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"Watch out for those girls," Dashay said as we sat down "They gave " Abruptly she stretched her hands toward me "Let me look at your eyes"

She pushed my forehead back and leaned in close to cup my chin I stared into her eyes: carareen and black and yellow, I sa It felt odd to look into them so closely

After several seconds, she pulled away "No, you’re all right"

"What was that about?" I asked her

She didn’t answer She stared off into the distance

"Her entle "Let her be"

And so we spent the rest of Unhappy Hour in silence, listening to the jukebox play a strange arette smoke and loneliness, each of them plaintive in its oay

When we left the bar, I noticed a beige van parked down the road, near Murray’s Restaurant "That looks like the van I saw yesterday," I said

It drove away before I could tell for sure

Mãe and Dashay didn’t even hear ht, when Dashay had retired to her roo roohts

My rationale was simple: she was my friend; she was in trouble; and, clearly, she and my mother weren’t ready to tellleft out any longer

Mãe glided into the roo a white silk robe that shimmered as she moved She took one look at"You did hear what I said about eavesdropping?" She spoke in a fierce whisper "It’s a bad thing--"

I said quickly, "Father always said that there are few if any moral absolutes" I was suddenly reminded of how much he disliked people who interrupted others The art of conversation in America is utterly dead, he’d said once "Excuse ," I added

"And so hoould you justify eavesdropping?" She sat in the arehed by the possible benefit," I said, thinking as I spoke, hoping it sounded plausible "I love Dashay And I ical," hts What’s so bad about eavesdropping?"

"I let you listen so theh I often don’t remember to make the effort "I’m not an ethical expert like you and your father, but in hts of so, pure and si"

I folded my arms across my chest "Even if you think you can help them?" It was the first ti I wondered if I’d have had the nerve if the room wasn’t so dark

Suddenly Dashay swept into the rooht was the last word: "Dashay, you ht And Dashay thought, Just like her mother

In spite of what I’d said, I knew that Mãe was right: listening to others’ thoughts was an intrusion, warranted only in exceptional circumstances The trouble was, so many circumstances felt exceptional, that year

In the end, I didn’t have to eavesdrop to hear the story Dashay told o to Jamaica, she said Dashay hadn’t been home for years--she left soon after her parents died in an accident--and the funeral of a grandht occasion to(Bennett was easy to cajole--he was the sort ofwoo well For starters, Dashay’s fa varown up an ordinary mortal, but when she left home she was "vamped" (her word) in Miami--a city popular with the more vicious sorts of vampires (Bennett was an other, too--but how that happened is another story entirely)

In any case, Dashay’s family was a suspicious bunch, and her auntie was the worst She wanted to knoas in the blood-colored flakes Dashay and Bennett sprinkled onto their food She wanted to knohy Dashay "didn’t sht"--of course, vampires have no s Ja until their souls were truly at rest When soht that her spirit, or "duppy," wanders for several days There are special rituals to ht Auntie saw Dashay and her cousin Calvin under a cotton tree Dashay held Calvin’s chin in her hand, staring deep into his eyes Auntie got it into her head that Dashay was a witch, putting a spell on her son So Auntie went off into the hills above Montego Bay to see the obeah man--a sort of shaman who links the spirit world with this one The obeahabout her niece, the witch, and he laughed at her

Auntie came back home in a furious mood She said to the assembled familyabout witches when you have va in your house?"

Dashay was speechless And Bennett wasn’t there to defend her Later, she wondered if ht Maybe he got the wrong idea

"Duppy get the blame, but o wrong, Auntie always puts the blame on duppies, or on me"

Dashay ran out of the house to look for Bennett, but she couldn’t find him "The love of one" She blew across her palan to cry again

That August I spent severalstrips of shingles into place, then cas for doors and s

Once I looked up from my work and found Dashay face to face with Leon, her eyes inches away fro sure he’s all right" My mother’s voice came from behind me "She thinks that she can tell someone’s condition from their eyes"