Cursed (17 page)

An hour after school ended, Adrienne sat in the car with Jayden. They’d been talking about classes she was struggling in for over half an hour as he drove them north of New Orleans, towards the house of his grandmother. Still unable to believe he’d asked, she was nervous enough about being alone with him that she could hardly sit still.

Quiet fell after she explained what classes she’d taken in math before coming to the academy.

She leaned down and reached into her book bag, discreetly pulling a card to see how the visit was going to
go
.

The cards had their own agenda. Adrienne stared at them, mesmerized by a vision. It was unlike any communication she’d ever experienced before with the spirits. Instead of a familiar symbol for her to interpret, a scene played out on the cards.

Two little girls were playing with a skeleton key. They looked like they were in a closet somewhere, if the clothes hanging on one side of them were any indication.

The key looked a lot like the one in the mark on her shoulder.

As she watched, the girl with a birthmark between her eyes and a scar down the side of her face took the key and held it in both hands. The metal morphed and grew, snaking around her wrists to form manacles. As if it were alive, it then began to spread, winding its way up the girl’s arms, across her body and shoulders, until her entire body was trapped.

The vision flashed away. Adrienne found herself shaking the card to see if it returned.

According to her sticky notes, she was supposed to find a key. Maybe it was real. If so, who were the little girls? Where were they? Why did they have the key she needed?

“My mama’s family is a little poor and um, backwards,” Jayden said, interrupting her thoughts.

Adrienne sat back quickly and glanced at him, sensing his tension.

“My daddy has the money. I try to be diplomatic and keep Mama happy. Sometimes it’s hard.”

“My parents are both poor, but my mama is a little crazy,” Adrienne said. “I’m used to backwards.”

Does he think I’m backwards?
She glanced down at her nails. Maybe she could afford to spend a little of what she saved to get stylish nail polish and a pair of jeans that weren’t hand-me-downs.

Jayden left the highway and turned down a residential road.

She took in the housing as they wound through a large neighborhood. The structures were getting worse and worse looking, with some boarded up and covered in graffiti while others were abandoned and still others appeared to be occupied although close to unlivable.

“This looks like home,” she said. “Except most of the damage was done by hurricanes and never repaired.”

“Were you there for the worst of them?”

“No. Mama …”
is a voodoo priestess who was told by our ancestors’ spirits the hurricanes were coming.
Adrienne sought a better explanation, aware of Jayden’s view on voodoo. “Well, we were out of town at the time. Luckily.”

She sipped the water Kimmie had given her. She’d never noticed the difference in how water tasted, but this was smooth, soft. She almost understood why it was popular among vocalists. If she could afford the ten-dollar a bottle price tag, it would be all she drank.

One day,
she promised herself. Once she made it big, she’d take care of her family then buy as much of the special bottled water as she wanted. After all, she was already one step closer to making it as a singer. Tomorrow, at the pep rally, she was singing the National Anthem, something Kimmie arranged for her.

While she didn’t feel comfortable with her footwork in the cheer routines yet, she did know she’d knock them dead when she sang. Then maybe the students would accept her, and maybe for prom, Jayden would ask her to go.

Her secret wish made her giddy. She had eight months to wow the students and win over Jayden. He’d asked her to his grandmama’s; she might not need all eight to work up the courage to ask him if he wanted to see her for more than tutoring.

“That was cool of you to ask Emma to Homecoming,” she said. “You have no idea how happy you made her.”

“She’s a nice girl.” Jayden didn’t sound anywhere near as excited as Emma.

Adrienne couldn’t bring herself to think worse of him, though, not after he’d agreed to go. Even if Kimmie pushed him into it. He could’ve said no – but didn’t. Which meant Jayden was not only handsome and smart, but a good guy.

“What did you tell your daddy so he’d let you come with me?” Jayden asked.

Adrienne laughed. “I sorta lied. Told him I was staying over to work on my cheer routine.”

Jayden smiled. “Hopefully this doesn’t take long and we can get some real studying in.”

“Yeah, sure.” She needed the help, but she hoped he was interested in more than being her tutor.

They pulled into the driveway of a dilapidated house with a middle-aged man seated in a rocking chair on the front porch.

“Ah, Uncle Tommy’s out,” Jayden said with a sigh. “I had hoped to run in and say hi and not drag you in. I’ll have to take you in now.”

“Oh.” Adrienne’s smile faded. He didn’t want her to meet his family?

“Sorry. We’ll be quick.”

Adrienne pushed away the hurt feeling and got out of the car. Jayden led her up to the stairs.

“Uncle Tommy, this is Adrienne,” he said. “She’s from my school.”

“Hi,” Adrienne said, stepping forward with her hand extended.

Uncle Tommy’s dark eyes slid to Jayden in a knowing look that Adrienne couldn’t interpret.

“Nice to meet you.” The words were grumbled, the handshake brief. Uncle Tommy nodded his head towards the front door. “Grandmama’s inside.”

Jayden opened the screen door. Adrienne followed, at once accosted by the heat of the confined home and the scent of cat urine.

It wasn’t much different than her mama’s house. She glanced around the living room with its worn furniture and the stained carpets. From somewhere, she heard a cat meow, and the sounds of pots banging around came from the kitchen.

She felt homesick at the familiarity of the rundown house around her, but Jayden looked out of place, like a prince in a ghetto. He was tense, his gaze taking in the surroundings with a frown.

“It smells worse every time I come,” he muttered.

Adrienne said nothing, thoughts on the strange vision she’d had in the car. It wasn’t something she could share with him. He could definitely never meet her mother and that side of her family. It wasn’t just the voodoo, but the fact Adrienne’s house was worse with three kids and cats running around it.

She studied the back of his head, feeling bad about her mother’s poverty and craziness without Jayden even meeting her. Every once in a while, she thought they were too different to be more than friends. Was this what the cards were trying to tell her?

“Grandmama!” he called, moving towards the sounds in the kitchen.

“She’s downstairs,” a woman’s voice returned. “Jay, you here to fix the AC?”

“Yeah.”

Adrienne entered the kitchen behind him, breathing in the scents of dinner. She missed her mother’s home cooking, too!

“Adrienne, this is my Aunt Bess,” Jayden said, motioning to the tall, slender woman at the sink. “Aunt Bess, this is Adrienne from school. I’m tutoring her.”

Aunt Bess looked her over critically. Adrienne resisted the urge to shrink back into the other room.

“AC’s in the living room,” Aunt Bess said shortly and turned around to finish washing dishes.

The cold welcome wasn’t lost on Adrienne. She looked up at Jayden, whose mood appeared to be getting worse. His eyes were on the open door leading to the backyard.

“Stay here, please,” he said, moving away.

Adrienne didn’t need Aunt Bess’s glare to encourage her to return to the living room. One of the cats had come out of hiding and was seated on a chair, watching her though gold eyes.

“Hi, kitty,” she murmured. Crossing to it, Adrienne petted it for a moment.

Her focus shifted to the old AC unit propped up by a two by four. From the stains beneath it on the carpet, it had been leaking for some time before giving out.

The oldest sibling in a household without a father, Adrienne knew a thing or two about repairing household appliances. She moved to the AC unit, needing an outlet for her nervous energy. A bottle of antifreeze was on the top, and she shook it. It was half-full.

Adrienne moved it to the floor and checked the levels. They were fine. The issue wasn’t the antifreeze. Starting with her troubleshooting, she tested different outlets before prying the jammed panel away from the controls.

Something nudged her thigh, and she saw the cat seated as close as it could get to her on the arm of a chair. Adrienne smiled and petted him.

“Sometimes the wires get crossed with the knobs,” she told the cat. “Can you fix this?”

The cat gazed at her. She imagined it was trying to think of an answer and was debating how to tell her without revealing its secret ability to talk.

“Sneaky cat.” Amused by her thoughts, Adrienne laughed quietly and returned her attention to the AC unit.

“You talkin’ to the cat?” Uncle Tommy asked, leaning in the front door.

“Just playing,” Adrienne replied. She picked up a screwdriver someone had left with a few other tools on the floor beneath the AC.

“Hey, Bessy. Lil’ girl thinks she can fix our AC!” he belted out to the woman in the kitchen.

“Maybe,” Adrienne said quickly. “Back home –”

“Well bless her heart. Didn’t know white people got their hands dirty,” Aunt Bess replied, appearing in the living room.

“My dad’s a mechanic,” Adrienne replied.

Confused by the look they exchanged, she concentrated on the AC.

Adrienne jammed the tip of the screwdriver between the back of the control panel and the body of the appliance. She shoved it in with all her strength then yanked. The back of the panel popped free, flew through the air and landed halfway across the living room. She glanced at it then surveyed the wires behind it.

“Do you have any electrical tape, Uncle Tommy?” she asked.

“I reckon.”

“There’s water damage in here.”

“Lemme see.”

She shifted out of the way. Uncle Tommy approached. Peering at the wires, he pointed to one whose plastic covering had been eaten away to expose a rusted wire.

“Yeah. And this should go here,” she said, pointing to the wire that had slipped free of the on-off knob.

“A’ight. I’ll get tape.” He moved away.

“How you know this?” Aunt Bess asked. “Daddy teach you?”

“No. They’re divorced. My mama has two of these in our house in
Atlanta
,” Adrienne replied. “Can’t afford new ones, so I had to figure out how to keep these working.”

“How you get into Jay’s school?”

“Scholarship.”

Aunt Bess frowned. “Jay’s daddy pays and you get in free. Figures.”

Adrienne didn’t know what to say. She shrugged and retrieved the part that had landed in the middle of the room. She wished hard that Jayden’s relatives left her alone with the cat.

Uncle Tommy returned with tape. Adrienne held out her hand for it, but he eyed her.

“I can do it,” he said curtly.

Nothing she said was going over well. Adrienne stepped aside to watch him. His hands shook as he wrapped tape around the exposed wires. She wondered if he were ill, but didn’t ask, aware of how seriously southern men took what they believed to be their manly duties. Her father was the same. He was never wrong, and when he was, he was all the more convinced he was right, unless she simply dropped the topic. Then his pride wasn’t injured, and he’d come around.

Uncle Tommy reconnected the ignition wire to the knob where it belonged. It took longer for him than it would her; he struggled to keep his hands steady enough to maneuver the pliers and wire in place.

Adrienne watched him, ready to help, prepared to earn more glares. In the end, she didn’t have to. He reconnected it then set the pliers on the top of the unit and flipped it on.

The ancient appliance roared to life with a shudder that rattled the window it hung out of.

“Look at that,” he said.

Adrienne handed him the plastic piece that covered the wires from view. He replaced it then closed up the control panel.

“Why you couldn’t do that before, Tommy?” Aunt Bess demanded. “You got your ass beat by a teenage, white girl.”

“Why you couldn’t do it before?” he snapped. “You got small hands like she does!”

Adrienne crept away. She was thrilled when the appliance worked, but suspected she’d made more of a mess than anything else. She sat down on the couch with the cat, watching the two of them argue over who was the worst sibling for not knowing how to fix the AC unit.

“Tommy, you fixed it?” Jayden called over the sound of the AC. He appeared in the doorway leading from the kitchen.

“Damn right I did,” Uncle Tommy replied.