ALICE IN WONDERLAND
So the ties that bind us to a heaven that we cannot see.......yet, like a potent drink brewed on a flame of longing, we wait for it to cool before daring to sip and become drunk on its power and magical charms.........
Does anyone know what it is to truely love?
Let the Loa amaze you, cast you adrift, scare you and move you!
Join the adventure and read Alices story. Hers is a magical tale, translated through spirit and retold by the Great Ancestor of the man who hanged her.
We are Loa.......We want you to be too!
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
There would be a time when we would meet again, Pappa had made that promise to me. As they put the leather horse reign around my neck and pulled it so tight that I could not swallow, the men who had raped me whooped and shouted.......drunk on the whisky that made them into men and gave them the strength to call me slave and defile my body. The other slaves looked on.....Mama Hollow wept silently as others prayed. None were here of their own choosing but made to watch. I was to be made an example.
The horse that would be driven away pulling the wooden cart from under me grew impatient and fought against the boy who held him...... I prayed to Pappa and to the Christ Child that my Grandmother would be waiting for me on this day in heaven and my suffering would come to an end.......Then they hanged me. The wooden floor that supported my weight fell away and I started to struggle against the binds that held my hands.
Memories came to me as I struggled for breath, twisting and turning, my own body attempting to fight against the choking death that desired me this day.
Soon it was over and I was in spirit....still a child without true wisdom, scared and alone, searching for my family and for the peace the Loa had promised me.
And so I walked alone wondering about my time on Earth. My destiny was uncertain but my past was assured.....I as a slave had been a play thing between two powerful families..the Bodenes and the A'Courts.
The Bodenes were a noble Southern family who had made their money through the arms trade brought about by Americas strident belief in independance.....only the Bodenes did not care who they sold arms too however it is not my cause to judge....I was just a slave, a crop picker and a bed warmer on cold Southern nights.
The Bodenes had been visiting Grande Dame Hook for a hundred years, and some say that old Major John Bodene first visited Dame Hook when the local priest first blessed his plantation and the first slaves were shipped in from the markets in New Orleans.
The Major would visit Dame Hook in the slave ghetto and she would brew him a powerful elixer that would strengthen his seed and begat him blonde haired, blue eyed sons.
There came one day to the White Acres Plantation a slave girl, who for convenience the overseer called Alice. Dame Hook embraced Alice as the daughter she had never known and taught her the ways of the Loa......
Verity Bodene, the mistress of the House grew to love Alice also and would send her out on the hot summer days to pick the wild southern herbs that grew in the meadows beyond the great house.
One day whilst attending to her chores Alice spied a young man bathing naked in a brook. Alice turned away unaccustomed as she was to the sight of a male body unclothed in this way. Alice began to walk back to the house but not before the young man had dressed and quickly caught up with her. He stopped her there and begged her not to be afraid.....He asked her name and told her his......
His name was Niall but his kin called him Sunny....
We talked that day and my heart was full of longing for the white boy that I could never have.....Oh I knew he could have had me if he wanted but it would not be the same.....My future was assured....I could wash his back or warm his bed or maybe even give birth to his bastards but I would never be able to truely call him mine and not even Dame Hook could grant me that.
So the hot summer days would soon become cold nights and I would warm the young masters bed and he would speak my name in his dreams.....I would hold him close and pretend that he was mine and in return he would swear that he would never love another and that his spirit would be bound to mine for all eternity.
One day I was waiting for him by the brook. To pass time I cut sweet herbs with a sharp blade that Dame Hook had given me.....suddenly from nowhere, six or seven rogues fell upon me....all stinking of whisky and vile humour. I was raped and defiled, beaten to unconsciousness, but before I succummed I lashed out with rage severing the throat of one of my oppressors.......That would be my undoing and my own death sentance.
I had killed a Bodene, the youngest son however in my plight I had not recognised him.
My trial was a formality and my death as a witch and a whore assured.
I had hoped that Nial would come but my hopes were in vain. He was afraid of what people would say. My fate assured but he dare not risk his future over a slave girl.
So they hung me from a high tree as all the other slaves looked on.
That night I was taken to Dame Hooks hut and laid out on an old wooden table surrounded by 19 white candles each one representing a year of my life.
That same night as Dame Hook performed the ritual of the dead over my body with the wind howling outside, she was disturbed by a visitor. The man stood in the doorway with a look of grief and desperation upon his face......As Dame Hook stepped towards him he saw my body laying on the table in the red ceremonial dress of the dead. It was then that he screamed out in anguish and despair and fell weeping into the arms of Dame Hook.
The young man told the Dame that he was Niall A'Court and that he would lay down his life to bring me back from the dead.
Dame Hook cautioned the young man and told him that he had no idea what he was saying........She could not grant him his wish unless..........
Grandma did not judge him.....How could she as she too had watched my death. Nothing could have been done. A slave womans life was worthless. In those days the Bodenes words were law and this law had made a judgement upon me.....This does not mean I lay on the table as a willing sacrifice to lifes social order...and accepting my fate...oh no my spirit was in turmoil, my lifeforce had been wrenched from my body and I was angry....very angry!
Niall A'Court saw my body on the table. My skin still warm over looked by a warm fire. He fell to his knees beside me.
'Bring her back' he cried out. 'This is not right....Please Ma Hook, Let me be with her again'.
Ma Hook shook her head and pulled back a large curtain. Behind it stood a small alter. Slowly she began to caress the objects she lovingly kept there......She was praying to her Gods! Suddenly there was an explosion in the flames of the raging fire.
Ma Hook turned towards Nial A'Court and cried out PAPPA IS HERE!
TO BE CONTINUED.........
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