Ruby (5 page)

Ma Tante suddenly opened her eyes. “Don’t stahr at me boy. I bite.” Then, “Come heah.” Her eyes caught him, like a hook through a fish’s gills. He wobbled over.

“Your name.”

“E-Ephram Jennings.”

Ma Tante’s eyes gentled. “Ah. Otha’s boy.”

“Yes’m.”

“You got her eyes.”

Ephram let his head drop, so Ma Tante picked it back up again, his chin resting in the crook of her hand.

“Hope you ain’t got her luck.” Ephram wanted to run out of the room, but something in the midnight face held him. She touched the back of his head, her fingernails scraping softly along his neck.

“You ain’t nothing but a wishbone. See there?” She touched the base of his skull—tapped at a small bump. “That say you lives on wishes.”

She pressed into the nape. “Thing ’bout wishbones? They got to snap in two to give up they wish. And somebody always lose. But still …”

Ephram felt his heart quicken as she stared hard into him.
Little dots of perspiration bloomed along his forehead and temple as she twisted her face into his. Then Ma Tante turned away, shook her head, sucked at her teeth and said, “Girl, where my tea?”

Maggie clanged and fussed by the stove. “Almost, Ma’am.”

Ephram remained beside Ma Tante.

She suddenly turned upon him almost snarling, “Why you standing there?”

He cleared his throat. “I—thought you wasn’t through talkin’ Ma’am.”

“You got money?” she snapped.

“No’m.”

“Well come back when you do. I done give you what you git for free. You pay if you want more.”

Ephram stood still. His ears hot with shame.

“You want tea?” Ma Tante asked him.

Ephram shook his head no.

“What you say?”

“No’m.”

“Margaret, fix him some. And the girl too.”

Ephram slipped back to his seat and tried not to look too hard at anything. Maggie slid a bowl of hot tea across to him. He followed the steam up and spied an entire wall of the hut. Besides the knives it was stocked with shelves upon shelves of mason jars, some filled with small bones, others with brightly colored powders. There were dried frog legs, snake rattles, apple cores, fuzzy rabbits’ feet. Many jars were stuffed with herbs and roots. One seemed to be full of children’s teeth, a huge glass urn was full of black raven or crow feathers, another with bits of what looked like gristle.

An ember popped in the oven. Ephram let a shiver take hold
of his spine. He knew he had to leave, but how to maneuver Ruby out of this place? Maggie handed him a steaming bowl of tea for the girl. The smell was strong, different than his. He felt a twang of concern as he passed it to Ruby, but was soothed by the sweet of her smile as she took the cup.

R
UBY SMILED
at the chocolate boy as he handed her the cup. She liked the way he grinned all droopy when she did. She smelled the hot tea. It was as black dark as the old lady. The left side of her dress, closest to the stove, was warming against her skin, but her shoes were squishy. She softly pried them off with her toes. She sipped and saw the boy Ephram frown, and her Maggie give Ma Tante a nervous look. Ruby tried to trace everything with her eyes so she could tell her friend Tanny later on.

Maggie pointed scared-like, “And that there’s Ruby Bell, the one I tole you ’bout.”

“I see.” Ma Tante breathed out a curl of smoke.

Ruby looked first to the left. Then the right. Then settled, like a divining rod, into the woman’s face.

Ma Tante hissed at her, “Drink.”

Ruby blew across the lake of tea, then took a big sip. It was bitter. Still she took more. When the cup was almost drained Ma Tante reached over, took it and studied its well. Her eyes like coal set in butter.

“You got company.” Was what she said.

Ruby felt her breath coming in shallow bursts.

“You was born with a glaze over you face. Come out the womb with the white gel what let you see into the gray world. Yes?”

Ruby just barely nodded in agreement.

Ma Tante reached out and grabbed Ruby’s right hand. She
turned over her palm and pointed. “You got da mystic star. There.” She took her other hand. “There too. Lord child you ain’t nothing but a doorway. How many haints you count at your heels?”

Ruby stopped dead. It was the first time anyone had seen. It meant she couldn’t pretend it was a game anymore, or a piece of a bad dream. Finally she answered, “Three.”

“Your count be off. And more on the way.”

Maggie and Ephram stayed still, but Ruby began trembling from somewhere near her heart.

Ma Tante’s voice quivered deep and quiet. “Child, they ride you like a chariot ride a horse.” She spit like popping grease into the girl’s hand. Ruby felt frozen in place. Ephram pushed his seat back and stood. Maggie stayed strangely quiet.

Ma Tante leaned into Ruby, staring, fingers digging into her wrist. Ruby could smell the old woman’s pipe breath as she came close. And something that smelled like rotten meat. “Legba, Legba,
libérez cette enfant de douze mauvais esprits
. Legba, Legba,
libérez cette petite fille, s’il vous plaît
.” Ma Tante drew back her hand and slapped Ruby across the cheek.

Ma Tante explained to no one in particular, “Sometime they need a good exsufflation to make them leave the livin’.” She spoke to Ephram and Maggie, “Y’all go outside. I got work to do.”

Ruby started crying. With one frightened step, Ephram put himself between Ma Tante and Ruby.

Through her tears Ruby saw Ma Tante look at him as one would a gnat. “This child gots a powerful hex
sur son esprit
, done by peoples who knows how. Make her flypaper for all manner of traveling haint. May already be too late. Now get.”

Ruby watched Ephram give way. She couldn’t stop crying, her
face slick. Even still, Maggie took Ephram by the hand and led him outside. Leaving her alone with the knives, the pulled teeth and the yellow eyes.

M
AGGIE AND
Ephram stepped onto the damp porch and caught the tail end of the rain. The sky was an ashen pink. Ephram heard Ruby’s hollow sobs and put his hand back on the doorknob.

“Where you think you going?” Maggie edged.

“Inside.”

Maggie ducked under his arm, leaned against the door and said, “Nah-uh you ain’t.”

“I is.”

“That right?”

Maggie squinted at him, mouth tight. Then never taking her eyes from him, she retrieved a Lucky and lit a dry match against something inside of her pocket. She breathed it in like air, then said, “Try.”

They stared at each other. Maggie, coiled tight beneath a lazy smile. Ephram trembling.

He was afraid to push past her, ashamed to sit down, so instead he asked. “Why you bring us here?”

“I didn’t bring you.”

“Why you bring her?”

“She needed bringing. Now shut your black ass up and go.”

Ephram reluctantly released the doorknob. Ruby’s sobs were softer now, blending in with the last bit of rain. Ephram left the door, looked towards the gate and instead sat on the damp step, his face burning—a red shame staining the brown of his skin.

Maggie sat beside him. The trees, the fence, the little glass
bowls, everything around them was shining and wet. Maggie blew clouds of smoke into the sky.

She picked a bit of tobacco leaf from her tongue, and said softly, “You don’t look nothing like him.”

In the silence, she answered for him, “Yo daddy, the Reverend Jennings. Walk like him, stink like him, talk like him.” Maggie turned to face him, bitter. Then, “You best do like he say and stay way from round here. I ain’t ’bout to let no harm come to Ruby … not while I’m yet livin’.”

E
PHRAM FELT
a sudden, unspoken fury crackling in his throat like hot grease. Some of it popped, “ ’Cept leave some old lady to beat on her.”

Maggie cut her eyes against his face, her fists tight in her lap. “Beatin’ ain’t the worse can happen to a body.” The orange tip of her cigarette devoured the white. “ ’Sides she ain’t no concern of yours. I looks after Ruby.”

They both sat in silence. But Ephram answered her behind his eyes. No words just loose thoughts floating like the tea leaves caught in his teeth:
Girls don’t look after girls
.

Maggie answered as if he had spoken aloud, “You more girl than I’ll ever be and I’m more man than you ever gone grow into.” Maggie scanned Ephram from top to toe and let out a guffaw.

He looked at her. The cock of her head, the way she threw her bony shoulders back and puffed her chest out like a rooster. This horrible girl seemed to think she was somebody’s boyfriend. Ephram swallowed the thought as another steamed into his temples:
Ain’t no way to magnetize when it’s the same between the thighs
. It was something he’d heard his daddy say low to Gubber’s Uncle Clem. Both men had chuckled into their collars, but neither
Gubber nor Ephram had known what it meant. Now the understanding made Ephram feel sick.

Maggie sneered. “Now get yourself home for I whoop you into next week Sunday school.”

Ephram didn’t move his head one inch. He sat still as earth, afraid to swallow his spit.

Maggie let out an angle of smoke. Then, quick as a rattler, she punched Ephram across his jaw. Stunned, he felt her pinkie finger like a stone as it cut into his neck, her ring finger gouging just under the jaw. Blood collected where his molar met the lining of his cheek. He tried to swing with his right but she was on top of him, cigarette pinched between her tight lips. He tumbled down the porch stairs. She sprung after him like a cat. Ephram tried to block his head from Maggie’s assault, but she was in high gear. There were no words.

From inside the house they heard Ruby scream. Then Ma Tante’s voice booming:
“Lâchez! Lâchez!”
Maggie stopped for a second, fist midair. She and Ephram turned in the direction of the door. Then Ephram tried to push up to run to the house, as Maggie smashed into his nose with a hard left.

She looked straight into the boy’s eyes. He was easy to polish. Poke into his right eye, pop against his left ear. Solid like she used on Rooster Rankin. The boy didn’t know the first thing about blocking. Skin on wet skin. Smack into his lip. Blood between the crack of her fingers. Mud everywhere. She heard her Ruby cry out again. Her Ruby.
Pam!
Jab into the boy’s nose. More blood.
Pam!
Same hit again. It sprayed against her lip and cheek. His weakness made her angry, his softness lit a fire under her lungs. The cigarette never leaving her lips, she puffed deep and breathed dragon
smoke into the wet air.
Pam!
Against the boy’s ear. Teeth. The next hit skidded on blood and bent back his nose.
Pam!
Maggie felt something like tears squeezing out of her eyes.
Pam!
She knocked them away with a blow to his chin.

Suddenly, the door of the house shook. Glass tinkled against wood. Ma Tante’s words were blades cutting wood and nails and air:
“Relâchez cette enfant … Maintenant!”

Right cut. Upper cut. Full on. Maggie would not let herself look towards the door. Not even when she heard whimpering on the other side. He was almost finished, a few more and he would be out cold.

Ephram squinted at Maggie through the blood in his eyes. The world was fists and red and the orange of her cigarette, but somehow, he caught her fist with both hands. Brought it to his mouth and bit hard. He saw her draw in deeper on the cigarette. And then she kicked.

Ephram felt something rise up inside of him. Something brewed and steeped and lining the edges of his soul. It entered his left shoulder then jolted down his arm and shot into Maggie’s chest.
Pow!
It landed firm and back she went. Surprised. Cigarette still tight. Orange tip drawing brighter as she hopped back and kicked Ephram in the side. The man boot connecting before the foot inside brought pain. He grabbed her foot and down she fell again. He jumped on top of her, his blood sliding into the narrow part in her lips wetting the cigarette. Maggie flipped him over. They were tumbling into the small mounds of earth, tangling the red flags. Ephram shot off three crunches into her ribs. Only one made a clear connect. Maggie’s cigarette broke off, the orange dying in wet dirt.

Inside the house, Ma Tante gathered Ruby in her arms amid the clutter of glass and stone. The child’s eyes fluttered white. Ruby tried to speak but a low croak hissed from her mouth. Ma Tante held out a painted knife to an invisible something in the gloom.
“Passez cette enfant! Trouvez un autre cheval à monter!”
Then Ma Tante began speaking in tongues, spit arching from her mouth into the darkness.
“Schoon Netwaye li Tiszta Bersihkan Garbitu Bersihkan …”
God’s gibberish lifted and filled the room.

Outside Maggie rounded back against Ephram. She held the nap of his hair and hit his jaw with all of her might. Ephram began speaking in tongues. Strange words muttered into the gray world. Maggie paused for a moment. Leaned in.
Pam!
Ephram hit her face. He was on top of her. He crashed into her head. Her neck. The mud. Maggie had rolled away just in time. He heard a hairline snap as his fingers crashed into stone.