Day 2 of living in a psych ward. I hate it here. I want salvation.
The Watchers got up early in the morning and clapped in front of the tv. They stood up and did stretches--WHO THE FUCK IS UNWIN--
Who is Unwin?
Who is Unwin
Who is Unwin?
Who is Unwin
Who is Unwin?
Who is Unwin
I tap Rank on his chest. "Unc, do you know a nigga name Unwin?"
"Boy, don't you cuss at me…" Excuse me. "But Uncle, my head--" I jab my temple. "I know… I know."
"What he mean, his head?" asks Glean. "His memories coming to him. Must be Unwin sending them back." says Rank looking at me. "We got chores to do this evening. You'll see the garden, but won't be in it."
I snicker, "Am I picking cotton?"
"I said you ain't finna work in garden."
"That's what those fields look like but it's just big balls of memory. I pretend to be an amnesiac." says Dexter. "It's called Lycumria Rose. If I recall anything from my homework!" he stresses. "Ly is deadly, it's like poison ivy. So this how the flower work. Stage 1: Lame. Stage 2: Echo and stage 3: Memento."
"The flower, if touched will absorb your memory. That's what those flowers are on the table. They don't have a smell but I learned something." Glean is too excited for me about this. "Those flowers can't be if they don't take. Apparently it's like different types of vampiric flowers. Lycumria Rose is one, another is called Fake Weed--"
"What's Fake Weed--" Glean shushes me and eyes Rank. "Go on Glean."
"We don't talk about Fake Weed. Then we have the strangest flower of all, Nowadays."
"What's so bad about that?"
"THEY GOT US TOUCHING IT!"
"Coascourid Perdarunpal." says Dexter. "What?" I'm so tired of saying WHAT. "That's the scientific name. They use Nowadays like a drug, Witches fuck with it. But if you want an even shorter name. Succubus Plant--"
"RAPE DATES!" Glean promulgated.
We all look at him with his arms crossed. "You ok?" Rank eyes him. "I'll it Nowadays…" I say.
"You can call them RAPE DATES!" he thunders. "Every fucking time we go outside and work for poison pie. I get molested by grass!" he squirms in his chair. "I'm sorry…"
Glean shoots out his chair, "I'm going to the bathroom!" he storms off.
"What are we doing?"
"We have to go outside, and we make pies from flowers and shit from the realm. And we in the realm. Sometimes we go in the woods and make Bitch Apple Pie." explains Dexter. "It is the only normal ass thing we pick!"
"No it's not." says Rank. "Apples don't make me cry blood."
"It's NOT killing me!" Dexter hops out his chair. He starts crying, "Sometimes we play volleyball outside."
"Ok…" I am alarmed.
So we pick flowers, fruits, and make a pie? It's seems relatively peaceful but what gives it away is putting flowers in pie. "When do we go out to work?" Why even ask? Skip chores like homework and bitches. "When Ta-Ta come in."
"Ta-Ta?"
"He's african." Dexter sits down and spreads his arms over the table. "Let's think about slavery."
No.
"Who said it couldn't be done twice but this time everybody doing it." he circles the middle of the table with his finger. "It's not just black people, we have white people that are on this plantation."
"Really?"
"Here name is Japhia. In this house," Rank tosses his head to the side. He leans to whispers to me, "Her real name is Brittany."
"What's the purpose?" I mutter.
"Work our souls. We losing what we came in." he jabs his chest. "You saw Sabian at the table. He's gone, Magna. Vampire eats another vampire? That's a drunk, makes your blood turn black. A vamp with no soul, that's a zombie."
"Then be a zombie…"
"And?" he spreads his eyes. Dexter sighs, "You stupid. What can you do as a zombie. What you finna do, nigga? Eat brains, eat the bore?"
"I know vamps just not sitting cold on a plantation."
"WE WALK ON BODIES MAGNA!"
The watchers hush us. We turn to see them holding their index finger to their lips. "Your too long. Abner is praying." they turn back to the tv. "You see that?" says Dexter. He gets up and goes to them. He points at each one individually; "This one right here with pigtail is Damara. That fat boy is Jason, he had a brother last year. This little chinese girl right here, somebody daughter!" Dexter moves in front of the tv, "This is Scottie, he never move. Little Telah got asthma, she got a hole in her throat. That's Cassandrea, Royce, and Bankston said his baby sitter did it. He ain't talked since."
Rank turns around, I hear him exhale. "We got grown ass niggas that just look at this SHIT all damn day!" Dexter continues ranting. Fucking Glean and me human, we fucking ate somebody--" He clenches his fist as tears flow down his cheeks. "I WANT TO LEAVE!"
.
.
.
Ta-Ta came and told us to line up to go outside. Today we need to trim the Rape Dates. I guess my mind has picked a name.
You do get to see the garden of memory. It sits on a hill, the workers that plant, rearrange and dislocate, that's what Rank calls it; go up to the hill with baskets of memories. That's but the bulb is. Dexter says you can hear it like a sea shell.
Why am I here?
"Come on. Get out of your head." says Rank. Rape Dates come from this conscious plant. It sits on the ground and from what Dexter told me, the large thick roots are Legs. Under the plant is the Voice.
The voice of the plant can be heard even more when uplifted. These plants get sick. When Rape Dates get sick, the Legs shrink.
The legs are thorny. When blood gets on the legs, it is absorbed and the more blood, the stronger the voice. The Voice also looks like a giant date with a mouth.
We have to lift the Voice up and cut it from the creeper.
This is what he told me to do. The plant has leaves, you call them the Rags. You move the rags to get to the legs that have the ability to slap you. You sprinkle salt and that makes the legs not want to kick.
Glean is handling a Rape Date. The leg creeps up his pants and he believers a bitch slap to the earth. "STOP IT!" he holds the shears like a knife and stabs the plant. "I'm tired!"
"GLEAN WE LOVE YOU!" The plant has this flirtatious voice. "Get me pregnant, Glean!"
"I had a vasectomy!" he stomps on it. The legs hold his ankles and message his leg to knees. Glean starts screaming, he runs away before he's caught by one of the echoes.
Ironic.
Dexter moves the Rags aside. I follow what he does. He cuts under the rags and puts them on his side. He looks at me and focuses again on work. "You use the leaves for tea." he says. "You got erectile dysfunction?"
"No."
"Don't drink."
"I don't have it."
"Keep it that way!" he glares at me. "I haven't been able to feel my dick."
"It also gives you an STD."
"WHAT!"
"We wear gloves for a reason. Rape Dates give you herpes."
"I don't have herpes like the bitch beside me." speaks the plant. "I'm clean."
"And they lie--" Dexter falls over with a Leg beating him. "Nigga, I have clean roots. I ain't raped nobody!"
"What the fuck!"
"Dex!" the plant shrieks. "Get me the fuck out!"
"Why you talking to me like that?" he gets up.
"It's Miracle!"