It was my twenty-first birthday, there was a lunar eclipse, just like the night I was born. My best friend Emily and I headed to the local bar to celebrate. We drank like fools and danced nonstop. I loved it! So this was the freedom that all of us young adults wait for, it had been worth every year. Now several important things happened that night. First I met my future husband Alexander. Second the dreams and nightmares started. Third the voices started.

I met Alexander sitting at the bar. He had over heard Emily excitedly telling the bartender that it was my 21st, and so he paid for my first drink. I don’t really remember how it happened but he ended up with my number, calling me the next day. After that he was a perm fixture in my life. A very successful Doctor and all around wonderful guy, my parents were thrilled to hold our wedding just two years after we met. I was married to Alexander for seven years. We have two wonderful children, Neil and Isabella.

The years with Alexander would have been the most wonderful years of my life if it wasn’t for the fact that I thought I was going crazy. Let me tell you just a small bit about my husband and children. As I said Alexander was a very successful Doctor who opened his own practice a year after we were married, the same year our son, Neil was born. We had the life that every young couple wants. We were madly in love with each other until the end. We had the house in the suburbs, the kids, dog and white fence. We entertained once a month and even though he was very busy with work, he always made time for the children and I. When Neil was three we had our daughter Isabella, we had been married for about four years.

I kept a secret from him though, about the dreams, the voices. Oh, he knew about the nightmares. How could he not when I would wakeup screaming in the night. But the rest, only Emily and I knew. Through the years it became harder to hide as I began to accept that I was insane. Emily however couldn’t except it. She hauled me from physic to physic, from shrink to shrink, doctor to doctor, looking for answers. No one had any. Yes I was physically in excellent health, as always. I did not show any signs of any type of schizophrenia or any other mental disorders.  However I could almost carry on a conversation with the voices in my head.

Finally after five years of searching, Emily and I went on our yearly girls vacation. This year it was to New Orleans, it was my thirtieth birthday. Emily had a friend who had visited there and met a conjure woman she swore was so good, she terrified her. So Emily made the arrangements, set a meeting with the old woman and we headed to the big easy.

The woman met us in a park two days after we arrived. At this point I was tired of it all but Emily promised if this one didnt help she would be the last. I remember feeling so aggravated sitting on the bench waiting and then as if appearing from no where, she approached. She was extremely small even compared to me. At my full height of five foot one, I was a head taller than her. She had weathered golden tan skin and very unusual green eyes. Dressed in a bellowing cotton gown,she seemed to float towards us. Then just as fast as she appeared from no where, she was on her knees before me, grasping my ankle.

I will never forget her words. “Blessed be the mother who walks among us, Blessed be the mother who has come to take us home”. I was about to kick her, really. I tried to get up, but she was holding on so tight. Finally with Emily’s help we unlatched the old woman. She apologized and then sat down next to me, shaking like a leaf in a storm. She was silent for awhile and then asked if we could continue at her home. I was not about to go anywhere with this deranged old lady, but then Emily reminded me that if I didn’t hear her out, I maybe the one who ended up the deranged old lady.

Tags: Alexander, Conjure, New Orleans, The Big Easy