"Mama! Can we have hushpuppies tonight?" asked Lynndie. I look at the doll in her arms. "I thought Monique was getting a baptism?"
"Huh? Oh... um..."
Hazy is in the kitchen with his wife. "Lynn, throw the voodoo doll away." he says. "But she's my friend..."
"Lynn!"
"Let her have the doll, Hazy." chastises his wife. "What is wrong with you!" he hisses at Adele. I don't know what's in me, but my instincts tell me to cover Lynndie's ears. "That doll isn't doing anything and look what you did to this family."
"Oh, now my cow wife is bringing up the past!"
"And the bitch in the house started it."
"Ow!"
"Hazy, we live in the middle of no where. Lynn doesn't have anybody else to talk to unless you turn one of those things into a good hearted christian."
"Did you just use the C word?"
"I did. Christian."
"Woman." he pats her cheek. "You don't know what you do to me!"
"I can only imagine..." she rolls her eyes. "I want the doll out the house!" he shouts.
"I want you out the house!" she counters. The grandparents are zombies and quiet. "I don't wanna fight with him in the house."
"Why not! It's just like having my brother in the house again!"
"Hey!" I shout. They look at me. "I ain't no child beater..."
Adele gawks at Hazy. "You hear that. He's better than Gregory the Whore." Lynndie escape my hold and goes to her room. The door shuts and I live the marriage couple to their own shit. I knock on Lynn's door
"Come in..." I enter the blue room with an ox's head on the wall. She's sitting on the bed with her hands in her lap. "I can't believe they arguing over hushpuppies." I sigh. She grins.
I cross my arms. "Can you believe it? It doesn't matter who makes them better or not; what matters is that we have hushpuppies."
"Yeah..." she looks at her turtle feet. "Papa just wants us to be noral again."
I put my back to the wall. "You know what normal means?"
"Yeah!" she nods. "I got this big dictionary. It doesn't have all the words, but I can spell. Sometimes you just have to sound it out."
"Right." A part of me is stuck on Lynndie being put into a postion. Now he's a giant mutation. "Your parents do this a lot?" I ask.
"Just since we died and a man came to the house like you and gave a book!" she starts. "I even have a book on mangles." she whispers.
"What about Monique's baptism?"
"I need one, and she needs one because daddy said. He put evil in me and that evil can turn you rotten. So, if I get a baptism, I won't be evil."
A child shouldn't be talking like this. "Why does Monique need a baptism?"
"Well, so she can come back."
"Oh... is Monique... gone?"
"Yeah..." she sulks. "Uncle did it and he shot grandpa and grandma."
"Why?"
"Because she talks too much and Monique said that she was going to tell somebody. I told for her though and..." she stares off to the side. "Hey!" I call her.
"Huh?" she jostles. I sit on the bed and hug her. "Did you get her dress ready? You need help?"
"Uh... no."
"Come on..." I bump her side. "It's special to have a baptism and if she's coming back. You gotta go all out."
Lynndie looks at my face and I see a little grin. "Yeah!"
.
.
.
The next morning, we had ham or whatever the hell came off a mangle. We ate and Hazy asked me to go hunting with him. I got a shot gun, and we walked on foot into the high grasses. "Isn't this dangerous?"
"Yep."
"What do you use in terms of protection?"
"A gun."
"What else?"
"Mo' guns."
It's just grass all around us. "Stop!" he puts his hands up. It's silence, and then I hear the grass move in left ear. I ready my gun. Hazy sniffs the air, "He nasty..."
"What you mean?" Hazy pulls out his pocket knife and raises his pants leg. I catch sight of four cut marks or more. They overlap each other. He cuts his ankle and stomps on it.
Hazy sticks his leg out and shakes it. More rustling and now hissing. "Where is it?" I grip the gun. I could yell, but I guess Hazy has god senses and discourages me with a look.
"I seeee?" Is that mangle? "I seeee."
"The bastard can see but won't die..."
"I seeee..." why does it keep saying that? "I seeee."
"Oh shut the fuck up Solis!" Right then, the head of snake stretches out and snaps Hazy's cheek. "FUCK!"
I immediately shoot the snakes neck off. It retracts and another head comes right back to replace it. "Son of a bitch!" Hazy looks at the ground at the snake head. "At least I got a piece of that nigga." he picks it up and puts it in his pocket. "I seeeee."
"I cannot see!" I shout. "What the fuck is it."
"Solis!"
"Soulless? Zombies?"
"No! Goddamn, the nigga name Solis!"
"Hiiii Barnaby..." Hazy shoots at nothing. "Come here you snake bastard!"
"I see, I see. You angry with meee!" Another snake head appears, it snaps at me, but I pull back the teeth don't meet me. A bullet flies pass me and a snake snaps on Hazy's cut leg. I fire the gun taking the head before it can retract. Hazy picks it up and shoves it in his pocket.
"I seeee. I can see."
"Shut up! Tell yo; kinfolk to leave my house alone!" Hazy hollers. "No."
I'm looking in the tall grass for this fucking creature and I see the most horrendous thing. This snake is thick with a row of teeth and slanted eyes. "I can see you..."
I pull the trigger and the bitch disappears. I feel it, but my body couldn't turn quick enough. "I seeee." I hold my right side and look at my blood. He bit me.
"Solis!" Hazy looks right and left but the snake snaps from the front. He catches it and blows his head off. It grows back just like the rest. "Hazy!" his voice is so childish. "Let me in. Let me in. Said the wolfman."
"Your not getting my house bitch!"
"Well we don't like it out here! It's cold..."
"And?" A snake come out the grass and bites his arm. Hazy shoots under it. "Stop it!"
"I'll make boots outta you solis!"
"Oh, just walk on my grave..." he huffs. "Ly said he'll give you peace."
"My peace is you niggas leaving me the fuck alone!"
"Give us the daughter..." he appears as a thick snake and I can see as he stretches above the grass, this bitch has the arms of man. I can't count them all. "Give me the child--"
Hazy fires. He reload the gun. The snake is elsewhere. "I'm making a deal with you Barnaby."
"Fuck you Solis!"
"That or let me fuck your wife."
"Fuck you! I didn't know snakes was deaf!"
"Noooo, I hear real good." I get my gun ready as this snake tries to bite Hazy from the back. I shoot pass his shoulder. The snake retracts and another comes out of the ground. I shoot it, cutting the head off.
"FUCK!" Solis screams. "You fucking niggas got fucking patience. I give up!" his voice is much deeper than that high pitch ass shit. "Why do you keep stalking my house?"
"Lycurgus wants the house and Zechariah just wanted a place to piss."
"You piss on my house?" yells Hazy. "Well shit, you won't let us in to use the damn toilet!"
"Because I hate you!" Hazy fumes. "I hate the shit outta you."
"We damn near friends haunting each like this. I come over yo house and you come over mine--"
"Why would I come over yo' house?"
"We have pie..."
"My wife cooks damn good pie---LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE!"
"Do you know Gregory!" I yell.
"Greg?"
Hazy glares at me. "Why the fuck..." he mouths.
"Yeah..." replies Solis. "That big bird right?"
Hazy's ears lift. "You know about Gregory?"
The grass rustles before the snake appears with dozens of arms. He has snake head and torso with limbs of a man attached. The end of tail is that of a cockroach. "My name is Solis B. Workman. I'm a friend of--"
"I will shoot you!"
He just stares at him. "I'm a friend of--" the shot is fired. But he doesn't die. "Hazy aka Barnaby Whitley." says Solis.
"Why are you using my government name?" Hazy furrows. "You said you knew Gregory?"
Solis sighs, "Yeah, I know the bastard."
"Bitch." says Hazy. "Greg touched little Lynndie, Aubriana. She ran out the house and I followed after her."
"That should be a good thing..." I look at Hazy. "I still hate em..."
"Over a fucking card game you stupid mutt." he rolls his eyes. "Though he hates me for taking 200 out his pockets--"
"I hate you..."
"I still help the family out." he sneers at him. "What about little Lynn?" I ask.
"Bear trap. She was far out and got caught, dog came and did the rest. I didn't like taking her to Hazy." he views him. "I thank you then..."
"And then you go turn her into a fucking sheep like a damn fool. When yo brother was fucking the herd in field."
"Can you shut up?" Hazy grits his teeth. "You still do cocaine?"
"I'll shoot you..."
"Cocaine..."
"Solis!"
"Crack. White powder. Snow drop. Snow white. Sugar booger. Fake flour--"
"They don't even call it that!"
"You did crack."
"Once."
"Seventeen times since we was young."
"Solis."
"Went out by the river and did crack with the fishes."
"Solis!"
"I ain't never told a lie and I won't start now."
"Goddamn!"
"You might be a crackhead--"
"SOLIS!"
"Still."
"Why did we have to come out here and shoot you if y'all friends?" I say. This is cute in friendship but the real matter at hand. "Ok, ok. Solis is a good friend, looks after my daughter, my kinfolk, saved my daughter.... somewhat."
"I'm sorry brother..."
"She here with me now. I just keep her in the house."
"You can't trap the child in doors forever..." he says. "About Greg."
"Pervert. Need his dick chopped the hell off. As for trouble around the house, the wolf doing it and I know he has a church around."
"Church?" Hazy's brows lift. "What church. You mean the beast near the house is going to service?"
"And they servicing. I don't know what the bitch's name is but I like naming my food."
"That's weird."
"I ate Davis last week for trespassing."
"Well, that's good."
"GREG!" I feel like I need to remind them. "Different church and I don't fuck with it!" Exclaims Solis. "You find a trail?" asks Hazy.
"Why do I have to call you Hazy when ya name is Barnaby?"
"I like Hazy and I have hazel eyes just like my mama, bless her heart."
"I think it's stupid. Just be Barnaby."
"Why can't you be Daniel?"
"Because I ain't no prophet." he sneers. "I got another question. Have y'all seen like... SUVs?"
They both turn to me like I'm the most annoying thing ever. "SUVs?"
"I was in race with some people and I came out a town near here. It got attacked by Mangles." I explain. Solis looks bothered, "You mean Blul South?" he grabs his arm. "Yeah."
"You came from there?" Hazy sees me. "Barnaby, I gotta get up there and check on Willa." he hurries out the grass. I asked a question and haven't received an answer. "The Horse is out back!" Hazy yells.
.
.
.
"What about the tank?" I ask along the way back to the house. "No we haven't seen any SUVs unless you mean LTS and NBVs"
"What is that?" Wait. "What about the tank!"
"I got magic. I haven't seen any SUVs." he shrugs. "I have..." Lynndie steps outside. Hazy twist around. "They drove really fast going to Tanko Cartman."
"And how the hell do you know about that!"
"I went outside..."
"Tanko Cartman?"
"It's another town 12 miles from here in a desert lot. Now, if you excuse me, I need to beat my child. If I don't guide you to heaven..." he seethes.
.
.
.
"Mama, my butt hurt." says Lynndie. "Don't go outside. And we just found one of Less-people near our house." rebukes her mother. "Mama," she looks so innocence. "Why don't we have real grass?"
"And you be using magic?" Adele puts her hands on her hips. "Yes..." she avoids eye contact. "Where is all this misbehavior coming from?" Adele crosses her arms.
"I'm curious."
"And once upon a time. A man flew his naked ass into the sunlight following sunbeams. I told you don't go outside."
"Grandpa said that's apollo." she grimaces. "And you ain't apollo. You ain't a vampire either."
She sighs as her mother sets down a plate of beef, eggs, and bread. "I'm so sorry Sam, we don't have much."
"It's alright." Lynndie looks at me. "I did see SUVs tho!"
"Lynn!"
"But daddy, it was a cow inside smoking weed and I heard rap music. They was dragging a man behind the car and he was screaming!"
"Lynn enough. It's scary enough we live the way we do." says Adele. The child looks at her plate and lays her cheek in her hand.
I have set my ass in the middle of some shit. I'm afraid to speak. But an adult. "What's Tanko Cartman?"
"Tanko Cartman is a town in the desert. We tread lightly going there." speaks Adele. "It's sinks over there. I get some wheels through trade; lord knows I'm broke as hell." Hazy grunts. "Think I can get there?"
Hazy snorts. "You, a negro, in Tanko Cartman?" he smirks. "What's wrong with that?"
"They lynch vamps over there and you look strand." says Adele. "If I was you. I don't you living here, but pick your weight up. Over there, is some nigga beaters."
"Dad's part black..." she stares at her father. "My grandma Brenda died over there."
"Lord help me..." Hazy looks at the ceiling. "She wasn't even doing anything. Before grandpa Seth died, He said they have to lynch vamps because of the devil! Have you ever seen the devil?"
"Uh... no."
"Nobody ever seen him. I heard the devil was black, like midnight black. And daddy said he look like a burnt chicken wing."
"Lynndie, for the love of God..." Hazy rest his forehead in his hands.