The flatness of the land edged into an incline, so I found myself walkin’ uphill. More sounds. Cars honking, people shouting or laughing, more bass booming. A cacophony I couldn’t decipher.
When I reached the top of the hill, I stood there. Not stunned so much as puzzled. I looked down on a bustling city. Buses, cars, big stores with neon signs, power lines, and people walkin’ on sidewalks, talkin’ to themselves. Too many sights and sounds in this place. Giant commercial advertisements filled whole sides of tall buildings. One of which I still can’t hardly believe. If I was stunned at any point during this trip, it was when I saw that advertisement. The words said “Lancôme Paris,” and the girl on the poster? She was as dark as licorice! Her hair was cut short and nappy. She was gorgeous. I’d never thought of skin that dark or hair short and tight as gorgeous before. Her head was about the size of a Cadillac on the side a that tall, tall building, and people just passed her by. Like it was no big thing. Like they see gorgeous Negro girls the color of midnight on signs everyday!
This strange, familiar place. A nondescript block of a building displayed a gaudy yellow sign that said POPEYES, but it looked like a place for food, not a movie house where you might watch the cartoon. Then I understood, though I couldn’t understand. Not really. This Popeyes was where Lowcountry Records stood just yesterday.
This was my town, and I didn’t recognize it.
“Are you okay?”
I just about fell down that hill, I was so startled by another voice! There was a girl sittin’ on the grass below me, and I’m certain she just scared ten years offa my life. Had she been there the whole time? No idea.
“Yeah,” I told her. “I’m okay.”
She gazed up at me for a bit. Long enough for me to realize that somethin’ was off about her. For one thing, she was wearin’ denim jeans like a farmer, and sneakers, but she didn’t look like she’d been runnin’ anywhere or doin’ any sports. Her shirt was purple with what looked like the words to a poem written on it in silver. DREAM IF YOU CAN A COURTYARD, AN OCEAN OF VIOLETS IN BLOOM. Somethin’ like that. Pretty. At the bottom it said REST IN POWER. She had these little white things in her ears with wires connected to a tiny box. At first I thought she looked like a martian, but then I wondered if the white things were some kinda fancy hearin’ aids and I felt bad.
“Is your name Evalene?” she asked me.
“Yes.”
“I know you.”
That’s when I finally figured out the oddest thing about her: she looked like me. A lot like me. Well, me if I dressed like a hobo. I thought she might be a cousin I’d never met. A close cousin.
She stood up then, right next to me. Almost the same height, but she was a shade taller.
“Do you think we have the power to alter the direction of our lives?” she asked me.
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Good. That might make things easier for me.”
“What?”
“I apologize, but I have to do what they tell me,” she said.
“Do what? Who?”
She grabbed my shoulders and flipped me around so I was facing back the way I came. Only it was not the way I came. My heart leapt into my mouth, and loud cackling laughter danced on the air. Flames. Trees burning. Meat… flesh burning. And all these shapes. Foggy shapes. Women. Haints, of course. They all laughed like witches from a child’s worst nightmare.
“Evalene!” one of them screeched.
I shut my eyes in a vain attempt to make them go away. I opened my eyes, and not only had they not gone away, one of them had taken the place of my weird friend-cousin. She dug her talons into my shoulder, and the sensation was pain and arctic cold.
I tried to turn to see her face, but when I did, I swear to God, her head started spinnin’ like a top! Then her body did the same thing. She was impossible for my eyes to perceive.
“Notre destinée se rencontre fréquemment dans les chemins mêmes que nous prenons pour l’éviter,” she hissed.
I’d heard that sentence before but couldn’t place where.
“What does it mean?” I dared to ask.
“Don’t you know? ‘We meet our destiny in the very paths we take to avoid it,’ ignorant girl.” She laughed. And the others laughed behind her and none of them had faces and the fire roared in my ears.
“Take what’s yours, Evalene. You know you want it,” said another one.
“Want what?” I asked. I don’t know how I said anything, my teeth were chatterin’ so hard from her icy grip.
“Jubilation. There’s only one way.”
“What is it?”
“You got a taste of it at the prison, remember? Happy-happy you were, when you thought that man would die in your presence. Happy-happy you’ll be again, and it’s going to huuuuuurrrrt….”
I didn’t want to hear any more. Somehow I broke free from her subzero grasp, and I ran. From the sky, a thousand voices shouted down to me: “THERE’S ONLY ONE WAY.”
I kept running. I ran like I’ve never run in my life, and I had no idea where I was runnin’ to, but I had to get as far away from them as I could. I saw a gorge comin’ up ahead and there was no way around it, so I held
