Page 50 of Night Songs

“They also met at a party—I actually introduced them.” She had an edge to her voice, like maybe she was a little bit ashamed of this fact.

I wanted her to tell me more, but then someone yelled her name from the kitchen, and she put up a finger. “Hold tight. I’ll be back in a shake.”

Micah and I drifted over to her records and thumbed carefully through them. There was everything you could imagine—Nina Simone, Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, TLC.

Martha returned, and Micah said, “This is a sick collection—and so much that’s not country.”

“I love music,” she answered simply. “Country is my first love, but there’s too much out there to ignore. And they all borrow from each other. Your mama was the same way.”

“Really?” I asked.

Martha nodded. “Oh, yeah.You’ll never guess who she was into around the time she met your father.”

“Who?”

“Black Sabbath.”

“Holy shit.”

“Yep.”

Micah pulled an album from the shelf and showed it to us. “What’sthis?”

On the cover, a woman in a long black dress stood at a distance at the edge of a forest. She was far enough away that you couldn’t make out her face, but you could feel her intense gaze searing into yours. Along the bottom in red cursive was written “The Cursed Woman” and then next to it, “Belle Powers.”

I took it from him and studied it closely, as if it were an occult object. I’d listened to every album my mother had ever put out—all of them lined up on a special shelf in Hess’s music room—and I’d never come across this one.

Martha’s brow furrowed. “You’ve never seen this before?”

“No, definitely not.”

“It’s not in Hess’s collection?”

“No.”

Her mouth flattened. “Well, that is your mother’s first solo album. And my favorite of hers, actually. I played on almost every track.” She took the album from Micah and slid out the disc, then handed the sleeve back to me. “We’re listening to this next.”

Micah and I found a spot on the floor amid the sprawled musicians, and I studied the woman on the cover, searching for some stroke of Belle in her face. As I stared, the dots of color blurred and grayed, and I could feel myself being pulled into the image through the gaze of the woman, my body dissolving, my eyes the only thing left of me.

I felt a hand on mine, and I suddenly returned to the room, my scalp gone cold. Micah whispered that it was starting, and I turned the sleeve over for the track list, hiding the woman from view.

The first track, “Folk Song,” began with simple, ominous guitar, and then she sang:

There was a woman in town who sang so sweet

Her beauty was beyond compare

But one day a bright specter she did meet

There aft she was no longer fair

I felt a cold finger drag down my spine, freezing my body in place.

She ranted and raved and ran over town

Chased by somethin’ not seen

She ran so far that she came to a cliff