Her grandma always said she had “the blessing”, and to always use it for good, but sometimes there is shame in fame if a person can’t handle it. Don’t let the Boo Hag ride ya
Set in the 60’s in Vermillion, Louisiana, Celee LaRoux finds out at 12 that she can heal people under the healing dome. She and her sister Tootsie were born ten years apart to Mahalia LaRoux who had a shady past they never knew about. Mahalia dies and Celee takes care of Tootsie, but Tootsie has a secret that Celee doesn’t know. Tootsie always listened to Celee until her 16th birthday. Years go by and then fame comes to Celee in a newspaper article. Will her fame bring her good or cause her harm? Her grandma always said she had “the blessing”, and to always use it for good, but sometimes there is shame in fame if a person can’t handle it. Don’t let the Boo Hag ride ya. **Another epic story by Mary Lynn Plaisance**
Excerpt
Celee sees an old black man dressed in a white shirt and brown pants approaching her and Tootsie in the woods near the iron healing dome. The time on the clock is almost midnight. There’s a rose in a glass dome cover and three tapered candles behind the rose. On a table, there's a teapot and one cup. It’s always the night of a full moon. Celee never sees the full moon, but it’s bright in the darkness with small candle lights showing in the background. As the man continues approaching them, Celee grabs Tootsie’s hand and they run to get to the healing dome. But, as fast as they can run, they can’t reach the dome. She never sees the man’s face but he continues coming towards them with a shotgun in his left hand. Behind her, she hears the distant mumble of people approaching with dogs barking. She wants them to help her and Tootsie. That’s when she hears the sound of a gunshot.
Celee always wakes up in a sweat over this reoccurring dream when she hears the gun. The same dream was coming to her about twice a week and Celee couldn’t think of any reason for the dream, so she thought it was a premonition of things to come. She couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to shoot her or Tootsie, so she put her dream on the back burner. She had healings to take care of.
Dialog between Celee and Tootsie LaRoux:
Dialoug: Celee sat at the table with Tootsie to eat a slice of her delicious cake. “Tootsie, look at that photo of mama. She was a beautiful lady, wasn’t she?”
“She sure was beautiful. And you look just like mama in that photo, Celee.” Tootsie was busy serving the cake. “I don’t look nothing like mama.”
“That’s what I always heard everyone say to me. I took that as a compliment. I love that photo.”
“Celee, you think I look like our daddy? I don’t remember him, beings that he left mama before I was born. Because I sure don’t think I’m pretty like mama.”
“Oh Tootsie. You are beautiful, child. You look more like what I remember of our daddy. I don’t even know his name because I called him daddy. That sure is sad that we don’t even know our daddy’s name. I tell you. But he was a handsome man. Then, on the other hand, I always said you look like grandma, too. From what I remember of our daddy, his skin was a darker brown than our skin. We have mama’s light… um… sweet brown sugar skin.” They both giggled and ate cake.
“You know Tootsie, I can’t tell you what our daddy was like. I never got to know him. I don’t know if he was a good man or not. But for mama to love him so much, he must have been a good man. I’m still mad at him because he left mama when she was pregnant with you. It drove her crazy. I swear if I ever see him again, I think I’ll pull his eyes out with my bare hands for the hurt he caused mama.”
“Celee, that’s not nice to say that!”
“I know it’s not nice, but when he just up and left mama like that, he got me so mad when I was a young girl, that it affected me too. I didn’t want to ever get married and get hurt like mama did. And look at me now. I’m 25 years old and I’m still single. I still don’t want no man. I got you, and I love my Tootsie girl ever since the day you were born... Okay, forget about daddy. Just keep thinking of mama in that photo. She had a heart of gold.”
“Is my cake good?”
“It sure is good. Save me some for later. We’ll have more cake when I get home from the healing.”
“Celee, tell me again about the day I was born and how me and you made it all by our self in this house. Was everyone here when I was born?”
“No, mama didn’t want nobody here. Grandma was a midwife for everyone around here, and I was here to help grandma. She let me see how you were born. She wanted me to know how babies come into this world, but your skin was on the pinkish side.”
“Was I okay?”
“Oh, yea. You were premature and grandma got a little scared when she saw your skin wasn’t brown, but you were a healthy... and a cute little girl.”
“Good. Because I’m glad I wasn’t sick. Like I didn’t have no bad spell on me, right?”
“No, indeed. Why you asking that?”
“I just wanted to hear it from you that I was okay. Sometimes, I wondered why grandma told you to use your blessings for good. She never told me to do anything. Not that I can remember.”
“Well, you were just fine. It’s just she didn’t see or feel that you had the healing blessing, I guess… but I’m glad I saw the pain mama was in when you were born. But that’s how all babies are born. Mama had labor pains for me too, but she said after she had you, … she said… “I’m happy I had another little girl, but no more children for me.’ That’s what she said.”
Celee fixed the mum in her hair with more bobby pins. She didn’t want the flower or her bun falling apart at the healing.
Continuing to entertain Tootsie with the story of the day she was born, she noticed lately that Tootsie asked more peculiar questions than when she was younger. It seemed the story of her birth made Tootsie feel closer to their mama, but she never heard of her saying she had a bad spell on her before. That surprised Celee more than any of her other peculiar questions.
“Tootsie I know you want me to continue with your special birthday story, so I will. Now… you and I were born in this house, on the same day, October 10, but different years… of course. We’ll always share the same birthday. I’ll never forget that day.”
“Celee, I love my birthday story and I’m gonna bake us a big cake. I’ll try to make a rainbow cake this year. I’m gonna be sixteen and you’ll be 26.”
“Oh, I remember. You’ll be sweet 16 and never been kissed,” Celee laughed. “I’m going to buy you a hi-fi stereo with the song Sixteen Candles. Would you like that?”
“Yes, I would! I can’t believe I’m getting a hi-fi for my birthday. I’m going to be telling everyone around here... Okay, tell me more about mama.”
“Well… Mama was moaning in pain, and daddy wasn’t here to hold her hand… or even to tell her that everything would be okay. What I got to know about our daddy wasn’t much good at all, in my opinion, but mama loved him. He was away all the time running the tugboat. We hardly ever saw him here. I don’t remember him really talking to me, much at all. Just small commands, like... ‘Celee get me my shoes’. No real talking like we doing now. No hugs. Nothing. Then he met a floozy woman along the river and left mama when he heard she was pregnant for you. So, he wasn’t here for you at all. Me and grandma raised you, because mama went crazy after daddy left.”
“You think I was born pink because of him? I don’t think I would like our daddy either.”
“No. We can’t blame that on daddy. Grandma said that was just the way you were born. But… I didn’t really know daddy. Mama took to drinking when she couldn’t handle him leaving her like he did, and she died. Her liver gave out on her. That’s what they told us, but I don’t know that for sure. I’ll just say that’s what happened to her.”
“I remember when mama died.”
“Tootsie, really? You were only two.”
“Well, I remember people crying. That’s what I remember mostly. I remember seeing some flowers, too. I also remember a pink coffin. But I didn’t see mama in it. I was peeking through a keyhole in a door at the funeral house.”
“Oh, Tootsie girl. You never told me that you remembered mama dying. She loved me and you so much, but she couldn’t cope with everyday life and the betrayal of daddy leaving her. She felt humiliated.”
“Yep, I sure remember that pink coffin.”
“I didn’t want no one to show you mama in that coffin, and grandma told everyone the same thing. Some of our cousins stayed with you in the back of the church so you wouldn’t see mama. How’d you know she had a pink coffin?”
“I told you. I peeked through the keyhole.”
“Well, you were a curious child. I’m sorry you had to remember that. But, a few years later… Lord, grandma died, and then it was just me and you. I was only 14, but I stayed in this house and we made the best of it. We were a family, just me and you. Aunt Charlotte wanted to take you to live with her in New Orleans, and I said… no way. No one is splitting us up. Tootsie is staying here with me… here in this house… like a family.” Celee hugged Tootsie.
“I’m sure glad you told her that. I don’t think I’d like living with Aunt Charlotte. I would have sat on her chest all night for sure.”
“Well…I don’t know what you mean by that, but I do know that she really didn’t want a child to take care of, and grandma left us some money after she died, so we were in good shape. First thing I wanted was a picture of me and you all dressed up for church. No one in the family owned a camera, and I guess I wanted a photo so we could have one like mama had… so I went to Hebert’s Studio and told the man I wanted one photo. He let me in the studio with you, but I had to go in after dark when he was closed because we had brown skin. That’s the photo on the bedroom dresser.” Celee sighed.
Tootsie sat and listened intently to the same words that Celee had said about ten times before.
“Keep going. I love to hear our story. So, my skin wasn’t pink when I was two?”
Celee took another slice of cake. “No, your skin turned brown in about a month or so. Tootsie you were okay with your pink skin at birth. You grew up just fine. Don’t worry about that.”
“I won’t worry. Keep going on about how you took good care of me.”
“Well, like I was saying, it was just me and you. No one said anything about a 14-year-old taking care of a 4-year-old back then, and we had so many good neighbors who helped me when I needed help, it wasn’t hard for us at all. Later, me and you began baking cookies to sell to the bakery. Remember that?”
“Yeah, I remember that too. I like that part.”
“I knew you would remember us baking cookies. But… when you saw a cake with icing, you wanted to make cakes. You had a good eye for pretty icing on your cakes, and look where you are now, baking pretty cakes for everyone around here.” Celee gave her Tootsie another hug.
“Yea, I do bake pretty cakes, and I make two dollars for them. I’ll just keep baking cakes. I like to use the new bowls we have, but I sure don’t like the colander when I look for my bowls. It slows me down, so I put it way in the back of the shelf. Celee, I’m not getting married either when I get older, just like you.”
“Well, Tootsie, one day I might find a good man and fall in love. You just never know about that.”
“Celee, if I ever fall in love, I’ll stay living with you always. I’ll do like mama did. I’ll just have a blessing. No wedding for me. I’m staying a LaRoux.”
“We’ll always be together. Don’t you worry about that… Mmm-Mmm. Tootsie, this cake is so good. The conversation is good too. I always love talking to my baby girl. But, I have to get to the healing dome. That lady from New Orleans will be here soon. I want to be there way before she arrives.”
“Celee, that lady will love you for making her son feel good again. I just know it. What makes you able to heal someone?”
“Tootsie, I don’t know. I get under that iron healing dome and some kind of good spirit takes over me… and people feel better when I lay my hands on them. When that happens to me, it makes me feel so blessed to help people who are hurting.”
“You blessed for sure. I think I’m blessed too, but I heard grandma say only you were blessed. Can you heal anyone outside of the healing dome?”
“Oh, you remember that grandma said that. Well good, but I don’t know about healing outside of the dome. I never tried it.”
“I remember a lot of things, Celee.” Tootsie grinned sheepishly. “Now you better get going, or that lady will get there before you.”
“I’m going now. Love you, Tootsie”
“Me too loves you, Celee.”
Tootsie cleaned up the kitchen. Her cake was on a pretty glass pedestal with a top over it. They would eat some more cake when Celee came back. She put the lace tablecloth back on the table, always keeping an eye on Celee until she saw the back-screen door slam shut behind her. She didn’t know what she would do without Celee. That’s how much Tootsie loved her sister, but she remembered that her grandma said she had a blessing too. She overheard her tell their mama.
Tootsie mumbled. “Yea, I did hear grandma say I had a blessing. I know I remember that. I don’t know why Celee won’t tell me about that part. She could teach me how to use my blessing, but she never says nothing to me about that when she tells me our story. Nothing at all. Sometimes she makes me feel like she might be jealous if I was blessed too, and I don’t like that feeling.” Tootsie was pouting.
Excerpt from UNDER THE HEALING DOME
“Tootsie, you took mama out of her grave? What in the hell are you talking about… and who’s Joe? You were dead when I brought you under the healing dome.”
At this point, Celee was so confused that she felt like she had little wheels running inside of her head as she watched Tootsie towel dry the dishes and then meticulously put them back into the kitchen cabinets. She was so calm.
“It took me a month to get half of her coffin out of the ground. Then, Joe came from New Orleans and helped me with the digging. I don’t know what I would have done without his help, and you undone all of that. He helped me so much.”
“Who’s Joe?” Celee screamed out again.
“The man I met in New Orleans when we took the Greyhound bus to City Park. You were getting us something to eat at the food stand, and I was sitting on the bench of the park picnic table. Remember that day?”
“Yea, I remember that day. That’s the day I saw you in that crystal ball.” Celee took a seat again at the kitchen table. “Go on, tell me your story. I’m interested in hearing what you have to say. Go on. I’m listening.”
“Well, Joe came and sit with me while you got the food. He said I was pretty. No man ever told me I was pretty before. They always telling you how pretty you are. But I like that he told me that, so I gave him our phone number to call me. I told him I couldn’t call him, because you wouldn’t let me… because I was only 15… but when I told him I was almost 16, he did call me, and he kept saying how pretty I was on the phone. He even said he was going to take care of me when I was 16.”
“Take care of you? How?”
“He said he was going to make a woman out of me, and he did. After he helped me get mama’s coffin out of the ground, he made love to me on her coffin so mama could see I was a woman.”
“Oh my God! Tootsie what you saying is wrong, baby girl. That man raped you… and he killed you. Daddy told me the whole story before the police officer shot him dead. He raped you!”
“Daddy? He’s not my daddy. He’s your daddy. I heard what he said at the healing dome. I heard grandma saying the same thing, too. I heard a lot of things they didn’t want you to hear. When I would hear them talking about me, they always told me…don’t tell Celee. That’s what I always heard. Celee is light and you dark. So, I didn’t tell you.”
“Tootsie, how could you “hear” this? You were only two when mama died. Grandma died a few years later. You didn’t speak well and…”
“Voices talk to me in the graveyard. The voices always sound like mama and grandma. You know how that is. They talk to you, but you never told me any of this, Celee. I had to learn this on my own.”
“I don’t hear voices in the graveyard! I heal people, Tootsie. I pray and I go to church. I don’t…”
Trader Paw almost opened the door to stop them from talking but he stayed where he was.
Celee took a deep breath. “Okay, you getting me mad Tootsie. First you tell me you hearing mama, and grandma, and voices in the graveyard. You dig up mama from her grave. A man you never knew before rapes you on our mama’s coffin. God almighty Tootsie. I would say all of that is dark, because it sure in the hell don’t sound like anything good to me.”
Celee was annoyed as she continued. “And our “daddy” did say that he wasn’t sure you were his child, okay, but I never heard that said by mama and grandma. He hitched a ride with that man you say is Joe… to come and find us…”
Celee was out of breath talking in anger. “He said he was dying and that he really loved mama. He told me he saw that man hitting and raping you and he couldn’t fight him off of you because he was older than that young man… so he left to get a shotgun. He stole a shotgun to kill the man you say loved you, but when he got back, you weren’t there, you were with me under the ceiling dome. What that man did to you was wrong, Tootsie!”
“It wasn’t wrong. I let Joe make love to me. He loved me.” Tootsie was still calm. Not jittery as usual with her boundless energy.
“He was a no-good man. He told me he didn’t kill you, but he was lying! There was no one else there, and you were dead when I got there. Tootsie, he killed you, and I beat him with a shovel on his head until he was dead. He’s not in jail, he’s dead!”
“So, you killed the man I loved?”
The song was ending on the pile of records that Celee had put on, and the next song dropped on the h-fi .
“Yes. I beat him with that shovel and hurried up to bring you to the healing dome to help you. There’s nothing evil in helping someone. I didn’t know I could bring anyone back to life. But you came back to me. That’s not dark work. I never heard of such a thing. But what you just told me about being dark… well, that’s sure not what I ever did.” Celee was crying and upset.
Tootsie poured the tea into the cup, and began talking faster. One quick sentence after the other. Her tone had changed.
“Celee, I’m different. I’m not slow. I’m not dumb. I never was. I only had one eye smaller than the other. Thank you for making both my eyes the same size. I love my light blue sparking eyes.” Tootsie smiled wickedly. “Now… drink your tea.” She shoved the cup in front of Celee.
Celee immediately stopped crying, stood up, and said firmly again that she didn’t want her damn tea. With a disgusted look on her face that she didn’t even know she had, she said, “Did you poison the tea?”
“Yes, I did, Celee. Rat poison. Mama told ne to use rat poison. If I had put it in the milk, you would have seen the milk wasn’t white. Drink your tea. Now… you upsetting me. I made it just for you.”
Trader Paw heard every word and went to get his shotgun. This had gone too far.
“You are crazy, girl. I mean, Tootsie… you really are crazy. Joe was right about that one before I smashed his skull in.” Celee was numb.
Tootsie all of a sudden became furious. “Yes, I am crazy! Mama told me I was crazy. She said I was just like her and not like you. She said I was born like this. People told her she was wild and crazy, too. She had the blessing sometimes… but only when she was good. Grandma had it too. We all had the blessing! But mama told me that my blessing would come to me only when I felt dark inside and not to use it for dark. So, I couldn’t use it at all. But I wanted to use it. Bad. Yes, I wanted to use it so bad. You never told me how to use the dark, Celee!”
“For the last time…I don’t know how to use dark blessings, Tootsie! Good Lord Almighty! I can’t believe all of this.” Celee was overwhelmed.
“Well, it’s all true. So, drink your tea. If you don’t drink your tea, I’ll use another way to kill you.”
Tootsie became calm again. She walked around the table and tried to show her dark side by pulling her two shoulders back like she was showing her strength, showing her teeth like a mad dog, humming, and shinning her light blue eyes at Celee.
“You want to kill me? Really! After we are so close as sisters, you want to kill me, Tootsie? Why would you want to kill me?”
“I want you dead because you were always first. You were always number one in everything. I ride you at night like mama told me and you still keep doing good healings. You know, I’m a healer too… anyway it’s dark healing.”
“Shut up, Tootsie!”
“It’s doing no good things. I figured that out for myself, Celee. If light healings are for good, then guess what… dark healings must be for bad things… like killing and hurting people, and doing tricky stuff… and…”
“Shut up, Tootsie! Just shut up! I don’t want to hear another foul word coming out of your mouth!”
“Oh, you gonna here a lot more… foul words coming out of my mouth if you don’t drink that tea. Oh yea! I was going to bury you with mama, but you went and fixed her all back in her grave. Why you undo everything I fix… I don’t know.”
The music kept on playing low in the background and Trader Paw was still listening at the door with his shotgun in hand. Another record dropped and The Platters were playing now.
“You want me to die. I can’t figure why?”
“Because you too good and you not dark. I wanted you to be more like me. Can’t you be mean sometimes? Why you always so good?”
“Because I’m not mean, Tootsie. I’m not dark like you call it. I wasn’t born dark or mean. Meanness don’t just happen overnight. Why I never saw you being mean before now? Huh?”
Tootsie was furious again. “Because I had to do everything you said and Mama told me to be good!” She screamed.
“Calm down Tootsie. I can get you some help. There’s a doctor in New Orleans, and…”
“I don’t want no help. I want you to be like me! Here, this is your cake. Happy birthday. I know you not gonna drink that tea, but I’m still gonna kill you. I’ll do it another way.”
“I don’t want no cake!” Celee was past upset.
“You won’t drink the tea I made for you. You won’t eat the cake I baked for you. You just plain selfish.” Tootsie grabbed a handful of the rainbow cake and threw it at Celee.
Celee ducked and the cake hit the wall just as the cuckoo clock began its twelve cuckoos for midnight. Tootsie opened the cabinet drawer.
“My purse! Give it to me, Tootsie. Now!”
“Nope. I have the piece of the dome that was left in your hand. I knew you saved it in your purse. I can use it the same as you did. Mama said I was dark. You brought me back to life. I can take your life.”
Trader Paw opened the kitchen door, swiftly. “Tootsie stop it right now. I heard everything. Put that piece of the healing dome on the floor. Drop it! Put it down right now or I’m gonna shoot you. I know Miss Celee won’t do it, but I will.”
“Trader Paw… no!” Celee was stuck again. She didn’t know where to turn. What to do?
Tootsie began saying the words to the Trinity.
Angeli plena gratia, precari, sanitatem trinitatem
Angeli plena gratia, precari, sanitatem trinitatem
Angeli plena gratia, precari, sanitatem trinitatem.
**_________________**
“Tootsie! Stop saying those words. You don’t know anything about those words. Stop it!”
“I saw you do it a thousand times. I can do the same thing. I’ll kill you with your own words, Celee. You can’t stop me. I’m dark and you not.”
“Tootsie, you can’t take those words and…”
Celee’s songs finished and the next record to drop on the hi-fi was the song… I Put a Spell on You.
“That’s my song that Joe bought me,” Tootsie said. She smiles at Celee wickedly, and looked at her with her shinny blue eyes. Her skin began to turn pink as she said Celee’s words again.
Angeli plena gratia, precari, sanitatem trinitatem
Angeli plena gratia, precari, sanitatem trinitatem
Angeli …... can’t breathe…. Help me…
Celee was going to help Tootsie, and Trader Paw yelled. “Don’t touch her! She’s a boo hag! My grandma told me about them. Don’t touch her, Miss Celee! She will kill you or turn you into her. She already said she wants to kill you. She’s dark… evil. She’ll take your skin!”
“Tootsie, you wouldn’t kill me, would you?”
“Celee…. Help me…… I can’t breathe.”
“Miss Celee, NO! Don’t help her. She’s tricking you into touching her. She’ll take your skin!”
Reviewed by Teddy Plaisance (Reader)
Reviewed on November 12, 2018
Don’t let that boo hag ride you. Well done. Keep writing beb. Scary story. Bayou stories are best. Proud of you.
Taking a legend, with a basic definition of what the Boo Hag monster does, Mary Lynn Plaisance provides readers with a short, mystifying mystery surrounding the lives of two young girls who lived alone in Louisiana, after their father left, their mother died, and then, ultimately, their grandmother who had been taking care of them. Celee was 14 when she began to take care of Tootsie who was 4 at the time...
When Ceelie was a young girl, she had healed a frog while at the Healing Dome. Her mother and grandmother explained that she had been blessed and she had been healing since then. Now at the age of 24, with her birthday the same as Tootsie, who would be 14, she had received a request to help a young man who had crippling arthritis. After Ceelie had healed him, his father, who owned a newspaper, wanted to do a story of what he had done. Ceelie quickly asked him not to--she knew that people would come from far and wide for her to heal them and she had been feeling tired, unable to breathe easily.
The newspaper owner betrayed her and published the story!
Soon the trouble started, including strangers in town who Ceelie noticed was watching her and many gathered at her home asking for her healing power... It was during this time that Tootsie seem to come to resent her for getting so much recognition. She knew, from her mother, that she had also been blessed, but nobody else had ever been told. So whenever Ceelie went to heal at the Dome, Tootsie went out on her own, and had even met a man...
Plaisance has a real gift in writing about the paranormal and creating southern gothic that pulls readers in. The dialogue is relatively simple as, in many ways, Ceelie still thinks of Tootsie as a child. And much of the story of their lives are shares by Tootsie asking Ceelie to tell her stories about their early life...With their birthdays coming, Tootsie has asked for a hi-fi and Ceelie was able to make a good deal with Trader Paw, a 80-year-old shop keeper and friend. She was able to also buy 4 records.
Tootsie used her talent to make them a rainbow-colored cake and Ceelie loaded the player... Baby Love, Tootsie's favorite came on and they danced around while the other songs came on... But readers will pick up on questionable statements and start wondering just what is going on. So that, for instance, while they are dancing at the birthday party, a strange record is added, that Ceelie didn't buy... Tootsie had first said that Joe gave it to her...but who was Joe?
As the ending comes, the pace of the book increases as Tootsie disappears, is found by Ceelie, attempted and murder occurs and we discover that the boo hag is present. Even though you may have begun to guess what was happening, parts of the book is scary, especially if you are like me and had never heard of the paranormal creature, the Boo Hag...
Interesting for me was that Ceelie had begun to doubt her own blessing and attributed the miracles to The Healing Dome... only to have it totally destroyed as Ceelie tried for a miracle there... Can some people heal, or are inanimate things able to acquire healing power through some cosmic energy surge...In this book which I easily read in a day, there is much to ponder and, if you have an interest in the paranormal, you'll especially enjoy separating out the real paranormal gifts that an individual has been given from the legends that are built up through folk lore... Because, surely, some of the book includes the fantasy from the author's creative mind, right?
Surely there are no such things as boo hags... Surely not!
When you read novels by Mary Lynn Plaisance, expect to be caught up in suspense, the paranormal, a mystery, or just a little fantasy, but don't think you'll be able to predict what you'll be reading... Check out my review of The Ghost of Mavis for something entirely different from this spooky tale! This book is thought-provoking, easily takes you into the setting of two young Black girls living on their own, growing up and learning what they can from each other and their neighbors... I enjoyed it greatly, even if it took me quite a while to go to sleep after finishing...
Sixty-seven days after departing Flores Island in Europe’s westernmost waters, the schooner Heimdall and her stalwart crew has finally arrived at the mysterious Isla Socorro in the Revillagigedo Archipelagoes. The discoveries they make are astounding
Boom! Pain! Blackness!
After an RPG attack on their barracks in Afghanistan, corpsmen, Amber Fox, Luke Owens , Wade Scott and Ross Miller wake up in an Army hospital in Germany.
Thus, begins a months long recovery for all of them. A
“Tootsie, you took mama out of her grave? What in the hell are you talking about… and who’s Joe? You were dead when I brought you under the healing dome.”
At this point, Celee was so confused that she felt like she had little wheels running inside of her head as she watched Tootsie towel dry the dishes and then meticulously put them back into the kitchen cabinets. She was so calm.
“It took me a month to get half of her coffin out of the ground. Then, Joe came from New Orleans and helped me with the digging. I don’t know what I would have done without his help, and you undone all of that. He helped me so much.”
“Who’s Joe?” Celee screamed out again.
“The man I met in New Orleans when we took the Greyhound bus to City Park. You were getting us something to eat at the food stand, and I was sitting on the bench of the park picnic table. Remember that day?”
“Yea, I remember that day. That’s the day I saw you in that crystal ball.” Celee took a seat again at the kitchen table. “Go on, tell me your story. I’m interested in hearing what you have to say. Go on. I’m listening.”
“Well, Joe came and sit with me while you got the food. He said I was pretty. No man ever told me I was pretty before. They always telling you how pretty you are. But I like that he told me that, so I gave him our phone number to call me. I told him I couldn’t call him, because you wouldn’t let me… because I was only 15… but when I told him I was almost 16, he did call me, and he kept saying how pretty I was on the phone. He even said he was going to take care of me when I was 16.”
“Take care of you? How?”
“He said he was going to make a woman out of me, and he did. After he helped me get mama’s coffin out of the ground, he made love to me on her coffin so mama could see I was a woman.”
“Oh my God! Tootsie what you saying is wrong, baby girl. That man raped you… and he killed you. Daddy told me the whole story before the police officer shot him dead. He raped you!”
“Daddy? He’s not my daddy. He’s your daddy. I heard what he said at the healing dome. I heard grandma saying the same thing, too. I heard a lot of things they didn’t want you to hear. When I would hear them talking about me, they always told me…don’t tell Celee. That’s what I always heard. Celee is light and you dark. So, I didn’t tell you.”
“Tootsie, how could you “hear” this? You were only two when mama died. Grandma died a few years later. You didn’t speak well and…”
“Voices talk to me in the graveyard. The voices always sound like mama and grandma. You know how that is. They talk to you, but you never told me any of this, Celee. I had to learn this on my own.”
“I don’t hear voices in the graveyard! I heal people, Tootsie. I pray and I go to church. I don’t…”
Trader Paw almost opened the door to stop them from talking but he stayed where he was.
Celee took a deep breath. “Okay, you getting me mad Tootsie. First you tell me you hearing mama, and grandma, and voices in the graveyard. You dig up mama from her grave. A man you never knew before rapes you on our mama’s coffin. God almighty Tootsie. I would say all of that is dark, because it sure in the hell don’t sound like anything good to me.”
Celee was annoyed as she continued. “And our “daddy” did say that he wasn’t sure you were his child, okay, but I never heard that said by mama and grandma. He hitched a ride with that man you say is Joe… to come and find us…”
Celee was out of breath talking in anger. “He said he was dying and that he really loved mama. He told me he saw that man hitting and raping you and he couldn’t fight him off of you because he was older than that young man… so he left to get a shotgun. He stole a shotgun to kill the man you say loved you, but when he got back, you weren’t there, you were with me under the ceiling dome. What that man did to you was wrong, Tootsie!”
“It wasn’t wrong. I let Joe make love to me. He loved me.” Tootsie was still calm. Not jittery as usual with her boundless energy.
“He was a no-good man. He told me he didn’t kill you, but he was lying! There was no one else there, and you were dead when I got there. Tootsie, he killed you, and I beat him with a shovel on his head until he was dead. He’s not in jail, he’s dead!”
“So, you killed the man I loved?”
The song was ending on the pile of records that Celee had put on, and the next song dropped on the h-fi .
“Yes. I beat him with that shovel and hurried up to bring you to the healing dome to help you. There’s nothing evil in helping someone. I didn’t know I could bring anyone back to life. But you came back to me. That’s not dark work. I never heard of such a thing. But what you just told me about being dark… well, that’s sure not what I ever did.” Celee was crying and upset.
Tootsie poured the tea into the cup, and began talking faster. One quick sentence after the other. Her tone had changed.
“Celee, I’m different. I’m not slow. I’m not dumb. I never was. I only had one eye smaller than the other. Thank you for making both my eyes the same size. I love my light blue sparking eyes.” Tootsie smiled wickedly. “Now… drink your tea.” She shoved the cup in front of Celee.
Celee immediately stopped crying, stood up, and said firmly again that she didn’t want her damn tea. With a disgusted look on her face that she didn’t even know she had, she said, “Did you poison the tea?”
“Yes, I did, Celee. Rat poison. Mama told ne to use rat poison. If I had put it in the milk, you would have seen the milk wasn’t white. Drink your tea. Now… you upsetting me. I made it just for you.”
Trader Paw heard every word and went to get his shotgun. This had gone too far.
“You are crazy, girl. I mean, Tootsie… you really are crazy. Joe was right about that one before I smashed his skull in.” Celee was numb.
Tootsie all of a sudden became furious. “Yes, I am crazy! Mama told me I was crazy. She said I was just like her and not like you. She said I was born like this. People told her she was wild and crazy, too. She had the blessing sometimes… but only when she was good. Grandma had it too. We all had the blessing! But mama told me that my blessing would come to me only when I felt dark inside and not to use it for dark. So, I couldn’t use it at all. But I wanted to use it. Bad. Yes, I wanted to use it so bad. You never told me how to use the dark, Celee!”
“For the last time…I don’t know how to use dark blessings, Tootsie! Good Lord Almighty! I can’t believe all of this.” Celee was overwhelmed.
“Well, it’s all true. So, drink your tea. If you don’t drink your tea, I’ll use another way to kill you.”
Tootsie became calm again. She walked around the table and tried to show her dark side by pulling her two shoulders back like she was showing her strength, showing her teeth like a mad dog, humming, and shinning her light blue eyes at Celee.
“You want to kill me? Really! After we are so close as sisters, you want to kill me, Tootsie? Why would you want to kill me?”
“I want you dead because you were always first. You were always number one in everything. I ride you at night like mama told me and you still keep doing good healings. You know, I’m a healer too… anyway it’s dark healing.”
“Shut up, Tootsie!”
“It’s doing no good things. I figured that out for myself, Celee. If light healings are for good, then guess what… dark healings must be for bad things… like killing and hurting people, and doing tricky stuff… and…”
“Shut up, Tootsie! Just shut up! I don’t want to hear another foul word coming out of your mouth!”
“Oh, you gonna here a lot more… foul words coming out of my mouth if you don’t drink that tea. Oh yea! I was going to bury you with mama, but you went and fixed her all back in her grave. Why you undo everything I fix… I don’t know.”
The music kept on playing low in the background and Trader Paw was still listening at the door with his shotgun in hand. Another record dropped and The Platters were playing now.
“You want me to die. I can’t figure why?”
“Because you too good and you not dark. I wanted you to be more like me. Can’t you be mean sometimes? Why you always so good?”
“Because I’m not mean, Tootsie. I’m not dark like you call it. I wasn’t born dark or mean. Meanness don’t just happen overnight. Why I never saw you being mean before now? Huh?”
Tootsie was furious again. “Because I had to do everything you said and Mama told me to be good!” She screamed.
“Calm down Tootsie. I can get you some help. There’s a doctor in New Orleans, and…”
“I don’t want no help. I want you to be like me! Here, this is your cake. Happy birthday. I know you not gonna drink that tea, but I’m still gonna kill you. I’ll do it another way.”
“I don’t want no cake!” Celee was past upset.
“You won’t drink the tea I made for you. You won’t eat the cake I baked for you. You just plain selfish.” Tootsie grabbed a handful of the rainbow cake and threw it at Celee.
Celee ducked and the cake hit the wall just as the cuckoo clock began its twelve cuckoos for midnight. Tootsie opened the cabinet drawer.
“My purse! Give it to me, Tootsie. Now!”
“Nope. I have the piece of the dome that was left in your hand. I knew you saved it in your purse. I can use it the same as you did. Mama said I was dark. You brought me back to life. I can take your life.”
Trader Paw opened the kitchen door, swiftly. “Tootsie stop it right now. I heard everything. Put that piece of the healing dome on the floor. Drop it! Put it down right now or I’m gonna shoot you. I know Miss Celee won’t do it, but I will.”
“Trader Paw… no!” Celee was stuck again. She didn’t know where to turn. What to do?
Tootsie began saying the words to the Trinity.
Angeli plena gratia, precari, sanitatem trinitatem
Angeli plena gratia, precari, sanitatem trinitatem
Angeli plena gratia, precari, sanitatem trinitatem.
**_________________**
“Tootsie! Stop saying those words. You don’t know anything about those words. Stop it!”
“I saw you do it a thousand times. I can do the same thing. I’ll kill you with your own words, Celee. You can’t stop me. I’m dark and you not.”
“Tootsie, you can’t take those words and…”
Celee’s songs finished and the next record to drop on the hi-fi was the song… I Put a Spell on You.
“That’s my song that Joe bought me,” Tootsie said. She smiles at Celee wickedly, and looked at her with her shinny blue eyes. Her skin began to turn pink as she said Celee’s words again.
Angeli plena gratia, precari, sanitatem trinitatem
Angeli plena gratia, precari, sanitatem trinitatem
Angeli …... can’t breathe…. Help me…
Celee was going to help Tootsie, and Trader Paw yelled. “Don’t touch her! She’s a boo hag! My grandma told me about them. Don’t touch her, Miss Celee! She will kill you or turn you into her. She already said she wants to kill you. She’s dark… evil. She’ll take your skin!”
“Tootsie, you wouldn’t kill me, would you?”
“Celee…. Help me…… I can’t breathe.”
“Miss Celee, NO! Don’t help her. She’s tricking you into touching her. She’ll take your skin!”
When Ceelie was a young girl, she had healed a frog while at the Healing Dome. Her mother and grandmother explained that she had been blessed and she had been healing since then. Now at the age of 24, with her birthday the same as Tootsie, who would be 14, she had received a request to help a young man who had crippling arthritis. After Ceelie had healed him, his father, who owned a newspaper, wanted to do a story of what he had done. Ceelie quickly asked him not to--she knew that people would come from far and wide for her to heal them and she had been feeling tired, unable to breathe easily.
The newspaper owner betrayed her and published the story!
Soon the trouble started, including strangers in town who Ceelie noticed was watching her and many gathered at her home asking for her healing power... It was during this time that Tootsie seem to come to resent her for getting so much recognition. She knew, from her mother, that she had also been blessed, but nobody else had ever been told. So whenever Ceelie went to heal at the Dome, Tootsie went out on her own, and had even met a man...
Plaisance has a real gift in writing about the paranormal and creating southern gothic that pulls readers in. The dialogue is relatively simple as, in many ways, Ceelie still thinks of Tootsie as a child. And much of the story of their lives are shares by Tootsie asking Ceelie to tell her stories about their early life...With their birthdays coming, Tootsie has asked for a hi-fi and Ceelie was able to make a good deal with Trader Paw, a 80-year-old shop keeper and friend. She was able to also buy 4 records.
Tootsie used her talent to make them a rainbow-colored cake and Ceelie loaded the player... Baby Love, Tootsie's favorite came on and they danced around while the other songs came on... But readers will pick up on questionable statements and start wondering just what is going on. So that, for instance, while they are dancing at the birthday party, a strange record is added, that Ceelie didn't buy... Tootsie had first said that Joe gave it to her...but who was Joe?
As the ending comes, the pace of the book increases as Tootsie disappears, is found by Ceelie, attempted and murder occurs and we discover that the boo hag is present. Even though you may have begun to guess what was happening, parts of the book is scary, especially if you are like me and had never heard of the paranormal creature, the Boo Hag...
Interesting for me was that Ceelie had begun to doubt her own blessing and attributed the miracles to The Healing Dome... only to have it totally destroyed as Ceelie tried for a miracle there... Can some people heal, or are inanimate things able to acquire healing power through some cosmic energy surge...In this book which I easily read in a day, there is much to ponder and, if you have an interest in the paranormal, you'll especially enjoy separating out the real paranormal gifts that an individual has been given from the legends that are built up through folk lore... Because, surely, some of the book includes the fantasy from the author's creative mind, right?
Surely there are no such things as boo hags... Surely not!
When you read novels by Mary Lynn Plaisance, expect to be caught up in suspense, the paranormal, a mystery, or just a little fantasy, but don't think you'll be able to predict what you'll be reading... Check out my review of The Ghost of Mavis for something entirely different from this spooky tale! This book is thought-provoking, easily takes you into the setting of two young Black girls living on their own, growing up and learning what they can from each other and their neighbors... I enjoyed it greatly, even if it took me quite a while to go to sleep after finishing...
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