"Today we aren't doing anything." announces Ms. Simpson.
Yeah…
"Instead, you are all going straight to bed." she says. "What?" complains a vampire. "Can we watch Abner all day?" asks a watcher. "No more Abner. Arts and crafts is channeled."
"But Abner!" they yell. "Abner! Abner! Abner!" they slap the floor in rhythm. "Stop it! Stop it, goddamn it. Clarence, you started this--STOP IT!"
"Abner! Abner!" they repeat and I'm fearing for my life. "STOP IT! STOP IT!" Ms. Simpson stomps. "You know what I know what to do. I'll beat you!"
I'm not the only black person whose neck swishes. Who is she gon beat?
"Zu-Bee!" she calls, a large African gives her a black wire. I can see the wires at the tore end. "Come here Clarence!"
"No!"
"Goddamn…" I'm tired of living here. "Do you have your fangs?" Clarence covers his mouth and shakes his head. "You do. I asked for the wrong thing. Come here Clarence."
Clarence has been watching Abner, his black eyes look like glass. "Abner!" he shouts. "I don't care! Bring your ass over here!"
"Abner!" he gets up either way. He has to be about 12. He's tugging on his shorts and whimpers. "Clarence! I will not have you starting another riot!"
"Then don't feed me…"
"Excuse me…?"
"OBAYIFO." Clarence raise his palm and Ms. Simpson hits the ceiling. His soul comes out of his body in a thick black smoke. It shapes, lapping the sides of his cheeks like a tongue.
Rank throws a chair at the window. He knocks out the glass and darts away. "Oh my God…" Glean's jaw drops. "Rank!"
In a flicker, Rank returns in the middle of the room. "WHAT THE FUCK!"
"Ten toes down…" Clarence bring his two fingers towards the ground. The rest of the watchers get up in attention.
This is over a puppet show. The watchers behind him march forward, all their souls leaking out their mouths. "What the fuck is going on!" Glean tackles Rank and drags him under the table. "Magna!"
Honestly I rather be in the closet. I keep to the edge of the entry way and watch the Watchers throw the flowers off the table, go in the kitchen and raid the fridge. THey take one of the zombies from the backrooms. I don't know that vamp but I don't wish ill will on him. They make him ben over the table. One female child watcher gives another a knife from the kitchen. The one with the knife cuts off the zombie's hands and ears. They bring another out from the backroom and one watcher chew on the ear of the zombie. Two more come out and they beat up one zombie by smacking a chair over his head and kicking him in between his legs. Finally they cut his head off with the kitchen knife.
I step out the playroom and here Glean calling me. I should check the arts and crafts room. I dodge a vase coming my way and the watchers that went outside come back in to swear dirt and leaves all over the wall.
It's a puppet show…
.
.
.
We were all sent to bed without food. I'm getting to the point I think they know. Glean has his eyes awake and I do to. "What the fuck happened?"
Glean slides his hand under his covers. The blanket goes up and down. "Nigga!"
"I am confused and tired. I can't sleep."
"In front of me?"
"CLOSE YO DAMN EYES!
He breathes slowly. I roll my eyes and get out my hammock. I wonder where the rooms are? We go to the kitchen, playroom, outside and that's it. I walk softly to the entryway and into the hall pass the bathroom.
It is silent.
What part of the house am I in? For a plantation house, it's large. I head to the front door, pass the play area. To the left of the door is a hall with a row of windows. In front of the door is the stairs to the second floor.
Where did I come from?
I go down the hall which ends with me coming to another front door. The area is much wider. I stay to the walls, damn near knock a vase and I notice a dool with a skeleton head and roses on top like pigtails.
"Thankful…?"
My eyes get hot.
Have I been here? I pick up the doll and it bites me. I drop the doll and it runs away. "What the--" I could go after it but only God knows where that might lead me. "Tell me where the art room is!" I utter aloud. It stops and looks at me.
It points with it's small puppet hands to a door down the area. It runs back to me and jumps up and down. "What? Pick you up?"
It nods and I put the doll between my shirt and skin. I move to the room and see the label across the door, ART. I grab the handle and twist it slightly. It's not open. A nigga had dreams. "How do I get in?"
The voodoo doll tries on my chest. It feels like a key. But the knob is round. "New plan?"
The doll draws on me, 'yell'. I cannot. If I yell, I can also get--don't say that. I wonder if whispering works. I inhale and press my lips against the door. I work my mouth but nothing happens. The doll draws on me again, 'Yell'
There's no way in hell I can do that. So second plan, where's Dexter?
"Show me… uh… bathtubs…"
The doll looks at me confused. It hops out my shirt and runs down this curve in the hallway. It stops and beckons me. I follow and pass several rooms, one is Ms. Simpson's door. "She's back here?"
She hit her head and that was it. I press my ear against the door. "I want a dick!" Lord have mercy… "stupid fucking niglets took off the dicks of my favorite zombie!"
"Bitch you fucking the zombies?"
"I can't get pregnant! I want dick!"
"Cleo… you have to find something to do."
"Like what? I don't get in trouble for it!"
The second voice huffs. "So, Valentina came back."
"Fuck her! And Darlene…"
"You hate her that much?"
"They put my head in a toilet! I died and now I get to do this. Maybe I fuck one of these Africans for a favor."
"You can't. What about Dexter?"
"He's dead. So we have someone from saint John's click, A Madaki, and Shikki's kid." she giggles. "I wonder if he'll fuck me."
"Cleo…"
"I WANT DICK! I'M SO FUCKING HORNY!"
Is Dexter a Madaki? I move from the door, I look down and the puppet is is chewing my shoe laces. I tip toe away and open to the next room. It's another kitchen, and oh my God…
"Fuck me…I'll fuck myself…I can do this all night! Pull my hair, fuck me harder, smack my ass. No harder, pull my hair, fuck me!" What is that zombie doing? I ignore it, if it doing that there's a soul in it. "HEY!" he twist around. I wave it off, "SHHH!"
"Oh…"
WHAT THE HELL! "Hey…" they're feet slap the tiles. "Are you a vampire?"
"No!"
"Can I borrow that?"
"What-NO!"
"For a minute man. Or maybe I can be a second soul. Like Aleigha, he has so many souls."
"You know my granddaddy?"
"He fucked me along time ago. Not gay but that was some sweet dick." states the zombie. "I mean, I still I got raped but he confused the fuck outta me. I may have no been raped at all but now I have questions."
"What the fuck is that?" I hear the door open. I grab the zombie. I head forward exiting the kitchen and shutting the door behind me. "What's your name?"
"Freddy. Fredrick… did you say your granddaddy?"
"Yeah…"
"Damn… I raped by an old nigga?"
"I'm sorry I guess?"
"Shit was humiliating." he goes into the detail. "He raped the fuck outta me. That nigga is nasty. Let me tell you how I got here, that lady put me in a body. Aleigha raped me in jail. I killed myself, all I felt was the nigga touching me. I took a bath everyday. I even put my thumb in my own ass to get the memory out. He fucked the shit outta me! I was mad as hell. One the nigga broke out his cell to come in my cell. You ain't supposed to do that in the penitentiary."
"Why?"
"Mad as shit. Something about getting a letter from a brother about his daughter. He up in the middle of the fucking night--JUST THINKING ABOUT HURTING PEOPLE." the zombie cries. "THAT NIGGA GOT A BIG ASS DICK AND I'M A VICTIM!"
"You kill yourself?"
"I got Stockholm syndrome! I had a thought one night I was gonna jack off to make myself feel better and you know what I started thinking about?"
"I can't even imagine your pain."
"His dick!" he nods. "I kill myself and that nigga left the next day! I mean, it was five other niggas but I guess I look like the motherfucker or some shit because he dogged my ass. I was scared and wiping my ass like I was ashamed of myself. Like I did something wrong each time. I went to the prison doctor and he told me he split my ass from the inside and out. I died! And he left the next day."
"I am so sorry…"
"He put extra mashed potatoes on my plate once. He wasn't that bad." he stares at me. "But he was… I hate him…"
I want this conversation to be over. My granddaddy came to my apartment. I totally get it but... that's jail. That's probably the second time granddaddy had to climb through a window for the wrong reasons. That's something he would say.
"Is he dead?"
"Yeah, sadly."
"I hope he died from hemorrhoids."
"Well…"
"I hope his dick dead…"
"Uh…"
This is overbearing. The zombie follows me down the hall leading outside. It's a second, or third garden across from the backyard with the Rape Dates. It's a rectangular building like the one that woman got arrested in. "Do you know about bathtubs?" I ask the zombie.
"I'm dead."
"NO! I woke up in a bathtub with--"
"OH! YOU MEAN THE PURP TUBS. This is one and the other one is the other side of the house."
"How?"
"Magic. Secret door."
I hate Virginia. I know this Virginia. I hate it.Plantations, law and order. My nuts. My time. My neck! "What's it in the building?"
"Bathtubs, they don't come out here tho. You might find somebody or use them like a zombie." he taps his chin. "That's probably what it is. Zombies."
"They bite?"
"All the in house zombies is gums, negro."
I move over to the building. The handle is broken. "she does this a lot." says Fredrick. "She fucks zombies?"
"Yeah… the nigga dead." he shrugs.
"That's still rape."
"Nooo." he chuckles. "That's necrophilia."
I open the door and inside is a tube with a purple circle around it. "What's this?"
"Same thing, right. BUT instead of just killing people, this is the PUMP."
"Pump?"
"Pump the soul out. You know, like eviction."
"They made a ritual that takes the soul out…?"