Voodoo Pt. 02: Children

~~

Brie always delighted her customers with the magic she performed with her camera and her photography business continued to flourish after the babies were born. They were her partners in crime and she took them everywhere she went.

Both of their careers demanded some travel away from home and they worked hard to keep that time to a minimum. Once during an evening call home while away on business Will told Brie that he thought of those days as time they could never recover and he felt bad about every moment away from her and the children.

Subrina also felt that days away from each other were lost but she was sure, however, that there was a way to save the days and get them back at a future time. Whenever either of them left for business she would do the simple magic necessary to hold the days safe so they could get them back.

Subrina found all the magic she needed in the little white Ford sedan they bought to replace the scooter just before they married. She called the car 'Rose' from the very first moment she sat behind the wheel. It may be because the car was painted white with a green stripe all along the side but she wasn't exactly sure why the name came into her mind. She did love white roses.

As she drove the car home she was disappointed that the radio appeared to be broken. No matter what station she tried the only song she could hear was Jim Croce singing "Time in a Bottle." She didn't know it then but it was only the first clue that would challenge her 'LaVeau intuition' and her growing belief that she was at least partly a witch. That first clue was there when on the car radio she heard the words: "Save every day like a treasure -- and then again I would spend them with you." After that song ended the radio station went to country and western music and she could tune it normally to other stations. Her intuition told her there was a message in the song but just then she didn't know what it was or what it meant.

It all started to come together the very next day when while she was cleaning the car, she found more clues. She was almost sure the sea glass bottle she found wrapped in a blanket must be connected to the song "Time in a bottle." In the car's truck she also found a book about Voodoo with a page folded over to mark a particular kind of spell called a 'Gris-Gris.' Subrina was more than a little shaken by what she found. She had read about the Gris-Gris spell while she was researching Voodoo over the years and she was embarrassed to admit that she had even tried to cast that spell on one of her more promising dates when she was in college but of course it didn't work. Brie knew however that two hundred years before the first Marie LaVeau created the spell known as a Gris-Gris and that it was said to have ten times the potency of other Voodoo.

Subrina was convinced she now had a way to save the days when they were away from each other for a later time in their lives. She believed with all her heart that she had found a way to fulfill the promise of the song. "Save every day like a treasure -- and then again I would spend them with you"

When Will asked about the bottle she told him the truth that she found it in the car. He said that he was surprised to see an entire bottle that appeared to be unbroken sea glass. She could tell from his reaction that he had no knowledge of it before then. Will said: "we'll just consider it a wedding gift from your car then." She agreed and he didn't mention the book, further confirming his ignorance of the whole thing so she didn't bring it up.

~~

She was in her dark room and the children were with her mom downstairs when the bell she had set up in the room to tell her someone had entered rang. She called out, "I'll be right out, just another minute or two."

She heard a woman's voice, "No problem, no hurry."

When she walked out of the dark room she was surprised and delighted to see the woman who had led her back to Will.

As she thought back on how this woman had helped her find Will........

~~

She was just taking her camera from around her neck when she spotted a redhead woman moving in the crowd nearby. Subrina always thought that red hair added a lot of interest to color photos. She took a quick candid shot from where she was standing and started walking.

Just as she was about half way to the woman and lining up for a second shot an eight or nine year old girl with her mother's flaming red hair stepped out from behind the woman and into the image. It was then that she noticed the green eyes they both had for the first time.

There was something about the combination of red hair, green eyes, sun tanned skin and great smiles that was just crying out for more pictures. She took several shots just as fast as she could frame them in her camera. She took still more pictures from slightly different angles to the softening late afternoon sun light.

She didn't like posed pictures as much as she liked candid shots and she was sure she had at least six or seven keepers on this roll. 'Keepers' were not the fish like all those around her were eagerly talking about, but the pictures on every roll that she really liked and could maybe even sell.

Subrina introduced herself to the family. She gave them her card and promised a set of the pictures if they would call her or stop by her families Praline shop in the French Quarter the next day.

When Subrina arrived home she practically ran to her dark room to see what she had. Seven of the photos were perfect. She was sure the family would be pleased with at least those. Subrina thought, "I hope these people call because these pictures are keepsakes!" The woman said she would call but never did.

She developed and printed the entire roll of film before she came back to one out of focus picture. As she studied it she confirmed that it was only of minor interest because no one person or object in the background was very interesting or a standout from the others except, there on the boat in the background was a still very familiar face from her best memories. It was Will!

She thought, "Will, I am a witch, I have found you again with my camera." Subrina couldn't quite tell but in the picture it looked like he was......she stared at it more intently....yes he was cleaning fish. He must be a deck hand, but on which boat? The boat in the photo was on a public dock so that wasn't going to help. She remembered though that Wills family ran a tourist fishing boat. Except for a few high school evenings sitting on the boat under the stars she never really knew more about it. She certainly did not know that Will had quit college to work on the boat....until now that is.

She approached him from behind and said his name just loud enough. The moment she spoke his name he stopped moving, frozen in place and for just a moment was transported to another time. He then turned slowly to face her. That would have been so romantic if only he remembered to turn off or even lower the hose. Subrina was instantly wet from head to toe and almost knocked off her feet by the high pressure of the hose. A long awkward moment later he turned off the water and dropped the hose in one motion and almost in the same motion he was in the boats wheel house for towels.

In what seemed like just two minutes after she said his name they were sitting on deck chairs in the setting sun talking about how she happened to find him. She gave up all pretense of a chance meeting and told him all about the pictures she took the day before and even described the woman and her daughter to him.

Will listened and told her that he spoken to that very woman the day before. He confessed that he even told the woman that he had a "very special person" in his past with red hair and green eyes but that he had lost contact with her. Of course he was talking about Subrina. Will said that with a knowing smile the woman told him, "find his very special person because there aren't many women with red hair and green eyes in the world." She then put her arm around her daughters shoulder and said, "and we are all Magic, aren't we Brie?", and they both laughed.

Will told Subrina that he couldn't believe the coincidence and was thinking again if and how he might find her at the exact moment he heard her call his name. While they talked she laughed and told him that, magic or coincidence, her nickname in the last few years of college was "Brie" and she still used it now and then when she was thinking out loud.

~~

And there standing in front of her was that same woman. Brie smiled and said, "I think I have those pictures in my files. Hold on I'll find them.

As she turned to get the pictures the woman said, "No Brie, I didn't come for those. You still don't recognize me do you? It's me, Keri!"