Excerpts from Tyriek White’s

We Are a Haunting

Chapter 6, “Heart for Heart’s Sake,” pp 91-92

“This looks Central or West African, but it reminds me of a Paquet congo. In Haiti, I’d see them in my friend’s homes. Their parents would make them with things from the earth, decorate them with sequin, cloth. I’ve seen them in ceremonies and for altars. It’s a powerful object, to bring about an Iwa, the mysteres. They exist in the Inbetween. They are so close to God yet so close to us.”

The Inbetween. To be close to God was to be close to creation, to be close to the beginning and the end that couldn’t be two separate things but one long, infinite thing. That seemed paralyzing to me. I kept my hand in my pocket, around my phone in case it trembled. I hadn’t heard from Zaire for a couple days. I texted him earlier.

“What were these ceremonies?” I asked.

“Healing. If there was trauma or shame brought to the community. Bringing health or fortune to a family, the home.”

I wasn’t satisfied. I couldn’t believe what I resorted to, asking a dope head about the voices I’m hearing. I might as well go to the G-building and pick a room. Only for you.

“These Iwa folk. Are they dead?”

“They can walk among the dead,” she said, shuffling from the window, pulling her leg straight as she stared down at me. Legba wrapped around her ankle for effect.

“What is it boy. Why you asking all this?”

I didn’t plan on saying a thing, ignored the siege of ants that marched from beneath the kitchen cabinet.