Cullayne POV cont'd

"Karly why you think Seana duh weh she duh?"

It was now late afternoon and I was dressed and seated with one of the dearest persons in my life  in one of the church pews, as we worked on sorting out the church for the upcoming Convention I leaned back against the seat and my mind drifted a bit.

My eyes took in the bustling activities as church members -Shanty heading the group- moved about arranging up the drapes and the banner with the slogan behind the rostrum.

Karly and Christopher had arrived a few hours ago and headed over to check up on me much out of their concern as well as my parents' request.

Kemar and I had been cosily cuddling up against the cushions of the sofa in the family room when I heard Karly shouting out her and her husband's presence.

We were spending most of the time just cuddling with some light making out (thanks to Kemar's restraints) until the group that worked with my mother in getting the various remedies prepared in her absence arrived and until I had to depart and get to the airport.

I remembered how reluctant I had been to pull away from the warm serene confines of Kemar's embrace as she pounded heavily on the front door.

Missy my mother's part-time helper had given me a few more minutes to bask in the embrace that flooded me with comfort as she called out to Karley and leave what she was doing to answer the door.

How I wish I was still nestled in Kemar's warm and loving embrace.

Karly looked up from the program sheets she was folding and stared at me. I turn to look at her and watched as her face displayed a look of sadness as she shook her head and grunted before saying.

"That lil gyal pack up a envy like her puppah. It got suh rooted in her that it blinded her from what she could have accomplished here with Miss Lamais. She was truly misguided."

I thought back to the time when her father had turned up with her and left her with my mother. He had treated her like a piece of trash tossing her aside as he accused my mother of tainting his love for his daughter.

I had not known what he had meant nor neither had I cared. All I could think about was that I was no longer alone. Here was the sibling that I had always craved for but unlike me Seana who was a bit older only saw me as a thorn in her side.

I had, however, quickly come to understand that my uncle hated Seana because she had the reader ability. His hate was brought up in Seana because he saw her as a representation of the sister he despised. The sister he blamed for keeping him out of their great-grandmother’s inheritance and who refused to indulge his selfish whims.

My mother's family was not the best of family. It was plagued with bitter grudges and deep-rooted hate that slithered down generations and created a riff that was twice as big and large as the Rock of Gibraltar. I had a grandmother that I barely knew, aunts that I only knew were there because of bits of conversations, cousins that I have to this very day never seen.

"Ms Lamais treated her like ar very own but Seana's bitterness was like larva boiling and waiting on its time to erupt." Karly sighed heavily as she looked down at the programme she held. "Yuh madda give at plenty of chances but in her eyes, the Priestess represented the reason she lost her father and was robbed of her mother and the rest of her family."

I shivered reluctantly as I thought how often I had cast aside Seana thinking only of how I was treated by her and never as to why.

As I grew older and my problems started to manifest I had often made myself invisible drawing on my gift to aid me when the need served my purpose. If only I had allowed myself to see that Seana had been invisible too and her use of her gift had become potent due to this.

I felt tears burning the back of my eyes and I willed myself not to cry. I felt Karly's warm fingers curl over mine clenched tightly in my lap.

"Don't feel guilty Laynie. Here in this very church, the very house yuh both call home Seana was shown what God's love can do. The same people that became family to you over the years because of their association with yuh parents have thought Seana through the love of our Saviour Jesus Christ that she was a part of this," she waved her hand to indicate the space around us before continuing.

"Even though we can't replace the ones she craved we loved and cared for her. She chooses to turn from it, lock her heart away from it, and bind herself in hate and envy. Yuh madda gave her a position, a part to play and a reason to know she belonged but she took the path of Lucifer and since the failed to turn from it and repent she had to pay the price."

I took a deep steadying breath and thought about how much Seana and I had walked paths that we forged because of our reader ability. She had wanted to use it to teach the ones that broke her a lesson by rising to the very pinnacle but unlike me, I had used my path to flee.

Karly shook her head and sighed. "Even though when mi see ar a mash up the bottle dem wid Miss Lamais Rid Off Evil Spirit Oil out by the lime tree weh fi guh dung a wi yard and mi tell yuh madda and she confront ar bou e an she dicide seh she a guh sheg mi up mi still nuh hate ar."

I stared at Karly my mind trying to rationalize what Seana was truly capable off.

"All though all a mi chicken dem jus dead off without no plausible cause and Chris nuh get no good catch fi months because she plant vial a wi doohway mi still greet and treat ar good."

I remembered Shanty telling me that she had tried on occasions to get my mother to let go of Neesi and place someone else in the shop by stating the young woman was stealing only to find out Seana had wanted to man the shop solely so that she could without hindrance sell her products and swindle money from certain customers.

Her hate for my mother had intensified because she had not been successful in her plight and she had in the end come up with other ways to profit and those ways had resulted in where we are today.

"That lil girl was a sore a real dutty abscess. She get all mannah a crosses mix up wid the church an tarnish wi integrity in the hopes she wudda overthrow the Priestess but mi tyad fi tell people nuh mess wid God because except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."

I looked at Karly and understood what she meant but I was gripped by one thing that kept repeating itself as it came out of Karly's conversation... She kept regarding Seana in the past tense.

I got up from where we sat and slowly walked over to the opened boxes of olive oils that were found stashed away with the boxes of concentrated olive oils that were kept in the storage room of the shop and were now waiting to be picked up by the police.

These were the olive oils that she had been tampering with and selling to customers. How sad to know that in all the times spent here, Seana had not found her place.

I closed my eyes and allowed myself the one thought I had been pushing aside... Was Seana dead?