by Ann Hite

Carly K came to Black Mountain in the summer of 1972. Nelson should have given more thought to a woman alone in a hick mountain community, but to tell the truth he was purely dazzled by her the first time he laid eyes on that smile. She was visiting Carson Waterfall, his favorite place. Standing on the very edge of the drop off with her blonde hair fluffed out from her head. She wore tiny little shoes, bright red like her dress, and dark glasses to protect her eyes from the glaring sun. Nelson just nodded and went on his way. The next thing he heard Carly K was building a house on the mountain.

Living on Black Mountain was just that, living. Nelson was as dull as a man came, taking up where his daddy left off, working the side of that rocky hill for what crops he could yield. Someone had to look out for Mama when Daddy died. Nelson never had found him no girl. Mostly the young ones left to find better lives. He was forty the summer Carly K lit up that mountain. He was looking for a change.

Nelson drove straight to her property and offered his services. “I’m good at building things.”

She stood beside her white convertible sports car and looked him up and down. “I just bet you are, sweetie.” She smiled showing beautiful white teeth. She wanted a small house, pretty like something out of a children’s story, complete with a white picket fence. She came out to the site once or twice a week just to make sure he had everything he needed. Nelson loved it when she wore her tight purple pants, so tight he was sure she had to peel them off at night. He worked on that little house with a vengeance, using up energy meant for other things.

Nelson never imagined him and Carly K would get together. She was like a dream come true, dazzling. The first time he slept with her was on the bare plywood underfloor of her house. He didn’t even have the frame up. It had been so long since he had sex, he almost didn’t know how things worked. Carly K knew. She was better at it than him and wasn’t a bit shy. So, they practiced real hard over the next few months. Him working on the house, her telling him what she wanted.

When Nelson put on the final touches, Carly K asked him what she owed. He looked at that beautiful valley between those perfect breasts and shook his head. “Not a thing, just a supper or two.”

“Why Nelson Connor you’re such an aficionado; I think you should move in with me.” She rubbed up to him. He didn’t know what that word meant, but he liked the way it sounded on her lips. And without thinking he moved in the next day.

Mama liked to have had a fit, but Nelson told her one day he was going to marry Carly K.

“You’re supposed to do that before you move in with her.” Mama cried. “She’ll be the ruin of you, Nelson. You’re a grown up forty year old man, too old for this mess.”

Carly K and Nelson settled in together like two love sick puppies, spending every minute they could in bed. Nelson fell behind on the farming, but he didn’t much care. Carly K taught him a lot about women. Like how his thoughts on cooking and cleaning were from the stone ages. She didn’t cook and bless her heart she just didn’t have an eye for dirt. So he did most of the cooking and cleaning. Sometimes he got to questioning their situation, but Carly K would snuggle up to him with that perfect little body, and he thought of the way she smelled like flowers. She was so shy. Lord, Nelson wasn’t allowed to watch her brush her teeth, and she was so careful with her looks. She beat him to the bathroom every morning.

They’d been living together six months when Nelson thought of marriage seriously. It was around this time she took to going down the mountain for a day or two. Now one thing that rang as clear as the church bell on Sunday morning was how much Nelson loved that woman. He loved her so much He couldn’t see his hand in front of his face or hers either. When Carly told him she had to meet a real estate man in Georgia on some land business, Nelson didn’t think nothing. When she suggested he go over to Mama’s for the weekend, he agreed. It’d been his experience when a person lied, they couldn’t look you in the eye.

Carly looked him in the eye and smiled. “You just don’t miss me too much, Sweetie.” She wiggled her hips and shook her finger at him.

Nelson was packing a bag for the weekend and got totally sidetracked. He pulled out granny’s old ring. It was the only thing worth a darn in the Connor family, and he couldn’t say it was worth a lot, but it was old and big.

“I wanted to ask you proper so you can’t have this now, but I want to show you how much, well you know, how much I love you, woman.” All this rushed out of his mouth like some kind of blubbering fool. He showed her the ring.

Her eyes lit up and he swore they twinkled. “That’s just beautiful, Nelson, honey. Can’t I just say yes now and wear it on my trip?”

He didn’t know what held him back. It sure wasn’t common sense because that went out the window six months before. “Nope. I got some special plans for you. You go on and take care of your business. I’ll be here when you get back.” Nelson put the ring into his shirt pocket.

“Nelson, how much land do you have with that farm of yours?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Close to five hundred acres.”

“Have you ever thought of selling?”

“Lord no, who would buy it?”

“I was talking to that real estate guy and he said with my land and yours, he could get well over one hundred thousand dollars. That’s good money baby.”

“I was thinking we could get married and live on the farm. Ain’t no one on the mountain ever made that kind of money, besides where would Mama go? I was born in that house. And, I was thinking we could have a child born there too.”

An animal about to turn wild with madness gets a crazy look in its eyes. Carly K’s eyes reflected a rabid animal as a ripple of emotion scooted across her forehead, but she recovered so fast he barely noticed.

“We’ll talk when I get home.” She kissed him long and hard.

Later that night, Nelson realized he’d walked out of Carly’s house without his clothes. “Mama, I got to go over to Carly’s”

“I just wish you’d leave that woman alone. You need to find you a good mountain girl, Nelson.”

“Mama, I ain’t going to talk about that now. I’m going to ask Carly to marry me and I know she’ll say yes.”

Mama looked at him hard. He couldn’t get use to the tight curls on her head. One of her friends had given her what they called a home permanent. “I just bet she’ll say yes.”

Nelson took those country roads fast because his old truck knew them by heart. When he took the last curve, he saw a light shining in one of Carly’s windows. Now, there ain’t no telling what made him kill the lights and park on the road. He didn’t do much thinking as he walked quiet through the yard. A light from the living room spilled on the porch in a half moon. When he looked in the window, Carly K, his Carly, sat on a man’s lap; neither wore a stitch of clothes. Lights flashed in front of his eyes and his head beat with his heart. Nelson thought of killing them both with his bare hands right there on the spot, but then he thought of Mama watching him going to the electric chair. Out of nowhere a calm washed over him. He felt down right peaceful, which scared him even more.

On the way home, he decided to pay Old Betty a visit. She was the conjure woman. For a little corn whisky or a few dollars, she’d conjure a customer up a right nice spell. Most folks didn’t much believe in conjuring anymore; Nelson was one of them, but there he stood on her front porch at nine o’clock at night prepared to give her any price for a spell.

Old Betty’s daughter answered the door. Annie smiled and he remembered their last day of high school together. She had a real crush on him, but at the time Nelson was too much a mama’s boy, and she was too unsure of herself, big-hipped and pimply, to make the first move. Age seemed to have grown in her favor like moss on the north side of a tree. Nelson was glad to see her back on the mountain.

“What you need, Nelson Connor?” She smiled with straight white teeth and creamy skin.

“I’m here to see Betty.” He tipped his cap.

“She’s not here. Widow Barnes paid her four sweet potato pies to conjure her late husband. She’s still looking for his buried fortune.” She wore a loose skirt covered with different patches. Some were from cities like New York and Paris France. “You like my skirt?”

Nelson shook off the urge to ask her questions. “I just need a spell something bad.”

“You look real bothered. Maybe I can help.”

“I don’t see how.”

“What kind of spell are you looking for?”

“A death spell.”

“That wouldn’t have anything to do with that woman you been living with? Wishing somebody dead is bad business, Nelson.”

He looked at his feet.

“I got something better. We’ll get you a truth spell.” She walked back to Old Betty’s workroom with Nelson on her heels.

“This is just stupid anyway.” Nelson was just plain out tired like a whole army had marched over him.

Annie worked over a bowl with powder and matches. When she was through, she blew it in the air and said a few words. “Pretty is as pretty does. So, ugly inside will reveal itself.”

Nelson stepped back. “I got to go.”

“You owe me.”

“How much money?”

“I don’t want money.”

“What you want?” Nelson looked into her hazel eyes.

“I want that ring of your granny’s in your shirt pocket.”

He’d clean forgot the ring. “Here, you might as well. I ain’t got no real use for anyway.”

“Right pretty.” She put the ring on her finger.

He had this sudden urge to kiss her before he left, but he didn’t.

Carly K came to see Nelson the next day. “It just ain’t working honey.” She kept her face turned away. As far as Nelson could see, there was no new truth revealed. “I’m going with that guy, you know the real estate agent. He’s going to help sell my place. I’m going home to Georgia.”

“I think that’s best, Carly K.”

She turned and looked at Nelson real hard like she expected him to put up a fight. On her left cheek was a big old pimple. The worst pimple he’d ever seen. “You seen us.”

When she opened her mouth fully, Nelson laughed out loud. Most of her front teeth were missing.

“Don’t you laugh at me you hick. I lost my partial.”

He saw clear the truth of Carly K, not because of her teeth or the pimple mind you, but that cheating, lying spirit.

Annie and Nelson got married three months later. She wore Granny’s ring and Mama cried because finally he had him a mountain girl.

After they said their ‘I dos’, Annie whispered in his ear “You were conjured Nelson Connor. Your mama and my mama put their heads together and came up with a right good love spell.”

Nelson just laughed to himself because he didn’t believe in that conjuring stuff.

“They put another spell on us. They want lots of grandbabies even though we’re way too old for that stuff.”

Nelson just laughed caused that wasn’t going to be no problem at all, old or not.

Some things just turn out like they’re supposed to and others are spoiled for good reasons.