Day 3 of being a mammy. The children continue to make bowl movements and Uma still calls me an grateful bitch.
Janna, the boy with many names has returned with a bag of heads and orders for me. "Good, you are alive!" he hollers. "I have chores for you. Today I want you on grave duty."
"You said I was a mammy." I grimaced. "You are but I also need you to do other things." He sits the bag he came with on the hay floor and takes off his head to grab another from the table. Today, he is DMX.
"So, I want you to dig up some bodies for me. I'll give you the map and everything." I look at the bag on the ground. "What's this?" I ask. "That." he points. "Is a head of a elephant."
"You went and got the head of an elephant?"
"I did. Did you know that one of the hindu gods is an elephant? Ganesha." he smooths the air across his eyes. "I have a church and much like Abner. I'm going to build an idol." I hate how his voice isn't even DMX's but on second thought. Let that nigga be at rest.
"It's some bodies near Oban Haven. It's a little neighborhood by a police station. Ain't no police." he says in a flowery tone. And I start to feel bad for him. I just want to understand how his mind is, what is father did to him. Almost want to say poor Andre.
He lifts his arms up, "I want an Idol tallest enough to reach the sky." He looks at me with bright pink eyes. "Doesn't that sound exciting?"
I guess. "Bodies?"
"I need bones. This church ground won't do. It's all tapped out. So," he hands me a list, moving to me. "I need the bodies of Lyonel Page, Amara Long, Jayden Barry, Erica Baldwin, Karlus Rudd, Brie Jopp, Lavan Shipton, Jael de Jesus, Nahiara Carrasquillo--that's a hard name." he breathes. "Ximena Anca, Lara Flores, Kamila Leon, Karielys Navarro, Gia Gonzalez aaaaaannnnnnddddddd, Dariel Martinez."
That's a lot of spanish.
"Now, I also have to leave. AGAIN! I have to get Quinn, Raquel, Gracious. That's what all those spanish people are for. Did you know having a latina was stressful? But I got that bitch quiet." he winks. "Also, Philip, help her with that. You might not get it done in one day, but get it done. I'll be back again, in two days. Take care of the children. And don't lose them. It's hard finding good service out in these streets beside hoes. What kind of father would I be?"
"Clayton..." he groans.
"Bye. Lock the camp. Praise Jesus." he leaves.
.
.
.
"We'll take the train to Oban Haven." Clayton said after a while. "The kids will be fine by themselves."
"I will kill myself in your absent." states Tel. "Uma, please shut the fuck up."
"I will die without a doubt! May my soul be with allah, Mashallah!"
"You have to die twice."
"Biaismih daeha tuti thimaraha walhamdu!" Tel hollered and began reciting the quran in a high tone. "Let's go." said Clayton.
It took us two hours walking to make it to Slem Square Station. By the side of the sidewalk is a man going up and down the street selling cars. "I got a 2002 Ferrari! 500 dollars down! I got a 2005 Mitsubishi Lancer, 610 down! I got a 2005 Bugatti, color red. 1001 down! I got a Chevrolet Camaro, color white. 745 down. I got a Leopaard CS7, 215 down!"
A man standing across the street next to a divider in the road waves. "Give me the 500 man."
"What's ya name?"
"Tony Gibson!"
The man selling has a rack of keys behind him sitting on the grass. He walks to the rack and searches for the keys to the car. He grabs them off the rack and hands them to the man .
He just... drives off with the car.
The man selling goes back to being crooked.
"He didn't..." I point. "He didn't..."
"Come on..." Clayton pulls me. "He didn't..." I huff. As walk into the station, I still hear the man selling cars that ain't his.
Inside the station, there are people on the floor with luggage or without. They cover with blankets or jackets and slept on bags. "Is Tyson still selling outside?" says a black woman with a dark birthmark on the side of her head.
"Eight people got they cars took already. Ma'am next."
"I need to go see if my car still out there." We stand in front of the counter. "Good morning sir, you getting the train?"
"Denise, get me the Ghost 11 to O Haven." says Clayton. "Running errands?" she glanced up at me from the monitor. "Yeah..."
The ticket prints, Clayton snatches it and put down some bills on the counter. "Be safe, love!" she shouts and we walk outside to the train station.
"I didn't know we--y'all had trains." I said. "It exploded so yeah..." he grunts. "It doesn't matter over here."
"So he's known?"
"Not like a thug or anything. I gotta go out and act bad." his eyes land on me. "It was magic."
"Clay, I'm sorry."
"I used to be a little boy. It doesn't matter, I'm grown now.
The train speeds forward, the back catching up with the front and shadows plus us board this ghostly entity. "Boarding Ghost 11 to Oban Haven. Boarding Ghost 11 to Oban Haven." the announcements are deep and brittle. Maybe the speakers broken?
We sit down towards right wall. I keep gawking at the shadows and a pink fairy that turns into a lamb.
"I hate fairies." I whisper. "They strange..." Clayton says.
The door shut but you don't hear it. The trains goes forward. It is silent but it is moving. "What happened to the train over here?"
"Vampires. The dead came back and a crowd of people pulled the train off the path." he explained. "I hate it over here."
"He wants to build a God." I say.
"Janna is retarded and wants to be the devil. Adonija, Shuja, but his real name is Henri Wright. Henri wanted to make angels, Andre wants devils, demons."
"Why?"
"He is retarded There is a certain point when you are traumized by something, it blinds you. Fuck basic math, do you rememeber the color of blood?"
"That's sad..."
"Fuck him. His father killed his ass, he is bipolar with a massive head injury."
"Don't yell at me. What about bone marrow?"
"When you have a body. Andre is a soul." he clarifies. "I know. Look at all these shadows..."
"Don't look a fairy in the eye." he says. "Why?" I ask, stupidly. Fairies go after a curious eye, you can't just look at them.
The old superstition says vampires have no reflection. This is a connection to the soul, which is a old wise tell.
Fairies are shadows from the vampire. A fairy, they say is about 35 percent of the soul. It's only a certain percent because fairies will make a face for what they don't have.
My breath hitches, Beulah...
"Um, Clay, what happened to Beulah. I'm asking because... I saw her in the tub." I never wanted a horse to look at me crazy. "Why?"
"Her shadow came out to see me."
"Beulah is Andre's aunt." he leans back. "Beulah was more of a maid. She took care of the healing, the food, the kids and Janna wants to start that shit up."
"Why is the church so torn?"
"Alexis." he rolls his eyes. "Now."
"Cedrica..." That's how I remember her. He looks at me and scratches his horse nose, "Cedrica set the barn on fire. Torielle is her cousin. Torielle is Montgomery's daughter whom he had with Yahoska. Yahoska died in her salon when Tori was 3. Montgomery is Davea's handicap son. Tori had a twin brother that had down syndrome--"
"Wait, Wait!" I grab his horse collar. "The Hood talks..." he says.
"So Tori was handicap?"
"That's what we assume, after death." he looks at me. "She dragged into something and the harper family is nasty. Monty doesn't understand sex. He is a half brother and supposedly his daddy raped him." he gags. "Don't ask me no more questions. I hate the r-word."