Healer

by Alifah Omar
Issue 16: Consumed | 4,591 words

Woodblock print by Winold Reiss

The living room window let in some of the summer night air. The air conditioner that jutted from the window gave off more noise than chill. Luckily for Darryll and Daysha, the heat in the apartment unit wasn’t too unbearable. And even if it was or if they complained, Tangi would just come back with a sharp response: “What y’all think people did before they invented air conditioners? They dealt with it!”

Daysha would just give her older sister a blank stare when she spoke like that. It was 1991 and twenty-four-year-old Tangi Melton had two burdens on her shoulders: her siblings, Darryll and Daysha. It was her job to watch over the two, and she required obedience from them both, not that they followed half the time.

It had been two months since their mother died. The apartment they were in was small and old, built in the 1920s. An old, iron-cast radiator sat in the corner by the open window. Darryll sighed. He was fifteen and restless. He glanced at his twin sister who fixed her mind and eyes on an old 1970s sitcom playing on the television.

“I’m about to leave this here.”

Daysha turned her head slightly. “What? Where you goin’?”

“I’m talkin’ ‘bout this.” Darryll swung his arm out. “Tangi workin’ me, man. We in here

hot… barely anything to eat!”

Daysha listened to her twin’s complaints. She agreed the living situation with Tangi wasn’t the best but there was very little they could do about it. Where else could they go? So, she nodded, thinking about their mother. She missed Dorothy Melton. Her heart gave out while walking down the street. Somebody said she stopped like the devil grabbed her feet. Couldn’t move another step, so she slumped to the ground.

“I’m thinkin’ ‘bout savin’ up some money and gettin’ my own place. You can move in with me … go to school and then get a job. Cain’t have no dudes over, though,” Darryll snickered.

Daysha smiled. A mosquito buzzed near her ear. She slapped it away. It was Friday and a little after 9 p.m. She had seen the sitcom episode at least three times before. She thought about Darryll—the brother she entered this world with—the one person she couldn’t be in this world without. If he left her with Tangi… Daysha didn’t know what that would look like.

“Just wait before you do that,” she said.

“Do what?” Darryll’s imagination had driven away on a road paved with money.

“Leave and get yo’ own place.”

“Oh. Well, it ain’t like it’s gonna happen tomorrow. I wish,” he scoffed. “Man, I wouldn’t leave you here with Tangi, but I gotta do something to get my shit right.”

••••

Daysha and Darryll never knew about the twin baby girls that came before them and died. Tangi knew it wasn’t unusual for babies to die, but to have two babies die on the same night seemed suspicious. Tangi was five years old and asleep in her room. Dorothy Melton was at work, while James Melton slept—at least, that’s what he said the next morning when everyone milled around the apartment with questions. Tangi knew her father hadn’t been asleep. It was dark in her room and in the apartment when cries awakened her. She moved cautiously in the dark to her parents’ bedroom and peeped through the crack in the door. She remembered seeing her father holding one of the twins in his arms—Cassie, the sicklier one. James Melton’s eyes were so dark. He was rambling, saying words Tangi didn’t understand and some she did.

“La-dey, la-dey! Mother, where are they? In the night or under the sun… wherever your children may be, into the light make them come. La-dey, la-dey… Into the light make them come!”

The twin continued to cry as he chanted. Tangi stood startled in the crack of the doorway. She saw her father place Cassie on the bed and pour something white down her throat. She heard Cassie coughing through her cries and then silence. Then James Melton did a startling thing. He took a knife and stuck the sharp tip beneath Cassie’s fingertips. Cassie didn’t cry or make a sound. James Melton let her blood drip in a wooden bowl and then gestured the bowl toward Tangi. Tangi tensed, surprised that he knew she was standing there, watching him. Her heart beat restlessly in her chest. James Melton motioned for her to come forward, and she did as her father instructed.

“Twins are no good, Tangi,” her father said with authority. There was almost a slight accent in his voice. “This one will soon curse the other and us. It is a wonder they got this far.” He passed the bowl to her. Tangi’s fingers shook as she handled the bowl that held her little sister’s blood inside. There wasn’t a lot of blood inside but enough to cover the bowl’s bottom.

Her father wiped a layer of sweat from his face and then looked at her. “Take this bowl and put it on the kitchen table. Mother will know what to do with it.”

Tangi took the bowl to the kitchen, looked down, and saw that the blood was now yellow, not red. The next morning, Dorothy let out a scream that ripped through the blanket that covered Tangi’s ears as she slept. Tangi jumped from her bed and ran to her parents’ bedroom. She saw her mother holding the babies, tears swarming down her face.

“What the fuck happened to my babies, James?!” Dorothy cried.

James held her as she cried and mourned their dead children. Tangi remembered going to the kitchen and seeing the bowl with Cassie’s blood in it gone from the table. In the days to come, people came and asked questions, but there seemed to be nothing amiss. Babies do die. It was said they succumbed to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

A few years later, Dorothy gave birth to twins again, this time a boy and a girl. These twins survived infancy and their father, who left abruptly. Dorothy didn’t cry for him. A few days later, she said aloud to Tangi, “It’s just as good he gone since I know how he feel about twins.”

That was fifteen years ago. Tangi knew her father had never been truthful about the twins, but Dorothy had to know, too. Who else had moved the bowl of blood that morning?

••••

It was now December in Chicago. Daysha sat on the couch watching TV intently. Her head turned when she heard something hit the building’s exterior wall. She got up and looked through the frosted glass. It was Darryll.

“Ay, come downstairs,” Darryll tried to whisper.

“Okay,” Daysha whispered. She looked toward the kitchen and heard water running in the sink. She closed the window and then moved stealthily across the wooden floorboards to leave the apartment. She walked quietly down the hallway steps and opened the main door. Darryll stood in the dark shadow of the night, wearing a jacket too thin for the cold, Chicago wind. Daysha pulled him inside quickly and gave him a hug. When they released one another, Darryll stepped back with his head down. Daysha could see the bruises on his face.

“What happened?”

“Man, just some shit that go down in the streets.” Darryll’s voice was low.  “Nothin’ I cain’t handle. Where big sis at?”

“Upstairs, in the kitchen.” Daysha couldn’t take her eyes away from his face. “You should talk to Tangi. You don’t have to be out here, Darryll.”

Darryll glanced at the staircase. “I know. Just figurin’ things out. Don’t say nothin’, but I’ma sleep in the hallway over there.” He pointed to the space beneath the staircase. “What she cook?”

“Just some beans and rice and chicken.”

“It’s still some left?”

Daysha nodded. “I’ll bring you down a plate, but…” She looked again at his bruised face.

“I’m growin’ up, sis. I told you I’m gonna get myself together and take care of us. So go get me some food so I can get my strength up.”

Daysha looked at him questioningly and then walked reluctantly up the stairs. Tangi was standing over the sink cleaning out the pot that the beans boiled and simmered in earlier. Daysha stood stolidly for a moment behind her sister, holding back from getting a bowl from the cabinet.

“This cup look clean,” she mumbled as she pulled a white cup from the dish rack.

“Of course it’s clean.” Tangi glanced at her little sister and then stepped aside to allow her to fill the cup with water from the sink. “I hope yo’ brother is okay. He been gone for four days now.”

“Yeah, me, too,” Daysha agreed. She quietly filled the cup and then took a long, slow sip.

“I saw him hangin’ around the building yesterday, just lookin’…” Tangi sighed while rinsing out the pot. “I called to him, but he didn’t want to come. I don’t know what to say or do with him. I just hope he don’t get hurt out there. Last thing I need.” She wiped the counter clean of grease and bean juice splash. After wringing the dish rag of excess water, she hung it on the faucet, looked at Daysha, and then went to her room.

After nearly twenty minutes had gone by, Daysha tip-toed in the dark apartment to the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator door slowly and saw the container that held the beans and rice and chicken. She then got a bowl, filled it, and put the leftovers back in the refrigerator.

Darryll was sitting on the floor beneath the steps. The shadow hid his face, but Daysha knew he was awake. She knelt beside him and handed him the bowl.

“It’s a little cold. We s’pose to be gettin’ another microwave soon.”

“Thanks, sis.” Darryll grabbed the bowl and began to eat. Daysha listened to his eager smacking and then realized she should have brought him a glass of water.

“Tangi sleepin’?”

“Yeah, I think so. I don’t think she heard nothin’.”

“Tangi hear everything,” Darryll said.

Daysha shrugged her shoulders. “Do you need a blanket?”

“Naw, I’m good. I’m out the cold and just ate.”

Daysha nodded in agreement. “So, what you gonna do now?”

“Sleep.”

Daysha sighed. “Knock on the door if you need to.” She kissed her brother on the cheek and went upstairs.

••••

The next day, Daysha woke up with an unbearable headache and pain throughout her body. The pain was so bad she couldn’t get out of bed. After some time, Tangi came into the room to check on her.

“Daysha, you still asleep? It’s after three o’clock!”

Daysha shifted slightly and raised her head over the blanket. “I—I don’t feel well, Tangi.”

She saw Tangi’s eyes widen. “Girl, yo’ face is swollen! What happened to you?”

Daysha shook her head and shut her eyes. The pain throughout her body was immense. She felt a flood of some sort rush across her face. Tangi pulled the blanket away. Daysha’s arms were huge and darkly bruised, as if the veins had exploded in them.

“Oh my God! Daysha!” Tangi exclaimed. She quickly placed her hand on her sister’s forehead. “You burnin’ up, too! What happened?”

Daysha feebly shook her head. Tangi felt something she hadn’t felt in a long time. Panic. She put her hand on her sister’s swollen arm, feeling the hardness of her skin.

“I have to call the ambulance. Okay? I’m gonna get you help.” Then a devastating realization occurred to her. She couldn’t call because the phone service was off. It wouldn’t be on until Friday, nearly a week from now. Frantically, she ran out the front door and knocked on a few neighbors’ doors, but none were home. The nearest payphone was a block away.

Tangi rushed so fast down the hallway stairs she nearly tripped. It was by grace that she didn’t collide with the wall. As she turned to the front door, her eyes caught a glimpse of something on the side of the stairwell. She got closer and saw it was one of her bowls and a spoon. A stripped chicken bone was in the bowl, hard and dry like the few remaining beans beside it. Daysha had brought Darryll food last night. Was this how he repaid Daysha for feeding him? No. Tangi knew he wouldn’t hurt either of them. Could he be caught up in the drug dealing life and be giving Daysha drugs? She stood stunned for a moment, looking at her bowl on the floor. If it was drugs, she couldn’t take Daysha to a hospital. They might take Daysha away to foster care.

To hell with it, Tangi thought. Then, a peculiar memory came to her. Not too long ago, while sitting in the laundromat, she overheard two women talking about a man who lived down in the Jay Street building. One of the women said he was a doctor, a healer, who helped get the drug demon out of her brother. She said her brother hadn’t “smoked nothin’ since.”

What was the doctor’s name? Doonday. It just so happened that he walked past the laundromat not long after they spoke of him. The woman pointed him out to her friend and waved. Tangi saw the side of his brown face beneath a fedora hat. He looked through the glass, quite perfunctorily, and almost stopped. Well, that’s what she thought, but then he disappeared so quickly. In that quick glance, Tangi had felt something familiar about him.

Call an ambulance, Tangi’s inner voice urged. But she ran back to the apartment, got her coat, and went in search of the healer. When she got to Jay Street, she felt foolish. There was a payphone at the corner, but Tangi didn’t use it. She looked up at the gold brick building, feeling even more stupid since she didn’t know which apartment, or which floor, he lived on. A middle-aged woman exited the front door of the five-story unit.

“Excuse me. Do, do you know a man named Doon… Doonday?” Tangi’s voice shook as she spoke to the woman. She hoped that was his name.

“Doonday? I don’t know no Doonday.”

“They say he a doctor, a healer.”

“Ohhh. Him.” The woman looked oddly at Tangi. She saw impatience and desperation in the young woman’s eyes. “Hmmph. He live on the fifth floor, right above me. Unit A, I believe.” She pointed to a window five stories up. “Everything alright?”

“Thank you, thank you, ma’am.” Tangi ran to the building door and twisted the doorknob. It was locked. She turned around and saw the woman was nearly halfway down the street. “Shit! Damn!”

Tangi ran her hands over her face and upwards to her temples. She was frustrated and scared but, most of all, foolish. As she turned, the front door opened. A man stood at the door, staring at her. Tangi saw something familiar in the man’s eyes but shook off the feeling.

“Do you know Dr. Doon-Doonday?”

“Who seeks me?” he asked brusquely.

“I-I do. My name is Tangi. My sister is sick, real sick. She was fine last night but somethin’ happened to her overnight!” Tangi’s words rushed out of her. “She need help. They say you a doctor, but if you cain’t help her, I’ll just call an ambulance.”

“I see. Where is she?”

“At home. Can you help?”

He stared at Tangi with brief wonder in his eyes. “Let me get my things.”

“Thank you!” As Tangi waited for the healer, she thought again about Darryll. Did he give Daysha something that she had an allergic reaction to? Or maybe it’s some kind of disease like the twin girls had? Minutes later, Dr. Doonday returned with a bag in his hand. He gave a preemptive nod of his head and the two of them rushed to her apartment building.

••••

Daysha opened her eyes to the feeling of cool air on her sweltering, swollen skin. Tangi had peeled the blanket away. A man stood calmly next to her.

“Daysha, did is Dr. Doonday. He’s goin’ to help you. Okay? They say he a healer.”

Daysha nodded weakly.

The healer bent down and touched her head, then turned to speak to Tangi. “She is very warm. The swelling in her face… It is not good. It is a wonder…Who was she with last?”

“My brother.”

“And where is he now?”

“I don’t know.”

“Can you find him? Maybe he can explain what happened to her?”

“I—I don’t know where he is! Just, can you help?” Tangi’s voice rose with panic.

“Shhhh.” Dr. Doonday tried to calm. “I am just saying, he may not be well, either.”

“Well, I don’t have time to go lookin’ for him! What can you do? Can you do anything?”

“Yes, I can.”

Daysha studied the man’s face. His eyes were dark like scorched stones and almost glassy. Who is this man Tangi brought here? Then suddenly a hard pain attacked her head once more and she cried out, “Ohhhhh!”

“Shhh. It will be okay,” Dr. Doonday assured her as his hand caressed her hot forehead. He placed his bag on the bed and then asked Tangi to get a cup of water. Through teary eyes, Daysha watched Tangi run to the kitchen.

••••

Tangi ran to the kitchen and filled a cup with water. Water splashed out the cup and onto the floor as she ran back to the bedroom. A subtle thud hit the side wall of the building. Tangi stopped abruptly and went to the window. She knew it was Darryll. She looked through the glass at her younger brother. A hostile slip of energy entered her as she looked at his scrawny, aimless frame on the sidewalk. She shook her head and clenched her teeth. Quickly, she rushed to the bedroom and passed the water to Dr. Doonday. Tangi turned away, thinking she saw a glimpse of the doctor bringing the cup to his lips as she fled out the door and down the stairs. She opened the front door of the building forcefully. Darryll stood speechless when he saw Tangi’s face.

“Did you give Daysha something?!”

“What? What is you talkin’ about?”

“Last night. Her face now swoll, and she look like she been beat with a pipe!”

“I ain’t do nothin’ to her! Come on now, Tangi!” Darryll insisted.

“I know she fed you last night!”

“She did, but I ain’t do nothin’ to her! Lemme see her!” Darryll kept his face down to keep Tangi from seeing the dark bruise under his left eye and the swelling on his forehead. But it didn’t work.

“What happened to yo’ face, Darryll?”

“I got jumped.”

“By who?”

“Tangi, can I go upstairs?”

Tangi rushed up the steps and Darryll followed closely behind. There was a smell of something dank and warm when they entered the apartment. Tangi seemed to pay it no mind, but Darryll smelled it. It grew stronger as they approached Daysha’s bedroom. A man was putting a cup to Daysha’s lips. Daysha coughed a bit before turning her head against the pillow. White liquid trickled out the corner of her bulbous, brown lips. Darryll saw the side of her face darken like an old penny.

“She is healing, now,” Dr. Doonday said. “I gave her something… to fix her.”

“Who is you?” Darryll asked boldly.

“You must be the brother,” Dr. Doonday said.

“Yeah, but who is you?” Darryll looked at Tangi. “Why ain’t she at a hospital?” Darryll’s eyes dropped when he saw his twin sister’s hard, swollen face. The white of her eyes was veiny red.

“This is Dr. Doonday. He a doctor and here to help.” Tangi tried to reason, though the reasoning didn’t make much sense to her when she said it out loud.

“Dr. who?”

“Doonday,” the doctor repeated.

“Whatever!” Darryll pushed Dr. Doonday aside. He touched Daysha’s swollen cheek and then nudged her shoulder. “Open your eyes, sis. I’m here.”

Daysha didn’t move. Darryll pulled the blanket down and his eyes nearly popped. Like her face, her arms were dark and swollen. “She brought me a bowl of food last night and then came back up here and went to sleep. That’s it! That’s on Mama! What happened, Dayz?” Darryll shook Daysha’s shoulder again, but, again, she didn’t move. Darryll lowered his face to her lips. “She ain’t breathin’!”

“What?” Tangi bellowed.

“She ain’t fuckin’ breathin’! It sound like she gurglin’ or somethin’. What the fuck did you just give my sister?” Darryll demanded of Dr. Doonday.

“You should sit down, my son. She is… You know, it is a wonder she made it this long. And you, too.”

Tangi released a shocked gasp. Dr. Doonday looked at her with a smirk on his face. Darryll grabbed the doctor by his collar and rushed him to the wall.

“What the fuck is so funny? You makin’ fun of my sister?”

Dr. Doonday looked past Darryll’s angry eyes. Darryll’s hands went for his throat, but the doctor was stronger and pushed him away. Darryll lunged again. He got his fingers around Dr. Doonday’s neck and then slammed his back against the wall, fixing his fist to punch him.

“Tangiii,” the doctor said through stifled breath. “I told you they were no… gooood… You see?”

Tangi’s eyes grew large. “Daddy?”

••••

Tangi looked at him closely, and the memories came back. The memory of his voice that had nested in a dark place in her ears. It is a wonder. Where had he been all this time? She wanted to ask but could only stare. Darryll turned to Tangi with confusion, releasing the doctor’s neck.

Tangi rushed to Daysha and grabbed her hand. It was motionless and limp. Tangi looked up at the doctor. He pushed Darryll aside, opened the only window in the room, and cleared his throat. Then he began his chant, looking down at Daysha and Tangi.

“La-dey, la-dey! Mother, where are they? In the night or under the sun… wherever your children may be, into the light make them come.” Dr. Doonday repeated the chant.

A sheet of silver frosted the glass window, illuminating the dark, rust color of Daysha’s skin. Her face looked morbid and settled. A gust of air pricked the hairs on Tangi’s arms. Across the room, Darryll’s eyes cast a grave bewilderment. He shuddered, bending over and holding onto his chest. He looked down at his hands and began to shake.

“La-dey, la-dey… into the night make them come.” Dr. Doonday chanted quietly once more. He grabbed his bag from the floor and pulled out a bowl and a knife. Darryll took a step back.

“Tangi?” Darryll pleaded for his sister. His eyes brimmed red. Tangi knelt beside the bed, mortified and still. Her eyes felt the heat in the room. Darryll gasped and then fell with his back against the wall. Dr. Doonday watched as Darryll writhed in pain on the floor, clutching his bruised head and chest. He didn’t see Dr. Doonday coming toward him, holding the cup of white liquid he fed to his sister minutes earlier.

“Drink, my son. It is the only way to get it out, and it is great within you.” He brought the cup to Darryll’s lips and tipped the contents inside his mouth. Darryll coughed the white concoction dripped down his throat, and then he went silent.

“What are you doin’ to them?!” Tangi yelled at Dr. Doonday, her father. She should have helped her brother but couldn’t move from the floor. She should have called that ambulance for Daysha but chose witchcraft. Her father, their father, had been waiting in the shadows, only a block away from their home. Was this his plan? She then thought about her mother.

“Mama made you leave ‘cause you evil!” Tangi spat at her father with tears in her eyes. “I remember what you did!”

“What did I do?”

“Get out of here!!” Tangi yelled. She should have never let this man into their home. He was not their father. Their father left years ago and lived in Indianapolis… last she heard. He would not come back for them.

“Yes, get out!” Dr. Doonday walked toward Tangi and curtly moved around her. He removed the blanket on Daysha, lifted her hand, and tipped the cup with the white concoction between her lips once more. The liquid stained Daysha’s lips white. Tangi watched him pierce the knife into Daysha’s right thumb. A slow trickle of blood dropped into the bowl he held. Dr. Doonday filled the base of it with Daysha’s blood and then put the bowl before Tangi.

“Watch and you will see.”

Daysha’s red blood turned yellow. Dr. Doonday’s hand shook as he held the bowl. Tiny white hands emerged from the yellow blood, gripping the inside wall of the bowl, trying to crawl out. Tangi saw its tiny, white head with eyes that were black. The creature let out a small scream and then leaped to the rim of the bowl, gripping the edge. Dr. Doonday saw the white creature readying itself to jump from the bowl, but he spit on its head, sending it back into the swarm of yellow blood.

“Tangi?” Darryll whispered. Tangi shook her head, trying to right her senses after seeing the tiny creature born from her sister’s blood. Darryll’s weak voice brought her back. She turned to Darryll. The swelling on his face had subsided, but his eyes were still red. “Open windoooow.” Darryll could barely get the words out.

“Ahh, I have done that already,” Dr. Doonday said.

Tangi looked across the room and saw two brown, ghostly hands move through the crack beneath the opened window. They stretched forward, leaving a trail of brown haze in the light, as they reached for the bowl that Dr. Doonday held. He released the bowl to the ghostly hands. Tangi’s eyes widened and her lips parted. One hand went inside the bowl and emerged with the white creature twisting and screaming in its grip. Tangi watched the hand and creature make their way out the window, the creature screaming into the night. The bowl crashed on the hardwood floor, splashing yellow blood that within seconds turned red. The lump of disbelief in Tangi’s throat made it hard for her to speak.

Dr. Doonday/James Melton had no leash on his tongue. “Tangi, my child, Mother came for the demon that binds them both. Do you understand now?”

Tangi shook her head. “But they yo’ children, too.”

“Perhaps.” Dr. Doonday pressed his hand against Daysha’s forehead. Daysha let out a breath. “She will live,” he said. “I like to say it is a wonder that demons survive but there are no wonders in life.” The cold draft of air from the bedroom window seeped into the room echoes of the city. James Melton looked at his young son on the floor. Darryll’s laborious breaths sagged in the air.

“What, what about Darryll?” Tangi managed through a strain of tears. “What’s gonna happen to him?”

“It is no longer your worry. This new world cannot stop what will always be. Mother has been generous. She only wanted the one. I told you before, Tangi, that twins are no good. He would have soured her again. Your mother didn’t want to believe that, but, as you see, I am a patient man.”