The guys called me Robo Cop. I’d been injured many times on duty and Addie Mae had brought me over odd concoctions as I tried to heal. Many times, I should’ve been out of service for good, but Addie Mae had a way about her. She’d bring me cups of steaming, bubbling stews. Oddly shaped things always floated at the top. And none of those things tasted like any vegetable or animal on this earth.
Not that I ate many things.
I was a simple man with simple tastes.
Regardless, Addie Mae was a good woman, so I would always grab a spoon and shovel the weird stuff in my mouth with no questions.
By the next day, I was always fully healed.
Sometimes, when I returned to duty earlier than expected, the guys would ask questions. I never told them about Addie Mae, although I suspected a few of their wives were her customers. People gossiped about her love potions. Many pretended that they didn’t believe her magic would work. Still, most knew it would.
Those odd wolves howled off in the distance.
Fuck. They’re on Faith’s land. No. I should make sure they run in the other direction. She’s been through enough.
Snow stormed down on all of us.
I should’ve been in the house, bundled in blankets and checking on these little kittens I’d found near Parker’s Creek. Someone had killed their mom, placed them in a box, and left the little crying, furry creatures at my usual fishing spot.
This season didn’t allow me to fish, but on most mornings, I loved going out there, sitting near the creek, and watching the sun rays stream and spread over the water.
Regardless, due to the whole town knowing about my spot, someone had left the box of kittens there.
The biggest problem with being the town’s big sap was the insane number of kittens and puppies people anonymously dumped my way.
Unofficially, my part-time job was taking care of abandoned animals. Currently, there were five kittens possibly destroying my cabin—three black ones and twins that were snow white. The mother must’ve been a black or white cat.
I’d tried to hand the kittens off to Faith’s mom.
“No way.” Addie Mae wouldn’t even look at the box. “Those are your babies.”
The twins popped their head out of the top of the box and meowed at her.
“Are you sure?” I tried to keep the worry out of my smile.
She still didn’t glance at the box as she opened her windows. There’d been a rank stench in the whole house. I checked the stove. A horrible odor drifted from the pot of boiling red liquid. I was scared to ask her what she was boiling. It could be some of her hoodoo stuff, or the results of bad cooking.
Everyone knew Addie Mae could keep you alive and heal you from just about anything, but the woman was a terrible cook. I’d endured some of the worst meals from her house—burnt cookies that scraped against my throat and tasted like grounded rocks, spaghetti that moved on its own and crawled inside my stomach, and the pie. Dear God.
The pies that this woman made were wrong against humanity.
Had she been cast in a fairytale, Addie Mae would’ve been the wicked witch, taunting little kids with pies full of black, bubbling sludge. Every time she served me a pie, it was the same thing. This black, rocky crust stuffed with a fruit that she refused to give a name. For years, I’d ask her what fruit it was and she’d never answered, just changed the subject. Meanwhile, this fruit. Each one was purple and the size of golf balls, with a tiny, liquid pouch in each center.
Addie Mae would heat my slice of pie up, and the crust would break apart and crumble on the plate. And these little golf ball fruits’ pouches would rise and fall as if something were pushing to get out.
So, I made sure to not ask Addie Mae about the pot of boiling funk on her stove.
“These kittens, sure are adorable,” I said.
“I can’t this year.” She fanned her hand in front of the window, probably hoping the disgusting odor would escape. “I’m an old woman. Why does everybody always ask me to do things?”
“Because you look like you’re twenty-five, ma’am.”
“Don’t you be trying to flirt with me, Daniel.” She patted her head and smile. “I’m still old, even though I don’t look it.”
The cats meowed again.
I hit her with my best smile. The one that made the women in town want to do bad things. Regardless of my unending love for Faith and my inability to heal my heart, I was confidant with the ladies. I’d never met one that didn’t want to run my way.