Written for Stream of Consciousness Saturday
where our prompt word is βsumβ Here is my SoC.
When I was a very small child, one of my older cousins was suffering from a case of consumption, also know as tuberculosis. She was 16 years old and literally wasting away from this disease once called the βGreat White Plagueβ due to the extremely pale complexion of those afflicted.
My cousin was always cold, requiring multiple blankets to keep warm, and time outside in the sun and fresh air, especially during the spring and summer. She was either in bed or reclining on a chaise lounge near the window in the parlor.
She looked like death. To the school age children in the house, this was a frightening time and they glanced at her with pity and wariness. They also avoided her, which was not very kind; some of them stayed away by spending extra time practicing their penmanship lessons and math sums.
At least twice each week my great-aunt Chesaria would stop by to administer her special βtonicβ, light a candle and leave her mark on my cousin. The ritual never changed: first a dose of the safe-for-human-consumption red berry juice from the sumac plant. Next, Aunt Chesaria would draw a birdcage in blue ink on both of my cousinβs earlobes. The door to the birdcage was always drawn in the open position which allowed the evil spirits in my cousinβs body to find their way out. Finally, my great-aunt would light a tea candle and place it on my cousinβs chest to draw out the congestion. She would close the curtains and leave my cousin in the darkened room to allow her potions to do their magic.
Who knows if any of this strange “medicine” worked; our parents clung to the phrase βthe whole is greater than the sum of its partsβ. My cousin eventually recovered, because of or in spite of Aunt Chesariaβs administrations. She was never a robust woman after her ailment but she married and was healthy enough to give birth to nine children in just 12 years. She welcomed more than 40 grandchildren and a batch of great-grandchildren before passing away at the age of 86 just two years ago.
As a rule, Aunt Chesaria was summoned whenever anyone in the family or immediate vicinity became ill. She drew birdcages on my own earlobes during every childhood malady. But the question that remains unanswered is βWho took care of Aunt Chesaria when she became ill?β No one is around to fill in the blanks so I can only assume there was a witch doctor of sorts living in my neighborhood β¦. perhaps a black magic woman from Sumatra residing in the unassuming borough of The Bronx!
Presumptuous? Possibly. But fascinating, nonetheless.
NARΒ©2024
#SoCS
This is βBlack Magic Womanβ by Santana
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