Charlezza loved the backwoods around Catfish Creek where she had grown up, romping like a little wild animal, among the trees, wearing only a coarse sack-like shift. But, she also loved the cypress shack with it's tin roof, where her mama Annie Lee and her Grand Tante Narcisse had raised her, raised her on lots of love and corn cakes, gravy, yams, grits, poke sallet greens and, of course, river catfish.
Now, at seven years old, and already bright enough to be reading Grand Tante's notebooks where she recorded her hoodoo spells and potion recipes, Charlezza was playing with her ragdoll Sooky and her chubby puppy Lolly. Lolly was chasing her tail and that made Charlezza laugh and laugh and laugh.
"That silly little dog gonna get dizzy and fall over her own ears!," Grand Tante Narcisse said.
"No, she won't! She's too smart for that! I housebroke her in three days, remember!"
"I remember. I tole you I wasn't gonna have no dog pissing all over my floor." Grand Tante Narcisse was tying bundles of mint and rosemary for drying. "Your mama be home soon. She works too much for that scum Edna Baylis. Edna can clean her own house, but she just likes yer mama doin' it, acting like her servant. I done tole your mama, and tole her, I gots plenty enough money to support us all, but your mama is proud like a goose, and won't hear of it!"
"I know, I know, Grand Tante, but you say you got a lot of money, but where is it?"
"Ain't nobody gonna find that out, Chile!" Grand Tante Narcisse laughed. When she laughed she sounded like a crow, Charlezza thought.
The door opened and Annie Lee walked in. She looked tired, as usual, but on her sweet face was only a smile. Annie Lee's hair was yellow and even a bit nappy, which was strange since she was so light; Annie's eyes were even pale blue. Yet, her mixed blood showed in her other features too. Annie Lee was called "Angel Annie" by some in the Parish for her good works. Annie Lee was a soft touch for anyone. She couldn't bear the thought of old people starving to death or children crying because they didn't have enough blankets, or even stray dogs and cats suffering just a smidgen. She even fed scraps to raccoons and possums, saying they were God's furry kids.
There was only Grand Tante Narcisse, Annie Lee and Charlezza living in Grand Tante's shack. Grand Tante Narcisse had been a great beauty in her youth, with her strange, yet fine silvery green eyes, and had had a "career" of some sorts. She wouldn't say what it was, naturally, but now, she was a hoodoo woman, a conjure woman. People came to see Mama Narcisse La Velle late at night, knocking softly on the back door. Grand Tante Narcisse would admit them. She would talk to these "customers" in a very soft voice, and the customers would answer back as if the devil was looking over their shoulders. Small cloth wrapped bundles and candles would hastily be exchanged for wads of crumpled bills, or precious old jewelry, or handfuls of coins. Then, the customers would scurry away... Charlezza had watched this happen many times, from her rickety cot made of live oak branches, with the covers pulled up almost to her wide eyes. And, she knew to never touch her grand tante's hoodoo altar with it's weird little statues and it's rocks and shells and bits of bones and feathers.
Lazy days went on and on and on, and Charlezza grew into a very pretty girl with an active curiosity, almost as pretty a girl as Annie Lee and Grand Tante Narcisse had been. Then, one day, Charlezza decided to see the mysterious world out there, with her best friend Rae Mae Placer, who said with the right connections she and Charlezza could be queens! The right connections, ~ ha, two naive backwoods girls? That was a big, a very big mistake!
~ Copyright by Antoinette Beard, 2024.
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