"Ma'am . . . can we talk to you without an audience?"
The woman looked at the patrons around her."Oh, hell no you can't! Just 'cause you my color don't mean you my kind! This New World Order got folks hoodwinked, bamboozled, scallywagged, and lied to, my so-called brutha! I know my rights. I ain't gotta say nothing to you without an attorney-or you planning on kidnapping me like you do all those folks and throw me in some prison offshore? These people seen me-tell my grandbabiesthe man came after they grandma, you hear me! But I ain't dead! No justice, no peace!"
"You can't be rolling up in the Shrine and taking this sister out of here. We'll be in touch with Reverend Sharpton and anybody else we gotta call, believe that!" a patron shouted from the sidelines. "We know what you trying to do."
"Come check our pockets," Marlene finally said, throwing down her walking stick and opening her arms and legs in a to-be-frisked stance. "We ain'tthe man , far from it. We're running fromthe man . . . and, these uniforms came in handy from our last situation."
Shabazz followed Marlene's stance, opening his arms and legs. "Sis, we need sanctuary and got our people out back who need to be hidden in your upstairs meeting area . . . plus a change of clothes, if you can spare it. We'll pay . . . but we don't needno static from the authorities."
Carlos is gonna have to mind-stun all these folks real good, Marlene mentally shot to Shabazz as he glanced at her.TMI, they don't need to be in all our business, but there's no other way to get them to chill out but to tell them the truth -folks can sense bull versus fact, if they get calm enough. Let me keep working on this sister.
Skeptical patrons glanced at each other, but offered no further commentary. The woman unfolded her arms and moved forward a bit.
"We've been running all the way from California, and need sanctuary from being hunted," Marlene said carefully. "You know how we used to do, back in the day . . . sometimes we had to follow the drinking gourd, blend in with Native Americans, look for signs in quilts, feel for the moss at night on the north side of tree trunks . . . do whatever it took, including disguise ourselves however we had to in order to make it on through-shoot, some of us even passed till we got where we was going. It was all about survival. That's all we trying to do now. Survive, sis. What kinda sense would it make for us to show up here in riot gear, unarmed, asking for clothes, me and my husband wearing locks-which can't be grown overnight-and me carrying an African walking stick, if we intended to bum-rush your store like the authorities? Stop and think about it."
"How I know you ain't lying?"
Marlene's gaze locked with the woman's. "Because I'm a seer and so are you, sis," Marlene said flatly. She sent a hard assessment over the woman's body. "Your mother just passed-I'm sorry," she said quietly.
"They coulda been watching you, sis. Coulda put a satellite on you or bugged your house . . . mighta been tailing you 'cause you from the Shrine and seen you at the funeral, at the cemetery. Don't believe the hype," a female patron said. "They be wiretapping people's lives!"
"All that's true," Shabazz said calmly. "But we didn't."
"She used to call you Bebe," Marlene said gently, ignoring the conspiracy theorist's valid claims. "Before you changed your name to Owatunde . . . but she said to you, "Bebe, don't you worry none, I'm going to glory in peace.' No one was in the hospital room but you and her, sis, when she passed. You leaned close and she whispered that in your ear . . . no bug could pick thatup, she said it so softly at the end. She died holding your hand. I swear to you, we're not authorities. And I promise you, your momma is all right."
The older woman relaxed her stance and drew in a shuddering breath, then swallowed hard.
Marlene turned to Shabazz. "Let her in, stop blocking her and drop your protective tactical charge . . . she's a seer so let her see me."
Shabazz nodded, but looked at the store manager hard. "You about to get a privileged look into some really deep realities, sis. But it's only fair, 'cause we need some really deep help."
"Be careful," a male patron warned. "How they know youwas gifted? Maybe that's why they here-to kidnap you into a secret government project for people with ESP . . . they did that before, you know. Took folks into them programs during the Cold War and be experimenting on 'em.I know ."
"Then if she's a seer, she'd see that about us," Marlene said in a dismissive but gentle tone, keeping her gaze on the store manager. "I'm open. Bring it."
It seemed as though the entire store had become paralyzed by silence as the woman stepped a little closer and regarded Marlene and Shabazz with quiet curiosity. Then suddenly as though a bee had stung her, she stepped back and covered her mouth for a few seconds.
"Yeah, like I said," Shabazz muttered, relaxing his stance.
Marlene dropped her arms. "What did Divine Spirit tell you about us?"
"My name is Owa, for short. . . . We'll help you." The manager pressed her hand to her heart and then yanked out a huge ring of keys from her robe pocket. "Brother Muata-lockthe front door and put the Closed sign up, then drop the gates. Sister Sylvia and Miss Mary, go 'round the back and open the door for those folks-don't say nothing, just wave 'em in and get 'em up in the sanctuary, quick. Then bring 'em down one by one to pick whatever they want for clothes off the racks." She was breathing hard as she barked orders and the few patrons in the store scattered to carry out her commands.
"Hidden Guardian camp?" Shabazz said to Marlene.
"Yep, you called this one on the money," Marlene said with a proud smile and then began laughing. "Even though we didn't have time to let J.L. do a formal computer search for Detroit safe houses, instinct worked like a charm and Jack Rider's gonna have to wear a dashiki to the jazz festin Detroit ."
Shabazz chuckled and relaxed, nodding.
"We been hiding in plain sight for more than thirty years," Owa said, rushing over to Marlene and Shabazz to reverently shake their hands and then hug them. With tears in her eyes, she fanned her face. "You know we got a Shrine in Atlanta and another one in Houston. Wait till I tell them who's here!"
"Just not over the phone . . . lines are compromised, so are the airwaves," Marlene said.
Owa smiled. "We don'tever mess with regular technology . . . we send this through the divinations altar to altar, chile."
"My sister," Marlene said, embracing Owa with affection. "Thank you."
"No . . . Queen Mother, Marlene . . .bless you for coming to us in these end days." Owa turned and looked at Shabazz and offered him a slight bow before turning back to Marlene. "And thank you for letting my heart rest easy about my momma. For the record, nobody knew she called me Bebe but family."