Page 108 of Driftwood Daffodil 3

If that wasn’t eerie enough then the land sure was. It was bare. There was no moss or grass covering the ground. Just a few cypress trees and a patch of yellow flowers that almost seemed to glow in the darkness. And the trees did not look right. They were twisted and dark with thick curtains of Spanish moss.

A sense of unease settled in the air as Gio rowed the boat closer.

I looked around while he hopped out and pulled the boat up onto the bank.

This place was unnatural. It was so quiet that I could hear the moss swaying in the breeze.

“Come on,” Gio held out his hand for me.

I got the distinct feeling that we shouldn’t be here. “What is this place?”

“LaBelle island.”

LaBelle? “As in the voodoo priestess?”

He brought me to a voodoo island? What the hell was wrong with him?

“You don’t believe in all of that nonsense, do you?”

“Uh, yeah. I knew a guy who knew a guy, who was cursed and lost all his hair.”

Voodoo was serious business. No one should mess with that stuff.

Gio folded his arms over his chest. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I am not being ridiculous. This place is obviously cursed.”

His eyes rolled. “It’s not cursed.”

“Oh yeah, then how come there aren’t any animals?”

“Because there’s nothing to eat. No grass or moss means no small animals for the bigger animals.”

“Don’t logic me.” He was the one who brought me to the island of the damned. “Where are the lighting bugs then, smart guy?”

They were everywhere. On the left, off to the right, behind us and in the trees on the other side of the bayou.

“They’re right there.” Gio pointed over to the flowers that I could now tell were daffodils and sure enough, there was a batch of lighting bugs fluttering around the flowers.

That made me feel a little better.

“Are you going to get off the boat or do I have to drag you off?”

I don’t know. On one hand the boat would take me away from possible voodoo curses, but on the other hand I was curious. Not much was known about Mama LaBelle. I only knew the name because I came across some vague reference while doing research in middle school.

All I knew was that the Atkins family died shortly after their servant – Mama LaBelle – disappeared. There were no references to where she lived, where she came from, or how she died. She was there, and then gone.

It was weird. Everyone had a path that could be tracked, but not her. It was like someone erased her from history. I became a little obsessed with figuring it out. For two years I searched through records and old newspapers. It got so bad that Memphisstopped talking to me for a month. And Gio was the one who found her.

I eyed his crossed arms.

Maybe there was a reason for that?

“Alright,” I stood up and took his hand. “But we are not doing any dirty things on voodoo island.”

We were tempting fate just being here.

“That’s what you think.” Gio said as we ducked down and cut through some hanging moss.

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