Page 92 of When the Snowman Whispered
Addie Mae continued her story like we were walking on a summer day and heading to a picnic. “Remington loved a girl that didn’t even like him. I can never forget her name. Margarite.”
Margarite? Why does that sound so familiar?
“She was a little Black girl that had barely turned eighteen. I think she went to school with you all. Probably graduated a year ahead of Faith and you.”
“Margarite,” I muttered it under my breath. “I knew her. Hold on. That was Brett’s ex-girlfriend.”
“Yes.” The heads on her back grimaced. “Remington loved that girl. I don’t know what she did, but she did something big, when he spotted her. That boy couldn’t get the Black girl off is mind. He came to me and I shouldn’t have even took the job, but graduation was coming up. Bills were due. And Faith had that hopeless look in her eye like she would never see the world. I took the money. It was a lot of money.”
“How much?”
“I bought my house with it and helped Faith go to art school. That’s how much money it was.”
“So? Was Margarite with Brett at the time?”
“Yes, but I had no idea. I was just helping this white boy with some girl. He lied and said she was single. Had I known, I would’ve never messed with it all. Margarite and Brett might’ve had a clear path set out by the universe. My hoodoo might’ve messed with it.”
I rummaged through my head, picking through mental files and flipping through pages. “What happened to Margarite?”
She twisted that head-face my way. The hole for the mouth thinned and then curved into a frown. And all the heads around the hole saddened too. “She’s dead.”
“Dead?” Shock hit me. “How?”
“I killed her with my spell.”
I stopped on the path of blood-stained snow.
“I didn’t mean to.” She kept on slithering forward.
I hurried after her. “But how?”
“I started the tea for Remington. Somehow, he found a way to slip it into that poor girl’s body every day. I often wonder how he did it. Did he follow her around and have someone give it to her each day? She’d been with Brett. How did Remington get close to her?”
I tried to make sense of it too. “The Townsons own most of the diners and restaurants downtown. In my day, teens spent all their time down there.”
“That could’ve been one way.” The head-face nodded. “Maybe he had the waiters pour it in a drink that she ordered.”
Still confused, I asked. “The tea killed her? But it didn’t hurt Brett or me.”
“The tea wasn’t enough for Remington. That’s what I’m trying to say. The tea broke Brett and Margarite up, and I know now that it was the wrong thing to do. I was the practitioner that altered the path, and because of that, I had to pay.”
“Pay with what?”
She ignored that question and continued, “Brett lost his twin flame. His soul mate. I’m just guessing. But he lost someone significant in his life and because of that, the path guided him to Faith.”
I sighed. “When Margarite and he broke up, we started hanging together more. He volunteered to get my tea because he was so bored and depressed.”
The cold wind blew by. Worry for Faith rose in my heart, but I stifled it. Although Addie Mae’s image was difficult to swallow, if she could be this being, then she could save her daughter. I had all belief that it would be okay. There was no other option to hang on to. I had to believe.
“The path led Brett to my daughter. I had to pay. And Remington came around still not satisfied with the power of my tea. Margarite had broken up with Brett and agreed to one date with Remington.”
“By now Remington has talked to Margarite?” I asked.
“I’m not sure how long he was or wasn’t talking to Margarite. I just knew that he had a date with her that night and wanted some powerful stuff to shift her heart to him.” She shook the head-face. “Greedy. I was greedy. I knew it was wrong, but I had a love for money then. It’s never the money that darkens your soul, it’s thelovefor money that taints and turns good people evil.”
“That powerful spell killed Margarite?”
She kept on talking as if only having a conversation with herself. “Hair and nails. Dead skin. Blood and bones. There’s even power in people’s stuff. Get their family’s grave dirt and do almost anything to them. I figured love wasn’t a bad thing to break the rules on. I should’ve known better. When I made the potion, and saw that damn boy Brett stealing Faith away, I added the wrong things. I wasn’t paying attention.”
