DESIREE and her three girls moved into their new home in the rural community of Black Forest. She was a single mom who worked hard to ensure the proper education and care of her daughters. At ages 13, 10 and seven, the girls were a handful. She left the small one-bedroom house in the city for this three-bedroom house in the countryside.
It had all come about from a single conversation she had with a girlfriend.
“How things, Desiree girl?”
“Tough, but you know me. I ain’t giving up on my girls.”
They both laughed.
Roxanne was a good friend with two children of her own. Well, three if you counted a lazy, good-for-nothing man that she had married. He was unemployed, lazy and abusive. Desiree could not understand how her friend could withstand all that. Desiree had gotten rid of Roger when he came home one day drunk and unemployed. He attempted to beat her up but backed off when he saw that large ‘belna’ in her hand and the rage in her eyes. He departed the next day never to be seen or heard from again.
“How de girls?”
“They okay, working hard in school. Where you working now, Roxanne?”
“Real Estate,” Roxanne said.
“Really? I was just thinking about buying my own home and stop renting other people’s house.”
“Well, you came to the right girl, baby,” Roxanne said.
They both burst into laughter.
“I’ll check it out and give you a call,” Roxanne promised.
And she was as good as her word. The next evening, she stopped by on her way home.
“Girl, I got a bargain for you!”
“Give me de details,” said an excited Desiree.
“We have a house in the country for sale, very cheap.”
“Where?”
“In Black Forest.”
“That far from the city?” Desiree asked.
“But the house cheap and you can always teach in that same community,” Roxanne bargained.
It made sense. Desiree took a small loan from the bank and bought the house. It was an excellent deal. At least that was what she thought at the time.
NEW HOME
They moved to Black Forest a month later. She began teaching at the Community High School and the girls attended the same institution. She felt elated and satisfied. Then her sister asked her to keep her son for a month during the August vacation. She agreed and a week later he arrived. Fifteen-year-old Troy turned out to be lazy and unwilling. He went to bed late because he watched TV until past midnight. He got up late because he was too lazy to do any different.
A week into the vacation period, things began to go wrong. Her eldest daughter called her one afternoon to tell her that the house doors were found open when they arrived home from school. She immediately assigned blame to her nephew. It had to be his fault. He had picked up with the local lads and was almost never at home. He must have left the door open. When she arrived home, she learned that both the front and back door were left open.
When Troy got home later that night she told him about his careless attitude. He looked shocked and denied leaving the doors open. As a matter of fact, he told her he had left the home before her daughters. The girls confirmed this. Seeing that he had no keys, he could not have returned to the house. The situation was a mystery.
UNUSUAL EVENTS
The next couple of days saw a chain of unusual events. The furniture was constantly re-arranged, the beds were disturbed as if they were slept on, lights flickered on a number of occasions and voices, footsteps and laughter were heard in the dead of night.
Desiree decided to take action. She sent Troy to the Catholic Church the family attended to get a bottle of holy water. She would clean out the house and keep it free of any unwanted visitors.
The boy returned faster than she had anticipated and gave her the bottle of water. She poured water into four snap glasses and into two smaller bottles. She put these over the doors and windows then she sprinkled the water throughout the entire house and yard. She put crucifixes blessed by the priest on both the front and back door. She felt pleased with her protective measures.

UNWELCOME GUESTS
That night as the family sat watching a movie a visitor arrived knocking.
Desiree opened the door and saw an elderly man standing there.
“You trying to get rid of we!” he accused.
Shocked and angered, she slammed the door in his face.
KNOCK!
KNOCK!
This time it was louder and more demanding.
She threw the door opened and stopped her flow of expletives. There stood the man, a woman and two children.
This took her by surprise, and she took a moment to gather her thoughts.
“What do you people want?” she demanded in irritation.
“Why you trying to chase we out?”
“Me? What you mean?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know wat we talking about.”
Desiree blew a gasket.
“Well if I do dat, I don put you out!”
She slammed the door shut.
Knock!
Knock!
Knock!
She charged at the door filled with fumes. Her girls were looking on in astonishment. The woman opened the door and screamed at the people standing there.
“Get de hell outa me yard!”
“Woman stop yo stupidness!” The man was becoming angrier.
“I said get off me property before I ketch trouble foh you!”
And Desiree meant every word.
“You property? Dis is we property!”
Desiree gasped at them. Slowly the significance of what they were saying was beginning to sink in.
“Well is we own now, I buy it. Get lost!”
“We not going anyplace!”
It was a Mexican stand-off.
“But you can’t come in though. I done fix up de house fo keep jumbie like you out!”
Her voice mocked the spirit as she slammed the door again. There was silence outside. Pleased, she turned to go back to her girls and nearly died of a heart attack. Standing in the middle of the room was the Jumbie family.
Meanwhile, her girls had taken refuge under any piece of furniture that offered it. All you could see of them were terrified eyes and frightened faces. Then the visitors vanished just like that. She opened the door and peeked outside. There they stood calmly looking at her. She slammed the door shut and turned around. You guessed it. They were back inside. Then they vanished. It was either curiosity or doltishness, but she opened the door once more to see if they were there.
Of course, they were. All of them were smiling at her. She tried to slam the door but it would not close.

THE TRUTH AT LAST
Grabbing her girls, she fled to her bedroom. They cuddled together seeking comfort from each other. Troy arrived with his loudmouthed friends and they laughed and teased each other before departing. Desiree called him and demanded to know where he got the water. The sheepish look on his face told the story. He admitted that he felt lazy to walk to the church which was some distance away so he filled a bottle with water from a standpipe and gave it to her. Desiree read him the riot act. She put him out of the house to face the unwanted visitors. In an instant, he was bawling at the door pleading with her. She let him in because the girls begged her to. Early the next morning Troy ran all the way to the church. He returned with the priest who proceeded to bless the house and commit the spirits to a peaceful rest. After that things were okay.