"Very superstitious,
Wash your face and hands,
Rid me of the problem,
Do all that you can,
Keep me in a daydream,
Keep me goin' strong,
You don't wanna save me,
Sad is the soul
When you believe in things
That you don't understand,
Then you suffer,
Superstition ain't the way"
Stevie Wonder—"Superstitious"
Monroe sat at the bar right next to Caddo sweating bullets.
Erik stood behind the bar pouring both men glasses of beer from the tap. His own face hung heavy with worry.
"I don't understand it. Two weeks. Two weeks! I've been turned down for dates and hookups," Monroe lamented.
He traced his finger on the condensation against the tall glass as Caddo and Erik shook their heads.
"Me! Monroe Elias Stevens, the Lothario of downtown Mariscal…how is this possible? My dick ain't been wet except for in showers the last fourteen days. What the ever-loving fuck?"
"You? Man, I had this shorty on lock for weeks and finally bagged her. Been spending money on her like crazy. But now? Doesn't answer calls, ignores me if she sees me walking Samson at the dog park. I was thinking about introducing her to my Mama and everything!" Caddo whined.
Erik sipped on some sparkling lemon water and shoved his left hand in his pocket.
"Vanessa ain't talking to me now, and Arletta's been hanging with her homegirls instead of me."
"What about Brandy?"
"She went on one date with me. I heard she liked art so I took her to the Sunday Folk Art Festival over in Tyler. Brought a whole picnic basket lunch…wine, cheeses…all that good shit. She gave me one kiss at the end of the trip and has my text messages on read now."
All three commiserated for a good twenty minutes until a server named Ivy wandered by with a tray of chips and salsa.
"Sounds like you guys should talk to Kris," she said stopping at the bar to grab two bottled beers.
"Talk to her about what?" Erik said.
"She gives tarot card readings on the patio before and after work to some of the staff."
"Since when?" Erik asked.
"About a week ago. She and Jordan had a cookout last weekend at their house and she did some tarot readings. She's pretty accurate. It's almost scary."
"How come I wasn't invited?" Erik whined.
"No one wants their boss around," Ivy joked.
"What does she do exactly?" Monroe asked.
"She has you shuffle a deck of cards and spreads them out. You choose three to five cards from the deck and she reads them for you—"
"A fortune-teller?" Caddo said with a smirk.
"More than that. She can tell you things about yourself to help you solve problems or even answer questions you may have."
Ivy delivered her tray of food and drinks and walked back toward the kitchen.
"Tarot cards?" Monroe snorted.
"Her grandmother is a hoodoo woman, so I'm not surprised," Caddo said.
Erik glanced over at the old Schlitz Malt Liquor bull clock hanging on the bar wall. Kris was due to come into work at one.
"I heard that people like that really don't have any powers, they just do cold readings. They read your body language and just deduce facts based on how you react," Monroe said.
"Couldn't hurt to try it. Our love lives are in the gutter. Nothing is working. Maybe she could give us some insight," Caddo said taking a big gulp of his beer.
Ivy strolled past again with a tray of Buffalo boneless wings and cheese fries.
"There she is now," Ivy said.
Kris bounded in with her cowgirl hat in her hand and carrying a black leather purse. She greeted two servers on her way to the office and as she drew near the bar, her eyes regarded all three men staring at her. She stopped in mid-stride clutching her purse.
"Is something wrong?" she asked.
Monroe pointed to her.
"You are supposed to have the answers," he accused in a playful tone.
Kris made her way around some tables and stood in front of them. Her cat-like eyes stared at them in confusion.
"Ivy told us you do tarot cards here," Caddo said.
"Just before and after work…for fun," she said.
Kris's eyes studied Erik's as if to check to see if she were in trouble.
"Can you give us a reading before you clock in? Do you have your cards with you?" Erik asked.
Kris patted her purse.
Monroe jumped off of the barstool.
"Let's go to the patio," Monroe said.
Kris looked at the clock.
"You can start work late," Erik said.
The bar wouldn't pick up for another hour. Erik pulled Blue out to cover for him as they headed to the patio behind Kris. She picked a table furthest from the back door and on the side that had six chairs around it. Sitting down across from them, she pulled out a silky purple cloth and laid it across the table. Reaching back into her purse she lifted up a card box with a Black Queen on the cover. Opening it, cards fell into her hands that were slightly larger than regular playing cards.
"Who wants to go first?" she asked.
"We can't do a group reading?" Monroe asked.
"Individual readings is all I do," she said with a slight grin on her face.
The moment she had the cards out, Erik grew self-conscious. He didn't want her knowing he was having lady problems. Especially since he was trying to hook up with her cousin and two other women.
"You go," Erik said to Monroe.
"I want to go first," Caddo said switching seats with Monroe so that he was in the middle facing Kris.
"What would you like to know?"
Kris's eyes were fixed on Caddo, and Erik noticed the change in her voice. She had a normal soft cadence when she spoke, a little fast when she was excited, but when she gave a piercing stare at his cousin, her tone and demeanor shifted. There was extreme confidence wafting off of her and he found it quite attractive. Seductive.
She had taken her hat off and her hair was in a messy twist out that hung on her head like an old pageboy haircut. A light pink-tinted lip gloss shimmered on her mouth, and her button nose wiggled like she was going to cast a spell like the woman on that old TV show Bewitched.
The aura around her crackled with energy and Erik felt the hairs on his arm raise up.
Caddo's eyes were on the cards in her hand. He folded his hands on the purple cloth.
"Why is my love life tanking right now?"
Kris's lips curled into a sly smile.
"What?" Caddo said.
"That seems to be a running theme around TLS," Kris said.
They watched her shuffle the cards three times. She handed them to Caddo.
"Shuffle them as many times as you need," she said.
Caddo took the glossy cards in his hand and clumsily shuffled four times before handing them back to Kris. She cut them three times then fanned them out in a half-circle in front of Caddo.
"Slide five cards forward," she said.
Caddo looked the cards over for a moment before sliding his fingers forward and choosing five cards. He pushed them toward his side of the table then watched Kris's face. Kris turned each card over, but her eyes were glued to Caddo's face. It felt like three minutes went by before Kris stopped looking at Caddo. She lifted the cards and placed them in front of the fanned cards. One card she placed in the middle with the four other cards flanking it in the four cardinal directions.
"All people have energy around them that they give off. Just like people have personalities that we can see when they talk or interact with people, this energy is like an invisible radar that others can sense. Does that make sense to you?" she asked.
Caddo nodded and Erik could see his cousin was nervous. His bottom lip was pushing up into his top lip, and there was no twinkle of mischief in his eye like there normally was. Even Monroe had his hands folded under his chin as he leaned forward with his elbows on the table. Erik had his hands pressed hard on his thighs.
"What I am seeing right now and sensing from your aura is tangled energy. Something is tying up your sexual force that is outside of your own doing."
"Uh-huh," Caddo said with a shaky voice.
Kris finally looked down at the cards.
"Three of Swords. Five of Cups. The Fool. The Moon. Strength."
Erik felt like his skin was crawling watching her study the cards. Her right hand touched the side of her temple as her left ring and middle finger gave soft methodical taps on the cloth. She finally spoke without looking at Caddo, her eyes stuck on the cards.
"The last woman you were with…you spoiled her. Gifts. Money. Time. You spent months pursuing her out in public and things had been going well except…"
Her voice trailed off and her forehead grew tense. Her eyes became narrow with deep focus.
"Except what?" Caddo gasped.
Both of his hands were on the cloth now and Erik thought he was going to leap across the table and throttle Kris if she didn't answer him fast enough.
She sat back and looked him straight in the eye.
"The Three of Cups in reverse is telling me that threes a crowd in your situation. You, your partner, and another entity. The Five of Cups upright is giving me negative energy…a loss of love but not attributed to you. The Fool in reverse shows me that something is holding you back from true fulfillment with this woman you want. The Moon upright tells me that there is anxiety about you being able to keep this lover and she is feeling this anxiety and hesitation from you."
She tapped the last card.
"Strength upright shows me that you are willing to do whatever it takes to make this relationship work. You really are into this woman, and deep down you know she can bring you to a higher level of love that you would like to experience…"
Her fingers touched each card.
"The position of the cards is called a relationship cross. This card here and this other card represents your place in the relationship and that of your woman—"
"Ebony, her name is Ebony," Caddo said.
"This bottom card and this middle card represents the foundation of your love and the problem with Ebony. This top card tells me what the outcome will be."
"And that is?" Monroe interjected, his round eyes nearly bugging out.
"Shh! She's doing me now!" Caddo said pushing Monroe's arm.
"Caddo, the reason why your love life sucks is because someone has put a root on you. Everything I see here is an external force from another individual."
"Who put a root on me? I don't know anybody…did I offend your grandmother some kind of way?"
The panic in Caddo's voice made Erik chuckle nervously.
"My grandmother had nothing to do with this. The power I see is not very strong and might fade eventually, but it will be a long time before it does."
"Who else does stuff like that?" Monroe asked in a panic.
His eyes pleaded with Kris.
"I can't live like this," Monroe snapped.
Erik felt his stomach churn with a deep knowing.
"I think I know what happened," Erik said.
Caddo and Monroe glared at him.
"Speak nigga!" Caddo yelped.
Kris's eyes seemed to penetrate Erik's soul as she watched his face.
"Me and Biandro got into it a month ago when the calves got killed. He told me he hoped we all got dragged with our love lives. He was pissed when he said it. Cursed me out."
Erik's eyes darted away from Kris's stare.
"Biandro can't put a curse on people. This ain't the Color Purple, man," Monroe chastised.
"If a person is deep in their feelings, their words do have power. They can will things to be even if they haven't studied what I know with my grandmother. It's rare but it can happen." Kris said.
"Can you fix it?" Erik asked.
"I can give you oils or make you things that can help, but Biandro has to be the one to reverse it."
Monroe had his cell in his hand before Caddo could pull his out from his pocket.
"Yo…where the hell are you?" Monroe yelled into his phone.
Kris piled her cards together and placed them back in their card box. She slipped them back into her purse and stood up.
"I have to clock in," she said.
Erik glanced at his watch. He needed to get back to the bar.
"Let's go," Monroe said jumping up.
"Go where?" Caddo said.
"Biandro is at the ranch. We're going out there right now."
Monroe pulled out his keys.
"You two are going with us," Monroe said.
"I have to work," Kris protested.
"If he has to take the curse off of us then we all need to be there," Caddo said.
"Kris, you can guide him. If he can't fix it then we'll need you to make us some shit," Monroe said.
Kris looked at Erik.
"The bar can live without you for a minute," Erik conceded.
###
Monroe's gunmetal gray Mercedes rolled up to a high metal gate. Big iron letters spelled out "Caddo Ranch" above it. Monroe hit a button on his dash that caused the gates to open smoothly. Kris sat in the backseat with Caddo and tried not to be so obvious as she stared at all the property the Stevens family owned. They passed by buildings that housed horses and ranch equipment, and also wide-open pastures where she saw regal black horses frolicking in the distance.
Her mouth dropped open when they rolled in front of a modern ranch house that had to be over fifteen thousand square feet and cost the family millions. Monroe parked on the end of the paved circular driveway and they all stepped out of the car.
The front door opened and Miss Nana Rae stepped out. A wide smile stretched her lips when she saw Kris.
"What are you all doing here in the middle of the day?"
"Looking for Biandro," Monroe said.
"Why the gruff tone?" Nana Rae said.
"He put a curse on us," Caddo spat.
"He did what now?"
"We just want to talk to him Nana," Erik said trying to smooth over the tension Caddo and Monroe were carrying in their shoulders.
"He's out on the west side. Did he know you were coming?"
"I called him thirty minutes ago," Monroe said.
"I'm sure he's got a radio on him," she said.
"We'll find him," Erik said.
Monroe and Caddo headed past the ranch house and Erik jogged behind them. Kris followed his heels as Monroe led them all toward an office building near a wide horse stable. Selena stepped out of the building when she saw them through the window.
"What's going on?" Selena asked.
"Here to fix a little problem," Erik said.
Monroe stepped into the office and came right back out with a pair of keys and a radio.
"Where is the office truck parked?" Monroe asked.
"At the end of the storage…wait…hold up…tell me what's happening!"
No one answered Selena.
They piled into a dusty white truck and she was allowed to sit in the front with Monroe as they tore out. She tried to observe more of the ranch, but Monroe was driving fast and the terrain was bumpy.
"Slow down, man," Erik called from the back.
Kris reached up and held onto the coat hanger hook on the side of the roof. They drove pretty far and she observed sheep wandering free and grazing.
"There he is," Erik said.
There was an older black Chevy truck parked near brush and piney trees. Biandro was next to the truck looking through binoculars.
"Be cool now," Erik reasoned as Monroe left the truck and stomped over to his cousin.
Kris took another look around the land. She always thought of ranches as big dry places, but there was so much greenery. And so many trees. As far as her eyes could see there was a lushness to the wide-open space. She pushed back on the urge to go running and screaming with her arms thrown wide open, spinning like she was Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music".
She watched Monroe and Caddo talk to Biandro with animated voices. Biandro himself didn't believe a word they said. Erik stood nearby looking down at the ground. Kris touched her stomach just below her belly button. Her bladder was full. Slipping away from the men, she wandered over into the trees until she was hidden from view. Digging into her pocket, she pulled out a balled-up tissue she had stuffed in her jeans from wiping her hands of water earlier. Unfastening her pants, she squatted down and aimed her urine stream away from her underwear and boots.
"Kris?"
Erik's voice made her stop peeing, her urethra shutting down with a quickness.
"Don't come over here! I'm peeing!" she called out.
When she didn't see him right away, she relaxed her body and finished voiding her bladder. She wiped herself and buried the tissue in the dirt. Pulling up her pants, she tucked in her shirt and zipped herself up.
"Kris…"
Erik stood forty feet away from her staring.
"I told you I was peeing!"
"Kris…don't move—"
"What?"
"Don't fucking move," he said with a harsh bite in his tone.
Kris felt gooseflesh pimple her arms and the back of her neck.
Erik wasn't staring at her…he was looking behind her. Her knees buckled when she heard a deep-throated growling.
"Put your arms high in the air and walk toward me…slowly," he said.
Kris felt tears well up and her vision grew blurry. The growling was louder. Erik kept on watching whatever was behind her. He held his hand toward her.
"Come to me," he whispered.