Savior Read Online Free PDF Page B

the strands together.
    The Rope of the Sevens , I thought, and smiled.
    The cloak I’d worn from the ministry was neatly folded in a perfect square, next to the bed. I took this as a sign that I was expected to wear it from this point forward. No more dropping stones, herbs, or any other mystical tools down my boots or in my pockets. The belt and cloak would serve that purpose.
    I knew only one person with the gall to enter a sleeping person’s room uninvited or with the foresight to prepare a bag of necessary personal items. She was the same woman who wouldn’t care that raised voices in the early morning might wake others: our housekeeper, Miss Mabelle.
    “Nah, ya ain’t!” she bellowed. Her voice ripped through the tranquil swamp disturbing everything in sight, even the fly on my windowsill. I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and, from the window, saw Theleo’s head tucked and shaking back and forth.
    He was really having a tough time here…
    Quickly, I wrapped the belt around my waist and slipped the cloak over my shoulders before leaving the shack. I didn’t need to go far, though. They were still arguing just outside my door.
    Neither of them noticed me approaching; not with Miss Mabelle standing chest to chest with Theleo, her dark, dreadlocked hair swinging as she shifted her wide hips to the side.
    She launched into another rant just as I stepped up beside them. “Silly…stupid…ssss…” She drew out her hiss until finding the word she was searching for, “…superstition.”
    “What’s wrong, Miss Mabelle?”
    “Wants ta stand guard over ya, n’ he wants ta do it outside yer door.” She finished with a critical stare in my direction, waiting for my reaction.
    “I don’t see a problem with that.”
    Her eyebrows rose in shock. Not to be outdone, she announced, a bit loud in my opinion, “N’ he wants ta hang a horseshoe over da door!” She scoffed, adding, “No needs ta do that! No horse’s here!”
    “It’s for good luck,” explained Theleo and then settled his gaze on Miss Mabelle. “Something we can all use a little more of at the moment.”
    Her face conveyed a disgruntled frown and then she rambled a cast so quickly from her lips, I almost missed it. “Alligator foot and wing of bat, welcome only good luck across this welcome mat. There!”
    But she wasn’t finished, I found, as she ambled forward, her round body rolling with the motion of it. When her chest came close to colliding with Theleo’s, she stopped and stabbed the cane she always carried down on the dock, just missing the edge of Theleo’s toes.
    “She don’t need no horseshoe n’ she don’t need no keeper. She got enough eyes on her already.”
    A sweeping glance of the waterway from where my shack stood corroborated her statement. Each residence sat only a few feet apart, close enough at times to leap across the water to the next one. All of my new neighbors were standing outside, either at their doorways or at the end of their docks.
    Miss Mabelle returned to shouting at Theleo. “Ya go on! Back there! Git.”
    “Git?” he replied, baffled.
    “Git! Just git!” Although Miss Mabelle’s raised voice and her choice of words made no sense to Theleo, her hand gesturing must have registered, because he turned and left the dock, looking confused.
    Not to be defeated, he landed a few feet away on a dry piece of land, standing guard from afar.
    Taking one final verbal jab, Miss Mabelle shouted across the water, “Only reason ya ain’t been run outta here is 'cuz she wants ya here! And she the only one!”
    A rush of air left my lungs, understanding for the first time Miss Mabelle’s issue.
    “What?” she demanded. “What ya thinkin’, chil’?” She imitated my gasp for animated reference.
    I almost laughed so I hurried up and answered. “You’re not mad about the superstition. You’re worried about my safety….”
    Not willing to show her soft side, ever, she signed loudly, turning her back to