Coming down Chad Street or running thru the Yards, the Jr. G.C.’s served notice that the colored children were manifestations of the twentieth century. No mythology in the Old Slave Mart approached their realities. Nothing in the Calhoun House reminded them of themselves. Catfish Row was so old-fashioned, dusted pastel frame houses where hominy-grits, oysters, & okra steamed each evening. Crap games went on as usual in the tiny alleyways, edged by worn porches where grandmas made believe they didn’t have any idea all that was goin’ on. Yet they’d smile if somebody had a high streak of luck, sending yelps & bass guffaws over the roofs. Here Digo, Crunch, & Spats performed, mixing the skills of modern wayward children with the past-times of the more traditional colored iconoclasts.

They especially liked to go round to Sneed’s. Now, Sneed’s was a bakery; fresh breads, muffins, cakes, & cookies every day. But the reasons the Jr. G.C.’s spent so much time there was that Sneed’s was connected to a winding complex of underground rooms where gambling, cockfights, and a twenty-four-hour social room entertained the most adventurous of Charleston’s colored subterraneans. Spats’ brother, Pretty Man, made sure that the transactions in the various gaming activities stayed calm. Whenever possible, Pretty Man believed that money should change hands in his favor, calmly, of course.

Actually, the bakers in their high white hats & flour-covered aprons carried more than dough downstairs directly under the ovens. They took the daily numbers receipts down to The Caverns, as they were called, & came back up to the muffins & turnovers with a possible change of life-style for a confirmed pastry-gourmet. Indigo didn’t mind the numbers. She played a few from time to time. That meant new dress-up clothes, Eudoxa strings for the violin, a Sunday chapeau for Mama, and spending change for the spirits who still kept Indigo’s company late at night.

NUMBERS FOR PROSPERITY & FURTHERED

INDEPENDENCE OF THE RACE

by Indigo

164—if searching for hearth & home, more secure familial relations.

626—if desirous of a journey to one’s true home, spiritual or physical, play once a week for a month.

208—if in need of immediate assistance for ordinary amenities, play only on Monday.

176—if seeking a larger dwelling for one’s family, this works, in conjunction with 164.

508—if yearning for retreat & personal solitude, play on five consecutive Wednesdays.

141—if conflicted by the stresses of racism, play twice a week for five years.

999—to be freed from debilitating relations, fiscal or otherwise, daily.

REALIZING SPIRITS’ HINTS/WHAT YOUR DREAMS

CAN DO FOR YOU

by Indigo

If you see a gull flying over your house, there is a 7 in your combination. If the gull swoops downward, there is also a 2. If the gull flies toward the moon, there is a 9.