Chapter 15
The old woman who walked in the doorway stared down at the frozen body lying on the floor. She kicked at him once, then bent down and took the coral snake from the sheriffs neck and tossed it out the window, smiling.
"You dare to invade an old woman's privacy," she snapped at the dying body of the sheriff. "Well," she cackled, "the swamp'll swallow y'up, and ain't no one gonna know what happened to you."
Kathy jumped off the bed, covering herself with her clothing, looking nervous. Rachel merely sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the woman. The woman stared back.
"Who was he?" she asked, motioning at the sheriff while Kathy rushed outside with a knife she had found on a nearby bench to cut her lover down.
"He was the meanest varmint in these here counties," Rachel answered.
'Hmmmm!" the old woman smiled, tugging her black shawl around her and adjusting her gray dress. "A man as vicious and as mean as he oughta be useful. Ah kin use his heart, his liver, his gizzard, his glands alla them, and a whole lot of other parts of him. Ah kin probably make about forty different kinds of potions from him."
"Look," Rachel said, picking up her dress and slipping it on. "We didn't mean no harm comin' here. He brought us, and he was gonna kill us when he finished usin' us. He figgered this place, with a bed in it was more useful to him than the swamp ground out there."
"You gonna leave him here fer me?" the witch asked.
"Shoot! Ah don't want him. You kin have him," Rachel replied.
"Well, when someone gives the swamp witch a valuable gift like this, then ah gotta give one back. Ah'll give you a potion. You name it, any kinda potion you want."
"You got one of them there old-fashioned love potions?" Rachel asked.
"Ah got all kinds of love potions." the witch replied.
"All ah want is one that'll really work. Ah want to make a man who normally wouldn't look twice at me, 'cept mebbe to fuck me, fall in love with me and marry me."
"Why?" the witch asked. "You in love with him."
"Hell, no!" Rachel replied. "Ah ain't in love with no man. Ah ain't ever gonna love me no man, cause all men are liars and cheats, and all they care about is themselves."
'Hmmmmm! You're a smart one fer such a young one," the witch replied. "But why d'you want a love potion?"
"Ah want t'make the richest man in the county fall in love with me. Ah want him to marry me, so ah kin have some of thet power. When he dies, ah wanna become the power in this here territory."
"Well, now, thass a mighty tall order," the witch smiled. "But ah tell you what ah'll do. Ah want me a man permanent like, out here. He don't gotta be nothin' exceptional. You find me the right man, and ah'll guarantee you kin have any man you want, as long as you want, fer the rest of yer life. Y'see, ah kin whip up a spell fer you, but it don't work iffn ah do it fer myself."
"Well," Rachel mused. "How about m' paw. My maw just left him, and he ain't got no woman. You met him a couple weeks back, ah think. He said somethin' about gettin' some kind love potion from you fer mah maw, then makin' her so hot 'n' bothered he was able to sell her body to fifty of his buddies, like he done with me two nights ago."
"Yer paw sounds like he'll be jes' right," the witch cackled.