Cynthia Bond - Ruby

Ma Tante leaned into Ruby, staring, fingers digging into her wrist. Ruby could smell the old woman’s pipe breath as she came close. And something that smelled like rotten meat. “Legba, Legba, libérez cette enfant de douze mauvais esprits . Legba, Legba, libérez cette petite fille, s’il vous plaît .” Ma Tante drew back her hand and slapped Ruby across the cheek.

Ma Tante explained to no one in particular, “Sometime they need a good exsufflation to make them leave the livin’.” She spoke to Ephram and Maggie, “Y’all go outside. I got work to do.”

Ruby started crying. With one frightened step, Ephram put himself between Ma Tante and Ruby.

Through her tears Ruby saw Ma Tante look at him as one would a gnat. “This child gots a powerful hex sur son esprit , done by peoples who knows how. Make her flypaper for all manner of traveling haint. May already be too late. Now get.”

Ruby watched Ephram give way. She couldn’t stop crying, her face slick. Even still, Maggie took Ephram by the hand and led him outside. Leaving her alone with the knives, the pulled teeth and the yellow eyes.

MAGGIE AND Ephram stepped onto the damp porch and caught the tail end of the rain. The sky was an ashen pink. Ephram heard Ruby’s hollow sobs and put his hand back on the doorknob.

“Where you think you going?” Maggie edged.

“Inside.”

Maggie ducked under his arm, leaned against the door and said, “Nah-uh you ain’t.”

“I is.”

“That right?”

Maggie squinted at him, mouth tight. Then never taking her eyes from him, she retrieved a Lucky and lit a dry match against something inside of her pocket. She breathed it in like air, then said, “Try.”

They stared at each other. Maggie, coiled tight beneath a lazy smile. Ephram trembling.

He was afraid to push past her, ashamed to sit down, so instead he asked. “Why you bring us here?”

“I didn’t bring you.”

“Why you bring her?”

“She needed bringing. Now shut your black ass up and go.”

Ephram reluctantly released the doorknob. Ruby’s sobs were softer now, blending in with the last bit of rain. Ephram left the door, looked towards the gate and instead sat on the damp step, his face burning — a red shame staining the brown of his skin.

Maggie sat beside him. The trees, the fence, the little glass bowls, everything around them was shining and wet. Maggie blew clouds of smoke into the sky.

She picked a bit of tobacco leaf from her tongue, and said softly, “You don’t look nothing like him.”

In the silence, she answered for him, “Yo daddy, the Reverend Jennings. Walk like him, stink like him, talk like him.” Maggie turned to face him, bitter. Then, “You best do like he say and stay way from round here. I ain’t ’bout to let no harm come to Ruby … not while I’m yet livin’.”

EPHRAM FELT a sudden, unspoken fury crackling in his throat like hot grease. Some of it popped, “ ’Cept leave some old lady to beat on her.”

Maggie cut her eyes against his face, her fists tight in her lap. “Beatin’ ain’t the worse can happen to a body.” The orange tip of her cigarette devoured the white. “ ’Sides she ain’t no concern of yours. I looks after Ruby.”

They both sat in silence. But Ephram answered her behind his eyes. No words just loose thoughts floating like the tea leaves caught in his teeth: Girls don’t look after girls .

Maggie answered as if he had spoken aloud, “You more girl than I’ll ever be and I’m more man than you ever gone grow into.” Maggie scanned Ephram from top to toe and let out a guffaw.

He looked at her. The cock of her head, the way she threw her bony shoulders back and puffed her chest out like a rooster. This horrible girl seemed to think she was somebody’s boyfriend. Ephram swallowed the thought as another steamed into his temples: Ain’t no way to magnetize when it’s the same between the thighs . It was something he’d heard his daddy say low to Gubber’s Uncle Clem. Both men had chuckled into their collars, but neither Gubber nor Ephram had known what it meant. Now the understanding made Ephram feel sick.

Maggie sneered. “Now get yourself home for I whoop you into next week Sunday school.”

Ephram didn’t move his head one inch. He sat still as earth, afraid to swallow his spit.

Maggie let out an angle of smoke. Then, quick as a rattler, she punched Ephram across his jaw. Stunned, he felt her pinkie finger like a stone as it cut into his neck, her ring finger gouging just under the jaw. Blood collected where his molar met the lining of his cheek. He tried to swing with his right but she was on top of him, cigarette pinched between her tight lips. He tumbled down the porch stairs. She sprung after him like a cat. Ephram tried to block his head from Maggie’s assault, but she was in high gear. There were no words.

From inside the house they heard Ruby scream. Then Ma Tante’s voice booming: “Lâchez! Lâchez!” Maggie stopped for a second, fist midair. She and Ephram turned in the direction of the door. Then Ephram tried to push up to run to the house, as Maggie smashed into his nose with a hard left.

She looked straight into the boy’s eyes. He was easy to polish. Poke into his right eye, pop against his left ear. Solid like she used on Rooster Rankin. The boy didn’t know the first thing about blocking. Skin on wet skin. Smack into his lip. Blood between the crack of her fingers. Mud everywhere. She heard her Ruby cry out again. Her Ruby. Pam! Jab into the boy’s nose. More blood. Pam! Same hit again. It sprayed against her lip and cheek. His weakness made her angry, his softness lit a fire under her lungs. The cigarette never leaving her lips, she puffed deep and breathed dragon smoke into the wet air. Pam! Against the boy’s ear. Teeth. The next hit skidded on blood and bent back his nose. Pam! Maggie felt something like tears squeezing out of her eyes. Pam! She knocked them away with a blow to his chin.

Suddenly, the door of the house shook. Glass tinkled against wood. Ma Tante’s words were blades cutting wood and nails and air: “Relâchez cette enfant … Maintenant!”

Right cut. Upper cut. Full on. Maggie would not let herself look towards the door. Not even when she heard whimpering on the other side. He was almost finished, a few more and he would be out cold.

Ephram squinted at Maggie through the blood in his eyes. The world was fists and red and the orange of her cigarette, but somehow, he caught her fist with both hands. Brought it to his mouth and bit hard. He saw her draw in deeper on the cigarette. And then she kicked.

Ephram felt something rise up inside of him. Something brewed and steeped and lining the edges of his soul. It entered his left shoulder then jolted down his arm and shot into Maggie’s chest. Pow! It landed firm and back she went. Surprised. Cigarette still tight. Orange tip drawing brighter as she hopped back and kicked Ephram in the side. The man boot connecting before the foot inside brought pain. He grabbed her foot and down she fell again. He jumped on top of her, his blood sliding into the narrow part in her lips wetting the cigarette. Maggie flipped him over. They were tumbling into the small mounds of earth, tangling the red flags. Ephram shot off three crunches into her ribs. Only one made a clear connect. Maggie’s cigarette broke off, the orange dying in wet dirt.

Inside the house, Ma Tante gathered Ruby in her arms amid the clutter of glass and stone. The child’s eyes fluttered white. Ruby tried to speak but a low croak hissed from her mouth. Ma Tante held out a painted knife to an invisible something in the gloom. “Passez cette enfant! Trouvez un autre cheval à monter!” Then Ma Tante began speaking in tongues, spit arching from her mouth into the darkness. “Schoon Netwaye li Tiszta Bersihkan Garbitu Bersihkan …” God’s gibberish lifted and filled the room.