Angels for me will scare me with sharp teeth and many eyes. Angels for you will be of old loves and kiss you cheek. Both of our angels are righteous, both of our angels are kind.
- Ester R. Scott
It had been weeks since I saw the devil and his company. Nor had I seen the angels and their haunting eyes. One would think I'd feel more at ease not having someone watch me. But silence was the enemy, silence told you danger was coming before the skin crawling realization of danger was there. Every night before bed, before telling mama goodnight, I looked out the windows and waited to see something. Anything. But nothing was ever there and the disappointment paranoia that rested in my stomach grew.
Chemintine seemed to become catty with my neighbours who welcomed her with opened arms. That was good considering the impression she made when she first got here. They almost thought she fell off the bus and bumped her head, once she explained what was happening she came a causal. There were still some that didn't like her being here. Said she would cause problems and bring someone else to come and cause bigger problems. There was no point in trying to change their mind, their fear was real just like everyone else here. The last time white folk stumbled into our neighbourhood we had to lock the doors. I was ten when I saw someone being drug down the street and never seen again. So I tell Clementine to just be the nicest she could be and have the same manners she would have if she met the queen.
She found it silly. I found it life saving.
"Will you be bring that friend of yours to church tomorrow, Ester?" Miss Bouchard asked me. Today I was helping one of the elderly ladies in the neighborhood with mending her clothes. When I wasn't at the shop with a task list, I was out and out sewing and mending and caring for those around me. The best I could do when they took care of me when mama passed. Miss Bouchard was a fine woman of only 72 who was like a meme to me. I could tell in her youth was a firecracker that should have left Louisiana. She always kept her hair in tight pin curls with a headwrap tied in bows. As a child I could never tell if her chunky jewelry was real or if it was fake. I wasn't sure it mattered since she always looked amazing. She never had a husband or children so her freedom was higher than anyone else. Mama would tell me she was nothing but a party girl, so much so every night she would stumble home with her girlfriends arms linked together still singing. Then in the morning she would still out in her robe with said friend nursing herself with coffee. No matter what though Miss Bouchard never missed a day of church, how could she when she was the lead singer in the choir. Now that I'm older I realize those women were never really her friends .
"I don't think so ma'am, Chemintine isn't much for church." I smiled politely and continued to fold the bed sheets into a tight pile.
"You don't have to be church folk to come to church. You just have to have an open mind and a free spirit."
"Oh I'm sure Chemintine is all that and maybe more." I chuckled to myself and Miss Bouchard tsked at me and I could help but laugh a little more. I finished the bed sheets and moved on to her shirts on her drying line.
"Be nice to that girl. I've seen many of her and she's nothing but a sweet darling."
"She's mighty sweet. I'm just not sure if she'll like it."
"Have you asked her?"
"No ma'am."
"Then don't assume things. The worst thing you can do to another person is assume how they would feel or how they will act. You know better." It wasn't much of a scolding but I knew Miss Bouchard meant. All my life so far was a bunch of assuming, a lot of my mama's life was, and I sure so way Miss Bouchard.
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{ Wade In The Water }
Fanfiction{Alastor x oc} Estar Scott was once in love. She thought the days of her shortcomings were over and that the man she found was her one and only. But all that was taken away when the demons she had became too accustomed to finally took the one thing...
