Brown Girl In the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson Read Free Book Online Page B

me; he just keep coming closer and closer.”
    “Lord have mercy,” said Mami quietly. “Wait right there. I go tell you what this mean.”
    She stood and went into her own bedroom. Ti-Jeanne could hear her rummaging about in the old wooden press in which she kept her valuables.
    As he suckled, Baby’s hands found one of Ti-Jeanne’s plaits and gave it a good pull. Irritably Ti-Jeanne pulled the plait away from him and was about to slap the mischievous hand when Mami came back into the room. “Lord, Ti-Jeanne; just let the child play a little, nuh? Don’t be rough with he so.”
    Ti-Jeanne frowned up at her grandmother. Mami continued, “Ti-Jeanne, I know you did never want no baby. Sometimes you almost feel to just get rid of he, don’t it?”
    Shamed, Ti-Jeanne nodded.
    “Don’t feel no way, darling; children does catch you like that sometimes. It ain’t easy, minding babies, but if you don’t make the time to know you child, you and he will never live good together. I know.”
    “Yes, Mami; sorry, Mami; I go do better.”
    Ti-Jeanne wasn’t really listening. She stared at the deck of brightly coloured cards in Mami’s hand. She’d never seen anything like them. Mami’s eyes followed her gaze. The old woman sat on the bed and fanned the cards out.
    “You know Romni Jenny, who does live in the old Carlton Hotel? She people is Romany people, and she teach me how to read with the tarot cards, way back before you born. This deck is my own. Jenny paint the cards for me, after I tell she what pictures I want.”
    “How come I never see you using them before, Mami?”
    “I used to hide it from you when I was seeing with them. I don’t really know why, doux-doux. From since slavery days, we people get in the habit of hiding we business from we own children even, in case a child open he mouth and tell somebody story and get them in trouble. Secrecy was survival, oui? Is a hard habit to break. Besides, remember I try to teach about what I does do, and you run away?”
    “But Mami, obeah…”
    Mami stamped her foot. “Is not obeah! You don’t understand, and you won’t let me teach you, so don’t go putting your bad mouth ’pon me!”
    Ti-Jeanne pouted, but she held her tongue. It felt good to be unburdening her problems to Mami. If she pushed the old woman too far, she would only retreat into silence again.
    The cards were like none Ti-Jeanne had ever seen. Larger than playing cards, they were pictures of men and women dancing in colourful, oversized Carnival costumes.
    The words “Masque Queen” were on one card. The Masque Queen’s costume was a gown of blue and silver sequins with a cloak that dragged behind. Jutting up from the dragging fabric was a city with castles and towers, also in blue and silver. The cloak formed a float that loomed high over the Masque Queen’s head. She clutched a large book in one hand and a wand in the other. She seemed to be performing a graceful pavanne, despite the bulky float she was pulling behind her.
    Ti-Jeanne reached out to touch the cards, then looked at Mami. Her grandmother nodded in encouragement. Ti-Jeanne turned up one card after another. The Five of Cane, five men dancing the Stick Fight; the Jab-Jab; a prancing, nearly naked man, his body completely covered with red paint, horns stuck to his head, and a snaky, rude-looking tail tied on to his body. But thing I see was some kinda animal, thought Ti-Jeanne, not a man in costume.
    Mami took the cards from Ti-Jeanne and began to shuffle them with an economical ease. “These will tell me what your dream is about. Here. Cut the deck.”
    Ti-Jeanne cut. Mami took the pack back from her and laid the cards out on the bed between them. Baby chortled and reached toward the bright colours, but Ti-Jeanne held him out of reach. He had to be content to suck on his own thumb. The cards lay in a cross on the bed. Mami muttered over them, divining the pattern. “Cowrie King reverse, the La-Basse, Ten of Cutlass, and