CHAPTER 2

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

Chantelle looked at the people around her and grinned. Mama Doreen and Mama Marina were holding up a large cake with twenty-seven flickering candles. The rest of the group cheered and then began encouraging her to make a wish and blow out the candles. Closing her eyes, Chantelle filled her lungs with air and then exhaled in one giant puff. All of the flames vanished, leaving snaking streams of smoke.

"What did you wish for?" Mama Doreen asked, placing the cake on the small makeshift table.

"I thought it was bad luck to tell," Chantelle said.

"Superstitious hogwaller," Mama Doreen replied. "They comes true cuz someone makes 'em comes true... and the only way thet kin happen is iff'n you makes yoh wishes known."

"I don't theenk the Sacred Mother would agree weeth you, Seester," Syblis interjected. "She grants many weeshes."

Several women nodded their heads. The Sisters were a mixture of believers and non-believers when it came to deities. All, however, respected everyone's personal choice. They lived most of their lives in loneliness, so whatever got them through each day was welcomed by the others.

"Well, now, darlin', I never said she weren't real. I said someone makes 'em comes true. Yoh Sacred Mother be one of 'em someones, I be a-thinkin'," Doreen teased. "Iff'n yah takes an excepsheen ta —"

"No, no, Doreen, I meesunderstood you, that eez all," Syblis said quickly. If Doreen got on a roll on a topic, there was no stopping her. "Come, thees eez Chantelle's day. Let us eenjoy what leetle time we have together. Besides, she hasn't told us her weesh."

"Yes, tell us," several women shouted. A chant broke out with everyone clapping their hands.

"Alright!" Chantelle conceded. "I wished that everyone could have been here. There are so many I've never met."

"Those who could not come weel be at the next gathering, eef possible. They are here een speerit. You, Cherié, should never waste a weesh. They are precious."

"You're right. I still wish they could have been here," Chantelle said and then grinned. "I'll be more careful with the next one. Syblis? When will I get a calling? I'm twenty-seven. Shouldn't I have had one by now?"

"Eet weel come when eet weel come. There eez no set age for the calling. I was twenty-three when my first came. Cirelle was forty-one."

Chantelle sighed.

"Forty-one. That's such a long time."

"Nonseense.  You must be patient, Chantelle... and enjoy theez moments. Once you're called, your life weel be changed forever, and your youth weel no longer be. Come now, eet eez your birthday and everyone eez waiting for a slice of cake."