The Storycatcher (11 page)

A coldness ran down my head. “You need to leave me be.”

The girl turned her whole anger on me. “I’m Armetta. I grew up on this mountain. Listen to me, girl. I left you something in the lost graves. Are you too dumb to know where that be? But understand you can’t make me leave. I’m part of this mountain. And I’m going to save you from Pastor whether you like it or not.”

Faith picked that time to walk out the back door. “Did you talk to Miss Tuggle? Mama is about to fall over from worry. Come in and tell her what Miss Tuggle said.” Faith folded her arms over her chest.

I tucked the book in the back of my skirt. “I thought you was sent to your room. You don’t listen, do you? And Miss Tuggle be wanting me to come help in the garden from now on too.” I took a real delight in rubbing this in on Miss Faith.

“You’re awful smart-mouthed to be my maid.” Faith stomped into the house.

“There be trouble, nothing but pure trouble,” said Armetta. “That white girl done got herself all wrapped up in a story that don’t be hers. She be stirring up the woods and those stuck there.” She watched the
place where Faith had stood. “Don’t forget to find what I left you.” And she was gone.

If I slapped Miss Faith Dobbins, Nada and me would be kicked off this mountain. Even though Faith stole the sewing basket. Wasn’t nobody ever going to care about some colored maid and her sewing basket from Louisiana, anyway. Well, at least that mean old spirit was after Faith and not just me.

THAT OLD HAINT
got under my skin. I knew exactly where she hid this thing she wanted me to find. Only one lost cemetery on the mountain. The path took me into the haunted woods. Now, I’d seen haints a lot, but I knew better than to linger in that place. A girl couldn’t see the light of day ’cause the trees was so close together. So, I moved it on up the mountain, trying not to feel like someone was watching ’cause they probably was.

The lost cemetery sat on a flat place not far from Ella Creek Settlement, the only place on the mountain where coloreds were put to rest. I don’t think a live soul remembered it was there. My daddy was buried in there, so the girl didn’t have nothing on me. And what would a haint have to give me? Nobody ever visited them poor old graves anymore except me. And half the time I just went to get away from work. The air was thick and hot. And thunder rumbled in the distance.

“I see you, girl.”

Lord, I nearly jumped out of my skin. Over near a headstone stood a little colored girl. Couldn’t have been more than nine.

“Where’d you come from?” There wasn’t no real colored girls on that mountain but me.

“Georgia.” She was right pitiful looking, with a ripped dress and only one shoe. That was one sad-looking haint.

“You followed me out of them woods.”

She shrugged. “I’m just here to talk to you and help you find Armetta’s gift.” She giggled like she had said something real funny.

“Well, show it to me and get it over with,” I fussed.

“Not so quick. You can’t boss me. I’m here because of him. He’s got a few of us stirred up.”

“Who?” But something twisted in my stomach.

“That fellow who calls himself a preacher.” She stepped close to me, and I could see bruises all over her neck. “He’s got to be stopped.”

Now I was thinking of walking away while the getting was good.

“You ain’t going nowhere, girl. You got to listen to me and to Armetta and the other one that’s coming. You got to. Understand? If you don’t, you’ll die.” She looked off into the spooky woods.

“Are you going to tell me where this thing is I’m supposed to find?” Talking to her was pure silliness.

“Ain’t you going to ask me what happened? How I died?”

“Nope, ’cause I ain’t getting into that mess.” I looked around the graves, searching on my own. I was one stupid girl for coming.

“I got beat bad, real bad. I didn’t even know what he was going to do to me. He was sweet and quiet.”

“Hush up. I don’t want to know no more. It ain’t my story to take care of.”

She laughed. “You be wishing before it’s all over you knew the whole story. He done away with my sister too. Down in Darien, Georgia. You don’t know about that place. But you will.”

“It was stupid to come looking for something a haint hid.” I had to get out of there and forget about the whole trip.

“You ever heard the sound of a neck breaking? A pop and a crack.” Her words choked the air.

“I don’t want nothing from you haints.”

She went over to a tree near a gravestone. “Here it be.” And she was gone.

For a minute I just stood there, not running, not moving. The wind picked up and shook the tops of the trees. “I ain’t doing nothing to help you!” I shouted into the air. “Nothing.”

The grave marker was part covered with kudzu vines, and I didn’t
bother to look at it because there was a book with a leather cover stuck in the leaves. Lord, the thing was old as the dickens. Now, as much as I wanted to just leave there, a book was a book, so I picked it up. Armetta was some kind of haint if she could move things. I shook off a chill.

The printed writing was decent, and I could read it real good even though there was water stains here and there.

Armetta Lolly

April 1869

Ella Creek Cemetery could be found a half of a mile southwest of the settlement with the same name. That’s where I was birthed,

Armetta Lolly.

I slammed the book shut.

“You better read it, girl. If you know how to read. This here will save a lot of trouble.” Armetta’s voice seemed like it was part of the wind.

“Hush up,” I mumbled.

The treetops shook, and I took the stupid book with me on down the mountain. But I sure, sure wasn’t going to read a bit, not a bit. I was going to get rid of me a haint.

LATER THAT NIGHT
when Nada and me was back in our cabin and the book was safe under the floorboard with my money, I decided to talk to Nada. Maybe she could help me. “What do you do about a spirit that won’t leave folks alone? How you get rid of it?”

She was busy conjuring a spell for one of the young girls on the mountain that wanted to be rid of warts. “What kind of trouble this spirit be? Different ways for different spirits.” She never looked up.

“Just sassy and bothersome.”

Nada watched me for a minute. Questions crossed over her smooth, copper-colored face. “When I was young, Granny had a young
white boy’s ghost following her each and every place she went. It was a boy she watched pulled from the river because of drowning. She didn’t know him none, but he came to her ’cause of her sight. He was the saddest spirit, and just looking at him nearly broke her heart in half. And it was that reason alone, she had to get rid of him. Haints like that can wear on a soul and bring a person bad things. That’s how come you got to know what be bad in a spirit and what be good. It ain’t always plain.” She looked at me with her mama look. “Some old woman on the plantation told Granny about making a bottle tree. They be best for catching them simple spirits that need to move on. See, a bottle tree can be made out of that old dead cedar out there in the yard. You clean them branches so they are nice and smooth. Then you start collecting the bottles we use at the main house. Get you some yellow, red, green, and blue ones. Slide them on the branches. The sun shines through the bottles, and them simple spirits get sucked into the colors and trapped there for all time.” Again questions scooted over her face. “You build you a bottle tree. That might solve your problem.”

So there it was, a bottle tree would rid me of that mean haint, Armetta. I looked out the door for the purpose of inspecting the dead cedar. There she stood in the yard right by Pastor.

THAT NIGHT AFTER I WENT
to bed, Mrs. Dobbins came to our cabin, tapping on the door. It was bad enough I spent each and every day around her. Nada creaked it open as quiet as she could.

The smell of honeysuckle beat that woman in the kitchen. “I’m worried about our girl,” she whispered.

Why in the world did Nada put up with her mess? “Go sit at the table, Mrs. Dobbins. You don’t look good. I’ll make you some calming tea.”

“Where’s Shelly?” Mrs. Dobbins asked.

“She be asleep in her bed, like she should.” Nada bumped around the kitchen.

Laying there was kind of a lie, since I wasn’t letting nobody know I could hear.

“I’m worried about Faith and Shelly too.” Mrs. Dobbins cleared her throat.

This I had to hear. From my bedroom right off the kitchen, I could see a lot. I always went to sleep with my head at the foot of the bed so I could watch the moon pushing up in the sky.

“I be thinking on both of them too since he threw a fit about Faith leaving the mountain. She be a grown woman. Ain’t nothing wrong with that.” Nada was just out of my sight in the far corner of the kitchen, but the worry was in her words. Faith wasn’t nothing but a job to keep us living. That girl sure wasn’t nothing to worry on. Maybe Nada had noticed Faith gathering conjures. That sure, sure be a reason for concern.

“Charles has black moods.” Mrs. Dobbins stopped a minute, looking in Nada’s direction. “They are getting worse. I don’t want him to go after them.”

Nada let out a disgusted huff. “We just got to watch them real close, Mrs. Dobbins.”

“Can’t we call each other by our given names by now, Amanda? We’ve been through too much. We’re family. I like you better than some of my real blood.”

Nada marched past my door. That woman was going to bring out Nada’s worst. “We not ever going to be family, ma’am. We’re together due to circumstances. It’s best to remember such things.” Her words were colder than a January night. “I work for you. That be all. I’m your colored help. Sometimes the pets be in better shape than me and Shelly.” Nada stomped back past my door again.

Mrs. Dobbins breathed hard like she might break into one of her crying jags she’d taken to doing in the last few weeks. “I’m stuck, Amanda. I’m stuck.” The words sat quiet in the room.

Somehow I almost understood what she meant by stuck. There were times in a person’s life when she couldn’t see which way to go.

“I’ve had my stuck times too.” Nada rattled teacups—little things
with purple violets painted on the inside—that Mrs. Dobbins gave away when she didn’t like them no more.

“I’ve been pushed and pulled. All I’ve ever done is try to please people I care about. Half the time I walk around taking the blame for other people’s mistakes. If there is a God, I have one question for him. What is enough? What? When do I say no more? The problems in my life were not caused by me. I’m innocent, except I never put my foot down when I should have. Mama always said I just refused to see what was in front of me.”

That woman didn’t have one problem I could see. Well, maybe being married to Pastor. That would be a pain in the side ’cause he was all slick and nice in front of the church members, but in his own house, he was another story altogether.

“Lots of times you got to let water under the bridge just flow, ma’am. Damming it up will hurt someone.”

Mrs. Dobbins sucked in a big breath. “I guess that goes for Will leaving too. Is he water under the bridge? Or Shelly, is her future here on Black Mountain water under the bridge?”

Nada moved so I could see her. “You be bothering me now.” She got quiet for a minute. “Mrs. Dobbins, you got a bad habit of walking a fence. One side of that fence ain’t got a thing to do with you. Leave it be.”

Mrs. Dobbins clicked her tongue. “You’re wrong about that. It is my business because I was brought into this without my consent.”

They was talking about something way bigger than Will leaving or me and Faith in trouble. The unspoken words hung in the house like a cloud blanketing my valley.

“Maybe. But you got yourself hemmed right in a corner when you married the man. Don’t know how you can get out of that fix.”

“He will not hurt me anymore.” Mrs. Dobbins was firm. “Haven’t you noticed?” There was a long silence before she started talking again. “You’re right. I should have made a better choice, but I was young and stupid. Things would be a lot different now if I had.”

“Yes, ma’am, I know all about young and stupid. Look at my life in New Orleans before I came to work for you. I married Clyde Parker when I got here, didn’t I? Can’t be much stupider than that.” Nada laughed. It sure wasn’t no secret how much trouble my daddy stayed in while he was alive, but it still hurt to hear Nada say things like that. “But we do have our girls.” Nada’s words were soft, soothing, like she just might care about Mrs. Dobbins.

“Yes, you’re right, Amanda. We wouldn’t have our girls if things had gone different. Faith is worth any amount of pain. And now, now he’s watching Shelly. He’s turning his anger on Faith. He wants to swallow her like he did me and anyone else he comes in contact with. But it’s the look he has on his face when he’s watching Shelly that scares me the most.”

I was fine. Pastor wasn’t coming near me. I hadn’t seen one bit of change in him, except maybe he was nicer.

Mrs. Dobbins was silent a minute. “I could kill him.” The words slid right out as if they belonged between the two of them.

“If you’re going to do that, you got to be careful how. Men like Pastor don’t kill easy. You don’t need to go to the gas chamber.” Nada didn’t have any teasing in her voice.

“I’d probably lose my nerve at the last minute.”

“And he’d get you.” Nada laughed. “He’s turned brave. I got to say that. Brave and stupid.”

The old mantel clock ticked and we all listened. Heat bugs hummed outside.

“I told Charles I knew all about what he did.” The words wound around the ticking: ticktock, ticktock.

“That wasn’t so smart.” Nada’s words were a straight, flat line.

“Maybe, but he stopped hitting me. And I told him I’d tell his father, the grand bishop, all I know.”

“You completely crazy, woman.”

“No crazier than you.” Mrs. Dobbins laughed.

“I guess you be right about that. I’m still here too.”

“I sinned.”

“How did you sin, Mrs. Dobbins?” It was Nada’s turn to laugh.