The Darling Dahlias and the Voodoo Lily by Susan Wittig Albert

Author:Susan Wittig Albert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Persevero Press
Published: 2020-10-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten.

Violet Is Charmed

VIOLET SIMS WAS NOT A brave person, and she knew it. Ever since she had come to Darling, she had been hearing people talk in hushed whispers about the Voodoo Lily—Big Lil, she was called—who lived in a weathered board-and-batten shanty out on Little Bigtooth Creek, in the spookiest part of Briar Swamp. The Voodoo Lily was a conjure queen who was reputed to be able to call up anything you wanted or needed, if you asked in the right way.

Violet, who was always intrigued by a mystery, had long wanted to pay Big Lil a visit. Roseanne had agreed to take her several times, and once she had even gotten partway there before she twisted her ankle (at least, that’s what she said) and had to go back.

But the real truth was that Big Lil spooked her. In Violet’s vivid imagination, the conjure queen was a threatening figure, large and fierce and all-powerful, like a witch or an enchantress. So she had yet to make her first visit. Her cowardice had always won out.

Tonight was different. Tonight, Violet felt more desperate than cowardly, for there was something she wanted. She was going to ask for a conjure spell, one potent enough to guarantee that Cupcake would win first prize in the Shirley Temple look-alike contest in Nashville, so they could be on their way to Hollywood.

Violet had been terrified the previous winter when Cupcake’s father showed up with a scheme to take the little girl to Hollywood and make her his partner in a father-daughter movie dance team. Of course he wasn’t going to take her Cupcake away! Neither she nor Myra May would stand for it.

But at the same time, Violet had been tantalized by the notion that Cupcake had the potential to be a child movie star. She just knew that if the big movie producers—David O. Selznick, for one, or Darryl Zanuck or Louis B. Mayer—could see little Cupcake dance and sing, they would cast her in a starring role in their very next movie. But the trick was getting Cupcake and herself to Hollywood. Myra May had made it crystal clear that she was strongly opposed, so Violet didn’t think it was right to ask her to fork over the money.

Then she had read in the Nashville newspaper about the look-alike contest and its stunning first prize of a two-week, all-expense-paid trip to Hollywood. She sent in the two-dollar entrance fee, which left her with just enough money for Greyhound tickets to Nashville and back and a bed in a cheap hotel for Friday night, after the competition. Then they could start planning their trip to Hollywood. They would be on their way to stardom!

But there was always the chance that Cupcake wouldn’t win—that some other little girl would be cuter or dance better or have more curls. (From all reports, the Shirley-style curls were even more important than the talent.)

Which brings us to Big Lil. The Voodoo Lily was reputed to be able to conjure up anything you needed, if you asked in the right way.

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