I see a miracle.
The haze all around me ain’t just smoke. It’s them. My haints. The blurry, giggling, and frightening shadows lurking at the corners of my life since before I can remember. Here and now, I can finally see their forms and their faces clearly. These women—all women, all family—in flowing, transparent gowns tinted with violet and lavender and indigo. So many colors. My rainbow acts like a vibrant highway for them—a bridge between their world and ours.
I feel a bit of energy come back, and I’m able to dip into the clarity belt for a moment. And when I do, I see them as they left this world. The one in front has deep bruises and strangulation marks on her neck. Heavy welts across her chest. Another has burns all over her body and part of her face has melted. The one behind her shrinks in size to become a flesh-covered skeleton. She must’ve starved. They rebelled in their lives, and their rebellion scared someone so much, they tortured each of them to death. I wonder what I’ll look like when I join them. I don’t intend to find out tonight.
In defiance of their mutilated bodies, they all smile at me, and I think I smile back. This is my family, and they’re beautiful and terrifying all at the same time. Like me.
I almost laugh; I must be in some kinda delirium. And then I hear a cry come outta Clay that chills my blood.
“HELP US!” I wail. Please, God, let them help us.
Miss Athena reaches the pond, holding her chest and breathing hard. On the other side of the water there is a massive bonfire and a lynch mob dragging the boy away. Her granddaughter lies on the ground, losing consciousness.
Miss Athena would never make it across the pond in time. But she sees them too. An unending chain of haints hovering above all their heads.
I’m here, she calls to her granddaughter, who’s too weak to reply.
Miss Athena must attempt something dangerous. Something no living soul should ever do.
Opening her arms wide, she roars into the atmosphere:
“SistersMothers,
DaughtersOthers,
We have been kin since our time began.
We will be kin after our time ends.
Your youngest daughter has called upon you.
Yo sperrit am our bress.2
’E wantuh, needuh hunnuh. Yuh.3
As your loyal daughter
I grant you permission
To transform your condition.
Come down
To the world you left.
Come down.
You needn’t feel bereft.
Come down,
Guide us,
Abide us,
If you must,
Crawl inside us.
Do what you need
To make them bleed!”
Miss Athena can’t catch her breath. She fears she’s about to faint when someone approaches. She turns and searches the night until she sees a familiar face right next to her. She’s surprised but shouldn’t be. Miss Indigo grabs her mother’s hand, and they both cry:
“SistersMothers,
DaughtersOthers,
Come down.
Come down.
Come down.
COME DOWN!”
Miss Athena falls back against a tree, spent. Miss Indigo strokes her mother’s back.
The floating haints crash to earth. Miss Athena, her God-fearing daughter, and her granddaughter have helped them return to the human versions of themselves. This is their moment.
The white men scream and scatter, tripping over their own feet and empty beer cans. The haints laugh at the comedy of it. Their laughter is too loud, too screechy, too otherworldly to be mortal.
One of the men, who was just torturing Evvie’s boyfriend, tries to escape, but they catch him. He falls over in his tracks, and they drag him back to the fire without laying a hand on him. He cries and pleads for mercy. They huddle around him, listening to his pleas, but they quickly tire of him, and one sinks her finger low into his forehead, penetrating his skull.
From across the pond, Miss Indigo watches in horror, sickened but unable to turn away. Miss Athena watches, fascinated. She didn’t know what the haints would do if she invited them down and lent them some flesh and blood. So far, she isn’t disappointed.
They’re here. For real. I can’t see much. I pull myself up from the ground to try to make out what’s happening. The crackers yell and scatter, bumpin’ into themselves like clowns. The haints laugh their eerie laugh like this is the funniest show they’ve ever seen. Most of the fools get away, and that’s fine with me, since they just had the fright of their lives. One of ’em comes out from behind the trees where they had Clay and he tries to run, but he doesn’t make it. He falls over mid-run like a sack a potatas, and they yank him backward at breakneck speed, his useless body leaving a deep trail in the earth. He cries and begs. They huddle over him, but they ain’t about mercy. One of ’em digs her long finger into his face, and he goes unconscious.
They laugh some more—they’re beyond giggling. The party is now theirs.
It looked like alla the men were gone, but a new one emerges from the trees, pale and quivering. He tries to quietly make his escape while the haints huddle around their first catch.
My energy’s returning. Just in time. I latch on to him and hold him where he is as panic fills his entire being. Then I send a huge ball of flame into the air, causing the whole fire to rise and roar.
The haints whip around to see the victim I’ve caught for them, and they cheer. By the time they dance over to him, his Levi’s are urine-soaked and he’s too petrified to speak. They barely look at him, and he falls limp at their feet. They strip him naked and
