I stepped from the shower and looked at the dreaded scale. I was required to weigh myself daily to stay within the guidelines of my new diet. I vigorously dried myself so there wouldn’t be any water clinging to my body to add weight. As I gingerly stepped on the scale I remembered how at dinner I had only eaten half portions of everything and absolutely refused any dessert even though I had an almost irresistible craving for some.
I stood absolutely still held my breath and looked at the numbers on the scale, and couldn’t believe what I saw. I stepped off and back on again. There’s a mistake, I just know there’s a mistake. There has to be. I ate half as much as I usually do and the scale is telling me that I gained two pounds yesterday. I look again and the scale is consistent with its reading. I pick the scale up and throw it in the garbage, and I add “One new scale” to my shopping list.
There’s no question of bypassing my workout at the gym as I was planning to do if the scale had shown a weight loss instead of a gain. I pack my gym bag and rush there, because I’m already running late. I sign my name upon entering the gym, Mary, and I wonder why I always comply and fill out the questions asked on the sign in form such as age and weight. I guess they use this information to try and sell something to the members. The first question is “Age” I fill in twenty-nine. Ten years younger than I really am, but they should know better than to ask a question like that. The next inquiry gets to me, “Weight” I put down 120 which is sixty pounds less than my scale read this morning, but I justify it to myself by thinking, “That scale was wrong anyway”
After putting my stuff in the locker and just carrying a towel with me I head straight for the dreaded treadmill. My trainer told me an hour a day, three times a week at the highest intensity I could do would guarantee that I’d lose two pounds a week. Sweat is pouring from my body soon after I begin and I jog as fast as I can for the required hour. I shower and thoroughly dry, and head to the scale completely nude. I even made sure I urinated before weighing myself. I figured along with all the sweat I’d have lost a few pounds of water weight. I confidently step on the “Doctor’s scale” knowing I’ll get the correct weight. I wait for the movement to stop from me mounting the scale; then I slide the weights, and I can’t believe my eyes. After not eating and working out so hard for an hour this scale is showing that I’ve gained three pounds since yesterday. I know this scale must be wrong too, so I go out to the locker room and mount that scale. My unbelieving eyes see that this scale is saying three and a half pounds more than yesterday. I burst out in tears I can’t believe this is happening to me.
Two weeks ago I weighed 120 lbs. Which is my ideal weight, and I couldn’t believe my scale that showed I was gaining five pounds a day until my clothes stopped fitting. After ten days of this I went on a diet and the weight gain moderated to around two pounds a day. My husband moved into the guest room after I gained fifty pounds, that’s when I decided to visit my doctor who couldn’t find any thing physically amiss. My friends couldn’t believe how big I was getting and so fast!
Here I’m working my butt off and still gaining weight. I got to work and logged onto a weight loss site. Diets, diets, diets, is all they talk about along with exercise and these are useless to me, because I’m doing both and still gaining weight. I spot one that states, “Magical weight loss.” That’s what I need, a magic trick to make this weight disappear, but I know that’s not going to happen when I come across an add that talks about witchcraft and white magic. I went to the site and read that I could pay a witch $39.95 to cast a spell on me that would help me lose my excess weight. Of course I filed this in the bullshit file with all the other diets.
I’m sitting there looking at the two ounces of cottage cheese I ordered for lunch while my office mate Shelia was gorging herself with a hamburger, fries and a shake. She didn’t weigh a pound over hundred and ate like this all the time. It ain’t fair, I blurted out. “What ain’t fair?” she asked putting a handful of fries in her mouth.
“It ain’t fair that you can eat like that and stay so skinny. Here I’m eating a spoonful of this f---ing cottage cheese and I’ll probably gain a pound from it. Shelia laughed and showed me a picture of her taken five years ago. Long before I knew her, and I couldn’t believe it was the same woman. The picture showed a woman who weighed at least three hundred plus pounds and I would never have recognized her as the Shelia sitting across from me.
“Unbelievable, huh?” she said.
“Wow, I’d never believe you could’ve been this big,” I told her. It was true too. I could hardly believe that the obese woman in the picture and the one sitting across from me eating all those delicious looking French Fries was one and the same woman. “How’d you manage to lose so much weight?” I inquired, and her answer floored me when she told me she knew a practicing witch who had cast a weight loss spell on her. Once cast, the spell helped her to quickly lose all her excess weight and now she could eat anything she wanted without a weight gain.
Of course the first thing out of my mouth was a plea for her to introduce me to this “witch”. “The price may be more than you’re willing to pay,” she told me.
“I don’t care about price, no price is too high if I can get rid of this blubber,” I told her.
“She agreed to introduce me to this miracle worker and we would visit her tomorrow night. I grabbed a handful of Shelia’s fries and gulped them down. What the hell I thought, tomorrow I’ll be under a fat loss spell and I’ll be able to eat all I want. Boy, was I deluded by thinking that.
After work the next day I left my car parked and we took Shelia’s. ”Roll your window up and lock the door she told me, because she lives in a rough neighborhood.” I did as I was told and asked her if I needed to worry about being raped in this “rough” neighborhood? She looked at me and laughingly told me not to worry about that. This implication that I was so fat nobody would want to rape me hurt my feelings believe it or not.
She took the exit off the highway that took us to the outskirts of the city where all the dregs ended up when they weren’t welcome anywhere else. We drove by the street corner hookers and dealers that seemed to be on almost every corner. “Where do all these people find customers for whatever it is they’re selling?” I asked Shelia.
“Just look at the expensive cars honey. You know their customers are the suburbanites who use this section of the city as their depot for sex and drugs.” when you hit bottom, you’ve got to sell whatever you can to fill your needs.
Everything was run down on the main street and when we turned down a side street that was all single family houses I couldn’t comprehend how anyone could let a house become so dilapidated. Some of the houses looked as though a strong wind would blow them over, and most had a junk car or two jacked up in the driveway with wheels and other parts missing. She drove half a block and sitting in the middle of two vacant lots was this one spic and span dwelling that looked like something taken from a fairy tale. This freshly painted house surrounded by a lush green lawn bordered by many colorful flowers was as out of place here as a wart on Elizabeth Taylor’s nose.
Shelia pulled into this driveway and said, “This is it.” I was so relieved to see this clean brightly decorated house as I had been expecting to be taken to some dreary basement smelling of urine and crawling with roaches.
The witch, who Shelia introduced as Esmirelda came out to greet us with a big smile on her very pretty face. Her lustrous long black hair framed her face and cascaded over her shoulders partly covering her voluptuous breast.
Esmirelda led us into her kitchen that smelled of candles and incense both. There was a pot boiling away on the stovetop. I saw many different plants hanging from her kitchen ceiling and she saw me gazing at them, she told me, “Ingredients for the spells.” That explained that. She filled three cups with a liquid from the pot that was boiling, and handed one to each of us. I stared at mine not knowing what to do. Esmirelda said, “It’s just herbal tea, drink it. It’ll help you relax.” I did and it did relax my jumping nerves. We made small talk while we drank the tea. Then Shelia grabbed my hand and dragged me to the next room that was the living room.
“I’ve got a surprise for you; she handed me a white cardboard box. I opened it and there was a red silk gown inside. “It’s beautiful,” I told her as I ran my hand up and down the soft fabric feeling the coolness of the silk.
“Put it on,” she said, “that’s the very gown I wore when I had my weight loss spell cast.” I stripped and put the gown on. To my surprise it was a bit too large for me and I thought, “Sheila must have been humongous before.”
They both changed into silk gowns, Shelia wore blue and Esmiralda wore white.
“Come into the chapel,” Esmirelda said, as she led us into another room where there was a bare wood floor and no furnishings other than an altar at one end with many candles burning on it. In the center of the floor was a circle with a square inside of it. A large five-pointed star surrounded this circle with a different color candle on each point. I was told to stand in the middle of the square. Esmirelda proceeded to light all the candles then together they began to chant in a mysterious language.
They walked around the circle chanting; first they walked counterclockwise then clockwise and repeated this several times. Then Esmirelda steps up to the altar and raises her arms above her head and says in a loud clear voice. ”I call on the gods and goddesses of the old days as well of those of the new.
Break this spell that is binding this woman with your power.
Gods of light move about this woman's body.
Allow your power to break her appetites.
Goddesses come down and wake her body and suppress her appetite.
Allow the power that you have given this person to be used for fat loss.
I call on the East gate.
Break the eating spell that was placed on this person.
Let it be removed for good.
Do not allow a spell of hunger be placed on she that is before me.
Esmerelda walked to me and placed her hands on my chest and spoke once more
Gods and Goddesses of the East, help me within my workings.
Allow your power to move within my hands and allow the binding appetite that was put upon my friend to be removed and never to come within her again may she live or die.
She suddenly removed her hands and ran from the room.
I thought this was part of the spell when she reappeared and told me I should leave right now. I was shocked to see this transformation from a welcoming friendly person to such a bitch, which was insisting I hurry up and get out of her house. She was blowing out all the candles and sprinkling something all other the room while chanting in that strange language while I got dressed.
Once in the car I asked Shelia, “What the hell happened in there?”
“I don’t know, everything was fine until she started praying at the altar. It’s almost like she received a message from somebody or something while she was praying.
Shelia dropped me off at my car and I drove home thinking all the way about Esmerelda’s actions. I just couldn’t understand why she got so upset. I weighed myself in the morning and sure enough I was two pounds heavier. “Goddamn,” I said to myself. “I didn’t even eat dinner last night. How can I be gaining weight?”
I looked in the mirror and saw my husband behind me, grimacing as he looked at my ever expanding body. I had promised him the day we married I would never become a “fat lady” but looking in the mirror I felt the same disgust that showed on his face. “What can I do?” I asked myself, while swallowing three diet pills that were guaranteed to work or purchase price refunded.
Looking at the cottage cheese I’m having for lunch, while Shelia was stuffing her face caused me to explode.
“I know there’s something weird going on and I’m going to find out if it kills me.”
“I talked to Esmerelda this morning and she told me the reason she hurried you into leaving last night was because you’re inhabited by an evil spirit and she couldn’t take the chance of it being released in her house.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was waiting for the opportune time, but when you start shouting about something weird going on I figured I better tell you now. She said you had to find out who had put a curse on you and why before she may be able to help.”
“How am I supposed to do that?” I asked. I had no idea of anyone who would do such a thing to me. I don’t make enemies and I always accommodate the obnoxious people in my life. Esmeirelda claimed it was an evil spirit that was causing me to gain weight. This damn spirit sure has got an appetite I thought.
I regularly attended the Catholic Church close to our house and decided my parish priest would know how to handle an evil spirit. When I told my story about being possessed by an evil spirit he asked me what behaviors I was experiencing that caused me to believe that. I told him about my weight gain. He laughed, and said, that my dear is the Devil in all of us.
You know anyone in the old days that displayed unusual behavior or a strange personality was automatically suspect of being possessed by the Devil, but nowadays with psychiatry and anti depressants we understand these changes are usually caused by a chemical unbalance. My suggestion is that you see a mental health professional.
Mental health, I thought. He just thinks I’m crazy, but after analyzing the situation I reconsidered and thought he may be right. Maybe all I need is a little medication to straighten my problem out. Thinking of medication made me hungry. I hadn’t eaten anything for two days now and still I had gained two pounds a day. I now weighed 194 and she knew that soon I would be crossing that point of no return. Once I hit 200, it was all over. I may as well weigh 300 as 200. I knew once I crossed that line I would give up, and I was now desperate to do something, anything about the weight-gaining problem.
I thought about getting my mouth wired shut so I couldn’t eat anything until I remembered I hadn’t eaten for two days and still gained weight. I made an emergency visit to my psychiatrist friend’s office and after examining me he said, “I think you’re just suffering from stressing over this weight gain. He gave me a choice of Risperdal, Seroquel or Zyprexa the newest and strongest antidepressants he had. I chose Risperdal and all the medication did was allow me to dwell on the problem and become more depressed because I had tried everything I could think of to overcome this problem and decided the problem was incomprehensible. An exorcism now seemed to be my last hope.
I returned to the parish priest and demanded that he perform an exorcism on me right now.
“There’s a lot than can go wrong, with an exorcism,” he said, “there has been a number of tragedies over the years, including several deaths. There were the Pentecostal ministers in San Francisco who pummeled a woman to death in 1995, as they tried to drive out her demons. In 1997, a Korean Christian woman was stomped to death in Glendale, Calif., and in the Bronx section of New York City, a 5-year-old girl died after being forced to swallow a mixture containing ammonia and vinegar and having her mouth taped shut. In 1998, her mother with a plastic bag suffocated a 17-year-old girl in Sayville, N.Y. in an effort to destroy a demon inside her. In 2001, a 37-year old woman, Joanna Lee, was strangled to death in a botched exorcism attempt.”
“Are you telling me it’s to dangerous to have an exorcism performed on me?” The priest explained to me that the number of exorcists and exorcisms has increased across the country in the last 10 years. In fact the pope has recently revised the exorcism code for the first time in 600 years. Now that there are experienced people doing it the likelihood of any thing going wrong are greatly diminished.”
“Good, then there shouldn’t be any delay for me to be exorcised.”
“Mary,” he said, “only an expert can perform an exorcism. I’ll have the bishop request an exorcist be sent here as soon as possible to accommodate your wishes,” he told me.
In just a few days Father Flynn arrived with two assistants to perform the exorcism. We all met in the church basement where the ceremony would take place. The priest and his assistants got ready to perform the ritual by setting twelve altar candles around me as I lay on a sheet covered table. Then Father Flynn mixed a solution of salt and holy water along with a special exorcism ointment used to anoint my head and body. He mixed three tablespoons of frankincense oil, three tablespoons of myrrh oil, six drops of clove oil and one half teaspoon of powdered garlic to one quarter cup of melted animal fat. He stuck a thermometer in this mixture to be sure it was at the right temperature for use.
The priest continued his preparations, and it was obvious to me that he was expert at what he was doing.
Father Flynn had his assistants lit all the candles. He warned them to be vigilant as they must be kept burning throughout the exorcism, and if they go out to relight them as soon as possible. “Incense made from Solomon's seal and St. John's wort will also be burned during the exorcism,” he told me.
He took leather straps from his bag, and told his assistants to strap my arms and legs to the table. He then sprinkled some salt over the my body and said , “With this Holy salt I baptize thee. (I felt something inside of me squirming at these words). Then he sprinkled some of the holy water across my body, while making the mystical sign of the " X " and saying: “With this Holy water I sanctify thee.” He then took the anointing mixture he had made, and anointed my feet, stomach, palms of my hands, and my temples. All the while reciting this prayer,
”Hear me, O demonic spirit who possesses this mortal body. I command thee to depart at once, and return into this person no more!”
By the Holy and mighty power of the everlasting power of the supreme being I cast thee OUT !
Depart from this mortal body at once the Gods command thee!” I’m wondering if this is going to work and then my body is trembling all over. The spirit is fighting to stay, because it has nowhere to go if it’s forced from my body. I mentally try to push it out, and I feel a separation starting between our spirits. A strong wind blows all the candles out. I feel the spirit regaining its strength until the assistants immediately relight the candles. Now its strength recedes again; my body is being violently shaken because of the spirit fighting to remain within me. The struggle goes on for a full twenty minutes until suddenly the evil spirit is gone. I’m exhausted and pass out from the expended energy.
I weigh myself the next morning and jump up and down I’m so happy; I lost five pounds in my sleep. I remember how much I had eaten after the exorcism, because it seemed to take so much energy that I was starving when I left the church and went directly to the nearest restaurant. Once there I ate a full course meal and desert, well actually two deserts. A piece of chocolate cake with coffee and then I had a dish of ice cream. It’s unbelievable, I ate all that food and I still lost weight. I’m so happy!
Today Shelia and I go to lunch and I order two burgers with a large order of fries. “Wow, that’s a lot of food for you,” she said.
I told her about the exorcism and how I lost weight even though I ate a lot yesterday. “Maybe you shouldn’t eat so much until you’re sure it’s working,” she suggested. The next morning I weighed five pounds less than the previous day and I jumped up and down again out of happiness. I woke Bernie up with the noise my jumping made. He wanted to know why I was making so much noise. I decided then and there not to tell him about the exorcism. I knew he’d notice the pounds dropping of me.
Five pounds gone, day after day I was five pounds less than the day before. When I reached my desired weight of 120 I don’t know why, but I thought the weight loss would stop. It didn’t. The next day I weighed 115. “Oh, Oh,” I thought. I better start eating more before I get too skinny. That day at lunch I ordered three burgers two orders of fries and a piece of pie along with a super-sized Coke. “You’re really pigging out there Mary,” Shelia said.
“Yeah, can you believe it? Now I’m getting too thin.
The next morning I weighed 113, I had only lost two pounds. I was relieved because I thought I could just eat more and the weight loss would stop. It didn’t. I ate everything in sight and some days I thought I ate my weight in junk food. Relentlessly I would lose two pounds every day no matter how much I ate. If I could only figure out why this is happening I’d be rich, because if I knew the secret of eating anything you want and still lose weight, I could sell that secret for a fortune.
My husband was concerned and asked me if I had cancer because I was so thin. That hadn’t occurred to me so I went to my doctor for a check up and he gave me a great report. I was as healthy as possible except I needed to gain some weight. Now that really pissed me off. Here I was battling to lose weight and now that I lost it, I’m being told I need to gain weight; talk about a yoyo diet.
A week goes by and I’m down to 99 pounds; I’m so thin my bones are showing through my skin. I almost look like I just stepped out of a Nazi concentration camp. At lunch I order four burgers, four orders of king size fries, two super-sized Cokes and two pieces of apple pie. Shelia looks at my tray and she can’t believe I’m going to eat that much food in one sitting. I do and I eat her leftover fries too. “Girl there’s something desperately wrong with you being able to eat that much food and to stay as skinny as you’re.”
“I know, the only reason I’m eating so much is to try and keep from losing any more weight, but it seems hopeless,” I told her.
“We need to visit Esmirelda again,” she said.
“Hell, she practically threw me out of her house the last time we were there,” I said.
“But you had the evil spirit that scared her evicted from your body with the exorcism so she may be able to help now.” I agreed to go with her that night right after work.
When we pulled into her driveway I was amazed again by the contrast of her neat well-kept house on this street of rundown slum-like homes. “Do the neighbors ever bother Esmirelda?” I asked Shelia.
“No, they all fear her,”
Esmirelda greeted us with her warm smile and apologized to me for chasing me out the last time I was here. “You have no idea how much havoc the spirit that was possessing you would have caused if it got loose in my house.” She told me that Shelia had explained how I had gotten rid of that spirit but now I had another problem. I started to explain, but she interrupted me and said, “Lets go in the kitchen and have a cup of tea while we talk.
After a long discussion we changed into our silk gowns for the ceremony and mine was now so big on me that I wrapped it twice around my body and it was still hanging loosely. All the candles were lit and Esmirelda and Shelia were chanting and Esmeirelda invoked the Goddess to give her the insight to determine what was happening to me. I was standing in the square in the middle of the floor with candles lit all around me while they walked in circles around me chanting in an ancient language. First they walked to the right, and then to the left for a while, then reversed direction four or five times. Finally with their arms raised above their heads both thanked the Goddess for visiting them. They both went around blowing out the candles and cleaning up the melted wax. The smell of the incense that was burned during the ceremony hung in the air along with the scent of the burning candles.
Esmirelda told me the Goddess showed her a vision of who had put this curse and the one I had recently exorcised on me. She told me if I were to get rid of this one there would just be another curse put on me; so I had to find out who was cursing me as that would be the only way to stop the magic being used against me.
I knew I had to hurry because I was now down to 97 pounds and I knew if I didn’t remove this curse soon I wouldn’t be around for long. Esmirelda said, “The Goddess let me see that this curse is related to your work somehow.”
I wrack my brain all night and can’t imagine anybody at work or through work who would do this to me. I shower in the morning and look at the new scale I had purchased after throwing the old one out. I’m starting to wish I had the old scale and the 180-pound reading back, when I see I’m down to 92 pounds this morning.
When I arrived at work my boss wanted to know if I had some kind of terminal illness and if I needed time off to get ready to die. She didn’t use those words, but that’s exactly what she meant. “No I’m fine I told my boss, but I know someone from work has it in for me. Do you have any idea who it might be?” I asked her.
“I didn’t want to tell you this Mary, but we’ve been intercepting hate mail that has been arriving for you every day for two months now.”
“Let me have it please, I need to see that mail as soon as possible,” Mary said. Her boss went and got the mail; dropped it on Mary’s desk and left. Mary looked at the pile, two months of letters. It looked as though there were about sixty letters total in the pile. She sorted them by date and began reading. “Dear Mary,” began the first letter. “I was told you’re the person that approves or rejects my insurance claims. I know you need to weigh the medical evidence before you can approve treatment for any disease. I just want to point out at this time that modern medicine doesn’t understand a lot of illnesses. Thank you for your time.” I couldn’t see why my boss thought this letter was threatening and I thought it should have been delivered to me.
The next letter started out similar to the last one except it explained a little more. “My wife has become infected; somehow the infection has caused her to gain 120 pounds. The doctors keep putting her on diets, and she keeps getting fatter. This eerily replicated my problem before the exorcism, I need you to approve my insurance to cover an alternative healer. Thank you.”
Each letter became more descriptive telling how all the doctors could do was watch while his wife swelled up and suffered excruciating pain from her skin being stretched so tight over her tiny frame. She now weighed over four hundred pounds. He told how she was hospitalized and put on a liquid diet of 200 calories a day, yet she continued to gain weight. If he could only get the insurance company to cover the cost, he knew there was a Voodoo healer who lived in New Orleans who has helped people with similar afflictions.
Then a few letters later the threats were unveiled and the writer promised I’d suffer every agonizing pain his wife had suffered until she literally exploded. That’s what he said ”Exploded.” I never heard of anyone actually exploding, but I guess it’s possible. I know I’ve been feeling like I’m going to explode with all the food I eat to keep from losing weight.
The rest of the letters told of his obsession with revenge against me for not approving his trip to New Orleans. Hell, I never knew anything about it. I couldn’t have rejected his claim if I didn’t know about it. I looked at the name and address written on the envelope and searched the company database for his name and it popped up with his claim number. I looked it up and saw denied written all over it and it wasn’t my handwriting. Somebody probably gave him my name by mistake. I’m wondering what happened to his wife and I pull his file up again. I find she died right around the time I started gaining weight. The cause of death was listed as a massive heart attack. I guess you could say her heart exploded.
I knew I found the person who had a reason to hate me enough to want to see me cursed. But? Was he the one causing my problem? I rummaged through my memory and all the cases I’ve handled in the last year and couldn’t find another suspect. I decided to call “Mr. James Abernathy” was how he signed all his letters. I looked in his insurance file, but we didn’t have a phone number for him. I called information and they had no listing for that name and address. I searched through all the online phone books and couldn’t find his number. “Maybe he doesn’t have a phone I thought, as unlikely as that being the case in this day of cheap phone service. Although he didn’t have enough money to bring his wife to New Orleans he may be so poor he couldn’t afford a phone at any price.”
I decided I needed to find him immediately and there was an address on the envelopes his letters came in that read.” 1300 Okefenokee Swamp Park Rd., Waycross, GA, 31501” I went to mapquest.com and saw that he lived eight miles south of Waycross, Georgia off U.S. 1 South on Highway 177.
“Shelia, I’m pretty sure I found the guy who has put this curse on me and I’m leaving for Waycross Georgia right after work. Are you coming with me?” I asked.
“Hell, I won’t be any help, let me call Esmirelda and see if she’ll go with you?” She called me back in a few minutes and told me Esmirelda was on the way over to where I worked and would go to Waycross with me. I’m so thankful she’s coming, because I don’t know what I’m going to say when I get there.
Esmirelda is waiting for me when I get off work and we decide to drive after figuring how long it takes to get to the airport and getting through security there; then waiting for a car rental when we got there.
Several hours later I was driving through Waycross Georgia on route #1 looking for highway 177, “There it is,” Esmirelda said,” pointing at the sign. I turned on the highway and found Okefenokee Swamp Park Road. I turned onto it and there wasn’t a building to be seen on either side of the road. Swamps and trees soon surrounded us. The road was clear but seemed to get narrower the further we went on it.
Esmerelda was holding on to a talisman and reciting ancient prayers to her Gods when a large alligator blocked the road ahead that had narrowed down to a one-lane road. I braked and put the gear into reverse to get the hell away from the alligator when Esmirelda said, “No, don’t leave. He sent the alligator to greet us.”
“Who sent the alligator?” I asked
“The one who cast a spell on you.” This was interesting, this character can cast spells to make me fat and skinny and now he’s sending an alligator to greet me? “What would my psychiatrist friend think of this?”
“Well, what do we do now,” I asked. She was mixing some potions in a small glass she must have had in her purse. She then lit two candles and gave me one and said, “We’ll get out of the car and slowly approach the animal. I think my incantation will send him away,”
“What if it’s hungry and decides to eat us? I know how fast alligators can move. I watched them feeding on the Nature Channel and they eat animals bigger than you and me combined.”
“Have faith in the Goddesses,” was her reply. Bullshit, I’m thinking that’s the pat answer for all religions every time they get a tough question. I’ve got so much faith that I let Esmirelda get far enough ahead, so if the alligator decides it wants to eat her, I’ll have time to get back in the car. She’s sprinkling her mixture in the direction of the alligator and chanting at the same time. Me, I’m ready to wet my pants I’m so frightened.
The alligator slowly backs up; turns and splashes into the nearby water. Now I did wet my pants out of relief instead of fear. Esmirelda was busy thanking the Goddesses when he walked out of the trees and said, “Good job, Old Elsie usually scares our visitors away.” I was scared stiff but I couldn’t help but notice how handsome this dark swarthy man was. His movements were so natural, like an animal in its home environment. He was around six foot tall and probably weighed about one ninety and the weight was solid. I glanced at Esmirelda and I could see she was noticing the sexuality of this man just like I was.
“Mr. Abernathy sent me to fetch you ladies before you get scared off by some animal.”
“You mean there’s more than alligators here?” I asked.
“Yeah, and the gators aren’t the worst thing either. That’d be the Black Bear, because when a bears hungry it’ll eat most anything. Even a couple of lost ladies,” he said, and then laughed out loud.
“It’s the look on your face that made me laugh, I’m sorry, but you look so damned scared.”
“Goddamn right I’m scared. I know about Black Bears, they can weigh 500 pounds and they can run up to 35 miles per hour. That means they can run an entire football field in 20 seconds. And they eat meat!”
“You probably know about the snake too?”
“Snakes!”
“Yeah, all of North America's venomous snakes live around this swamp. There’s
The Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake that can grow to a length of 8 feet and then there’s the cottonmouth….”
“Enough! I don’t want to hear about any more snakes, or other horrors associated with this God forsaken place. Can you please take me to Mr. Abernathy? Mr. Mr….”
“Jed, Jed Abernathy, you’re looking for my father. Cmon, follow me and I’ll take you to him.” He turned and walked into the heavy brush with us following. I saw giant bugs flying and crawling along with more spiders than I had ever seen in my life. I walked right into a spider web and feeling the sticky web engulfing my face I panicked and started screaming while clawing at my face trying to remove the web. Jed wrapped me in his arms to stop me from clawing myself and whispered softly in my ear. “Its O.K. just relax as he brushed the web from my face with his sensuous hands. Jed held a small struggling spider between his fingers and said, “This little thing is what’s getting all those screams from you?” It was embarrassing, but when he wrapped his arms around me I immediately felt safe and secure and silently wished he’d never let me go.
Esmirelda didn’t fear anything it seemed. She held on to her talisman and with her head held high she walked straight into any situation without showing any fear whatsoever. In comparison I had already wet my pants and stood there screaming like an idiot because of a baby spider. Of course I’m feeling like a fool and decided to put on my bravest face from now on.
There wasn’t a road or even what would normally be called a path leading to where Jed was taking us. I’m wondering if he’s just taking us deep into the swamp to rape or kill us or both when suddenly I found myself in a clearing with an attractive cottage built on stilts right at the waters edge. “This is where we live.” Jed said.
“How did you end up building a house in the middle of the woods? I asked.
We consider the water our road so it’s more like we built on the side of the road than in the middle of the woods.” Just then I saw an older version of Jed standing on the porch waiting for us, I’m thinking “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” where gramps gets to take a turn in the killings. I know I’m being paranoid, but after all, I’m in the middle of a swamp with two strangers. One who has been sending me threatening letters for months, I feel my brave face contorting with fear and I’m ready to cry when the figure on the porch shouts, “Welcome ladies. I’m so glad you all came to visit.” Somehow I found his jovial voice comforting and my facial nerves stopped trembling and my body relaxed at the sound of this voice.
The four of us sat on the porch drinking iced tea, James charisma affected both Esmirelda and myself and I couldn’t picture this seemingly nice man putting a curse on me, until Esmirelda asked him about the long knife he had strapped to his arm. The knife had a carved bone handle and at least a six-inch blade. “That knifes been in my family for generations and we’ve always used it to scalp our enemies. See that, he pointed to a pole hanging from the ceiling with what appeared to be hair hanging from it. That’s our heritage,” James Abernathy said. She questioned him about what it was. “There’s one hundred and one scalps on that pole, dating back to the 1800’s when United States soldiers started harassing our people. My family took all these scalps.”
“Have you added any yourself?” Esmirelda asked.
“Four, soon to be five, when I get my hands on that evil sonavabitch that cursed my wife.” I almost pissed my pants again when he said that. Did he mean me? So much for charisma,
“Mr. Abernathy, the purpose of my visit is to talk about that exact subject. I threw the pile of threatening letters on the table and said, “I saw these for the first time yesterday and your accusations against me are completely wrong. Whoever told you I was working on your file was mistaken. I showed him photocopies of the handwritten denials written all over his claim forms and I took pen in hand right there in front of him and duplicated all the words written on the file and shoved the paper over to him so he could see that the handwriting was completely different. “He looked at the handwriting for a long time and he asked, “Why did the person I talked to say it was you who denied my wife’s claim?”
I’m in charge of the claims department and ultimately I’m responsible for all claims, but I swear I never laid eyes on your wife’s case. You can blame me if you want, but I don’t feel I’m responsible.”
“I can see by how thin you are now that you’ve suffered greatly, and as you claim you’re not responsible I can claim my vengeance on you satisfied. We’ll go see the Shaman to get the curse removed. Relief, at last I’m going to be “Un-cursed” I couldn’t wait to start gaining weight again. I haven’t weighed myself in a few days but I know I must be in the low 80’s by now.
Esmerirelda and Jed had gone off to the other side of the house while Mr. Abernathy and I discussed what would need to be done to remove the curse on me. They seemed taken with one another and I couldn’t blame Esmirelda for falling for a hunk like Jed.
The sun was coming up as we climbed into James Abernathy’s boat on our way to visit the Shaman. It would have been a pleasant trip if the bugs weren’t so plentiful and hungry. I saw water splashing around the boat and pictured that giant alligator Elsie surfacing under our boat; overturning it and then feasting on everyone she dumped in the water. My fear shows on my face, I know this because Esmirelda sits next to me and puts her arm around me telling me that everything is going to be fine and I don’t need to be scared. As we glide along the water there are trees with branches that hang low overhead and I picture every branch with a snake on it just waiting for me. Finally in the distance I see smoke rising. Slowly coming into view is a shack and in front of the shack there is a roaring campfire with a man dancing around it. Once we get to shore I see this man wearing buckskin in the Indian style His face is painted with many different colors and his headdress that flows to his knees has more colored feathers in it than the colors painted on him. He stopped dancing when he saw us. Both Abernathy’s raised their arms in greetings. They were greeted with raised arms in return and when the bow of the boat touched ground Jeb jumped out and dragged it onto dry ground; then tied it off to a nearby tree. James Abernathy and Esmirelda had no problem evacuating the boat, but when I attempted to, I fell over the side as once everyone else got out there wasn’t enough weight left in the boat to keep it grounded. The stern was still floating in water so when I went to the side to step over the boat rolled and I went over the side landing in the mud. This was hilarious to everyone but me.
The Shaman led me into his shack where he led me to a pan of water that was obviously used for washing. He handed me a towel without saying a word.
After I cleaned the mud from my face and hands I returned to where the three of them were trying to stifle their laughs; seeing them trying to look serious but giggling like a bunch of schoolgirls I couldn’t help but to burst out laughing and as soon as I did so did everyone else. this is happening because everyone was so tense and my falling out of the boat had broken the seriousness of the moment.
The Shaman took us on a tour of his camp and showed us the animal skins he was tanning. There was a large bear skin and quite a few snake skins, “Why do you kill the snakes?” Asked Esmirelda. I was wondering why too when he said, “I use their venom in many medicines. They started comparing medicinal formulas and it turned out some of the Shaman formulas were quite similar to Wicca mixtures. The Shaman told us that European Pagans; and Medieval Witches actually functioned more as village shamans than as priests and priestesses of the Old Religion. The difference between Shaman and Wicca is that the Shaman has knowledge of psychotropic plants and uses sacramental effects to transition between worlds. “Sit down,” he said, “we’ll have a demonstration and I’ll find out why you’re here.” The five of us sat in a circle and the Shaman filled a pipe with a mixture of herbs he kept in an earthen jar. He lit the pipe; sucked in a mouthful of smoke and passed the pipe to Esmerilda who copied his actions. The pipe came to me and I sucked on it and immediately felt a change in my mental process taking place. I remembered to pass the pipe on before the visions appeared. Beautiful visions of happiness and peace, I couldn’t actually see happiness or peace, but I did. I knew it was there in front of me and I could reach out to touch it. I did, I dipped my hand in happiness and was overwhelmed with joy and I put my other hand in peace and my body was both so calm and happy I wanted this feeling to last forever. I don’t know how long I was in this state, but when I opened my eyes it seemed like my ears opened at the same time as Esmirelda was saying, “That was great, if you give me the formula I’ll give you one for any spell you want. They began bargaining and the Shaman was a trader from way back and it appeared he was getting two spells for every hallucinating formula he gave up.
He looked at me and said, “My vision told me you’re telling the truth and Mr. Abernathy has agreed we can rescind the curse.” “Let’s backup here a minute,” Esmirelda said. “I know what a Shaman can and can’t do. Casting spells is beyond your expertise. Can you tell me where you learned spell casting?”
“I owe Mary an explanation so I’ll tell how this came about. When James came to me wanting to put a curse on someone who was far beyond my reach I knew this was beyond my magic. I knew Mrs. Abernathy had been dealing with a Voodoo Priestess in New Orleans and I contacted her and following her instructions I constructed a doll like image of the intended victim. First I had a small piece of paper she had written a name on and told me to stuff it inside the doll. She said that would cause an Evil spirit to inhabit her body. One day I saw the paper had fallen out of the doll and the name was erased. She then instructed me to wrap a string around the doll and that would make it impossible for the victim to hold any food and would die of starvation.” He got up and went into his shack returning with a doll in his hand that was about three inches high. He held it up and while chanting grabbed the small string that was wrapped around the dolls waist and pulled it free. I instantly felt my stomach expand as the dolls string was loosened. He then handed me the doll and told me to keep it safe so no one else could ever use it.
“That one about putting an evil spirit inside sounds like what happened to my wife,” Mr. Abernathy said.
“She’s the one who told me how to get in touch with this Voodoo Priestess and I know they had dealings together but I don’t know what they were.”
“Well Pa, I guess we’re going to have to go to New Orleans and question this priestess.”
“You know I ain’t got the money to go there,” said Mr. Abernathy.
“I’ve got plenty of money,” Esmirelda butted in. “take me with you and I’ll take care of the expenses,” she said. It turned out that she wanted to experience Voodoo first hand after she got a taste of this Indian magic and really enjoyed it. She wanted to see if Voodoo offered anything she could add to her bag of tricks. She invited me along and I declined. I wanted to get on with my life now that finally I had my curse lifted. I knew Bernie must be worried about me as long as I’ve been gone. I offered to drop them of at the airport on the way home. Jed and James just packed a small bag each. “James,” I said, "that scalping knife; you might want to pack it in your luggage or they’ll never let you on the plane wearing it.”
“Thanks, I’m going to need this in New Orleans.”
I drove home and the first thing I did was shower and then weigh myself. 94 pounds is what the scale said, four more than a few days ago. I went around the house lighting the candles Esmirelda told me to place in strategic locations and burned the incense she had given me and recited the spell Esmirelda gave me. I then put the hallucinating mixture in the pipe and waited for my husband to get home because I was going to give him a mystical experience he’d never forget.
What happens to Jed, his father and Esmirelda when they confront the Voodoo Priestess?
To be continued.