I stared into Clarabelle’s eyes a long time before I replied. “If you know something, tell me now. My stop is coming up in a few minutes and I don’t know when I’ll see you again.”

Clarabelle looked around some more and leaned closer to me. “Aunt Mattie gave me some stuff called neipee. It worked.”

“Neipee? What is it?”

“It’s a white powder to mix half a teaspoon in a glass of milk and drink once a night when you want a baby. I started using it right after my husband threatened to leave me if I didn’t give him a child. The doctor had told me there was no reason why I couldn’t conceive, but he’d been telling me that for eight years. A woman from my church finally told me to get some help from Aunt Mattie, so I did. Six weeks after I started drinking that potion, I found out I was pregnant. I had my first son the following year.” Clarabelle paused, rubbed her belly, and continued with a wall-to-wall smile on her face. “The one I’m carrying now is number five and I hope it’s a girl. Four boys is enough for one family. I declare, that neipee is some powerful baby-making batter. I turned two of my cousins on to it and they got pregnant right away too.”

I wanted to laugh, but I knew better. Whether I believed in hoodoo or not—and I wasn’t sure if I did or didn’t—I knew that it was not something to make fun of. I’d heard too many stories about folks who had done that and suddenly developed mysterious ailments. And I couldn’t ignore the fact that one of the teachers I worked with told me she had visited a hoodoo man in Lexington last year when nothing she got from her doctor helped get rid of headaches she’d been having off and on for several weeks. After two visits, her headaches stopped and never returned. Clarabelle’s claim had really piqued my interest. “What does that powder taste like?”

“It’s just a little bitter, and you can’t even smell it.”

“Hmmm. Did you ask Aunt Mattie what was in it?”

“Pffft. What’s wrong with you, Joyce? You and I are the same age, so we’ve been around long enough to know that you don’t ask hoodoo folks their business. It might upset them. If you make one mad enough, they are liable to put something on you a doctor can’t take off.”

“Yeah, I know. But what you just told me sounds so farfetched. How do you know that getting pregnant wasn’t God blessing you?”