The Divine Bloodline- Chapter 3

Four women lounged together on the wraparound porch, watching everything and nothing at all. All in different styles of clothing from generations apart, they appeared to be a beautifully  altered version of the next.

They were bored. Lonely for the outside world. Visitors became rare, and a few of the Chosen were avoiding them altogether. The one with the enormous Afro, smoking the Virginia Slim cigarette stood barefoot at the top of the steps, one hand braced against the railing as if she were waiting for something to arrive.

“Somebody’s coming soon,” Mavis Hook said, taking a drag and exhaling slow. “I can feel it.”

The remarkably light skinned woman in the t-strap heels and finger waves tipped her glass of bourbon, swirling the ice before taking a long swallow. Her plucked eyebrows were raised in arrogant contempt.

“The family isn’t connected to Hook’s Haven anymore,” Ada said coldly. “Our bloodline’s energy is thinning. We’re going to lose our whole world—and it’ll be because of your strung-out daughter.” She snorted to herself.

Mavis flicked an ash in Ada’s direction without looking at her. “Fuck you, Ada.”

Mavis’ anger ran deeper than words. Her youngest daughter, Janelle, filled her body with poison to avoid sleep—to avoid Home. Mavis and the other Ancestors knew the only way to reach her was for Janelle to lie down sober, and she feared that would never happen again.

Not many people went to sleep sober anymore. But Janelle knew the consequences.

She was starving the bloodline’s energy, and it was working.

Only a handful of Ancestors still possessed the power to cross into Home while the living slept. Fewer visitors meant fewer stories told, fewer memories reinforced. No one came anymore the way they used to—no wide-eyed children, no restless teenagers desperate to understand where they came from.

When Mavis was twelve, the Ancestors invited her in.

She’d sat on this very porch, legs swinging, while the founding sisters Eufa and Tamandani braided her hair and told her stories that left her proud, afraid, and wary of the world beyond the trees. She would wake with the plaits still woven tight proof that Home was real, that the Ancestors were watching.

They taught her about the fight—from being owned by white men to owning seventy acres of land after death had freed them. Hook’s Haven was never meant to be just a place. It was meant to be found with closed eyes.

As Mavis grew, more women appeared; relatives she had never met in the waking world. Cousins. Great-aunts. Even a few two-spirit Ancestors, powerful enough to cross fully.

While she slept, they fed her stories and sharpened her spirit. What the living would later call her art was simply what survived the crossing. Her nightmares were never cruelty—they were warnings, clues, instructions. They had never failed her.

By her twenties, Eufa and Tamandani were no longer just Ancestors. They were guides.

Mavis lived every day in preparation for returning to them. When her time came, she exited the living world at the age of fifty to breast cancer, refusing to let treatment deny her entrance to the world she came to love.

Now she stood again at the top of the steps, cigarette burning low, the porch humming beneath her bare feet.

“Someone’s coming,” she said once more, pointing at the tree. Everyone stood in anticipation as a heavy gust of wind swirled the tree branches around itself, and a golden light shone through the bark and trunk. Roots that climbed up from the earth also glowed and pulsated like a heartbeat. Someone was dreaming and coming Home. A tall, regal body materialized as the wind slowed, and begun walking towards them, silhouetted in the gold light.

“Is that…. Camille?” Mavis said, mostly to herself.

“Looks like it,” Ada said. She sounded excited.

“Camille! Camille! Where the hell have you been?” It’s been too long, too long!” Eufa rushed to Camille, wrapping her in a strong hug. Camille laughed at her gesture and kissed both her cheeks.

“Camille! Where have you been?!” Ada echoed Eufa fiercely. “We have not had visitors in ages, how could you leave us behind? Why aren’t you dreaming?” She shook her before hugging her.

“It’s my new medicine. I don’t sleep without it, I’m sorry, sister. It was quite difficult to make it here without something to help me fall asleep. But I have the best news. Janelle called.”

Mavis bristled, but leaned in, interested. “Let me guess, my wayward daughter needs something.” She glared, folding her arms across her chest in disgust.

“A place to stay,” Camille said, smiling and ignoring Mavis’ tone.” She’s bringing Naomi.”

At the mention of Naomi, everyone became excited, asking questions all at once.

“Did she say anything about her hair?” Ada asked eagerly. “I was able to get her here, once.”

“And you didn’t tell me?” Mavis turned toward Ada in a fury. “You called MY granddaughter Home, and you didn’t tell me?”

“The energy was weak, she didn’t even know where she was!” Ada yelled back at her sister, stepping close to her. “I didn’t want to scare her, so I just braided her hair. That’s all.”

Mavis backed away and sat down on the porch, appearing annoyed. “I just would have liked to see her, is all. I’ve never seen my own granddaughter before, so I just wanted to see her, is that so bad?” Her eyes watered and she looked away.

“I just wanted to see her.” She said to herself.

Camille rushed to her side, putting her hand on her shoulder. “You WILL, sister. She will be home soon, and we will rebuild our family. If one of us was able to reach her from so far away, she must be powerful. We may have lost Janelle, but we can get Naomi.”

“Naomi,” Mavis murmurs to herself. “I wonder where she came up with that name. Janelle always made the most terrible decisions.”

“Well, her current decision isn’t terrible, is it? I don’t care why she’s coming back, especially if she needs us.”

Mavis snorted, “She obviously needs something that the world outside couldn’t give her. Glad she’s coming to herself. Maybe she will let herself come Home again too.”

Mavis took a drag of her Virginia Slim and exhaled. “Let’s hope so. We need all the energy we can get.” She flicked the cigarette on the ground and walked back into the house. 

Ada watched her leave. “She needs to get over herself so we can rebuild this family. We need to become a united front if we want the living to start visiting again.” She took a sip of her bourbon.

Tamandani, the oldest of all the Ancestors gestured for Camille to sit with them on the porch. “Tell us more about Naomi.”

“Yes,” Eufa said excitedly, “Let us braid your hair, at least.” She reached for Camille’s long silver hair.

Camille shook her head, “there’s not much to say. They’ve been living in a small suburb over an hour away. I don’t even know what she looks like. I’ll be waking up soon, and don’t have time to stay. I need to check on Celestine. She’s losing her memory and is starting to wander off. She’s been asking for you. She wants to come Home. I’m not ready to let her go yet.”

Camille sat between Eufa’s knees on the porch, eager to spend her remaining time with her sisters. She sighed as Eufa released her hair from its bun and began combing through it with her hands.

“That is not your choice, Camille.” Tamandani scolded her.” She’s been on this earth nearly ninety years, she’s tired. She’s too tired to visit us, and I wouldn’t mind having one of the sweeter children to sit on the porch with me.” She laughed to herself.

Hook women were rarely sweet, there simply wasn’t time for it. They were hardworking, powerful, kind and noble women. They were quick to defend themselves, each other and their land. They were strong and impulsive, which often led to irreversible mistakes that usually were blamed on the curse. The curse that Tamandani summoned herself.

She thought of her life before becoming an Ancestor. She lived as royalty within her tribe. Ancestors, Servants and handmaidens trained her in music, the arts, and combat. She despised cooking and learned to hunt and work her tribe’s land. 

They trained her to lead her tribe, and she anticipated the challenge. Unfortunately, she never got the opportunity to lead her people. Her twin brother had other ideas that brought her to America, and she created a fresh new bloodline on a new land. She became leader to a tribe that she built from the ground up. A cursed tribe that she hoped to rid of her hastily made mistake.

It's been over a hundred years since she built this family and while at one point vast in size and powerful, she feared that they would be lost forever with no one to visit from the living world. She wasn’t sure how to pour life into the weakening roots, but the thought of giving up never crossed her mind.

Tamandani knew the potential of her bloodline. Her tribe was never meant to fade into memory. They were meant to build, to grow, and to defend what was theirs. They were meant to prosper.

Naomi would breathe life back into the Hook bloodline and repair the curse.

Yes, Tamandani thought to herself. Naomi has been Chosen.