The back porch door, the door to the mud room of Lulu White's Mahogany House, was painted "haint" blue, --- that is, "haint," as in "haunt," or ghost. The beautiful very cheerful blue was supposed to keep ghosts away. This was a common door color in the deep South.
Yvonne Abbott was now on that porch with little Glory Blodgett. Yvonne was playing with the curly coated white puppy Shortbread, --- with Shortbread's floppy ears. The dog obviously loved this and was yipping and panting enthusiastically.
Glory leaned back against the porch post. She was taking a breather from her chores. She'd just hanged two rows of damp white pantaloons on the clothes lines. Yvonne was wearing white pantaloons too now, a white blouse and black stockings and shoes. She was one of the more modest dressers at Lulu White's, and also one of the more early risers. Perhaps, that was because Yvonne wasn't as popular as most of the other girls, and didn't keep such late hours.. She wasn't outstandingly pretty or very flirty and was considered to be a bit of a bluestocking, --- a literary bore. After all, if gentlemen wanted to discuss books they would hardly be coming to Mahogany Hall!
Yvonne frowned. "I think it's just terrible the way Miss Lulu tolerates rough handling of us girls if the price is right!"
"Yeah, it's awful, alright." Glory sighed. "You know what Miss Lulu always says, --- "if they're rich enough, they're welcome!" Glory didn't want any part of growing up to be a 'fancy woman," even though she'd been born in a whorehouse and had never known who her father was, only that he'd been a wealthy "free man of color;" it was rumored it was Cecil Marjory, who thought it a "novel idea" to "take" again and again her mother, the house's laundress Selma, --- for free, and in his spare time, when he wasn't "with the regular young ladies". (And, Selma didn't dare refuse or complain.)
Lulu White had always liked hard working Selma and didn't even consider throwing her out when it became obvious that Selma was pregnant. (Selma had so much white blood that she absolutely looked white; her hair was even straight, but she wasn't white, not really. (There was an unfair, but unwritten law in the deep South that if you had one tiny smidgen of negro blood, it was if you were all negro. It was just the way it was, and this "law" kept many, many deserving women downtrodden.)
So, Selma was like a lot of the women at Mahogany house; --- she had just a "tiny touch". And, it happened that Selma adored children and often looked after any of the children at Mahogany House, of which there were five, the offspring of girls who were very, very popular, and refused to work for Madame Lulu, UNLESS they could keep their "kids" with them. So, Madame Lulu, huffing mightily and swearing under her breath about "spoiled little cuties,", --- agreed.
Yes, it was so true, Selma had always been "extremely decent," and when big, cheerful Pete Blodgett, who worked on the railroad at the dangerous job of "hitcher," asked her to marry him, she readily accepted. What followed was five happy years, until wonderful Pete bled to death after he slipped under one of the train's cars and both his thighs were run over. Then, Selma took on her usual sad expression and put her efforts to "raising up" Gloriana to be a "fine young woman". Gloriana wanted more than anything in life to be independent and a school teacher. But, her mama Selma told her, --- "No chance of THAT happening, Sugar Plum! You'll do the laundry, just like me!" Still, Glory had her wild dreams, --- dreams that refused to die.
Since her birth could be called an injustice, it had been drummed into Glory form her earliest years that things happened that were not, not ever, a person's fault. Yes, a person's whole life could be not their fault! So, Glory was very angry that Pierre Ozanne had so badly beaten Charlezza, especially since Charlezza had always treated Glory as if she mattered, --- something that was rare at Mahogany House, where Glory was hardly noticed at all. (This was probably the main reason for Glory's extreme shyness,)
Of course, Yvonne had Glory's everlasting gratitude, --- FOREVER, --- because Yvonne, on the sly, had taught bright and eager Glory to read. Selma could read a little, with difficulty, from lack of practice, thinking that reading was a "fancy" skill, one that "didn't put bread in your mouth!" At least, that's what Selma said to Glory every time she saw Glory with her head in a "foolish book". (And, those reading times, for Glory, were few since her chores kept her busy almost from the time she rose in the morning, till the time she dropped, exhausted, onto her pallet in the back of Mahogany House's big kitchen.
Glory scowled, "That Pierre is a rotten son-of-a-bitch!." she said, in her soft lispy voice. That lisp made anything Glory said sound not at all serious, and even had folks laughing outright at her. Naturally, this made Glory's shyness worse, worse than ever.
Yvonne put Shortbread down on the porch floor and the puppy waddled off. "Hush, now, Glory! You better not let your mama catch you talking like that!"
"I know... She'll say it's trashy. But, --- Pierre IS a-son-of-a-bitch! You saw Charlezza's poor face! Doc Blake says her eye may not ever even look the same! It's all dragged down! And, --- and, Charlezza says her seeing out of that eye is real bad too!"
"I know. I know!" Yvonne chewed her lip.
Glory slammed her palm down on the porch floor. "I, --- I, --- I wish that Pierre Ozanne and all men like him, --- I wish they were all dead!"
Yvonne gasped. "You better not let anybody but me hear you say that! Don't you ever say that again! You know what Mama Lorraine says, --- "Some words have power like knives!"
Glory squinted her light green eyes, "I thought you don't believe in, --- in no hoodoo."
"You mean magical words?"
Flory just looked stubborn, lifted her chin. "Did I say anything about hoodoo?" Yvonne put her hands on her hips. "But, are you still going to see Mama Lorraine in her shop over there on Bourbon Street, the one behind the red silk curtain of 'Tippy-Tops's Bar'?"
Glory lifted her chin even higher. "So what if I am? Mama Lorraine's real interesting... She, --- she knows PLENTY OF THINGS!
"I'm sure she does, but they're forbidden things, Glory! Your mother has warned and warned you about hoodoo! You know Mama Lorraine and her brother Philo are root doctors! They do a lot of magic, and not all their magic is of the 'good" kind, either!"
"Black magic,.. I KNOW! I KNOW!"
"You REALLY know, Glory?'
"Mama Lorraine and Papa Philo are, are,--- they go to church every Sunday! And, their brothers Trust and Truth go with them, --- uh, the older twin brothers, --- the whole family goes, every single Sunday!"
"Now, you know, Glory, that hoodoo, and voodoo have strong connections to the Catholic church! The fact that they go to church doesn't mean a thing! Some of the nastiest people I know are very regular church goers!"
"You mean like Sophia Mc Finney and Hestie Hunter."
"Oh, you know them too..."
"Ha, --- who don't who lives here? Miss Lulu had the police chasing them away from the front step of this house more than once, with their yelling and sermonizing, ---, messing with us!"
Yvonne laughed. "You remember when Iona hung out the window bare-breast and waved her nipples at them!"
"And, Hestie and Sophia took out a complaint at the police station..."
"...Which Chief Of Police Vern O' Grady totally ignored..."
Well, fooling around, annoying stiff-butt ladies is just something we do... It's kinda fun, in a way,,, But, --- Mama Lorraine's daughter, Nayelle; they call her Nonnie. She's some serious scary! She's got that corn-yellow hair and wild-ass blue eyes!"
"Glory, --- your mouth!"
"Well... I never seen a mixed person with eyes like that! Mama Lorraine says she's 'special," meaning she's, --- she's 'touched'! She's real light too, light as a white person, with that pinky skin!"
"So?... I'm light like that."
"But, you got brown eyes!"
"And, your's are pale green. So what? Maybe, --- well... She's probably just an albino."
"I don't know! That little girl is real, REAL strange, the way she looks at you! It's real, real spooky!"
"I read that albinos have poor eyesight, often. That's all. The sunshine bothers them a lot.""
"I KNOW!"
"You do?... You keep saying you do KNOW , --- BUT, you DON'T KNOW!... It sounds like you're very, very superstitious, Glory! Me, --- I believe in the power of knowledge, and words, --- in books, the wise things recorded in books, --- not in a bunch of silly folk magic!"
"Oh, right." Glory nodded, jumping up. "Right. Sure, --- wise words, in books... Words sure are powerful, Yvonne! That's what I always say, --- always!"
Yvonne screwed up her face, as if she didn't believe Glory, for one minute. And, behind her skinny back Glory's fingers were crossed, a sign that she had no intention of changing her mind about how she felt about the rotten Pierre Ozanne, or men like him, and the usefulness of magic.
--- Copyright by Antoinette Beard/Sorelle Sucere, 2021.
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