“Who?” asked Denmark.

“You think I know?”

“You talk like you know everything,” said Denmark.

“When I know, I say I know. This one, he a bad devil. He wander like stray dog, come passing through, he see all the names, devil eat name like food, like cake, taste him sweet. He come in my circle and now he get caught, he no come out. So he mad, him! Tear up net. Tear up name, kill me if he can. But I stop him.”

“I helped.”

“Yes, you knock me down, very smart.”

“Why you holding still like that?”

“See me knotty hair? She wiggle, he get inside, he break me in bits.”

Denmark had long wondered why Gullah Joe had braided his hair with ribbons and scraps. It wasn't decoration, it was protection– as long as the knotted braids weren't wiggling.

“So that hair keep out the devil?”

Joe flipped his braids boastfully. “Hair, she keep him out of me.” Then he pointed at the dangling charms that used to ring the net of name-strings. “These charm, they keep him in my circle.” Joe grinned. “It got him.”

“What you want him for?” asked Denmark. “Can you ask him for wishes or something?”

Gullah Joe looked at him like he was stupid. “You live White too long, boy, it make you strange.”

“I thought maybe it was like a genie or something.”

“You no ask devil help you, he help you be dead, that be his help you.” Gullah Joe began walking around, looking at the dangling charms hanging elsewhere in the room. “You get me that one, that one, that one.”

Denmark, being tall, had no trouble unhooking the charms Joe indicated. Soon they had a new circle created, just like the other one, only when you looked close there were no two charms alike. It seemed not to matter. In a few more minutes they gathered the name-strings from the floor, piled them in another net, and hoisted them off the floor in the midst of the charmed circle.

“Now nobody see them again, they safe, they don't get lost, they don't get found.”

“So we beat the devil this time,” said Denmark.

Gullah Joe shook his head sadly. “No, he tear one up. He pick that one, he tear her up, he break the string, she name be fly off somewhere.”

“Lost?”

“Oh, she name try to get home, she try so hard.” Gullah Joe sighed. “Some name she strong, but she blind, no find the way. Some name see the way, but she no fly, she fade away. This one, she strong, she bright, maybe she get home.”

“Which one was it?”

“You think I tell she name? Call that name to me? You think I be so bad? No sir. I no say she name, I be pray that name find that girl, she a good one. Why he pick her?”

“Don't ask me,” said Denmark. “I don't know why anybody picks anybody.”

“No, he go to her, he know her. He know her. That devil, he been walking Camelot street, him. That devil, be maybe him a man. Be maybe him a White man.” Gullah Joe smiled. “Be maybe him soul fly, get caught here, but he body be somewhere.”

Denmark thought about this. A White man somewhere with his soul trapped outside his body. “You thinking maybe we ought to find him?”

“How much him I catch here?” Gullah Joe asked. “Black people soul, I take name, I take anger, I take sad, all the rest stay body. But the White man, how much he send out, how much he give me?” He went to his table, where a hundred secrets sat in jars and little boxes. He opened one, then another, rejecting each until he found a box with a fine white powder in it. He grinned and picked up a pinch of it between his fingers. Then he walked to the edge of the original circle, where the devil-man was trapped. He parted his fingers as he blew the powder sharply. The fine grey dust quickly filled the exact dimensions of the circle, swirling right up to the edges but never drifting out. Denmark saw a tiny light, like a mosquito with a firefly's tail, changing colors as it darted about within the cloud.

“That's him?” asked Denmark.

“He got him power,” said Gullah Joe, his voice filled with awe.

“How can you tell?”

“You so far off, you see him, right?”

“Sure, I saw him. Like a firefly.”

Gullah Joe laughed. “You so blind! He like a star. Bright star. We got trouble in this circle. He be find a way out. And then he be mad.”

“Then let's get out of here,” said Denmark. “I don't want him clipping me open like that net.”

“No problem,” said Gullah Joe.

“You mean you can keep him from getting out?”

“I got my best circle hold him. She strong enough? I don't know. But I don't got no better, so… maybe we dead, maybe we safe.” Gullah Joe shrugged. “No problem.”

“Well it matters to me!” cried Denmark.

“Be maybe you better go,” said Gullah Joe, grinning. “You go find out what house got him a man, him eyes open, nobody inside.”

“White man?”

“You think Black man break a name-string?” asked Gullah Joe contemptuously.

“Not all Black men be good,” said Denmark.

“Black men all be on our side,” said Gullah Joe.

Denmark laughed rudely. “That the stupidest thing you said since I know you.”

Gullah Joe looked at him oddly. “I know what I know.”

“Oh, they on your side now, Joe, cause you got their name-strings in a bag, you keeping them happy. But that don't mean they on your side, you fool. White master got them all so scared they want to please him, like little puppy dogs. They not telling now cause what if the White man take their soul? But they ain't on your side. They on their master's side.”

“You think you the only smart man?” asked Joe, annoyed.

“I seen it a thousand times. Blacks betraying Blacks, each time hoping the master will like them better than the other slaves, treat them good. You watch.”

“I be do this long time, lots of year now,” said Gullah Joe. “Black people know what I got here, they never turn against me.”

“Then how did this White devil find out where you were?”

Joe's eyes grew wide at the question. Then he grinned at Denmark. “You show them the way.”

“I did not,” said Denmark. “I wore that memory net you made me, nobody find anything about you from me!”

“He no look in your head, my net make it empty in there. This devil follow your feet till he come in right behind you.”

“How do you know that?”

“I know what I know,” said Gullah Joe, for about the thousandth time since Denmark had known him. “I see him come in.”

“You're lying,” said Denmark. “If you seed him come in you would have told me.”

“I feel him. I feel him hot eyes looking. I feel them charm dance, I feel them charm shake.”

“Then why didn't you stop him?”

Gullah Joe grinned. “Be maybe I think he no find name-string. Be maybe I think circle keep him out.”

“Be maybe you full of shit,” said Denmark. “You didn't know he was here till the net started popping. He probably followed you inside the circle.”

Gullah Joe thought about that. “Better us find him body.”

“So you ain't going to admit he took you by surprise,” said Denmark testily. “You got to keep pretending you see all, you know all.”

“I no see all,” said Gullah Joe. “I see more than you.”

“Sometimes.”

“You see so good? Then you go out and use you eyes and you mouth and you ears, you find out where they be this empty White man body without no soul.”

Denmark laughed bitterly. “That be every White man I know of.”

Gullah Joe ignored his remark. “You find him, and then we make him soul go back in him.”

“You can do that?”

Gullah Joe shrugged. “Maybe.”

“So what if it doesn't work?”

“Then he body die,” said Gullah Joe. “Body him not last long time it got no soul in.”

“What the hell did you just say?” asked Denmark. “All these slaves, they be dying without their souls?”

“Black people still got they soul!” said Joe impatiently. “Only White man put him soul out like this. Soul no come home, he body, she think she dead, she be rotting.”