Odell stopped laughing and grabbed my arms. He held me in place until I was able to stand up straight on my own. “You got a headache? Baby, if you had told me you wasn’t feeling good, I wouldn’t have pestered you tonight.” He embraced me and started stroking my back.

“I was fine then. It started all of a sudden after we finished.” I sniffed and rubbed the side of my head.

“What about them pain pills you been taking all these years?”

“I ran out,” I lied.

“Well, I’m going to bring home a big supply from the store tomorrow.” He released me, put his hands on his hips, and shook his head. “I can’t believe the most educated colored woman I know would stand on her head to get rid of a headache. How could you believe such a cockamamie thing—especially coming from a dimwit like Yvonne? In the first place, a woman your size, standing on her head could lose her balance and hurt herself and have to go to the hospital. Lord! If I hadn’t walked in here when I did, your name might have ended up in the newspaper. Can you imagine what folks would say if they found out you’d done something so stupid and had a freak accident? Especially them folks you work with at the school and them students’ mamas and daddies. Not to mention how it would make me look.”

“I know and I’ll never do it again.”

That was three weeks ago. Since I hadn’t used up all of that neipee powder Clarabelle had given me, last night I decided to start drinking it again. While Odell was taking a bath, I mixed enough for two glasses. When I went to sleep, I dreamed I had given birth to a child that had the same sparkling black eyes, high cheekbones, and thick curly hair as Odell.

The concoction hadn’t given me the runs this time, so I decided to use it until I ran out. But I would never attempt to stand on my head for ten minutes again. If God hadn’t blessed me with a baby by the time I ran out of that neipee, I’d give up.

I sighed and shook those thoughts out of my head.

* * *

Twenty minutes after I got inside my house, I happened to look out the front window and saw Yvonne and Milton walking by. I didn’t waste any time running out to my front porch to greet them. “Hellooooo. I heard Sheriff Potts released y’all. Praise the Lord.” They stopped and stared at me with blank expressions on their faces. After what they’d been through, I was surprised they didn’t look more cheerful now that they were free. “It’s wonderful.”