“I just dressed the candle with Curse Reversal oil,” she announced to the room. “Then I rolled it in a mix of cedar, bay, and eucalyptus leaves; garlic powder; lilac petals; and mint leaves. All aid in protection as well as releasin’ negative energy and bad spirits.” She pulled the two charcoal bricks apart and wedged the white candle between them so it would stand up, before reaching back inside her backpack and producing a black candle. Just then, she spotted mine and waved at it. “I need that.”
I said nothing but dutifully retrieved it for her. I watched her pop it in place next to the white one. Then she lit both and looked up at me. “The white candle is for purity and cleansin’. The black candle is for removin’ evil and for protection.”
She eyed my bag of tricks again and motioned for the small, sheer bag that held three stones or gems. I handed her the bag and she removed the stones, studying each one before closing her eyes. Chanting something only known to her, she then deposited each gem beside the candles. “Amethyst, petrified wood, and quartz crystal—all for protection.” She reached inside her backpack and produced a piece of jade, which she lined up next to the other three. “And jade, since the House of Voodoo is too cheap to include it.”
Ryan and I laughed before she gave us a discouraging look, which made us immediately go silent. Reaching inside her backpack again, she took out what looked a pair of the swamp man’s feet.
“Good Lord, Trina, what in the hell are those?” Ryan roared as he stared at his sister with a mixture of interest and offense.
“Alligator feet,” she answered noncommittally. “For good luck and protection.”
“Gross,” I muttered. Ryan continued frowning at the ugly, webbed, and shriveled-up things, but Trina ignored us, placing the alligator feet alongside her other odds and ends.
Then she started reciting Psalm 23, after first informing us that it would serve as a blessing for my home. “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothin’.”
After she finished, she checked the candles to make sure they were still burning, and continued. “Now for the hefty stuff…the demon-purgin’ and exorcism of evil spirits,” she continued. All we were missing was a drumroll to aid in the unveiling. She started reading Psalm 29, followed by Psalm 10, then 19. When I thought she was going to take a breather, she burst into Psalm 40.
Neither Ryan nor I said a word. We just sat there and listened to Trina as she repeated the Bible passages. She only stopped after both of the candles burned out. Pulling out a brown paper bag from her backpack, she placed the remains of the burnt candles into it. She folded the paper bag, put it in her backpack, faced both of us again with a big smile, and clapped her hands together.
“Voilà! Your house is cleansed!”
“That’s it?” I asked, frowning skeptically as I glanced over at Ryan in question. He simply shrugged.
“Well, I’ve gotta deposit those candle remains at a crossroads, but other than that…Yeah, that’s it,” Trina said with another big smile as she started to collect her things and put them all into her backpack. She eyed the remains of my Dark Moon ritual bag and faced me with a sweet smile. “Are you goin’ to keep that stuff? Or could I have it?”
“Take it,” I answered quickly, figuring there wasn’t anything more I could do with it.
The day finally came that I moved back into my house, or more specifically, the guest bedroom and bathroom on the first floor; but it wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies. Yes, I was very excited to be out of the Omni hotel and back into my own personal space, but I was also apprehensive. How could I be sure that all that negative spiritual energy was properly purified from my house? I had to admit I wasn’t entirely convinced about the efficacy where Trina’s voodoo skills were concerned…
Four days had passed since Trina, Ryan, and I performed the cleansing ceremony in the living room, and as far as I could tell, the house seemed unoccupied by anything paranormal. ’Course I hadn’t yet spent the night, which meant I could’ve been completely wrong. Tonight marked my first sleepover in my house since all the spirit stuff went down. To say I was nervous was an abject understatement.
“Are you happy with how everythin’ looks?” Ryan asked while examining his handiwork before turning back to face me. We were standing in the guest bedroom and I happily agreed he’d done a miraculous job in restoring it.
The walls were painted buttercream with white decorative casing molding around every window, as well as around the door and in the corners where the walls met the floors and ceiling. The floors had been sanded, stained, and sealed, now closely resembling the walnut floors I saw in my dreams when I was visited by Drake.
As to the furniture, I’d ordered the entire Sofia bedroom collection from Pottery Barn, which evoked the style of Swedish furniture. It didn’t so much speak Swedish to me—but I was pretty happy that it matched the room so well. The queen-size mahogany headboard was painted white and the coved corners and posts matched perfectly with the ornate molding in the room. I’d also ordered the matching bedside table, dresser, and armoire, which only aided the airy, bright space. Completing the look was a light-blue wool rug and paisley bed linens of the same hue.
“You really did a beautiful job, Ryan,” I said with a big smile as I hung up another of my sweaters in the undersized closet. I’d managed to hang up about half the contents of my closet so far, with Ryan’s help.
Picking up a lemon-yellow chiffon blouse, Ryan studied it for a second before reaching for a hanger on the bed. “This is see-through,” he said.
“Yep, it is,” I answered with a nod, adding without a pause, “that’s the blouse I wear on all my second dates.”
Eyeing me with what looked like surprise on his face, he chuckled once he realized I was pulling his leg. He shook his head and hung the blouse in the proper section. “I’m really happy you approve of everything so far,” he answered as he faced the bathroom. “I have to admit, I wasn’t convinced about the navy blue, but now I like it.”
He was referring to the navy-blue paint I’d chosen for the walls in the bathroom. Even though the color was pretty dark, when juxtaposed with the white wainscoting it neither confined nor overwhelmed the small bathroom. The cabinets were a crisp white as well, with black pulls. The bathtub also served as a shower with only a sheet of glass to keep the water inside the tub. Everything had a clean, modern feel to it.
“My favorite is the floor,” I told him as I inspected it, then smiled, appreciating the view once again. The newly tiled floor was comprised of twelve-by-twelve-inch white porcelain tiles, offset with two-by-two-inch black diamond tiles that were interspersed between every second tile.
“Maybe you should consider becomin’ an interior designer?” Ryan suggested when I turned back and found him hanging up my fire engine–red pencil skirt. It struck me as both amusing and heartwarming to have such a man’s man standing here, helping me hang up my clothes. I could honestly say that I’d never met a man like Ryan before. He was a true original.
“Hmm,” I started, thinking the idea didn’t sound half bad.
“I think you have an eye for it, Peyton,” he continued, reaching for an extra-short gold-sequined halter dress. After studying it for a moment, he sighed, as if he had no words. Then he asked, “Goin’ for disco ball?”
“I’ll have you know that is very cute on!” I replied, even going so far as to stick my tongue out at him while unfolding my pink angora sweater and hanging it on a hanger. I had to admit that I enjoyed hanging up all my clothes simply because I liked reminding myself that everything in my closet represented the new “me” and was free from the tarnish of my marriage. In fact, the wardrobe of the married Peyton would be shocked and abhorred to meet the wardrobe of the new and improved “real” Peyton. And that was exactly how I wanted it.