The Freedman and the Pharaoh's Staff Read Free Page B

talisman. He held it up for Jeb to see. Some old rope necklace.
    â€œWhat’s that?” Jeb stood, squinting at the trinket.
    â€œDis, mon ami, is dee symbol of Ayizan. It is very powerful.” Lafayette stepped toward Jeb. On the rope, hung a tiny charm in the shape of a palm tree pointing upward.  
    â€œWhat it do?” Jeb asked.
    â€œ Enbesil! It blesses dee wearer and his family. Very potent healing powers. Here, put it on.” Lafayette put the rope necklace over Jeb’s head, letting it fall to his neck. “Dis I give to ya free...with one condition, mon ami .”  
    Shit, what the hell can I give him? Jeb eyed him, “What condition? I ain’t got much to give you.” He dug into his pocket, feeling his Colt pistol, a few coins, and pocket lint.  
    â€œ Okenn, nothin’ of any material, black man. Something far more important than that.” Lafayette pointed to Jeb’s chest. “Whom dis belong to?”  
    â€œHuh?”
    â€œ Enbesil! Your heart. It belongs to a black man. And dis black man belong to who?”  
    Jeb stared. Voodoo priests were supposedly more than medicine men and magic-users—they knew things, things regular folks like Jeb didn’t know. “It belongs to a Freedman?"  
    Lafayette smiled. “Never forget that, mon ami. These bakas mean to frighten ya with anything they can. Do not be afraid, change is comin’, mon ami. I have heard many stories from me mother, out in dee bayous. We got dee chance to stop wars from comin’. Do not be afraid to work wit whites. They help us now be Freedmen, no? True that lots of them bakas hate us—they’s evil. Wit time, dee whites and us live in peace, no?” He walked to where Jeb had been siting and grabbed a nearby stick. Then traced two concentric circles in the dirt.  
    Help us? Sakes alive, they put us in the fields . This ain’t the North. “I don’t think that’s gonna happen. I’m friendly with some whites, but it go no farther than that. I seen too many of them things they do to us. How can we stop wars? I seen wars, I been in wars. I appreciate your help, and you hidin’ Crispus. But no black folk ever gonna have the power to do what you say. We’re Freedmen, but the whites try to enslave us at every turn.” Jeb shook his head. It was true; when he’d gone to vote for some representative after the war, he was ‘escorted’ for his safety to the ballots, and then locked in an abandoned building.  
    Lafayette finished tracing the symbols in the dirt. Sailboats at each side. “Ya have seen more past crimes dee bakas commit against us. I see dee futures of us all. Me mother, she shows me dee future. If ya do not believe dee houngan, then go try dee mambo. Ya know her through dee bakas tales, she that lives in dee bayous. Dis map ya brotha seek. It leads to a great Egypt-ian treasure I tell ya. A Pharaoh’s Staff.” Lafayette gave a mysterious smile only a magic-worker could give.  
    Jeb nodded and headed to the door. “Thank you, wise houngan . I’ll be back in a few hours with Crispus.” He left the badji. Studied the pitch-black sky above him. Must be two-thirty in the morning. He pulled his coat tight around him, trying to hide from the chilled howling wind.  
    â€œHope there’s enough time,” Jeb muttered, and then headed off toward the jailhouse.

 
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    Chapter Four
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    Three-thirty in the morning and Jeb was racing against the sun. Bits of light grabbed at the horizon, trying to pull daylight up over the land. Jeb’s legs ached after running from one part of town to the next. The jailhouse came into sight and he concealed himself in the shadows. He crept closer, trying to move like a predator stalking his prey. He didn’t intend to let anyone see who snatched a black man out of jail. Stopping at the door, he put his ear to the wood and listened for