said, leaning forward and speaking sharply, ‘that’s not what you want. Think again.’
She thought he was scolding her and spoke too loudly in self-defence, ‘Can you lift the curse?’
‘Ha.’ His smile was sudden and brilliant. ‘Can’t do a thing for you.’ He reached across and took her hand. ‘That’s no curse. I can give you some gris-gris though. What you want? A man?’
She was shocked.
‘I pray to Saint Jude,’ she said.
‘What’s he say?’
‘Nothing.’
‘Take off your glove.’
She did. His two big hands closed around her cold hand. ‘Close your eyes,’ he said.
They sat in the dark, which darkened more, as if the candles were going out one by one. It was like falling half asleep. He took his hands away. He was burning herbs, moving around, shaking something that whispered, saying softly: Papa Legba, Papa Legba, Papa Legba, over and over again. She thought she could hear someone else nearby singing along, a woman’s voice or maybe more than one, but it seemed unlikely and she didn’t want to think about where it was coming from.
‘Will I ever be loved?’ she asked.
The Doctor gave her a drink, straight into her mouth, his big warm hand on top of her head. ‘You’ll be loved,’ he said, ‘Within a year.’
He moved away. Through her eyelids she could see the flickering of candlelight and heard the rattle of shells and bones falling.
‘Open your eyes,’ he said.
Two bowls, white powder and dust.
‘Someone’s watching out for you,’ he said, sitting across from her, studying the bones. ‘Your mama’s watching.’
‘She gave me away,’ said Julia. Her voice came out double, vibrating. Her eyes fell upon the small neat skull on the shelf. A cat, she decided, and her eyes filled up. Poor puss.
‘She’s watching over you anyway,’ he said. ‘And she’s not the only one.’
‘You said I wasn’t cursed.’ He wasn’t going to help her, it was obvious. How could she ever have thought it? ‘Can’t you tell me anything?’ she said. ‘I wanted you to tell me what I am. I don’t know.’
‘No curse to lift,’ he said. ‘And what you are? You’re a strange girl, that’s all. Hush.’ He closed his eyes and sat silent for a while. ‘You’re going across the sea,’ he said, ‘you’ll keep moving.’
‘Me?’
‘Just moving, always.’ He opened his eyes and looked at her. ‘Something’s coming,’ he said, ‘big something.’
‘Bad or good?’
‘Both.’
She laughed. ‘That means nothing.’
‘No,’ he said seriously, ‘that means everything.’
‘I don’t know what you mean.’
‘No matter.’
What did you expect, she thought. Wave his arms? Say the right words? Lo! A miracle. ‘But there are curses,’ she said, pulling on one of her gloves.
‘Listen,’ he said, ‘I can fix a curse. I can lift a curse. Whole lot I can do, but I can’t lift a curse that isn’t there. Can make you feel better though.’
‘What about what my nurse said? How my mother walked out in the dark of the moon and that’s why I’m like I am.’
‘Your nurse don’t know what she’s talking about,’ he said. ‘Your mama can walk out any old moon she likes long as she’s careful.’
He was back there in the chair opposite her, leaning on one elbow, frowning, his snake advancing from his left shoulder into the air before him.
‘I’ve been thinking,’ she said, ‘it just seemed wrong. Why the baby gets the curse for what the mother did. And maybe she didn’t even know she was doing it.’ She looked down at her hands, one gloved, one hairy. ‘Madame Soulie says there’s a devil baby running about on the roofs. I was so scared. I couldn’t get to sleep that night for thinking about him.’ She pulled on the other glove. ‘Poor thing. Running about all night across the roofs and down the alleys all on his own and everybody running away from him and all because of something his mother did.’
The Doctor’s face was serious. He looked at her for a long time without blinking or saying anything, putting his hand beneath the head of his snake. His eyes were full, as if he’d seen a whole world of sorrow. She couldn’t tell how old he was. Old. Poor eyes seen it all. ‘You know I knew that devil baby,’ he said, and a chill ran through her.
‘For sure.’
‘Is he real?’ she whispered. ‘Is it true?’
‘True as anything.’
‘And he cries in the alleys?’
‘I never heard him.’
‘What was he?’
‘Born red. Scales, like this.’ He ran a finger along the snake’s body. ‘Born screaming. Nothing anyone could do. Mama couldn’t look at him. Friend of mine tried to raise him but he ran away. Don’t know where he went.’
‘Ran away? A baby?’
‘Six months old, up and ran. Little bumps here,’ he touched his brow, ‘little horns. No hoofs, never had hoofs.’
‘But what was he?’
‘A baby.’
‘A baby what?
‘Who knows? I knew his father. And he said his wife never said that thing about the devil anyway, people just made that up.’
‘And you saw him? The baby? What was he like?’
‘Oh a very bad thing. Couldn’t get near him. Terrible thing. Woman I knew tried with him but he grew too quick.’
‘But what was he?’
‘A bad baby. And when people started seeing him here and there his whole family took off. He’s around, they say.’
He took from under the table a small bottle and a tiny red bag and slid them across the table to her, and she understood that their time was up. ‘What is this big thing that’s coming?’ she asked.
‘Love,’ he said, ‘up the road.’
‘Within a year, you said.’
‘Within a year. For sure.’
They
