New Orleans before?'
I shook my head.
'Oh,' she squealed, and squeezed my hand. 'You're in for a bundle of fun. You've got to tell me where you'll be and I'll send you an invitation to come hear me sing as soon as I get hired, okay?'
'I don't know where I'll be yet,' I had to confess. That slowed down her flood of excitement. She pulled herself back in her seat and scrutinized me with a curious smile on her face.
'What do you mean? I thought you said you're going to visit relatives,' she said.
'I am . . . I . . . just don't know their address.' I allowed my eyes to meet hers briefly before they fled to stare almost blindly at the passing scenery, which right now was a blur of dark silhouettes and an occasional lit window of a solitary house.
'Well, honey, New Orleans is a bit bigger than downtown Houma,' she said, laughing. 'You got their phone number at least, don'tcha?'
I turned back and shook my head. Numbness tingled in my fingertips, perhaps because I had my fingers locked so tightly together.
Her smile wilted and she narrowed her turquoise eyes suspiciously as her gaze shifted to my small bag and then back to me. Then she nodded to herself and sat forward, convinced she knew it all.
'You're runnin' away from home, ain'tcha?' she asked. I bit down on my lower lip, but I couldn't stop my eyes from tearing over. I nodded.
'Why?' she asked quickly. 'You can tell Annie Gray, honey. Annie Gray can keep a secret better than a bank safe.'
I swallowed my tears and vanquished my throat lump so I could tell her about Grandmere Catherine, her death, Grandpere Jack's moving in and his quickly arranging for my marriage to Buster. She listened quietly, her eyes sympathetic until I finished. Then they blazed furiously.
'That old monster,' she said. 'He be Papa La Bas,' she muttered.
'Who?'
'The devil himself,' she declared. 'You got anything that belongs to him on you?'
'No,' I replied. 'Why?'
'Fixin',' she said angrily. 'I'd cast a spell on him for you. My great-Grandmere, she was brought here a slave, but she was a mamaloa.' Voodoo queen, and she hand me down lots of secrets,' she whispered, her eyes wide, her face close to mine. '
'What's that mean?'
'Part of a voodoo prayer. If I had a snip of your Grandpere's hair, a piece of his clothing, even an old sock . . . he never be bothering you again,' she assured me, her head bobbing.
'That's all right. I'll be fine now,' I said, my voice no more than a whisper either.
She stared at me a moment. The white part of her eyes looked brighter, almost as if there were two tiny fires behind each orb. Finally, she nodded again, patted my hand reassuringly and sat back.
'You be all right, you just don't lose that black cat bone I gave you,' she told me.
'Thank you.' I let out a breath. The bus bounced and turned on the highway. Ahead of us, the road became brighter as we approached more lighted and populated areas en route to the city that now loomed before me like a dream.
'I tell you what you do when we arrive,' Annie said. 'You go right to the telephone booth and look up your relatives in the phone book. Besides their telephone number, their address will be there. What's their name?'
'Dumas,' I said.
'Dumas. Oh, honey, there's a hundred Dumas in the book, if there's one. Know any first names?'
'Pierre Dumas.'
'Probably at least a dozen or so of them,' she said, shaking her head. 'He got a middle initial?'
'I don't know,' I said.
She thought a moment.
'What else do you know about your relatives, honey?'
'Just that they live in a big house, a mansion,' I said. Her eyes brightened again.
'Oh. Maybe the Garden District then. You don't know what he does for a living?'
I shook my head. Her eyes turned suspicious as one of her eyebrows lifted quizzically.
'Who's Pierre Dumas? Your cousin? Your uncle?'
'No. My father,' I said. Her mouth gaped open and her eyes widened with surprise.
'Your father? And he never set eyes on you before?'
I shook my head. I didn't want to go through the whole story, and thankfully, she didn't ask for details. She simply crossed herself and muttered something before nodding.
'I'll look in the phone book with you. My Grandmere told me, I have a mama's vision and can see my way through the dark and find the light. I'll help you,' she added, patting my hand. 'Only, one thing must be to make it work,' she added.
