Gifts and the Other Side of Town

I got the chance to visit with the sister of an old deceased friend, a man who I learned much French from, and I wanted to pass on a few recordings of his stories in French to the family. I went first to pick up a few boxes of Lost Bayou Ramblers CDs for my husband from Flat Town Music, and with them in the back of the truck, went to a side of my own hometown that I had never been to.

It was the broad daylight in the projects. There were people in the yard detailing the car under a young oak tree, doors open, music playing. Children and cats were at their feet. 

As I came around the corner, I passed a young creole woman with a turquoise shirt and matching tignon, she looked me right in the eye. There was a large gardenia bush in fresh spring bloom with the biggest blossoms I had ever seen. To my back the inner yard was as sparse as the central courtyard of a monastery. There Mrs. Viola was at her door, an elderly woman, large, light skinned. She invited me in. We sat in her comfortable little living room and I gave her the discs and we talked about her brother and family and people. She was one of fourteen children! Her brother came to visit her twice a day, and also when he needed advice.

Mrs. Viola's door

She said her brother was lonely after the death of his wife, and now he was at peace. He had just bought a new truck. He had been through a lot. I said I sensed that. She goes Yeah, you can pick that up. That's like they call that the Saint Esprit. So you pick that up through the Holy Spirit. 

That's a gift you got, she told me. I got a gift too. She said.  

I'd prophsy and all dat, yeah. I didn't know about that because when I was younger they'd say I was crazy, when I would tell them something like that, but I knew what I was saying, but it wasn't of me...because that would come in my mind, in my spirit and I'd speak it out. You born with that, that's a gift, the gift of anointed.

It's not everybody that's gifted, you were given that in your mother's womb, la mère de ta mère. God created you with a gift in your mother's womb, and when you were born, you were ready to face the world with ya gift.

She went on to say that our gifts aren't always evident at first, everything has a time. Sometimes people are bad bad, and then they change.

Everything got a time and a season, like the Bible says. Everything. The winter, les arbres commence à jeter leur feuilles. Fruit tree don't bear year round! Every thing got a time and an appointment.

I believe in that. I told her. I got up to leave, sensing that it was the time.


Viens back. I enjoy your company, she said.

J'vas.

I took a picture of her door, and she offered me a cold cup, which I saw she advertised there.

 

 Thank you for coming, she said. Halleluiah! That is a blessin' to me!

I got the frissons.

As I turned the corner into the cloud of gardenia scented air, I saw the group of people were still around the car with different music. There were a few boys on bikes circling on the road, and the woman in the turquoise tignon was standing "guard" behind my truck full of brown boxes. When she saw me approach under the trees, she turned quick and started walking fast down Jackson street.