Dark Series, The Color of Seven and The Color of Dusk (Books We Love Special Edition) (22 page)

The Paul ed
ucated in Edinb
u
rgh where the religion of rationalism
ruled
laughed at Sadie’s earnest explanations
. The Paul who’d moved in and out of the black sub-culture around him since earliest boyhood didn’t laugh.
T
hat Paul leaned forward in anticipation and shouted,
“Finally! I knew sooner or later somebody’d tell me the truth!”

“And your Mama, she could do this?
And you, too?”

“Yes.
No.
Well, my Mama, she could do it some.
She was a se
bbenth
daughter, the se
bbenth
girlchild of my Grandmama.
Numbers,
dey
have
dere
own powers and sebb
en, it be a real powerful number.
So yes, my Mama could do more
den
lots of folks could.
But she di
d
n’
t
never use
dat
power for no badness and truth be tol’, she di
dn’t
use it no more
den
she could help.
I think it scare her.
An’ dat’s good, Mist’ Paul,
dat’s real good, ‘cause if you
doan
use it right, if you
doan
knows ‘xactly whu
t
you doing, bad things can happe
n.
Real bad things.
Things can cross over to us
dat
weren’t never 'sposed to be in
dis world
.”

“And you?”

“I gots, almost all my sisters, gots
de
sight a little.
Sometimes, we knows things we shouldn’t know.
I tol’ you once, I was a
m
ama and
m
amas jest knows?”

Paul nodded.

“Well,
dat’s true and all
m
amas gots
de
sight a little do it come to
dere
young’uns, but whu
t we gots goes a little beyond
dat.
But I knows my limits, an’ what I got, it jest
enough
to be dangerous.
‘Cause I ca
n’t control it real good.
D
oan
know ‘xactly why I can see some things and not others, and I nev
er know ‘xactly when it’ll happe
n.
So I don’t fool around with
it.”

“At all?”

“No.
Some folks whut remember my
m
ama,
dey
think I do, and
dey
come t
o me sometimes and ask my help with
something.
An’ if I feel co
mfortable
wid it, like
a young
girl want a man to notice her,
den I give ‘em a potion
I tell ‘em’ll get his a
ttenion.
But whu
t I really gives ‘em is spring water.
See, if
dey
think de
man’s
goan
notice ‘em, den dey pretty
demselves up, they flutter
dere
eyelashes, and
de
man, he come
over and starts to talking.
An’
dey
think the potion’s working, so
dey
talk back, and ‘fore you know it,
dey
done got
dere
man.”

Paul laughed.
“Sadie, that
’s
brilliant!”
             

“No, it ain’t.
Ain’t a’tall.
Jest human nature.
An’ whut with yo’
d
addy and Josh, I din’ want nobody speculatin’ nor payin’ too much ‘ttention to me.
So I act sort of mysterious and
doan
never get too involved wid
c
hurch folks and all, and
dey
think it’s cause I’
s
too busy wid my potions and such, an’ so
dey
doan
get close ‘nuff to be no trouble.”

“But Sadie, if you don’t fool around with any of that, then how do you know what the stuff in that bag is?”

“Like
I say, almost all my sisters got
de
sight.
But my twin sister, she be truly blessed.
Or cursed.
I reckon it all depends on how you look at it.
You
goan
laugh at me?”

Paul shook his head.

“She
de
se
bbenth daughter of a sebbenth
daughter.
An’ her power be wondrous to behold.
She co
uldn’t no mo’ run away from it
den a newborn baby can walk.”

“Your twin sister?”

Sadie nodded.
‘She born first.
She the sebbenth
daughter.
I the eighth.
An’ I tell you truly, Paul, I done
spent my life thanking God for
dat, so’s I
doan
have to worry ‘bout controlling
dat
power.”

“Sadie, let me ask you something.
You’re tellin’ me about
other worlds, darkness and light,
strange
powers.
But you thank God.
If you believe in th
e other, then do you believe—”

“In God?”

Paul nodded.

“Why, sho
’
ly I do.
Dere’s only one God, Mist’ Paul.
But see, whut I knows is, dere’s good, and
dere’s evil.
An’ dere’s spirits
dat
be good and evil.
An’
de
good things, all
de
good things,
dey
part of God.
God’s jest a tad
more complicated
den all
de
preachers make out.
He got
his nose in lots more business
den
dey
think.
An’ dere’s a lot more evil out dere, a lot mo’, den
dey
want to think ‘bout.
Dat’s all.”

“Fascinating,” Paul muttered under this breath.
“Absolutely fascinating!”

“Whu
t?”

“Nothing.
And your sister?”

“Her name be Tamara.
She spent her life
learnin
’
how to use
dat
power.
She ain’t got time for
dis world
, for
a man or chill’uns of her own.
She serve
de
light,
de
goodness, and in
dat
service, she know, has to know, how to recognize
de
evil.”

“Why haven’t I ever
met her?
Josh has
n’t either, unless you’re playin’ favorites there, takin’ him to vis
i
t and not me.
He’s
never mentioned her.”

“Josh
doan
know her, same reason you doan.
Sh
e tell me not to bring you
out
wid me when you
w
us
little, she say it ain’t time, and when Josh born, she say it ain’t time for her to see him neither.
Never understood
dat, but I don’t argue.
I
doan
sees her all
dat
much, but I go out sometimes.
We not jest sisters, we twins.
When I needs her, I goes.
If she need me, I
knows it, and I go.
She
doan
live in town.
She live
way out in the country, down in
de
woods.
Almos’ in
de
swamps.
Dat’s so she
can find the things she need—”

“Like these?”
Paul
rais
ed
the bag
he was still holding
.

“Lik’
dat.
D
ey
doan
necessarily have to be put to a bad use, she can use ‘em in other things, good things.
Lik’ I say, all depends on
de
person using ‘em.
An’ she live out by Stone Creek, where
de
woods start to slide into
de
swamps.”

Stone Creek.
Five or
so miles outside the city, then.
A two-hour trip out, two hours back, give or take a bit.

“How does she live?”

“Folks take care of her.
She take care of
dem,
dey
take care of her.
Problem too big for me, I send ‘em to her.
Iff’n I think
dey
deserve
dat
kind of help,
dat
is.”

“But if these things,” Paul shook the bag again.
“If these things can be good—”

“Wherever Josh got these,
dey
ain’t good, Paul.
‘Way he’s been actin
’, I knew soon as I seen ‘em whut he
been doing.
He been goin’ out at night
wid boys he ain’t had nuttin’ to do
wid
since he twelve years old.”

“How do you know that?
I mean, I told him to
go
out with his friends, have some fun.”

“Ain’t got no real friends,
Mist’
Paul.
Ain’t had in a long time.
He
doan
think I know
s
dat, but I do.
D
e other boys, de
y think he put on airs since he been spendin’ all his time
wid
you.”

“You mean, I set him apart.
Made him different.
Just like you said I would.
I didn’t know.
Sadie, why didn’t you tell me?”

“’Cause I
wus
wrong ‘bout
dat.
An’ you
wus
right.
An’ Josh, he a Devlin, jest like
his Daddy and his brother, an’ ain’t nobody ought to try and keep a Devlin out of books.
J
est took me a while to see it,
dat’s all.”

“And now?”

“Now, Mist’ Paul, Josh and
dose
boys he hanging out
wid,
dey
done got in deep.
Too deep.
Somebody ne
w in town, somebody knows whu
t
dese
can do.
” Sadie reached over and took the bag.
“An’
doan
care.
Dese not be ground up, nor mixed with anything else,
dey
be full strength.
Person whut passin’
dis
stuff out,
dey
doan
care ‘bout nuttin’ but spreading
dere
own power.”

“How do you know it’s somebody new?”

“Gots to be.
‘Cause
dere
ain’t nobody in
dis
town
goan
cross Tamara’s path.
D
is
her town.
An’ whoever passin’
dis
out,
dey
doan
know nobody like Tamara’s aroun’ or
dey
wouldn’t be doin’ it.
Nobody dare.
An’ he mighty lucky, too.
D
at
she ain’t stumbled ‘cross him yet.”

“You think it’s a man?”

“Doan
really know.
Could be either one.
I gots to talk to my sister.”

Paul glanced at the clock.
It was just past ten in the morning.