Discount Curse

Going to Sadie's Flea Market in Dothan, Alabama was a treat. It was 40 minutes from our home in Bonifay Florida. Usually if we went anywhere it was Panama City Beach, to sit on a pier while our father selfishly fished. He would always refuse to let us go down with our mother to play in the water. I still don't know why. So of course we were excited when we found out we were going somewhere else.

I am sure Sadie's flea market was magic to most children. Think about it. A giant space fenced off with tables and tables of treasures as far as the eye can see; to be walled off by a massive warehouse sized shed, that held endless vendors. Each like a little mysterious shop. Some people running tables were retired elderly folk. Like what the ideal grandparent would look like. Then there were the "others". The scraggly old men in biker gear with beards to their bellies selling everything from vinyl records to pot pipes. The aging hippies that resembled wizards selling "healing stones" and jewelry. The women that smelled of cigarettes and were so tanned you couldn't tell if they were dirty or truly that dark. Stevie Nicks always blaring from a little boom box on cassette.

This was absolutely exciting and we were thrilled to be standing in the flea market. My sister Boo was 8 years old, Sandy was 10 and I was about to turn 14 that fall. I know 13-14 year old teens are a little "grown" nowadays, but I was very sheltered. I still played with Barbie Dolls and was not allowed to do anything outside school events. So I was just as thrilled as my younger siblings. Our eyes were wide as we walked across the orange dirt path trying to see every little thing. After the first few tables my father told us we could each pick out ONE thing. I knew exactly what I wanted. I had seen them on a brief prior trip earlier that summer. I wanted a butterfly hairclip.

These were not just any hairclips. They were set with a spring on each wing making them bounce as if alive and flapping in flight. Some glittery, some pink and black, some the color of Monarchs with orange and black. I figured if I could convince both my sisters to also get one we could get different ones and rotate on school days. See we were not very well off. We didn't get toys or clothing throughout the year. Holidays were the only time we got things really. So having two dollars spent on something we simply "wanted" was not common.

We went through a couple more aisles of tables working our way up to the warehouse. We came to the only table I still to this day recall. It was a small foldable card table. An elderly lady fanning the heat from her face with a wide brimmed straw hat sat staring into the sky through her thick black rectangular protective sunglasses. I thought she was blind at first, as she kept staring up at the sky while acknowledging we were there. That was the moment Sandy grabbed the amulet. It filled her little palm. The old woman looked down at her. I felt strange. All the smells of cigarettes, beer, popcorn, the earth baking in the horrid southern heat, the stale scent of hoarded cardboard boxes...all gone. Filling my nose now, a smell of rotting pork. Putrid, like someone left a package of bacon in that high noon sun and then attempted to cook it days later. I started to feel sick. My mom must have noticed, she told Sandy to hurry that we needed to get out the sun.

I told Sandy I didn't like the amulet. To put it down and lets go. I was relieved when I saw the sticker where the amulet had been, saying $20. Sandy was still flipping it around in her hand. It was silver. Strange faded markings all over. Both sides. It didn't make sense. My sister asked the lady what it was. The woman said it was "protection from bad things." My sister smiled. "Come on! I want to get inside. Besides you can't get that, its $20." I told my sister as I began to walk toward the shelter.

A breeze rolled over us in that still summer heat. We all noticed. Everyone. Eyes looking around to see where and why, my sister began to set it down. The woman grabbed her wrist and looked right at her, "Oh for you sweet girl, $2!", she said as she folded Sandy's hand over the piece.

Boo's eyes widened and Dad tossed two dollars on the table and rushed everyone to get in by the cool air.

A few days went by. My sister kept wearing it on a leather thong my father gave her. I had voiced to my parents and my sister how it gave me a bad feeling. I begged them to get rid of it. They told me I was being silly. I had tried time and again to make out the words. Back then the internet was used for email, chatrooms, and AskJeeves. I didn't know how to research farther. So I gave up. Then my sister got sick.

She went from wearing it hanging outside her top, to sleeping with it under her shirt. She started her menstrual cycle that week. Back then, I didn't link the two together. She began to scream in pain every day of her cycle. Constantly hurting. She would miss class. She would cry and vomit from the pain. We took her to the ER but they said it was just intense pms. Nothing we did helped. Of course eventually the cycle ended.

After a couple months of taking the amulet to school she hung it in her room she shared with Boo and stopped obsessing over it.

Dad was preparing to go back out of town on the road for work. My Uncle Dane and Aunt Kat came for the weekend like they did often. My Aunt and mother left to go get groceries. My Uncle, father and I were sitting the living room.

This house was about 2 years old. My mother had it built with an FHA loan shortly after she got her RN license and graduated from college. There should have been no spooks. The living room faced the hallway which led to the three bedrooms and the bathroom was at the end of the hall. The hall light and bathroom light were both on. I began telling my Uncle about the scary amulet my sister had chosen. Just as I finish and my Uncle is laughing at me, a brown...no not grey or black, but brown, shadowy blob of a figure moved at the top of the wall touching the ceiling. My breath caught in my lungs.

I point, while saying "Dad, Dad...DAD!?"

My father says, "Shut up child. I see it!"

It lingers on the corner of the living room leading into the hall. It moves slowly. Pooling around the corner. I felt like I would explode if I tried to move. Im beginning to tear up. Just as I feel the tears falling to my lap, it shoots straight down the hall and into my sisters room. Blowing straight down the hall within a second.

Dad tells me to keep quiet. Not to scare my sisters. Not to talk about it with my mother and Aunt. I just sit there with my mouth gaping open wondering if I was safe and what next?

I soon found out.

Nothing more happened and suddenly it was Winter. I began to wonder if my dad played a trick on me. I even decided to tell my sisters. I was tired of knowing this thing and not telling my little sister who was also my best friend. I recall her sharing something with me as well but I cant remember what exactly.

My sisters and I had very long thick hair, as I still do. Down to our bums. If we didn't braid it every single night we would get massive knots. This is still the case for myself. I was sitting there putting her hair in two large braids behind her ears as we spoke of the amulet. She said I was crazy and that it was just a decoration or a superstition and to stop being so weird.

I told her I was not scared. That I just thought it was a waste and ugly. She looked up at me. She said, "Fine then. Wear it. Against your skin".

I wont lie. At first, my heart skipped. But I figured I could say I wore it and then take it off when I lay down. I was wearing nothing but bra and panties so I grabbed it and put it on. I swear my hand shook for a moment.

I said goodnight and went to my mother's room where she was already lying down reading. I told her the girls were in bed and I was going to. We said we loved one another and goodnight. When Dad was gone, because we were 3 girls and a woman out in the woods, we always left bathroom and hall lights on. We were a little scared at night. Even Mom. I laid in my bed with my door open. I watched when my mother turned her light off. I could see her feet at the foot of her bed from the angle my bed was. My sisters room was on the same side and my own so I couldn't see theirs. I said my prayers and asked that Dad was protected and that we were safe and forgiven of sin. I was about to doze off when I saw Sandy. She walked from her room, stood in front of Mom's open door. She was wearing a long white tee and her hair was in several tiny braids that fell all around. She turned looked me in my face. Something felt...wrong. Then she walked into our mother's room. I waited to see if Mom stirred. Sometimes Sandy would crawl in bed with Mom. I waited to see if even our mother's private bathroom light came on. Nothing.

I kept waiting. I sat up when I realized, my sister must be doing something in Mom's room. Right as I was going to get up to go and find out what she was up to, my mother jumps up and out of bed!

She shouts "Oh my gosh GIRLS! WE FORGOT TO TURN THE WATER ON!!!" Out in the country in Florida, most homes have well water. On nights when it gets below freezing you have to leave the outdoor water spicket on drip so the pipes do not freeze and burst. My mother ran out so fast I didn't get to say anything to her. So i got up and went into her room. I turned all the lights on and found NO ONE.

I walked into my sisters' room. There Boo was sleeping in the top bunk. In the bottom bunk Sandy was sitting upright. Eyes wide with fear. But what I noticed most; her TWO braids still in place, not several, and her blue Tommy Hilfiger bra...no long white tee.

"Why did you do that?" She mumbled.

"Do what?" I ask, but I already know what she's about to say.

"You came to my door. You were fully dressed in the pink tank and purple lace up bottoms...hair tied up in a bun. You just, stared at me and your mouth was weird. Why did you scare me?"

"Sandy that was not me." I went on to explain to her and later to my mother what I had seen. We stayed awake until daylight. It wasn't until that morning I realized that I had the amulet on still. Things continued to escalate after that night.

For many years we would try to get rid of that amulet only to find it stashed in our belongings again and again. Those stories...well I will have to share another time.

( I, the author, Gisella LaCroix, swear under perjury of LAW that all stories I write are my own and ORIGIONAL. If any story or character resembles a living person, it is by absolute coincidence and is no way affiliated. THIS STORY CAN BE CONFIRMED. All Stories By GLC are COPYRIGHT in WISCONSIN or FLORIDA 2010-2022)