Ritha unfolded a square piece of red cloth on the table, caressing it with her palm to get rid of the wrinkles. She pulled a candle closer and lit another one to brighten the room.
Today she couldn’t hate Mr. Pierre more even if the bastard were to walk in through the door right now and spit in her face. One day, she thought, one day…
“Good for nothin’,” she mumbled under her breath and picked a needle from the sewing kit.
Ritha stuck the thread through the needle’s ear in one shot, just like her mama taught her. She chuckled. Mama… If she were here, all those bastards would be screaming in pain right now.
But mama was dead and Ritha was out of job and short on rent.
Where is that picture? She rummaged through her pocket and took out a pack of photographs kept together by a rubber band. She shuffled through the stack, pulled one photo out, and leaned it against her teacup.
Pierre–you dirty piece of–. Ritha slapped herself over the mouth. ‘We don’t use those words,’ mama used to say. ‘If we do, we ain’t better than the rest o’them.’
Ritha grabbed a handful of yarn and arranged it in a ball over the red cloth.
She glanced at the photo– not that she had to, but that’s how mama had taught her. ‘Always look,’ she used to say. ‘Through your eyes the power flows. Let the image seep inside your head, Ritha, and the energy will come through. From your eyes it will flow into your fingers and into the needle.’
She grabbed the corners of the cloth and pulled them together over the yarn. She held them tight with her fingertips and stuck the needle through.
Ritha used to make one in about twenty minutes, but today there wasn’t a lot of time. She glimpsed at the crib, hidden in the darkest corner of the room. She needed this one, she needed it badly. Nobody gave a damn about the little one, especially Mr. Pierre.
Ritha clenched her teeth and continued to sew.
At the end of fifteen minutes she put the red doll next to Mr. Pierre’s picture and smiled. Mama would’ve been so proud.
The clock ticked louder, signaling the top of the hour. 8PM. Only fifteen minutes left.
She grabbed the doll and the photo and ran into the enchanting room. She put them both gently in the center of a circle made from colored salts, on top of a metallic tray. She dropped a few locks of hair on the sides and lit the sands from a match.
As the salts burned slowly, releasing a sweet smell of burned sugar, Ritha closed her eyes and recited the magic poem, the one passed to her by her mama. She waved her hand through the smoke and sprinkled drops of oil through the air.
Ten minutes later, Ritha was exhausted. Her chest was heavy and her breath bitter. The salts had burned completely and the doll lay there unmoving, like a dead man in the middle of a forest fire.
She took the doll and ran back. 8:15.
The phone rang and she grabbed it after the first chime. She glanced at the crib, biting her lip. The baby was still sleeping.
“Hello?” a voice said in the receiver.
“Yes, I am here.”
“Ready?”
“Yes, Mr. Pierre, I am. How much today?”
Her heart thudded in her chest. How much humiliation today, she wondered. Enough for milk, at least?
“Ten dollars,” the man said.
She lifted her brows. That wasn’t half bad.
“Oh, thank you–”
“Cut it out, Ritha. I’m in a good mood. Don’t ruin it.”
She bowed, instinctively. “I understand, sir.”
“Did you fix it? Last time–”
“It’s brand new, sir, brand new.”
Silence on the other side.
“Okay, then. Go ahead, the usual. Shoulders, neck and lower back.”
Ritha pressed the speaker button and put the receiver on the table. She grabbed the red doll and turned it face down. With her fingers, she began to massage the doll’s shoulders and lower back.
Pleasure grunts came out of the phone. “Oh, that’s good, Ritha, keep going.”
She continued to massage the doll, her eyes fixated on the kitchen knife, only ten inches away from the doll’s head.
Her heart pounded a few times, pumping hot blood through her temples. She extended one hand toward the knife…
The baby giggled in the crib and turned on one side, his sleepy face pressed against the crib’s bars. Ritha looked at him, startled, her hand suspended in the air.
“What’s going on there?” Mr. Pierre screamed. “I am paying for two hands, dammit!”
Ritha grabbed the knife and threw it far away from her reach.
She gestured a kiss toward the crib and put both her hands on the doll.
“I am here, Mr. Pierre, I am here,” she said, tears dripping down her cheeks.
Mr. Pierre responded with a long moan.
The baby giggled gently in his sleep, and Ritha continued to cry in silence. ‘Be happy when there’s reason to be happy,’ her mama once said.
And Ritha was happy because tomorrow the baby gets to eat the good milk.