"No," I replied. "Why?"
"Fixin'," she said angrily. "I'd cast a spell on
him for you. My great-Grandmere, she was brought
here a slave, but she was a mamaloa." Voodoo queen,
and she hand me down lots of secrets," she whispered,
her eyes wide, her face close to mine. "Ya, ye, ye Ii
konin tou, gris-gris," she chanted. My heart began to
pound.
"What's that mean?"
"Part of a voodoo prayer. If I had a snip of your
grandpere's hair, a piece of his clothing, even an old
sock . . . he never be bothering you again," she
assured me, her head bobbing.
"That's all right. I'll be fine now," I said, my
voice no more than a whisper either.
She stared at me a moment. The white part of
her eyes looked brighter, almost as if there were two
tiny fires behind each orb. Finally, she nodded again,
patted my hand reassuringly and sat back.
"You be all right, you just don't lose that black
cat bone I gave you," she told me.
"Thank you." I let out a breath. The bus
bounced and turned on the highway. Ahead of us, the
road became brighter as we approached more lighted
and populated areas en route to the city that now
loomed before me like a dream.
"I tell you what you do when we arrive," Annie
said. "You go right to the telephone booth and look up
your relatives in the phone book. Besides their
telephone number, their address will be there. What's