]CHAPTER 18 - PART 2
Edgar sat on the edge of his chair to listen to the old woman’s tale of long ago. 
 “T’was de summer of ’93. [2.5] Lettie been conjurin’ for some time by then. A bad influenza epidemic hit these parts and ole Lettie, she saw it comin’. One night we all sittin’ around the fire. Outta nowhere this ole hound starts bayin’ at the moon. Well Lettie, she perk up like she seen somethin’ the rest of us didn’. I say, ‘Lettie, whatch’all doin’?’ and she say ‘I’m waitin’ for it.’ I say ‘waitin’ for what?’ She say: ‘if a dog turns on his back and howls’, ‘tis a sure sign of death. [2]. No sooner do she say them words when sure enough that ole hound, he start rollin’ wit his belly to the moon.
 “That same dog dropped dead before my very eyes. Some folks say there ain't no sich things as gostes, but I know otherwise. I know there is good haints and bad. [3] That’s when we knew Kifo were upon us.”
 “Kifo?” 
 “Oh, he come by way o’ many names. Baron Samedi, Brother Dead. Hit us hard that summer.”
Eddy’s eyes widened as Eudocia continued her story. 
“I had a younger brother once. Ezra was his name. He was the strongest, healthiest man I ever known. One day my Brud were diggin’ graves for the bodies what’s stacking up and three days later; we was buryin’ him too. Can you ‘magine? My little brother, at the peak of his health, was diggin’ his own grave- don’t even know it. Oh yes, Death was upon us that summer. ’Doctors say that flu claimed 500 souls in three weeks time.”
 “500 people in three weeks?” Eddy repeated, incredulously. 
 “That 500 white folk, Eddy. Doctors don’t much count but the white folk in their newspapers. I’m tellin’ you that flu t’was far worse than 500.” 
 “I’m sorry,” replied Eddy.
 “Oh, chile, that ain’t even the story,” she continued. “So, right in the thick of this epidemic, my mentor Lettie, she delivers a baby at the cabins. T’was the first baby born here in some time. Everyone was celebratin’. We took it as a sign that things were turnin’ ‘round. So when that little baby took ill, an’ die, well, it was a sad day indeed. 
“That poor mother was wailin’ in agony each an’ every night for a fortnight. Then we start findin’ her wanderin’ out in the fields; say she heard her baby cryin’, but like I say ain’t no other baby around these parts. Folks thought she was plumb crazy with grief. But then… other folks start hearin’ that baby cry well in the night too.”
Tingles crawled up Edgar’s arm. 
“Did you hear it?” He asked.
“Indeed, I did. Coupla times as a matter of fact. We all did. It was somethin’ to give you the shivers. Folks come outta their cabins, askin’ one ‘nother did they hear it too. Blaming it on one another as a prank. Weren’t no prank. We knew that when we all heard it standin’ together on that porch.”
 “Maybe it was an animal,” Eddy offered.  
 “’T’weren't no animal, Eddy. T’was that baby’s lost soul.”
A shadow in the corner caught Eddy’s eye. His imagination went wild. 
The fire crackled. The calico cat on the hearth purred.
“Did anyone go looking for it? The ghost of the child, I mean.”
“Lands go. Would you? Lettie always say if you hear a voice call you and you are not sure it is really a person, do not go answering’ because it may be your own spirit calling’ out and if that’s so, then you’re just inviting in Brother Dead.[4]
Eudocia waited for Eddy to finish writing before she continued. 
 “Well, long ‘bout dis time Lettie is summ’ed in to help by the family of this poor distraught mother. One night, she take them black cat bones, and wrap them up in a blanket t’was that baby’s. Then, long after we all go to bed, Lettie sit on the porch hummin’ a lullaby; rocking that blanket o’ bones. Them ghostly cries got louder an’ louder-- like they was comin’ closer to the cabins. Folks were petrified and rightly so. I know I was. No one went outside.  Only Lettie was out there, all the while singin’ that lullaby. Well, them cries got so loud we start coverin’ our ears in agony. Then, jus’ when we think we gonna see Brother Dead himself, it all stop dead silent!!” 
The room was eerily silent. 
Eddy’s pencil broke. Already he had filled a thickness of his notebook, and yet he had so many more questions. 
“Lettie communicated with the spirit?”
“Nah. She was just the vessel. T’were them bones that did it.”
Eager to calm his anxious heart, Eddy switched subjects. 
“Can you tell me a little bit about the relationship between Lettie and, Juliet’s mother, Judith? I’ve heard that Lettie’s rootwork got in the way of their relationship. Is that true?” 
Eddy immediately regretted the prying question. 
“Got in the way? Ruined it is what it did. Lettie an’ Judith never did see eye to eye— ‘specially on conjurin’. Ole Lettie wan’ to share her secrets more than anythin’ with her only daughter, but Judith didn’t wan’ no part of it. Called it sacrilege. Girl had a mind a her own. See, her Pap come from up in the main house, an’ Judith always thought a herself as diff’ent from the rest of us. Had ideas of getting’ married; being emancipated. Damn fool girl.
“Mother and daughter, they had words. Nex’ thin’ you know, Judith start workin’ in town for the Ellis family. This long about when Juliet was born. Lettie never really got to know her own granddaughter. Broke Lettie’s heart too, not to have her kin ‘round no more. I think that’s what finally done her in. Healin’ all manner a people, an’ in the end she couldn’t mend her own family.” 
“But Lettie didn’t really practice the dark arts of these Bokors, right?”
“Nah. Had a heart of gold that one did. She good people, Lettie. Didn’ have that bad juju in her. Cai’t say that about everyone though. All’s I know is once you open up that Pandora’s box, there ain’t no goin’ back.”
 “This is so helpful. Thank you,” said Eddy. “I just have a few more questions. Can Obeah work on anyone?”
 “Ideas is a mighty powerful thin’, Eddy. You tell a man he’s gonna lose money, an’ he do. You tell a woman her sick child needs a potion, an’ she do just ‘bout anythin’ to get her hands on that medicine. But eveythin’ come with a price. Maybe that’s why I don’ go messin’ with all that magic no more. There’s a cost to doing everything’. Scares me too much. I seen some strange thin’s in my day.”
The old woman continued to stare hauntingly into the fire. “I seen thin’s move ‘cross a table. Seen a flame rise up ‘pon a spell.” She lowered her voice to a near whisper. “….and the worst of it. I seen the dead come back proper- not just the ghost.”
Eddy stopped writing mid-sentence and looked up. 
 “Oh yes. Its true. This white lady from the city. She was in terrible sorrow. Her husband die in the war of independence, couldn’t let it go. She beg Lettie to bring him back. Beg her, I say! But Lettie knew she wasn’t that powerful, so she call in that man what I told you about earlier. 
But Lettie was sorry she done so. She an’ I took that Bokor to the house where the man was lyin’ in wait. Coffin right there in the parlor. He do his magic, an’ then just like that the dead white man open his eyes right there in the coffin. Well, his wife, she start cryin’ and huggin’ on ‘im. Only he don’t say a blessed word.  Not a spark of life left in ‘im at all. T’was as if he had one foot in this world, and the other in the Beyond. That’s when I learn it just ain’t the same when they come back.”
Eddy shuffled his papers nervously, trying to shake the image of the dead coming back reanimated corpse.
 “Yes, about that,” he asked. “I wanted to ask you about the stories I used to hear down here when you would take care of me. Many of them had to do with ghosts and spirits. Do you remember?”
 “Do I ‘member?! Fools used to try un scare you children. You was…” she continued, “jes’ a lil’ thin’ you know.” [5] 
 “They be tellin’ tales ‘bout animals when I leave to fetch somethin’. When I come back, it’s all ghosts an’ wickedness. Children must be protected from such thin’s. Fillin’ your lil heads with haints and boohags.”
 “Juliet said exactly the same thing,” interrupted Eddy. “She thought it was cruel to scare us, but I believe those stories helped me understand what lies ahead after death,” he confessed. “Yes, they were scary, but there was also something about them that made me feel like my mother- my real mother- was nearby. I saw a tombstone once that read, ‘If they are with Him and He is with us, they are not far away.’” [6] Thanks to those old fables, I felt that way about my true mother. 
“I always said the dead is to be respected, jus’ same as the livin’?”
 “Yes, Ma’am.”
Eddy looked at his brass timepiece and realized he should be getting back. He threw another log on the fire for the old woman, thanked her, and began to gather his things. 
 “You cannot know how much I appreciate this, Auntie Eu. Juliet will too. She’d like to know more about her family. She is sad she wasn’t able to spend more time with you as a child too. I promised her that what I’ve heard here tonight remains in my trust forever. Just between you and me.”
 “You always a good kid. It’s sure nice to see you ‘gain, Eddy’. An’ y’all tell Juliet her basket is much ‘preciated. How’s my girl, anyway? Been a long time since I seen her.” 
 “She is doing well,” he said opening his satchel. “She’s my best friend. I tell her everything.”
 “She still dreamin’ ‘bout movin’ over seas, trying to get free? Girls’ got a dose of her Mama in her all right.”
 “What’s that?” He asked still stuffing the satchel. 
“You know, that new colony they building for freed men and women of color. The one she always goin’ on ‘bout.”
 New colony? He wondered before the epiphany hit him hard. 
“She wants to go to Monrovia?!” [7] He blurted out. The two remained in awkward silence as Eudocia realized her mistake.  
 “Oh my,” she froze. “She ain’t tol’ you.”
“Well, I’ve been quite busy as of late. I’m sure it just escaped her,” he lied. “It was a long winter, and we haven’t had the opportunity to share anything of a private nature in some time. I can assure you, it will be a favor that you fill me in so she doesn’t have to. After all, you’ve been so kind to share so much tonight.” 
 Eddy read the deliberation in the old woman’s face, followed by rationale, and finally trust. 
“’Course what I know is hear-say. I ain’t seen Juliet in many moons. But Dabney come visit me; keep me up on her. He say she keep talkin’ ‘bout that new colony; the one President Monroe is creating. Say folks up in Washington City ‘stablishin’ a place on the coast [8] for those of Free Issue [9]. Dabney say Juliet got it in her mind to do herself  one of them self-purchases, an’ get her papers. Says she’s gone start anew. Can’t say I blame the girl. Ain’t no life for her here in Virginia.” 
The pain sank in. Eddy recalled Eudocia’s description of the black cat being killed. Now it was his turn to be tortured alive.