Excerpt
Mami closed her eyes and whispered a prayer. The lamplight danced on her face,
filling it with shadows. She looked at the cement head.
"Eshu, is we here tonight; me, Gros-Jeanne, and my granddaughter Ti-Jeanne,
and she baby with no name, and she baby father, Tony."
Tony started; looked over at Ti-Jeanne, who ignored the surprised question in
his eyes. It made Ti-Jeanne mad. What Mami have to go and tell her business for?
Mami kept talking: "Eshu, we ask you to open the doors for we, let down the
gates. Let the spirits come and talk to we. Look, we bring food for you, rum and
sweet candy."
She took one of the candies out of the bowl, crunched it, and swallowed.
"We bring a cigar to light for you, Eshu, to sweeten the air with the
smoke."
She picked up the cigar and put it to her mouth. She lit it, cheeks sucking in
to draw it to life. She took a deep drag of the cigar and gently blew the smoke
in Eshu's face.
"Eshu, we ask you to bring down the doors so the spirits could be here with
we tonight. Spirits, please don't do no harm while you here; is we, your sons
and daughters."
Mami balanced the still-burning cigar on the candy bowl. She got c ... read full excerpt from Brown Girl in the Ring ebook