I could see daylight outside the single window, but the sun that shone through the glass had the soft-focus filter of late afternoon. I got up, found my boots and carried them with me through the quiet house.
Essie was on the front porch piecing quilt blocks while Rhapsody played kick ball with some kids in the road. She was smaller and younger than the others, but I had a feeling she could more than hold her own.
Essie glanced up and gave me a once-over before going back to her work.
“Bettuh?”
“Yes, thank you. I don’t know what happened.”
“Sun hot down yuh for town gals.”
“No, it wasn’t that. I work out in the heat all the time. What was in that tea?”
“Nutt’n’ bad in dat tea. I mek it muhself.”
I wasn’t sure that was much comfort.
“Somethin’ else be drainin’ you,” she said with a knowing look.
I thought instantly of Devlin.
“Essie, can we talk about Shani now?”
Her hands were steady as she pulled the needle through the fabric. “Dat baby can’t git no rest.”
“Why not?”
“She dont want tuh leave huh daddy. She can’t pass on ’til he let huh go.”
I felt a pang deep inside as I gazed down at her.
I remembered the first time I’d seen Devlin’s ghosts—the way Shani had barely left his side.
“I don’t think he knows she’s here,” I said softly.
“He know.” Essie’s gray head lifted as she placed a hand over her heart. “In yuh, he know.”
I closed my eyes. “What does she want from me?”
“Fo’ you tuh tell him.”
“I can’t do that.”
Essie’s troubled gaze met mine. “Mebbe not yet you can’t, but dat day uh-comin’. Din he haffuh mek his choice.”
“What choice?”
“’Tween the livin’ and the dead.”
I turned and stared out over the yard, where Rhapsody and her friends were still playing ball. It was a remarkably normal sight.
Essie rose from her chair and taking both my hands in hers, pressed something into my palm.
I stared down at the tiny cloth pouch tied with a blue ribbon. “What is it?”
“Put it underneet yo’ pillow at night. Keep dem bad spirits away.” She pulled a packet of what looked to be dried herbs from her apron pocket and placed it in my other hand. “Life Everlastin’. Cures wut ails you.”
“Thank you.”
She made a shooing motion with her hand. “Now go. Somebody at home be worryin’.”
There was no one to worry, but I didn’t argue. I sat down on the top step and pulled on my boots. When I stood, Essie cast a worried glance at the sky.
“Mek haste, gal. Sundown uh-comin’.”
Eighteen
Rhapsody and her friends walked me to the cemetery, but they would go no farther than the entrance. I moved alone through the modest headstones, pausing at Mariama’s and Shani’s graves to glance back. Rhapsody stood on the side of the road, staring after me. Something in her anxious expression reminded me of the conversation I’d overheard between her and Essie.
A chill settled over me, followed by a sinking sensation.
Then I scoffed at myself for taking her words so literally. I was making too much of the whole thing. Essie might have the ability to cure certain ailments with her roots and berries and her Life Everlasting, but that didn’t mean she had the gift of second sight.
Nevertheless, I picked up my pace, anxious to be well away from the graveyard before dusk. The sun still hovered at treetop level, spangling down through the oak leaves like long streamers of glitter. I had plenty of time, but already I could feel the budding prickles of unease that always accompanied twilight.
Pressing the remote to unlock the car doors, I scrambled down a small embankment and jumped the ditch to the road. But as I approached the SUV, my steps slowed and I swore under my breath.
The front tire on the driver’s side was completely flat. Not an uncommon occurrence on the back roads I traveled, which was why I always took care to keep my spare aired up and my jack working properly.
Tamping down my impatience and just a tinge of panic, I hauled around the necessary equipment and set to work, the light at my back.
The lug nuts were always the hardest part for me. Each one took extra effort to loosen. By the time I finally got the car jacked up and the tire off, the sun had dipped below the treetops.
Somewhere in the woods behind me, a loon wailed, the eerie sound running a cold finger up my spine.
Feeling exposed and vulnerable with my back to the trees, I positioned the spare onto the wheel studs, fumbling the lug nuts in my haste. Then I lowered the jack. Tightened the lugs. Glanced over my shoulder. All clear.
But I heard the loon again, a tremolo this time, which Papa always said indicated agitation or fear.
Throwing everything into the back of the SUV, I climbed behind the wheel and left the same way I’d come in.
The trees on either side of the gravel road grew inward, creating an impenetrable tent dripping with Spanish moss. My headlights came on automatically, and now and then I saw the gleam of wary eyes from the underbrush, the scurry of some small creature along the ditches.
As much as I wanted to be away from the cemetery, away from Essie’s warning, I took it slow over the bumpy road. But once I reached the highway, I stomped on the accelerator. With every mile, the sun sank lower, flaming out as it slid toward the marshes, leaving a comet’s tail of gilded crimson just above the treetops.
I’d gone less than five miles when I heard a telltale thump.
This could
Fighting back panic, I tried to assess the situation.
I could keep driving, get as far down the road as I possibly could before the tire came completely off the rim. Or I could turn around and try to make it to Hammond, which was probably seven or eight miles the other way.
From the sound of the flapping rubber, I doubted I’d get very far in either direction.
Hobbling to the shoulder, I parked and checked my phone for a signal. A solitary bar flashed in and out.
I got out, climbed onto the hood and then scrambled up to the roof where I turned in a slow circle, my eyes glued to the signal.
The light was fading fast. All around me, utter stillness. The hush of twilight. That end-of-day moment when the ghosts came out.
Another bar!
Quickly, I placed a call to my roadside service and managed to ramble off the directions before the signal faded. Whether a tow truck would be forthcoming, I had no idea.
I kept turning, hoping for a stronger signal. As I finished a second rotation, I saw a flicker of movement just beyond a row of trees.
The hair bristled at the back of my neck, but I didn’t outwardly react. Instead, I made another circle,
