River of Bones (13 page)

She nodded and pulled up a chair. “Now tell me, have you been messin' around that pond?”

“Yeah, I had to dive in it, to save my baby brother. Why?”

The old woman's eyes widened and her mouth gaped open. “You jumped in that pond? My lord, child! Where's the baby now?”

“He's at my house, Ms. Sassy,” Wolf said. “And he never was in the water, Dharma only thought she saw him fall in.”

Her eyes hardened. “Is that true, child?”

I nodded, too sore to speak another word.

“Well, it don't surprise me much. It was a trick to lure you into those vile waters. You keep that baby away from there—you hear me? The little ones are the most susceptible to its dark magic.”

“You really think Dharma's cursed?” Wolf cocked his head in disbelief. “Because the doctor said it was a bacterial infection.”

Sassy stared hard at me. “I know she is, just by lookin' at her.” She leaned closer, and I smelled the tang of lavender soap. “A long time ago, when this place was still in dark times, and my people were slaves on that plantation, Mrs. Cobb and her children spent the better part of a week planning a surprise birthday party for the general. Come the morning of his birthday, the general didn't come down for his breakfast. He'd been feeling poorly but no one really knew how sick he was. Deathly poor, he was in fact.” Sassy sighed. “My great granny and the other slaves wanted to put all the party things away, but Mrs. Cobb wouldn't hear of it. She couldn't bear the fact that she'd never be able to throw the general his surprise party. She didn't want anyone in that room. It was special to her and she loved it.”

“Why?” Wolf asked. “What was so special about it?”

“The general had built it for her, added a whole floor to the house, just to host her fancy ballroom dances. She wanted the first party in it to be in honor of her husband, and when there could be no party, she wouldn't let anyone set foot in the place.”

Sadly, soon after the general died, the Missus and the kids also fell deathly ill and died of cholera. Before the Missus took her last breath she ordered the ballroom sealed, vowing that no more laughter would ever be heard in that house again.” Sassy's gaze hardened. “Lots of folks knew that ballroom was there. Most everyone was superstitious about the curse, or scared away, that's why it was never touched.”

“So is that who's supposedly haunting the house?” Wolf asked. “The ghost of Mrs. Cobb? Is she the one that put a curse on it?”

Sassy tossed a log on the fire. The embers snapped back to life. “No, it ain't Mrs. Cobb's ghost that haunts that place. Mr. and Mrs. Cobb were kind-hearted folks. They treated their slaves well, almost like family. No, it's the one that killed 'em all that haunts that place.”

“I thought you said they died from cholera?” I rasped.

“Oh, they died of cholera all right, but it was by no accident that they got it, child. No, they were sickened by an evil slave, a woman the general adopted as a child. A child he thought of as one of his own. Her name was Sabine, and she came from the Ashby plantation. Crooked old Mr. Ashby had a passion for slaves right off the boat from Africa. He was a preacher, and liked 'em wild so he could break 'em to his Christian ways. He was far from religious. He was cruel and insane, afraid of no one, not until he encountered one strange young child. In fact, she unsettled him so much he condemned her to die. Mr. Cobb heard word of old man Ashby's plan and rescued her. From what I was told, she was only five years old.”

“Five?” I wheezed.

Sassy nodded and poked at the fire with a stick. “She had a gruesome passion for killing things, and cutting them up. Birds mostly—baby birds. She liked to tear them apart and eat them raw, feathers and all. Some said, she still hungers for them, even from the grave.”

My stomach churned, remembering the dead birds in the bedroom.

Wolf's jaw hardened as he echoed my thoughts. “We found a whole mess of them on the third floor,” he said.

Sassy's eyes turned cold. “Don't surprise me none. Old man Ashby declared her evil but the kindly general saw her as a mere child. An innocent. But all the other slaves knew there was nothing innocent about her. Some say she was really an old voodoo priestess disguised as a youngster. The general brought her home to the Missus. Sabine was a bewitching child with large dark eyes and nut brown skin. She quickly became part of the family and grew to womanhood. When she turned twenty, the general even put her in his will, like she was his own. He declared that upon his death all the land down near the swamp, including her cabin, would be hers and hers alone.”

A window slammed shut behind me and I jumped, almost spilling my tea.

Sassy stood up, her big round eyes searching the shack. She cleared her throat and continued. “Sabine wasn't about to wait for the general to die. She snuck into the cholera hospital, stole some soiled rags and tainted his lemonade. She knew that the general, being especially fond of it, would drink more than his fair share.”

“How did she get caught?” Wolf asked. “I mean, who would know?”

“She bragged to the other slaves about what she'd done. They were plenty scared, and with good reason. Mr. Cobb's brother, Eleazor, was like day is to night compared to the kind old general. He was beyond cruel and hated all blacks. So all the other slaves came together and turned Sabine in, to save themselves.

“Eleazor Cobb hanged Sabine from a cypress tree in the middle of the pond. Hangman's Tree they call it now. But not before she cursed the waters around her. He wasn't afraid of her threats and left her there to rot, as an example. They say the stench was unbearable, even after her bones fell into that bog. Anyone foolish enough to come close ended up at the bottom.”

I gagged, thinking about all those bones and the water I had swallowed. No wonder I had gotten sick. Sassy picked up my empty cup and refilled it from a kettle hanging over the fire. “Later that night,” she said, setting the kettle down. “A terrible fog moved in, seething through cracks in the old house like foul breath, gaining a sly entrance at every opening of a window or door. Sounds were muted, shapes blurred. They say that fog hung on for days, suffocating and concealing the familiar world, blinding and confusing the people in it until Sabine's evil spirit penetrated every inch of the old house.”

Shuddering, I raised the teacup to my lips. Something splashed in the amber liquid. A cold sweat broke out across my brow as I peered into the cup, taking a closer look. The waters cleared and I spotted it lying in the bottom. My hand shook.

A scream ripped from my throat and the cup clattered onto the floor.

“What's the matter?” Wolf said.

“There's an eyeball in it!”

 

He grabbed the cup and the eyeball tumbled out onto the floor with a thud. Wolf bent down, picked it up, and rolled it around in his hand before handing it Sassy.

“That's not an eyeball, child,” Sassy said. “The curse is makin' you see things.” She held out her hand. Something bloody and white rested in her palm. “It's a tooth,” Sassy said. “And it's not just any tooth.” She pointed to my mouth. “It's yours. Unless you want to lose them all, you better listen up.”

I rolled my tongue around my mouth, tasted blood and found an empty socket near the back. Pain shot into my jaw where a molar used to be. My stomach dropped. I'd always had nice teeth. Mom hardly ever took us to the dentist, and I knew if I didn't take good care of them they'd rot out of my head. Last year, I even had them whitened.

“Look, I don't mean any disrespect, Ms. Smit, but I really don't feel good. I just want to get back to the house and rest. The doctor said I'd be fine in a few days.”

“It's only gonna get worse. Don't you wait too long to come back and see me.”

Wolf blocked the door. “Dharma, wait, listen to what she has to say. I mean, what can it hurt? I don't like the feeling I get in that house. And what if it's true?”

“Don't tell me you're buying into all this curse stuff,” I said. “I'm sorry but I don't believe in ghosts, and I certainly don't believe in curses. All the freaky things I saw were just hallucinations because I'm sick with some bacteria. I feel horrible and I just want to go back to the creepy house, take a hot bath and change into my sweat pants.”

“You're not from around here,” Wolf said. “Strange things happen in these swamps. Unexplainable things. I didn't want to say anything before but there's something wrong with that place. That's why no one will work there except me and I do it only because Mom needs the extra money.”

I glared at Wolf for what seemed like several minutes as the world swirled around me. I could almost see a reflection of myself in Wolf's eyes, a shell of who I once was. I didn't want to give in. But all the same, I didn't have the strength to fight against this guy who clearly only cared about me.

My legs wobbled beneath me. With a heavy sigh, I tore my gaze from Wolf. “Okay,” I said, my voice cracking. “What do I have to do to break the curse?”

Sassy carefully sat down in the rocking chair. “First off, you have to believe. I know you don't, so I might be wasting my breath. But I'm going to tell you anyhow. You've heard the expression keep your friends close and your enemies even closer?”

I nodded.

“Well, it's true in this case. You're gonna have to find ol' Sabine's skull in that pond and you must go alone. After you get it, you must stay in that old house with the skull under your bed, until she gives up her secrets and tells you how to break the curse.”

I shuddered. No way would I sleep with a skull under my bed or go back into that pond. “That's it? Wait for a nasty skull to speak? No drawing lines, no magic powder?”

“Nope, but you must sleep alone and you must wait for her to speak, and pray she tells you. You only get one chance. If she doesn't tell you what you need to know, the curse will only get stronger.”

“Okay then, it all sounds perfectly nuts.” I glanced at Wolf. “Can we go now?”

He nodded and I reached out to shake Sassy's hand. She caught it in hers and held on tight. “This is no laughing matter, child. Please do what I tell you.”

“All right, so with all those bones, how would I know which skull is which?”

“You must look for her gold front tooth.”

Wolf frowned. “How would a slave get a gold tooth?”

Sassy shrugged. “Some said she came from Africa with it, and it was the only tooth she didn't lose as a child because she kept it by some kind of black magic. Coulda been something the general gave her. Hard to say after all this time...”

I stood up. I'd heard enough. It was sounding more and more like something out of a bad pirate movie. “Thanks for everything, but I better get going.”

Wolf shook Sassy's hand. “Thank you, Miss Sassy.”

“Sure thing. You be careful getting home now.” She paused and lowered her voice. “You take great care in that house—you hear?”

“Thanks. We will.” Wolf closed the door.

“You really believe all that?” I whispered.

Wolf helped me down the steps. “I don't know what I believe anymore,” he said as he guided me through the thicket to the truck. “All I know is that we have to try to beat this thing, whatever it is.” He pinned me with his eyes. “I won't let the evil win—I won't let it hurt you anymore.”

Something deep inside of me melted. I stared into his hard, dark eyes, drawing strength from him. Feeling his courage steel my backbone, pushing me forward even though inside I wanted to give up. I reached for his hand and he took it in his, strong fingers wrapped securely around mine, engulfing me in safety.

Wolf's truck rattled past the front gates of the plantation house, mashing down the remaining weeds in the driveway. My gut twisted into knots. It seemed quieter inside the gates, the sun less bright, the air thicker—suffocating.