s here,” Toby suggested. Brandon looked up, “And how long would that take me in Jenny?”
Toby shrugged, “Depending on the current, two to three days each way.”
“I would rather drop anchor outside the plantation and stay here” Brandon said.
“And how long would you wait?” Toby asked.
“For as long as Mutt and I can survive off the land and fishing.” Brandon answered. “I don’t have a time limit on it. I’ll know it when I feel it and right now I do not accept that Roxanne is dead.” Mutt had turned from his guard at the front windows when he heard Roxanne’s name and had been watching Brandon as if he understood the conversation.
Smokey put his huge hand on Brandon’s shoulder and although he had a naturally deep voice he managed to put compassion into it. “Brandon my friend, you saw the blood.”
Brandon turned and looked up at him. “But I didn’t see a body or a grave and until something tells me otherwise I feel that Roxanne is still alive.” Mutt came over and sat down looking up at Brandon and softly whined. Brandon reached down to pet him and scratch his ears, “We’ll wait for her, huh Mutt? Just you and I?”