AS HE APPROACHED THE WAREHOUSE, he was surprised to see an unfamiliar black horse tied to the hitching post outside. Not entirely unfamiliar, but it certainly didn’t belong to Emmanuel or anyone else at Rogers’s Shipping Company.
Speak of the devil, thought Adam.
He ran towards the building to see what it was about. Upon entering the warehouse, he saw Stela. She was sitting on a crate near the entrance. How long had she been there? he wondered.
“You have a visitor,” Boaz said to him, tipping his head in the girl’s direction.
Out of breath, Adam looked from Boaz to the girl. “I see that. Hello, Stela. What brings you here?”
Stela stood from her chair. “Might I speak with you outside?”
“Sure.” He motioned for her to go first and he would follow her out in front of the building.
Once they were outside, he said, “Well?”
Stela seemed very nervous. She craned her head to look into the building, then looked around near the warehouse.
“Let’s go talk over there,” she said, pointing to some trees at the eastern end.
“Fine,” said Adam.
He walked with her over there, and they stood in the shade of a large white oak tree.
“I heard you came to the camp two days ago.”
“I did,” said Adam. “I looked for you. You weren’t there.”
“I know,” she said. “My cousin told me.”
“Who’s your cousin?”
“Amelia.”
“Oh. I met her. I also saw your mother. Did she tell you?”
Stela nodded. “Yes. That’s why I’m here.”
“What do you mean? Your mother sent you?”
“No! I’m here because my cousin told me what happened.”
“What do you mean ‘what happened’?”
“She said you came because your friend Martin is sick. She said you came for medicine.”
“That’s right.”
“I think my mother may have given you something that might be bad to give to your friend.”
Adam narrowed his eyes at her. “What do you mean? She said it would help him. She wouldn’t even take any payment for it.”
Stela shook her head, frustrated. “My mother never gives things freely to gadje—especially not medicines.”
“Gadje?”
“People who aren’t like us—who aren’t gypsies.”
“What are you saying?” he asked.
“Has your friend taken it yet?”
“The medicine? Yeah, he has.”
“And how is he?”
Adam wasn’t going to tell Stela what he had seen Martin doing. “He’s not vomiting anymore. Why?”
Stela looked exasperated. “Is he acting strangely at all? Is he doing anything unusual?”
“You could say that,” said Adam. “Why?” He was getting angry now.
“I think she gave him something very bad—datura.”
“Datura?” said Adam. “What on earth is datura?”
“I think here you might call it something else: thorn apple, or Jimsonweed. We have our uses for it, but it causes strange visions and can make a man do very dangerous things if he doesn’t know what it is.”
“Are you telling me that your mother gave me some hallucinogenic poison to give to my sick friend?”
Stela didn’t speak. She only looked at him with great concern.
Adam was livid. “What the hell is the matter with her? Why would she even do something like that?” He wanted to take off for Martin’s house right then, but he knew he better find out what they were dealing with before running off half-cocked.
“I don’t know exactly what happened, and I am not completely certain that is what she gave him, but it sounds like it from what Amelia told me.”
“What did Amelia tell you?”
“She said that she thought the tincture your friend needed was one that had normal things—ginger, thyme, lavender, that sort of thing—but when she showed that bottle to my mother, she told her no and went into her tent and brought out something else.”
“She did go into her tent—she was in there awhile,” said Adam. “What? Was she mixing up the poison then?”
“It’s not a poison,” said Stela, “but Amelia did say when she came out, she recognized the smell on my mother’s hands and the bottle. That’s why she told me.”
“It sounds like a poison to me. So why would she want to poison my friend?” Before Stela could even answer, Adam said, “In fact, why do any of you do the kinds of things that you do? You’re all so… so… so strange!”
Stela took a deep breath and exhaled sharply. “Please! Stop saying these things! I came here to warn you about it. I could have stayed out of the whole affair and told you nothing!”
Adam stood, hands on hips, and shook his head in exasperation. “I know. So why did you come here?”
“Just take the medicine away from your friend. Under no circumstances should he drink any more of it. In small amounts it is a sedative, and it can cause him to see things, but if he has too much it can be very bad.”
“How bad?”
“Either the medicine will kill him, or he’ll get himself killed doing something dangerous because of one of the visions it will give him.”
“I want to know why your mother would have done this.”
“She should not have done it,” said Stela. “It is difficult to explain. She is not evil, just mischievous, and she does what she has to do to take care of her family.”
“How does killing my friend help her family?” As soon as the words left Adam’s mouth, he realized. “Wait, if he hadn’t been your guest at the party the other night, she wouldn’t have done this, would she?”
“We are not supposed to mix with gadje. You are impure to us. I would be in a great deal of trouble if anyone even knew I was here right now. My mother was upset about him being there with me the night of the festival, but I do not think that is the only thing that made her do this. I think that just finally pushed her to do it.”
“What’s the difference? The result is the same, isn’t it?”
“You should know there is someone else who wanted much worse for your friend.”
“Who is that?”
“A man who spoke to my mother the first night you came there. I do not know who he is, but I think he tried to have my mother do something worse to your friend. She would not do it, though.”
Adam tried to guess who she might be talking about.
She continued. “Listen to me. I just do not want anything bad to happen—not to you, not to your friend, not to any people in this place.”
“Bad things are already happening,” said Adam. “Did you know there is a crowd here in town who’ve said if you and your family haven’t left town by the end of the week, they’ll run you out, whatever it takes? Stela, they will use violence. People are mad about the bad fortunes your mother has been giving. They’re mad about the sickness going around town, and they think y’all have done it. And they’re mad that they think y’all have done something to that little girl’s grave.”
Stela’s face went white. Before he could ask her what she meant, she said, “I’ve told you what you need to know; now I have to go.”
She quickly ran to her horse.
“Wait,” he called out.
He tried to run after her, but fast as lightning she had untied and mounted the horse and was on her way. Adam thought about following her but knew now that helping Martin was a more immediate concern.
He went into the warehouse to tell the others.
“That gypsy girl came to tell me that medicine her mother sent for Martin may end up killing him. I have to go take that bottle from him. Lord willing, he’s not already drank it all, but it explains why he’s been acting like he’s lost his mind.”
Boaz, Elliot, and Joe all stopped what they were doing. They were stunned.
“You need any help?” asked Boaz.
“Why don’t you just try to find your cousin Bo? Tell him what’s happened. There’s a whole bunch of ’em at that gypsy camp. We don’t need to just go rushing in down there, taking matters into our own hands, as tempting as it may be.”