CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The duppies had come to their yard, just as Darette had threatened in her letters, and they had arrived with a vengeance. But it wasn’t Manda they wanted. It was Sierra, who had gone on the air to tell her audience that the letter-writing culprit had been caught, and lo and behold, it was an Obeah woman herself. And as usual, Sierra had a laugh about the whole thing, as she described how the “wacky old hag” had thrown green stuff on her. That had prompted a barrage of calls that still hadn’t slowed, even three days later. The whole event had frightened Manda, especially as she mused about how Darette’s mother had done the same thing to their mother, going to her wedding and tossing oil on her.
When Manda told Angie about the incident, Angie said it was a good thing she had been there, or who knew how much worse things might have turned out. Still, Manda was worried about what might ensue. She begged Sierra to drop the charges against Darette, but Sierra would have sooner painted herself green like the Statue of Liberty than do that. A nice coat of green paint would have been better for her than what was to follow.
The following Saturday evening, Manda set herself a bubble bath and settled in to melt away her stress in the hot, sudsy water. Sierra had gone into the kitchen to make fried eggplant sandwiches for the two of them. It must have been the pregnancy cravings that had hit her, since Sierra never went near the stove if she could help it. And she had never even liked eggplant before then.
Manda was just beginning to relax when she heard a scream coming from the direction of the kitchen. She sat up in the water, startled.
“Sierra? Is that you?” She stepped out of the bath onto the soft mat. She snatched her towel from the rack and wrapped it around her body, then opened the bathroom door and rushed down the hall. When she got to the kitchen, she skidded to a stop. Sierra stood by the counter, staring down at her hand, her face twisted into a grimace. Blood dribbled from a wound on her wrist and splattered on the kitchen floor. A knife lay on the ground in the middle of the mess.
“What happened?” Manda asked, as she sprung to action. She rolled off a wad of paper towels and soaked them with cold water.
“I don’t know.” Sierra shook her head. She raised her wrist obediently to let Manda wrap the paper towels around it. “I was coming back to the counter to get the eggplant, and the knife…it just fell off the counter and whacked me. I didn’t even touch it.”
“Are you sure you didn’t bounce against the counter?”
“No, I hadn’t even reached it yet. The knife just seemed to…jump almost.”
“Jump?”
“Yeah,” Sierra said, her eyes wide and innocent as a child’s.
Manda could tell she was in a bit of a shock. Sierra had never been able to handle the sight of blood, especially her own. She let Manda lead her into the bathroom and sit her down on the toilet seat. She didn’t have so much as a Band-aid in her bathroom cupboard, and Manda had to fetch the little medical kit she had brought with her from England.
“It’s not too deep,” Manda said, as she cleaned and disinfected the cut.
“Uh-huh,” Sierra said, her eyes closed and jaw clenched.
Manda put a square of gauze over the cut, and secured it with medical tape. If the knife had struck even half an inch away, it might have severed a vein or a tendon. But she kept that knowledge to herself, not wanting to frighten Sierra even more.
“Alright,” she said when she was done. “You’ll live.”
But Sierra’s string of misfortunes was only just beginning. By the end of the week, she was limping around the flat, looking like a bruised piece of fruit. She had been hit on the head by a flying bottle of expensive perfume tossed by a panicked shoplifter in Macy’s. Gored in the side by someone who had dashed onto the train carrying a big wooden sculpture of Don Quixote holding a sharp, pointed spear. And she had been knocked down by a delivery man riding his bicycle on the sidewalk. One moment she had stopped to watch some street dancers who were doing back-flips over each other, and the next moment she was lying on the ground beside a bag of Chinese food.
“Angie, we’ve got to do something,” Manda said to her cousin on the phone early the next morning. “Or she’s liable to top herself off at this rate. And there’s the baby to think about.”
Sierra was now so badly shaken by all of her accidents, she had gotten skittish. Earlier that morning, when Manda walked up behind her in the kitchen and patted her on the shoulder, Sierra had yelped and dropped a glass on her own foot. So now she also had a sore foot to contend with.
“You know, the gal had the nerve to falsely accuse me of sending her hate mail, and then when she find out it wasn’t me, I hear nothing from her, not even a ‘sorry, dog’.”
“I think she’s just feeling a little sheepish,” Manda said. “Sometimes it takes her a while to apologize, but you’ll hear from her.” The truth was, Sierra had asked Manda to apologize to Angie on her behalf, and Manda had told her to do it herself.
Manda heard the click of Sierra’s bedroom door. “Angie, I’ve got to go. I’ll ring you again later.” She hung up the phone and grabbed a copy of Time Out from the coffee table.
“Off for a jog, are you?” she said to Sierra when she came into the living room, dressed in black shorts and a sports bra and carrying a white t-shirt. There was an ugly red scar on her stomach where she had been gored.
“Just a light one.” Sierra pulled on her t-shirt. She bent over and did some stretches.
“How’s your foot?”
“Healing,” Sierra said.
“Hey, wait for me,” Manda said, jumping up. “I’d like to come.”
“Since when?” Sierra said. “Manda, you hate jogging.”
“I know, but I think it’s time I give it a try.”
“No, Manda, I don’t have time for you to get dressed. And besides, you’ll just slow me down.”
“But Sierra…”
“I’ll see you later.” Sierra hurried out the door.
“Be careful, will ya?” Manda called after her. Now, every time Sierra went through the door, Manda felt dread settle into her stomach. She could never relax until Sierra walked back into the flat.
“I’ll be fine,” Sierra called back up the steps. “Don’t worry.”
But Manda did worry, even as she looked out the window and watched Sierra go jogging down the street, a headset clamped over her ears. And even as she made her usual string of calls to England to check on her family. By the time she finished talking to Aunt Beryl, over an hour and a half had passed and Sierra still wasn’t back. She tried to distract herself by ringing Sherrie next. She didn’t mention Sierra’s pregnancy to anyone but her friend.
“You’re going to be an auntie, but you don’t sound too excited,” Sherrie said.
“I would be,” Manda said. “If the circumstances were different.”
She told Sherrie all that had happened over the past week.
“Cho, Manda. You’re busy trying to save your sister’s behind, but she don’t even appreciate it. But you’re the closest thing I have to a sister, so I hope you come back soon.”
“I will. No matter what happens, I’ll be home soon.” Manda said. When she finally hung up the phone, she went into the kitchen to make herself some lunch. She looked at the microwave clock. It was nearly one o’clock. Sierra had been gone for a couple hours. She was always back from jogging within an hour at most. Manda drummed her fingers on the counter and wondered what to do. She picked up the phone and dialed Noah’s number. He might not be able to do anything, but she could use some of his calm. Noah wasn’t home. Manda hung up without leaving a message.
The phone rang just as she was about to walk away. Manda turned around and grabbed it.
“Manda, I’m so glad you’re home,” Sierra said on the other end.
Manda dropped her head and let out a breath of relief. “Where are you?”
“Um…can you come and meet me?”
“Meet you where?”
“I’m at Beth Israel, in the emergency area, you know, where the ambulances come in.”
“The hospital?” Manda clutched her chest. “What’re you doing there?”
“Don’t panic. I just had a little accident, that’s all. And now they won’t let me go unless someone comes to meet me.”
“Sierra, what happened?”
“I’ll explain when you get here. Just bring some i.d., alright? And bring me some dry clothes.” She gave Manda the hospital’s address, and hung up.
Manda hurried into Sierra’s bedroom and gathered up a pair of jeans, a shirt and some underwear. What had Sierra done? She shoved them into a plastic bag and slipped a pair of sandals on top of them. She grabbed her purse and ran out the door.
Thanks to a taxi that had just stopped to let out a passenger on the street, Manda got to the hospital in a matter of minutes. She flew through the door of the emergency area. She went up to the reception area and asked the woman behind the glass where she could find Sierra Love. The woman directed her down the hall to a room on the right. A doctor stepped out of the room just as Manda arrived.
“Are you the sister?” he asked Manda. “I’m Dr. Singh. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
Manda frowned. “Is she alright?”
The doctor nodded. “She’s a very lucky young woman. It could’ve been a lot worse. Especially in her condition.”
“What happened?”
“I’ll let her tell you all about it.”
“Did you check her temperature? How about her blood pressure?”
“We’ve checked her out fully,” Dr. Singh said. “She’s okay, just a little shaken up still. Which is understandable, after what happened.”
Sierra stared at them from where she sat on the hospital bed. She was wearing a pale blue gown that was covered in tiny, dark blue stars, and her hair was a damp, frizzy mess. It frightened Manda to see her looking so plain and vulnerable, dressed in the last piece of fashion people often wore when they exited the world.
“Why is your hair wet?” Manda asked. She stepped by the doctor and into the room. Dr. Singh left them to talk.
Sierra ran a hand through her hair. She untangled a piece of twig and sat staring at it. “I nearly drowned, that’s what.”
“Drowned? How?”
She shook her head. “I was just jogging along the river, minding my own business. Then out of nowhere this crazy wind started to blow. I mean, it was amazing.” She looked up at Manda, her eyes intense.
“I’ve never felt anything like it before. It was like a hurricane had hit suddenly…and people were trying their best not to get blown away. I had to stop and grab the rails. I could barely breathe. Then next thing I knew, the damn wind just plucked me from the rail and sent me down into the river. Manda, I was hysterical. It was a good thing a jet skier was passing by, or I probably wouldn’t be here right now. I still can’t believe it.”
“But there’s not one bit of wind outside,” Manda said.
“I know. By the time I was plucked from the river, the wind had stopped. It must have been one of those freak river phenomena.”
“I’ve never heard of such a thing.” Manda passed her the bag with her clothes.
“Well, they do exist,” Sierra said, taking the bag. “Anyway, it’s over and I’m still alive and well. And so is my baby.”
As Sierra pulled out her clothes and got dressed, Manda sat in the chair by the bed and tried to calm herself. Of all the things that had happened to Sierra lately, this was definitely the most frightening. What could possibly be next?
“Sierra, I’m really worried about you,” she said.
“Pass me a comb,” Sierra said.
“Don’t you see, you’ve been having all these accidents lately.” Manda took a comb from her purse and passed it to her. “But I don’t think they’re just coincidences. Not this many times.”
“Don’t start,” Sierra said. “I’m not in the mood to hear about all that Obeah rubbish. I’ve had a very long morning, and I just want to get home and take a bath. Wash that filthy river off me.”
“I don’t think it’s rubbish.” She heard the anger in her voice and tried to hold it back. “I believe Darette is behind it.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Sierra pulled the comb through her tangled hair.
“You’re the one who’s being ridiculous.”
“Drop it, Manda.”
“What will it take to make you see this is serious? Does a bus have to fall on your head?”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have had you come meet me.”
“Why didn’t you call Nik, then?”
“I did, but I couldn’t reach him.”
“Hmph. He seems to be unavailable quite a lot lately,” Manda said.
Sierra ignored her comment. She bent down and slipped on her sandals. “Let’s just get out of here,” she said. “I can’t stand hospitals.”
But when getting run down by a bicycle delivery man didn’t do it, or being gored on the train, or gashed by a knife – when almost electrocuting herself just changing a light bulb, and even nearly drowning in the East River still didn’t do it, the one misfortune that Sierra considered so awful that it put an instant stop to her goading of Obeah practitioners, was an attack on the part of her body she valued the most. Her face. The same face she washed tenderly every morning with a special cleanser and smoothed over with an SPF 25 lotion before coloring it with lipstick, mascara and a perfect layer of foundation. The same face she covered with an expensive age-defying cream every night before climbing into bed, and the same face she steamed, plucked, patted, massaged and hid under a green clay mask at least once a week.
Manda was in the living room at half past seven in the morning, watching television. She had barely slept the night before. She heard footsteps coming down the hallway.
“You’re up early,” she said, as Sierra entered the living room.
“I’ve got to meet with those MTV execs about the television show,” Sierra said, yawning.
Manda’s gaze had been fixed on one of the early morning news shows, where a Con Edison spokesperson was defending the company’s response to the blackout. But at the mention of the MTV execs, she glanced up at Sierra. She was going to say she had forgotten, and wish Sierra good luck. Sierra had been gearing up for this meeting for a while now, and today was the big day. But when Manda looked up and opened her mouth to speak, instead a startled sound came out.
“Your face. What’s wrong with your face?” she said.
“My face?” Sierra gave her a puzzled look. “What about it?”
“It’s got…it’s got welts all over it.”
Sierra brought her hands up to her face. She ran over to the mirror by the door. When she saw her face, she let out a blood-chilling scream.
Manda got up and hurried over to her.
“My face,” Sierra howled, still staring into the mirror. “My face.” She turned to Manda and grabbed her arms so hard, they hurt.
“Sierra, calm down,” Manda said.
“What’s happening to me?” Sierra let her go and turned back to the mirror. She howled again, clutched at her face and backed away from her reflection.
“Shhh…calm down,” Manda pleaded with her.
“Calm down,” she screeched. “I can’t…”
Manda had never seen her like this. Her eyes were practically spinning in her head.
“Help me,” Sierra said. She gave out a pitiful cry.
“I will. Just take a deep breath, alright?”
Sierra lowered her hands from her face. It seemed like she was about to take a step forward, but instead she dropped to the floor like a lifeless rag doll.
Manda knelt down beside her. “Come on, Sierra. Wake up.” She patted frantically at her sister’s head.
Someone was knocking on the door.
“Just a second,” Manda shouted. She got up and went to open it. Noah stood in the hall in his bed slippers, leaning on his cane. She felt relieved to see him.
“I heard a scream coming from up here,” he said. “Is everything okay?”
“No, everything is not okay,” Manda said. “It’s awful. Sierra’s fainted.”
Noah looked past her shoulder and saw Sierra sprawled on the floor. “Is she sick?” he asked, coming inside after Manda.
“I’m not sure.”
He peered down at Sierra and grimaced when he saw her welts. “What’s wrong with her face?”
“I don’t know,” Manda said, bending back down to Sierra. “Can you do me a favor? Can you get a washcloth from the bathroom and wet it with cold water?”
“Of course.” Noah went off as fast as he could, his cane thumping loudly on the floor.
“Come on, Sierra. I said wake up,” Manda patted at her face. The welts felt hard and horrible beneath her fingers. “Noah,” she called out. “There’s a bottle of antihistamine in the medicine cabinet. Can you bring it too?”
“Got it,” Noah answered.
Manda ran over to the couch and grabbed two cushions. She went back to Sierra, laid one cushion on top of the other and propped up Sierra’s legs on the mound.
Sierra stirred and groaned. Her eyes opened slowly, and then widened when she saw Manda.
“Shhh. Lie still,” Manda told her. “It’s alright. You just fainted.”
“Fainted?”
Noah arrived with the washcloth, bottle of tablets and a paper cup filled with water. Manda dabbed Sierra’s face with the cloth, then placed it on her forehead.
“We should get her to hospital,” she told Noah.
“Noooo,” Sierra groaned from the floor.
She tried to get up, but Manda held her down. She had gotten plenty of practice holding down sick people in hospital wards. Sierra was no match for her.
“Do you want me to call an ambulance?” Noah asked, which made Sierra groan even louder.
“No, a car service should be fine,” Manda said. “It might just be an allergy, but I want to get her looked at. Sometimes an allergy can affect your internal organs too.”
While Noah went over to the phone to make the call, Manda forced Sierra to take the tablets. Sierra brought a hand up to her face, and when she felt the welts, she let out another scream.
“Calm down,” Manda said. “Or you’ll faint again.”
With Noah’s help, Manda got Sierra back to her feet and down the stairs to the building’s front doors. Noah went back to his flat to swap his bed slippers for a pair of sandals. A black car was waiting by the curb when the three of them stepped outside. They got in and Noah told the driver to take them to Beth Israel. Sierra sat between them looking shell-shocked.
Manda shook her head. “I can’t believe it. I haven’t been in New York very long and yet this is the third trip I’m taking to a hospital. I can’t seem to get away from them.”
“One more trip and you’ll qualify for frequent visitor miles,” Noah said. He smiled at her.
She was glad to have him there with her. Poor Daniel wasn’t good in emergencies. On their one little holiday together, their flight had hit terrible turbulence on the way to Madrid. Daniel had gone stiff and dug his nails into her arm so hard, he had drawn blood. Noah, on the other hand, seemed like he could take over piloting a troubled plane if he had to.
“Nik,” Sierra said suddenly, as if she had just snapped out of sleep. “I’ve got to call him. He’s supposed to go with me.”
“Don’t worry, you can call him when you get to hospital. But right now you should just relax.”
Sierra dropped her head in her hands, felt the welts again, then pulled away her hands in disgust. She turned to Manda, her face all screwed up. “This is horrible,” she bawled. “I’m ugly.”
“Aw, there, there,” Manda said, taking Sierra in her arms. “They’ll make you pretty again soon, I promise.”
At the hospital, they had to wait for over two hours before Sierra finally got to see a doctor.
“Oh, lordy, lordy, look at that face,” the nurse said, as she led Sierra away.
Sierra started to bawl.
“Are you hungry? Do you want to grab a bite?” Noah asked when they were alone.
“Yes, but not hospital food,” Manda said. “And let’s be quick about it, before she comes out and panics.”
They left the hospital and crossed the street to a small café that stood on the corner. Manda ordered a bagel with lox cream cheese, and Noah got himself a turkey burger.
“So,” Noah said, as they sat down with their orders. “What happened to Sierra?”
Manda shook her head. “I’m not sure. When she went to bed last night, she was fine. But this morning she got up with her face all covered in welts.”
“Do you think it was something she ate? Or maybe an insect bite?”
“It could be either, really.”
“My father broke out in welts the first time he ate clams,” Noah said. “But it wasn’t as bad as Sierra’s.” He shuddered.
“I know, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Manda said. “No wonder she fainted.”
“She’ll be okay,” Noah said.
Manda put down her bagel. She suddenly didn’t feel very much like eating. “I wish I could believe that.”
“Hey, why would you say that? It doesn’t seem like anything too serious.” He patted the back of her hand.
She stared away. She needed to talk to someone – somebody besides Angie – who might give her a clearer perspective on things. She looked back at Noah. Could she really confide in him? She had tried before, but couldn’t do it. It was worth another try.
“Noah…do you believe that people can possess certain powers, like psychics and the lot? And that certain people can even cause things to happen, in unnatural ways?”
Noah thought about it for a minute. “I believe that faith is one of the most powerful forces in the universe,” he said. “And that just by putting our faith in something…just by believing it to be real…we infuse it with far more power than we sometimes realize. We can manifest anything with our minds.”
“What about…what about curses?”
“Curses? Do you mean like, putting curses on people?”
“Yes.” Manda looked across the street at the hospital. “Noah, I’m going to tell you something, and I know it might sound like I’ve gone crazy, but I’m still going to say it.”
“Okay.” Noah took a bite of his burger. “Go ahead.”
“Have you ever heard of Obeah?”
Noah nodded. “I’m one-quarter Jamaican, remember?”
“Alright then. I believe that Obeah is behind what’s happening to Sierra.”
“Okay…” he stopped chewing.
“I mean, the whole thing started a long time ago before we were even born, when my mother was young and pregnant with Sierra. An Obeah woman put a curse on us, through our mother, and so far our lives are playing out just as she predicted. I might never have believed it myself, if it wasn’t for some things that happened before I left England, and a vision I’ve been having since then. In fact, I’ve had a few other visions before that came true and so…so that’s why I decided to come here. Those visions confirm everything the Obeah woman said.”
“What did you see?” Noah asked, leaning forward.
Manda couldn’t tell whether or not he was taking her seriously. She told him exactly what had happened between her and Daniel the night before their wedding was to take place, and the image she had seen in the bathroom. Lastly, she told him about her visions. When she was finished, she looked into Noah’s eyes to see if he thought she had lost her mind. So far, he seemed noncommittal.
“So,” Noah said, looking at her steadily. “You think that what happened between you and Daniel, and what’s going on with Sierra and Nik, all ties into this curse. And you think the Obeah woman is haunting you.”
Manda nodded. “I do. I know it might sound a bit…a lot like nonsense, but I’ve come to really believe it.”
“So then…what does this have to do with Sierra’s face?”
“Have you been listening to her radio show over the past few weeks?”
Noah shook his head. “I usually listen to music when I write.”
“Well, Sierra has been goading Obeah followers for weeks now. And because of it, she had started getting angry calls and even threatening letters from someone. Then we found out that the person behind the letters is the daughter of the Obeah woman who had put the curse on our mother. She came and blew some sort of herbs on Sierra, and Sierra had her arrested. Now Sierra has been having one accident after another. She thinks they’re just coincidences, but things are just getting worse.”
“And now her thirty-fifth birthday is coming up in a matter of days, and you’re afraid the Obeah woman is right, and Nik will push her over a cliff soon,” Noah said. “It’s not that easy to find a cliff around here. But why do you think he would want to push her?”
Manda looked into his eyes. “Because she’s pregnant, and I don’t believe he wants that baby. His previous girlfriend died mysteriously, and she was pregnant too. And Sierra wasn’t pregnant when Nik asked her to marry him.”
“Sierra’s pregnant? And she’s getting married?” Noah stopped, the burger halfway to his mouth.
“Oh, I see she hasn’t said anything.” Now Manda wasn’t sure she should have told him herself.
“No, she hasn’t,” Noah said. “Not that she has to tell me. I was just surprised. Well, congratulations to her.”
“Don’t tell her I told you,” Manda said.
“No, of course not.”
“But it makes everything so hopeless now. Everything feels inevitable. I can’t stop it. And Sierra just goes on planning her birthday party and her wedding and her bleeding career as if she has no worries in the world.”
“Manda,” Noah said, putting down his burger and taking her hands across the table. “I won’t pretend to see everything the way you do. But as I said before, so much hinges on faith. If you’re going to help Sierra, you’re going to have to believe you can. Right now, you’re putting so much faith in this curse, you’re giving away all your power to it. Well, I believe you can create your own destiny. You and your sister – you’re not fate’s bitches.”
“Right,” Manda said, smiling. “Then why does fate keep sticking it to us?”