Free Heart's Reflection by P R Mason Page B

of the dashboard speedometer, her knuckles appeared white
despite her cocoa color.
    She was right
about the darkness. With no street lamps and barely a sliver of a moon, the
headlights of this old beater hardly made a dent in the inkiness of the night.
The rotten egg smell told me this marshy area must have a lot of sulfur in the
soil.
    "We're only
here because Miss Istanbul wants a love potion," Nathan remarked.
    Gritting my teeth,
I didn't answer him. If I stopped reacting to that nickname, maybe he'd drop
it.
    "Good
point," Gracella exclaimed.
    "Let's go
back to Savannah," Nathan said.
    "No." I
braced against the dashboard with one hand and the door with the other to keep
from bouncing wildly again. The seatbelt could only do so much. "We're
almost there."
    "Maybe,"
Gracella said. "It's been a while since I was out here."
    "Great. Now
we're lost," Nathan whined.
    "We aren't
lost," Gracella snapped. "At least I don't think so."
    Nathan unbuckled
himself and leaned up between the front seats.
    "Are you
crazy? You could fly through the windshield. Buckle yourself back in," I
yelled.
    "Come
on," Nathan said. "If we head back now we can make it to Buddy
Burgers before they close. I'm buying."
    Gracella slammed
on the brakes, and I threw out one arm like a railroad crossing gate to hold
Nathan back.
    "There it
is." Gracella pointed down an offshoot from the road.
    The house sitting
alone in the midst of the woods was a small, square box. But even in the
darkness, it seemed well kept. Whole conch shells marked the outline of the
front yard.
    Gracella pulled
down the driveway and parked. We tumbled out of the car, and my legs wobbled as
if I'd been out to sea and tossed in a storm. As we walked toward the house,
the path crunched under our steps and, glancing down, I observed a mixture of
broken shells and dirt spread along the way. The porch light revealed yellow
clapboards on the house, Haint blue on the porch ceiling and trim, and white
pickets on the banister.
    "What's with
the blue?" Nathan asked.
    "It's supposed
to keep away evil spirits," Gracella answered.
    "Doesn't seem
to be working. You're here," I teased Nathan as we reached the porch.
    "Yeah,
Nathan. Could you please not be such a tool in front of my great aunt?"
Gracella added. "She could put the bad
mout curse on you, and turn you into a toad or something."
    "Ha,"
Nathan scoffed, although he did squirm a bit.
    Gracella knocked
at the door and it swung open.
    The woman inside
couldn't have been more than thirty-five. She wore a flowered caftan with a
scarf tied around her hair, enhancing her ebony skin color.
    "Titi,"
she greeted Gracella and embraced her. "You is so tall dese days."
    "Aunt
Vandi." Gracella smiled broadly as she pulled back. "Thank you for
seeing us. These are my friends Tina and Nathan."
    "Aye
ya." Aunt Vandi took my hand, speaking with her Gullah accent. "You
da one what need the love potion joso ."
    As I nodded,
Nathan inserted, "No. She doesn't need any mumbo jumbo magic stuff."
    Aunt Vandi reeled
around to examine him with narrowed eyes. "Mumbo what, bohbo ?"
    Nathan blanched,
obviously seeing his future life as a toad. With head lowered he mumbled,
"Nothing...Ma'am. Sorry."
    After a few
seconds Aunt Vandi cocked her head to the side. "A'ight I see you good bohbo what jes wanta p'otect your gal."
    Nathan mumbled
something unintelligible.
    Aunt Vandi turned
back to me and took my hand again, examining the palm. "Why you want this
potion, zactly?"
    "I ummm. Want
ummm..."
    "You nervous
gal?" she asked. "If you not sure the joso not work."
    "I'm
sure," I replied. "I want the love potion so this guy I
like—Ronny Tallsman—will ask me to a dance."
    "Dis strong
magic you play with." Her eyes locked with mine, and it seemed as if she
was seeing straight down through me to the calluses on my soles. "You okay
if he has love for you dat last long time?"
    Swallowing down a
lump, I nodded.
    "A'ight,"
she said, twisting to pick up scissors from a table next