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EPISODE 12 - Meeting Makeda

By CLAUDE MILLS, Staff Reporter

AUNT JOSIE and Gail head to Makeda's house on the top of the hill. It is a difficult trod, and Gail is overcome with feelings of doom but she shakes it off as just bad nerves caused by the stress of the pregnancy. But she cannot get rid of the feeling that she may be in over her head. Why hadn't her mother, the most practical woman she'd ever met - never even spoken about Makeda, not even in jest? Something was up.

THERE ARE TWO ways to reach Makeda's house on the crest of Heartbreak Hill. One was by a postage stamp road that wound its way through the hills and several homes to the summit, and it was the route most visitors took. The other, was by foot using a little-used dirt trail which snaked its way through a bramble-choked limestone slope that the residents of the village who did not want to be seen going to consult Makeda used to maintain a cloud of secrecy around their activities. It was the latter that Gail and her aunt took that day.

As she climbed the hill, she felt a stab of something sharper than disquiet. It was a feeling that something was wrong, or about to go wrong on a spectacular scale. Still, she dismissed it as just the sizzle of overworked nerves in her head. But 20 minutes later, in the middle of the difficult climb up the hill, she cursed herself for not having turned back.

Sweat ran into her eyes, momentarily blinding her. And it seemed even the very plant life in the area was conspiring against her. She could not escape the feeling that the bushes were conspiring, deliberately holding her back, and in some weird way, keeping her from going up to Makeda's house. They struggled through the dense undergrowth for a few minutes, before she saw a light glint

ing off one of the French windows of a nearby shack.

Presently, they came to a metal gate, which -- in Gail's mind -- looked as if it had once started life as the metal base of a bed. The "gate" was guarded by a single male with the deformed features of an idiot savant. He was seated on a hassock, reading a copy of THE STAR (Gail's rival publication), which he closed as they neared. He got up and beckoned the weary twosome towards a modest zinc shack with quaint French windows that was bathed in shadows.

Enormous erection

Gail saw that the man had been looking at one of THE STAR's popular Monday evening centrefolds, and realized, with genuine amusement, that he had an enormous erection tenting his jeans. Gail stifled the giggles that were welling up inside her; Aunt Josie had seen the tented erection as well because a cat's smile played around the corners of her lips. Aunt Josie put a finger to her lips in a 'sshhh' gesture, and Gail played along.

Behind the shack lay an imposing wall which surrounded the perimeter of Makeda's estate and the impressive mansion that could be viewed from the hill. Makeda, Aunt Josie had explained earlier, had done well for herself, but she had to keep up her appearances; this was her 'obeah lab" where she met new clients, and cooked up her 'potions and brews'.

"Come with me," he said, leading the way to the old shack. "Queen Makeda is expecting you."

"I'm sure she is," Gail commented, a hint of sarcasm creeping into her voice.

As they rounded the corner, and passed under a cotton tree, Gail saw that there was a woman standing in the doorway. To the woman's left was a bench on which stood a ceramic 'chimmey'. She was an old, shriveled-looking dark-skinned woman who had on a red and blue headwrap, and a grey rope looped around her waist. She was dressed in full-white, and looked as ancient as Methuselah after an all-nighter on the clubbing circuit in Palestine.

"You may approach her," he said, with a dramatic flair. He turned and scurried away. Gail shook her head and rolled her eyes. Who were these people, anyway?

Aunt Josie shoved her from behind, and she stumbled towards Makeda.

"H-h-hello. How yu do?" she managed to say.

Makeda nodded a detached acknowledgement worthy of Queen Victoria herself.

Behind her, Gail could see what looked like a cheesy-looking crystal ball sitting on a table; the ball glowed with an unpleasant milky light. She glanced back at Makeda's face and saw that her sparkled with a wicked species of glee. Makeda then turned and stepped inside. She gestured to the empty chair in front of her table. Gail glanced to her right, and saw that the chimmey was full of yellow urine. She inadvertently took a step back, but her aunt shoved her forward again. Gail stumble-staggered into the room.

Lighting trick

Immediately, the smells of candle wax, incense and kerosene profaned her nostrils. The room was deceptively large, betraying its limited outside dimensions; Gail wondered if it were a trick of the lighting. There was a mahogany walking stick propped against the table. A single 50 watt bulb depended from a board rafter. It was on, but only managed to beat back some of the shadows in the room. Makeda was now seated in front of the table. Gail wondered how she had not seen her move from one side of the room to another.

"Ah, my child, have a theat, you have nothing to feah," she croaked. Even her voice sounded ancient. Gail shot Aunt Josie a dark look who managed - to her credit - to look unruffled. Aunt Josie fanned her hands at her impatiently.

Gail sat down tentatively. Aunt Josie took a seat at the opposite end of the room, nearest to the entrance. You couldn't even rely on family, in times of crisis, it was everyone for himself, The woman raised her ancient head, and a river of wrinkles flowed over her eyes --- and oh, her eyes were another story -- they twinkled with centuries of knowledge of dark deeds, and burials by moonlight. Gail's right hand unconsciously flew to her belly.

"Fret not, I have never been known to hahm children, my deah," she mumbled.

Gail observed with dawning horror that most of the woman's teeth were missing, and her lips flapped obscenely so she massacred her 'r's.

"Child, no look so fwighten. Leyoy, get my denchas," she said.

Melanie recoiled a little. Had the woman read her thoughts or was this a reaction she always tried to provoke in people?

Leroy, a dreadlocked gangly figure, detached himself from the purplish-black shadows in the room, then strolled to a corner of the room and came up with a jar three-quarters full of murky-looking water in which an almost predatory-looking double row of white teeth gleamed. They looked almost alive, like they had a sentient spark of life of their own. Gail shivered a little. She had not even suspected that there had been someone else in the room. This was a bad scene.

Very bad.

Coming in episode 13: Gail gets down to business. She tells Makeda that she wants her to use her obeah to make the baby growing in her belly Stephen's child. Based on her calculations, she has a hunch that the baby is actually Rory's but she would be getting married in a few months, and Stephen wanted a baby - what could she do? Could Makeda help her?