Benina's Magic

Catherine Anne hobbled up the street with her head hanging down, so that her blonde hair almost touched her knees. She had just had the most miserable day of her eleven year life. If the sidewalk would just open up and swallow her, she’d consider that an improvement.

It was so terribly hot, had been for the whole summer. The magnolia trees looked parched and all the yards were the colour of wheat. Even the birds didn’t seem to want to sing anymore. If only it would rain, then maybe everyone would get back to normal. Maybe then, the kids at school would be in a better mood and would just ignore her like before. They had decided to make Catherine Anne’s torture their summer project. Every day when school let out, they’d be waiting for her and mocking the way she walked with a limp. They’d laugh and she would turn beet red. Try as she would, there was no way to get away from them any faster, given her hobbled leg.

She was thinking about what it would be like to be invisible. Now that would definitely be better than this, when she was suddenly startled by a voice.

“Where you be gettin there, Miss Catherine Anne? Is you OK? You look a might peaked from here. Why don’t you come up on the veranda and rest a spell?”

Catherine Anne turned and saw old Miss Benina Washington stand up from her rocking chair and lean on the railing of her veranda. She had never addressed Catherine Anne before; she didn’t even realize the woman knew her name.

“You git up here and sit a spell Miss Catherine Anne, I made some lemonade.”

Catherine Anne was just about to politely refuse the offer, but the vision of cool lemonade was too overpowering.

“Thank you kindly, Miss Washington, I believe I could come sit for a while”

Catherine Anne slowly hobbled up to the stairs and gingerly climbed them. Then she walked over to a rocking chair next to the old woman and sat down. The exertion of just climbing those stairs had produced enough sweat that it now was streaming down her face and sliding down her neck. She could smell the strong scent of magnolia and it almost made her feel faint.

“Drink this Miss Catherine Anne and you’ll feel much better. It’s Benina’s magic lemonade. It has pixie dust in it and lots of secret powers.”

Catherine Anne laughed and snorted some of the lemonade out through her nose. She hadn’t laughed in a long time.

“What kind of powers does the lemonade have?” she asked while wiping her face.

She saw Benina lean back in her rocking chair and wipe the sweat from her brow with her apron.

“Well, I believe it can cure the miseries, if you happen to be suffering from them. Also been known to grow hair back on a bald man, so they say. You have anything particular that needs curing, Miss Catherine Anne?

“Well my leg needs curing. I can’t walk without a limp. Don’t suppose the lemonade can cure that?”

“Seems to me that what’s ailing you is not your leg, but what other folks think of your leg. Why do you care what other folks think of your leg?

“The kids at school make fun of the way I walk”, Catherine Anne hung her head down thinking of the endless humiliation.

“You lift up that head of yours missy, ain’t nobody got the power to give you the miseries if you don’t let them. I think what you need is a magic walking stick. You sit here a spell, while I go find it.”

Benina opened the creaky old screen door and disappeared into the house. Catherine Anne sat back enjoying the lemonade, hoping that the secret powers in it would make her invisible. She had almost fallen asleep when Benina returned.

“Took a while but I finally found it. I think this will do you just fine.”

Catherine Anne took the cane from Benina and turned it over in her hands. It was beautiful. It was made of lacquered wood that had been painted with pink flowers and green leaves. Benina took the cane back and showed Catherine Anne how to walk with it to balance her hobbled leg. Catherine Anne got up and tried to walk and suddenly felt like an elegant lady.

“That’s it Miss Catherine Anne, you’ve got the power now. Ain’t no one can take the power from you long as you have that magic stick.”

“Thank you so much, Miss Washington”, she leaned over and hugged the old woman.

Catherine Anne finished her lemonade and then said goodbye. She walked up the street towards her house with her head up and feeling absolutely elegant.

From that day on, Catherine Anne would stop each day on her way home to show Benina how her walking was improving. They would talk about everything, and laugh and sometimes even cry, if one of them had the miseries.

She was young then and couldn’t possibly know it, but she would need Benina’s magic to help her get through the dark days ahead.