Lethal Affair. Jean Pichon Thomas
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could see a collection of small houses. More like shacks really, their peeling wooden walls painted in the rainbow hues favored by the natives everywhere on the island. Vibrant colors that had faded but which she still admired.
“It’s a village.”
“A poor one, from the looks of it,” Casey said.
Brenna could make out garden plots devoted to vegetables, banana plants at the sides of the houses and scrawny chickens scratching in the dust, but nowhere was there a sign of human life that would explain the drums. It was odd.
The path divided here, the branch on the right curving around a blind corner. Casey nodded in that direction. “It’s coming from around there.”
They followed the sound, turning with the path that brought them to the edge of another clearing, the origin of the drums and probably the strangest sight Brenna had ever seen.
Kneeling on the ground in a wide circle was a collection of women, none of them old and none of them probably younger than their upper teens. There were only three men present. Two of them were seated back to back in the center of the clearing, slapping out an alternating rhythm on a pair of hip drums.
Added to the beat was a shaking rattle in the hand of the third, older man wearing a fantastic headdress, his dark face streaked with white paint. In his other hand was a pot. Progressing slowly, regally around the circle from woman to woman, his forefinger dipping into the pot, he smeared a careful symbol on the forehead of each, his lips moving in what Brenna convinced herself was an incantation.
“If I didn’t know any better,” Casey mumbled, “I’d say what we’re seeing here is an episode from Survivor.”
“It isn’t funny, Casey. I think we’ve wandered into a private, and probably very sacred, ceremony of some kind, and maybe we’d better—”
She got no further. There was a sudden, somber silence. The two men had abruptly stopped smacking their drums and were staring at the pair of intruders. The entire gathering had discovered them, including their leader, who was plainly unhappy with their presence.
Glaring at them across the clearing, he stretched out his hand that gripped the rattle and shook it at them menacingly. Shouting out some dire threat Brenna didn’t understand, he started toward them.
Casey didn’t wait. His hand closing on her wrist, he started to thrust Brenna protectively behind him. Another shout from a different source stopped him in midaction. The witch doctor, or whatever he was, never reached them. That second shout effectively halted him, too, in the middle of the clearing.
Brenna was as startled as the rest of them when an attractive young woman, with skin the color of smooth milk chocolate, charged into the clearing from the direction of the village.
“I’m guessing that’s our shouter,” Casey said.
Whoever she was, she was fearless, Brenna thought. Without the least hesitation and no evidence of intimidation, she approached the glowering witch doctor.
She had to stop thinking of him as that. Other than the apparent leader of this group, she didn’t know what he was exactly.
As she and Casey watched, their savior began to lecture the fellow. Or so it seemed from the tone of her voice, because from their position they couldn’t make out her words. But whatever they were, her target was actually listening to them.
“I knew it,” Casey insisted. “I just knew it. It’s a reality TV series. Has to be.”
She wished he’d be serious. This was a serious situation. On the other hand, she had no right to complain about his attitude when he’d tried to prevent her from coming here. Although it seemed the bold young woman must have won them their exoneration since the leader, with the sulky look of a child, turned his back on them and retreated to the other side of the circle.
Brenna watched the woman as she approached Casey and her, thinking, she’s different from the others. It’s something in her attitude.
It wasn’t just her friendly smile either. It was her language when she reached them, an apology she expressed without any hint of the native dialect. “Sorry about that, folks.”
“It looks like we owe you a vote of thanks,” Casey told her. “You know, the cavalry riding to the rescue at the last minute.”
She received his gratitude with a laugh. “Oh, you weren’t in any danger. He was just upset because of that.” She nodded at the camera in Brenna’s hand.
“I wouldn’t have photographed any of this,” Brenna hastened to assure her. “Certainly not without permission.”
“I appreciate that. My people don’t mind having their pictures taken by the tourists, but they do like to be asked first. I’m guessing you came to see the falls and heard the drums.”
“We did, yes.”
Their deliverer glanced back over her shoulder. “Um, if you don’t mind, why don’t we leave the ceremony here to continue, and I’ll walk you back and try to explain.”
Casey waited until they were out of sight of the clearing, where the drums had resumed beating, and on the path to the falls before asking, “What was that we were seeing? Voodoo?”
“Not voodoo, no, though it is similar but with different rituals. Both of them originated from Africa, but this one is called obeah.”
“And the guy in charge?”
“Well, whatever you do, don’t call him a witch doctor. He hates that. He considers himself an obeah priest, and when he’s conducting a ceremony his name is Lubomba. And when he’s not,” she confided, following another melodic laugh, “he’s plain Frankie Wilson. Works on a melon farm outside a village below ours. Like most of our men do whenever the work is available.”
Brenna stopped on the path, Casey and the young woman stopping with her. “Speaking of names, I’m thinking introductions are in order here. I’m Brenna Coleman, and this is Casey McBride.”
She shook their offered hands. “And I’m Zena King.”
“You, uh, live in the village then, Zena?”
“I’m from the village, but just visiting family there right now. Why do you— Oh, I understand. It’s my English being so different from my people’s. There’s a reason for that.”
They strolled on toward the falls, the sound of the drums fading behind them while Zena offered a second explanation.
“My village is a poor one. Most of the villages are on the island. The only schooling here is not regular or very good. I was lucky. Because I was considered exceptionally bright, my parents had the opportunity to send me at a young age to a Catholic boarding school in Georgetown.”
“And that’s where you learned to speak without an accent,” Brenna assumed.
“The nuns were excellent teachers. Also very strict. I’ll always be grateful to them for preparing me for a higher education.”
“In Georgetown?” Casey asked.
Zena shook her head. “In Florida. I was able to earn a scholarship at a medical school in Miami. Like I said, I’m home for a couple of weeks to visit family.”
“Ah, you’re studying to be a doctor maybe,” Casey said.
“Nothing that grand. I’m training to be a nurse-practitioner. When I qualify, I’ll come back here to offer my people the kind of medical help they badly need. Right now, with the nearest doctor in Georgetown, they think it’s the obeah priest who can help them.”
They were nearing the falls. Brenna could hear the waters pouring over the ledge. “Am I right in supposing that’s what the ceremony in the clearing was about?” she asked. “Some kind of medical crisis?”
“In a way,” Zena said, leaving Brenna to wonder what this mystery was about.