Arts and Crafts

by Paul Exton

"Mommy, what is 'voodoo'?"

The tall, dark-haired woman glanced upward while her hands continued to mold the rapidly spinning mass on the potting wheel. "Why would you ask such a thing, honey?" She smiled, and stretched the moist, gray clay upward.

"I was watching a movie on TV, Mommy. It was scary, and they kept talking about voodoo. What is that?"

The woman sighed while concentrating on her work. "I told you before not to watch those kind of movies. Now you're going to have nightmares". She rolled her eyes. "Oh, well. Voodoo is like, well, with little dolls that look like someone".

The little girl giggled. "Like daddy!"

The mother laughed and pulled a piece of clay from the plastic bag next to her. "Yes, like daddy! Here is some clay. You have to make it look like daddy, okay? Now be a good girl. I'll be done here in a few minutes."

"Okay, mommy!" The small girl took the clay and began to knead it mercilessly while wandering back into the house. She stopped abruptly and squinted. This was not right. "In the movie, you had to put in something from somebody," she thought. Her face brightened and she ran to her parents' bathroom. She looked in the trashcan and fumbled through it. She squealed gleefully as she fished out a fingernail clipping. "This must be Daddy's!"

She pushed the nail into the damp clay and continued to mold it into a crude figure. "There! Now you are Daddy!" She nodded. Through the window a full moon was barely visible over the horizon in the bright sunshine as a dog howled in the alley behind the house.

She ran back out to the patio. "Look, mommy! It's daddy!" She thrust the misshapen statuette toward her mother.

The woman rubbed her slick hands and gingerly took the small object from the girl. "Oh my goodness, it's the spitting image of him!"

The girl hopped gleefully. "Mommy, now make a horsey!"

"Oh. Okay, sweetie". She twisted the clay and began to mold it.

In a skyscraper in the center city, a man gasped and collapsed as his body convulsed, then slowly and painfully began to reshape.

Arts and Crafts copyright 2001 by Paul Exton.