“Well, she took care of her baby who everybody called Baby Anne, and she did her job at the orphanage, which was to keep the place clean, but she did a lot more than that. She also knew how to bring babies into this world. So the word got out to all the slave folk that she was a healer and a birther, and before you knowed it the war came and pretty soon all those folks were set free, and Anne, she was goin’ all over the place healin’ folks and birthin’ babies, and she trained Baby Anne, my great-great-grandmother, in all her ways. People were just callin’ her Baby, and she got to be as powerful as her mama Anne in the old ways. She never took off this necklace, and when she passed it was handed down to the one in the family that was following the healin’ path, and finally it came down to me. I’ve been wearin’ that necklace since I was a baby.”

“Why aren’t you wearing it now?” I asked.

“‘Cause the spirit told me that it was for Layla and to give it to you for safe keepin’ until Layla was old enough to wear it,” Mama said.