didn’t pay much attention. My stomach had started churning. I was sure that I was going to vomit, but Momma Jo put her big hand against my chest and pressed, then released, then pressed.
She said, ‘Shhhh, baby. Be quiet now,’ so softly that I could barely hear her over Ernestine.
I laid there and let her breathe for me. I could feel her heart pounding from a vein throbbing in her thigh against my leg. Ernestine was chanting Clifton’s name over and over. Momma Jo’s hand was pressing down and letting go. I closed my eyes, wishing my mind back home.
‘My daddy s’pected Domaque of takin’ me,’ she said. ‘An* Dom was worried. He brought a old woman he called his auntie out t’take care’ame ‘cause he din’t come out too much, he was so scared that one’a daddy’s friends would catch on. An’ Luvia, that was his auntie, started t’teach me about herbs an’ other things.’
‘That how you become a witch?’ My voice cracked; there was the taste of bile in my throat.
‘It was Domaque made me a witch.’
‘Oh-ohhhhh,’ Ernestine softly sighed.
Momma Jo pressed my chest, then she moved her hand down over my belly to press my thing; then she pressed my chest again. She did that over and over while she said:
‘Then one day Daddy shot ‘im. He got tired’a waitin’ an’ he shot Dom down. He came after Dom with a shotgun fulla buckshot. He tole Dom t’bring me back but Dom turned his back an’ started walkin’. He din’t say nuthin’; not where I was or if he had taken me. An’ Daddy kilt ‘im. Luvia tole me about it an’ she got his body an’ brung it out here t’me. She knew how wild Dom was fo’me, she knew how Dom died rather than t’hurt my daddy. She said that if I kept a piece’a that love wit’ me then I’d be powerful an’ my baby would be healthy, male, an’ strong.’
She worked her hand down into my pants as Ernestine spoke my mind from behind the curtain.
‘I cut off his head an’ put it in a barrel’a salt fo’ five years. Dom Jr. was born an’ Luvia passed on. Daddy died.’ She squeezed me hard when she said that. ‘An’ here we is’
Her kisses were salty and thick.
What I remember most are the smells: her mouth and her musky armpits, the strong smell that almost burned from between her legs. Her feet smelled like earth along with the weak scent of manure. She tasted of salt. And after Ernestine quieted down, the only sound was the deep breathing and the rise and fall of Momma Jo’s body. The sound filled the room like God watching from some dark corner.
I didn’t want to do it but Momma Jo was strong; she clenched her arms and legs around me so powerfully that my ‘No’ was crushed down to ‘Yes.’ She whispered in my ear what she wanted and I lost my mind for a while; lost it to her desire.
After a long while I found myself pressing down hard on her and yelling something, but I can’t remember what it was. I felt pain in my head and realized that she was pulling my hair. She was yelling too, ‘You done, Easy! It’s over...’
‘No,’ I cried.
‘Shhhh, baby, it’s okay. You too excited to know you come.’
When I came to myself and realised what I’d done I turned away from her.
‘That’s okay,’ she whispered, rubbing my butt with her palm. ‘You already loved me enough, baby. Sleep now.’ She was quivering against my back as I fell asleep.
Mouse and I were standing in the swamp and mosquitoes were all over me. My crotch was the worst bit, and I scratched until it was raw. Mouse told me that I was going to scratch it right off, then he started laughing.
‘If you stop scratchin’,’ he said, ‘they stop bitin’ you, fool!’
The wind was blowing in a loud rush all around. I turned to see Momma Jo making the wind with her breathing. She came up to me like a big cloud, and made like to kiss me but instead she breathed down my throat. It was a powerful smell but I couldn’t pull away from her — she was too strong.
I was pushed to the ground. She was so heavy that I could hear my bones snap, one at a time. At every crack Ernestine moaned.
Momma came up with my butcher’s knife. I knew she was going to cut off my head to make her young again. I wanted to yell for Mouse to come save me but I couldn’t catch my wind without her breath in me.
We were all at the dinner table. Daddy and my mother and two little girls that I had never seen. A big gray stallion was heaped on the table.
It had been roasted with potatoes and carrots, and it smelled like Momma Jo’s pussy. My mother (who was a big woman) stood up and came toward me. All I could see was yards and yards of her gray plaid dress coming at me like a freighter coming into the Gulf.
‘Easy! Easy!’ Mouse was whispering in my ear. ‘Wake up, man! We gotta go! Com’on!’
I was sick in my heart. I moaned out loud, and Mouse said, ‘Shut up. You gonna wake’er.’
Mouse pulled me by the arm but I was too weak to move. I could see that he was wearing a long gray coat.
‘Lemme ‘lone,’ I said.
‘Easy, this ain’t no time t’play.’
‘Raymond?’ Her voice came from somewhere in the dark room. ‘Raymond, that you?’
‘Yeah, Jo. I come t’collect Easy.’
‘What time is it?’
‘It’s still dark.’
‘When you be back?’
