Jilo (22 page)

“It’s a little over two hours now.”

May startled at Jilo’s words. “It’s all right, Nana. There’s nothing wrong with you,” Jilo said, rushing over to sit next to her on the bed, placing her free hand over May’s own cold one. “I know what today is,” Jilo said, and shifted so that May could see the old cigar box she’d brought in with her. “I know Daddy died twenty years ago today. And I know you’re hurting over it today even more than usual.” Jilo tilted the box up so its illustration caught the light streaming in through the window. “I was thinking about him, too, and I remembered this here old thing, so I went and dug it out. Don’t really know what it’s supposed to be. Some kind of good luck juju or something.” Jilo placed it on May’s lap. “Opal told me that your mama made it for Daddy, and he passed it on to her. When Opal left for California, she gave it to me.”

May lifted the box in both hands, surprised by its heft. She held it up to her ear and gave it a shake, then another, like it was a gift she was anxious to open.

“Don’t bother trying to open it,” Jilo said, placing her finger on the seam of the lid. The top didn’t so much as wiggle. “It’s cemented shut somehow. Tough enough to keep Opal, Poppy, and me from getting it open. Heck, I think even Binah had a go at it once. I guess your mama didn’t want the good juju to spill out.” Jilo tapped the face of the dark-skinned fellow above whose picture the name “John” had been written in large block letters. “Whatever’s in the box is supposed to keep you safe from that fellow. The Red King, I think Opal said Daddy called him.” The girl laughed. May had done a good job of convincing Jilo that the monsters weren’t real and all such charms were nonsense. “Opal told me Daddy said never to let you see it, ’cause you’d toss it out, but . . . it’s all I have of Daddy to share with you.”

As May stared at the box’s illustration, a sick feeling settled in her soul. The man’s top hat. The dandy red scarf.

May positioned her fingers along the seam of the lid. The top flipped open in an instant.

Jilo gasped. “How on earth did you do that?” She reached out for the box, but May pushed her away with a trembling hand. In spite of the box’s weight, it was empty inside, save for one shiny black feather from a rooster’s tail.

“I have been so blind,” May said. The chill that ran through her bones was so acute, she knew she’d never feel warm again. “They were in it together. The two of them. They tricked me.”

Jilo sprang to her feet, grasping May’s forearm and feeling, May realized, for her pulse. “Don’t you be silly, Nana. Daddy and your mama loved you. They’d never trick you.” May felt she should explain, but the door of her closet began creaking open, and a dark mist Jilo didn’t seem to notice came spilling out from the space.

The box fell from May’s grasp, and she pointed to the closet door, trying to form the words to warn Jilo, but they wouldn’t come. May watched paralyzed as the mist flooded the room, dampening the light. May’s lungs began to burn, and she couldn’t catch her breath. It came as no small relief that Jilo seemed unaffected—unaware, even. But, of course, the Beekeeper had finished with May. She hadn’t, May realized with a breaking heart, finished with Jilo.

May reached out and caught ahold of her granddaughter’s arm. She had to warn her. May had to explain so Jilo wouldn’t ever make the same mistake that she and her mother had made. But she couldn’t speak. She couldn’t breathe. And even if she could, would Jilo listen? Would Jilo even believe her, or would she assume May’s mind had gone soft? Jilo’s entire life, May had been lying to her. Wanting to free her girls of the temptations of magic, she had pretended to make her living off mundane tricks played on those with more cash than common sense.

In truth, the ruse was mostly for Jilo. The girl was just so clever. So curious. So full of her own power. An aptitude for magic that the Beekeeper herself hadn’t seemed to understand. She squeezed Jilo’s arm as tight as she could, willing her granddaughter to somehow understand.

“Nana,” Jilo said, then called out, “Binah!”

May could hear the anguish in Jilo’s voice. As Jilo’s image faded, May grasped that she herself had never been the one the Beekeeper wanted. It had been Jilo all along. May’s last wish was that she could do something, anything to protect the girl. Her last thought was the realization it was too late.

TWO

December 1954

Robinson Jesse Wills stared at his mother’s breast with solemn fascination. Jilo reached back to adjust the bed pillow, then laughed as she shifted her boy, slipping a hand behind his head. Robinson grasped the sides of her breast in his tiny, damp hands and clamped down on her nipple. A smile crept onto Jilo’s lips as she watched his mouth tug away at her flesh. He was hers. All hers. The men in her life, even the ones she’d respected and loved, like her father and Pastor Jones, hadn’t stuck around for long.

But this one here, he was hers. No one would ever take this boy away. She forced away thoughts of Guy, even though this child in her arms was the spitting image of him. Yes, Robinson looked like his father, but she was his mother. She’d be the one who would help determine what kind of man he became.

Rain hammered on the roof above, so loud it sounded like hail had entered the mix. Her eyes drifted up, settling on the eternal summer-sky blue her Nana had chosen for the room that had once been hers, and was now Jilo and Robinson’s. During Nana’s time, the walls had gone unadorned, giving the monochrome chamber a sense of expanse, making a body feel like she could be flying, or maybe falling, depending on the longings or fears in her heart.

Jilo had chosen to break this illusion by hanging photos along the wall, each spaced an equal distance apart: one of her father; one of a much younger, and oh, so pretty, Nana; one from Opal and Nate, showing their ever-expanding family; and a recent one of Poppy and her new husband, Isaiah Davis. Shame Nana hadn’t lived long enough to hear the news—for Jilo knew Nana would have been thrilled. In spite of the rupture between the two stubborn women, Nana had always hovered over Jilo’s shoulder whenever a letter from Poppy came, eager to read her news.

They’d all pretty much given up on Poppy ever finding herself a man. She was a pretty, tiny, little thing, so she had never lacked for suitors, but she’d put off marrying, focusing instead on the garment business she’d built up all on her own. As of her last letter, Poppy employed a dozen other women up in Charlotte.

It struck Jilo that she was the last of the Wills girls; Poppy was now Mrs. Davis, and Opal had long since taken the name of Mrs. Lofton. Certainly, Binah, too, shared the Wills name, but it was a secret to no one, especially Binah herself, that this name was a mere matter of convenience. After Nana’s passing, the two sisters had even managed to laugh about it. “Mama must’ve kept her legs closed real tight to hold on to me so long,” Binah had joked, once Nana was no longer there to get angry over such talk. Jilo knew that in Nana’s mind, Nana was every bit as much Binah’s grandmother as she was the other three’s. That meant Jesse Wills was Binah’s father, mathematics and biology be damned.

Jilo found herself staring at the photo of Nana’s sweet, young face. Oh, how she missed her nana.

Though May Wills had always been an old woman in her eyes, she’d come to believe, as irrational as the thought may have been, that her nana was somehow eternal, that each wispy gray hair on the woman’s head was a testament to her ability to withstand anything, even time.

Jilo felt her eyes tearing up, so she looked away, and her gaze was once again caught by the turquoise-blue of the walls, ceiling, and floor. Even faded, it was the color of the heavens. A memento of a July sky on this darkening winter day.

The thought of summer used to bring her happiness, but as she sat on her nana’s old bed, rocking to the rhythm of Robinson’s nursing, she wondered how they’d manage to hold on until summer. If Jilo had the slightest idea of how to sew, she’d call Poppy to see if her sister might take her on at her factory. But Jilo couldn’t even thread a needle. And Poppy had been so distant over the years, staying up in Charlotte, always finding one reason or another not to come back to Savannah, even for a short visit. She’d written a lovely letter after Nana’s passing, but she still hadn’t bothered to come down for the funeral, even though Opal had made it all the way from West Texas, where Nate was now stationed.

Jilo had often wondered what had happened between Nana and Poppy the last time she’d come around to visit. It had been back before the war, fourteen or so years ago now. Maybe Jilo should call and ask Poppy to come home for a visit.

Then again, what would they do if she accepted? Once Poppy arrived and saw how close to the bone they were cutting things, she would be bound to view the invitation as a petition of charity. Jilo did not want charity from anyone, especially family, but she knew she was going to have to come up with a way to earn a living quick. She and Binah had torn the house apart to look for stashes of cash Nana might have left behind. Her nana’s closet yielded no cash, just her clothes, a few hats, and—much to Jilo’s surprise—her old doll, the red-haired one that had gone missing years earlier. The doll’s pretty face had been smashed, though whether by accident or design, Jilo would never know. For years she had thought it was lost forever, but now it seemed as if Nana had kept it stashed in her closet all along. Perhaps out of guilt for having caused the damage, certainly with the intent of having it repaired. The doll was clean, but its dress carried a musty scent, almost like it had been buried in earth.

They did uncover forty-two dollars in a mason jar, in the pantry, shoved in behind a row of bread-and-butter pickles, but that was about the only windfall they’d discovered. The search also unearthed a scrapbook beneath Nana’s mattress, filled with clippings and notes made in her nana’s hand about a family by the name of Maguire. Jilo had barely even scanned its contents; she was looking for cash, and the clippings seemed worthless. Still the scrapbook held some value to her nana, so rather than toss it, she put it on the closet’s top shelf, next to her father’s old cigar treasure box containing the cock feather. Neither was going to put food on the table.

The rain made another assault on the roof, coming down so hard that it sounded like a frantic banging of a lost soul seeking refuge. An angry flash of lightning, unexpected from a storm on a day nearly cold enough to snow, lit up her window, just before the electric light of the lamp on her nightstand flickered. The wind picked up, giving the old house a couple of good shakes. The closet door creaked slowly open. A trick of the flickering light made her, for the shortest of moments, think she saw the fingers of a lace-gloved hand reach around the closet door. An involuntary yelp escaped her, causing Robinson to pull back and look up at her, his tiny eyes widening in surprise, his face quivering, trying to decide if he should cry. Jilo blinked, and the illusion was gone. She patted Robinson’s back and turned him so that he could feed from her right breast.

An easily distinguishable chain of natural events, but the illusion still sent a cold bead of sweat down between her shoulder blades. She made herself chuckle at her own nerves, but she still held Robinson in a tighter grip. A rap on her door made her jump.

The doorknob jiggled, and the door began to open before she could invite her visitor in. “Jilo,” Binah called in a hushed voice through the enlarging crack. “There’s some white woman out front, banging on the door.” For a moment Jilo had a sense of déjà vu—an old memory very nearly surfaced before slipping back beneath the waves of the past.

“Well, go see what she wants,” Jilo said, her tone meant to convey that this was the obvious action. She tugged Robinson off her tit and settled him down next to her on the bed. He began to fuss. “Shh. Shh,” she repeated, trying to comfort him as she tugged her nursing bra—a gift from Poppy—into place, and pulled the top of her dress back up.

“I don’t want to. You come with me,” Binah said, casting a nervous glance back over her shoulder as a more insistent knocking sounded on the door.

Jilo quickly hooked the buttons of her dress through their loops. “She’s probably had trouble with her car. Maybe an accident out there in the storm.” After placing a cloth over her shoulder, she hefted up her growing boy and rubbed gently between his tiny shoulders. “She may be hurt,” Jilo said in a firm tone, hoping to spur her sister into action, but Binah just stood there shaking her head.

“Oh, for pity’s sake, girl. How much trouble do you think one woman, even a white one, is gonna cause you?” The baby gave out a loud and liquid burp. Rising to her feet, Jilo wadded up the cloth with one hand and handed it to Binah. “Here, you might as well be of some use around here.”

Another series of loud bangs sounded on the front door. “Yes, ma’am,” she called out. “I hear you. I’m coming.”

Jilo padded down the hall and through the front room, then thought twice before opening the door. She turned back to find Binah creeping along at her heels. She held the baby out to her. “Take Robinson to your room. I’ll see what the lady wants.” Jilo was amazed by her sister’s trepidation at meeting the strange woman. Binah snatched the baby from her and took off like a shot. Another knock wrested Jilo’s attention back to the door.

Jilo switched on the porch light, then opened the door just enough to get a good look at the woman—and to make certain that she was alone. The woman was older than Jilo. Certainly thirty, probably forty. She was well dressed, in a gray box jacket suit with trim in a darker shade of gray. A red pillbox hat topped with a pearl stickpin and a black birdcage veil. Her lips were painted a red that mirrored the shade of her hat. She stood there drenched and trembling in the cold, mascara running down her cheeks. But still she held her chin high, looking down at Jilo over the bridge of her nose. Her eyebrows were raised as if in expectation that Jilo would pay her obeisance. As Jilo took her in, it struck her to see how such vulnerability could be paired with such a look of haughtiness.

“May I help you?” Jilo asked, adding as an afterthought, “Ma’am?”

“I need to speak to the old Negress,” she said, yanking on the screeching screen door with such vehemence, Jilo feared this cry might be its last. “Oh, do let me pass,” she said, pushing past Jilo, her tone impatient and irritated.

Jilo faced the intruder, amazed to see this buckra woman standing there before her, steam starting to rise up from her damp garments.

“Well, where is she? The woman”—she seemed to be searching her memory—“May. Yes, Mother May. She helped me before. Years ago now. I need her help again. I went to the cemetery three days in a row now, and she hasn’t shown up like usual. I know this is where she lives.”

“She did live here, ma’am . . .”

“Did?” the woman interrupted her.

“Yes, my grandmother passed some months back.”

The visitor’s face hardened. “This is very inconvenient. I am in great need of her services.”

Jilo had to swallow back a laugh. “I apologize for the inconvenience my grandmother’s death has caused you,” she said, a good dose of sarcasm creeping into her words, though she had done her best to modulate her tone.

The woman didn’t seem to notice. Instead, her gaze narrowed on Jilo. “Wait, you say she was your grandmother?”

Jilo nodded. “Yes, ma’am, she was indeed.”

“Then you can help me, can’t you?” The woman grasped Jilo’s forearms in her small, pale hands, made to look even paler by the scarlet nail polish she wore. “That’s how it works with your kind and this Negro magic isn’t it? It gets passed on through the blood. Right?” The woman shook Jilo’s arms, tugging hard enough to make Jilo take a step closer. “You can help me.” The words sounded more like a statement of fact than a question.

Jilo smiled and began shaking her head. “No, ma’am, I can’t . . .”

“I’ll pay you.” To Jilo’s surprise, the woman fell to her knees sobbing, pressing Jilo’s hand to her tearstained cheek before pulling back to kiss it.

Jilo jerked her hand free. “I don’t know,” she said, the wheels in her mind spinning fast. “The work is dangerous. And I’m not as practiced at it as my grandmother was.”

“I will pay you well.”

Jilo took a couple of steps back and placed her hands on her hips, giving the fine lady the very same stink eye she’d given Binah only minutes before. “You tell me what Nana—I mean, Mother May—did for you, and I’ll see if I can help. No promises, though. And it’s cash up front.”

The woman’s hand flew up to her breast and she froze in place, suddenly, it seemed, cognizant of her humble position. “There’s a woman. An ungodly and lascivious woman. A rival for my husband’s affections.” She rose, turning her back to Jilo, undid a button on her suit, and tugged a stash of bills from her brassiere. “Again. Last time, she tried to turn my husband’s affections from me. This time, she’s determined to take my life so that she can have him. She’s put a fix on me.” She carefully peeled off two five-dollar bills, which she held out to Jilo. “I need you to remove it.” Jilo stepped forward, amazed at her own temerity, and took the rest of the bills from the woman’s other hand, leaving the woman clutching the two fives.

“But that’s so much more than your grandmother would have ever charged,” the woman protested.

Jilo tilted her head and rested her left hand on her hip. “My grandmother’s just a bit up the road at Laurel Grove. You think you can get a better deal from her, you’re more than welcome to try.” She wanted to sound confident, and to her own ears she did, but she held that wad of cash in a death grip.