The Skeleton Key Page #3

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She shops at a place in Algiers.

Look, you said the house

had a history, right?

- Hoodoo is pretty harmless.

- Harmless how?

It's psychological, like a lot of that stuff.

It can't hurt you if you don't believe.

So this place your aunt shops at...

Ever seen it?

It's either this street or the next one...

or the next one.

JlLL:
There.

There? That's a Laundromat.

Look, that's all I know.

That's where she goes.

So you coming in or what?

I'm not.

I thought you don't believe in this stuff.

I don't.

But I'm not just going

to mess around with it.

So, you wanna go in, go ahead.

You're scared.

- Jill the Thrill is scared.

- Kiss my ass.

You're never gonna live this down.

We come all the way out here-

I'm not scared.

VlOLET:
Good night, Caroline.

Good night.

[banging on door]

I told you about the mirrors.

I don't understand.

This is not your house.

I found them.

I needed a mirror for my bathroom-

I told you, and you heard me. No mirrors.

No mirrors!

I've seen the room.

- What room?

- The room you say you've never seen.

It's not locked anymore.

No, child, you don't know

what you've seen.

You're gonna tell me right now.

Or I'm leaving.

You're not from the South.

You won't understand.

That room up there,

you just don't go in and...

throw things out of a room like that.

You leave them just where you found them.

The house is theirs just as much as ours.

The house is whose?

Whose things are in that room?

All right.

About 90 years ago...

there was a banker here,

his name was Thorpe.

He made his fortune cheating the poor.

He was a mean man. He was a cruel man.

It was him, and his family,

and couple of servants...

name of Mama Cecile and Papa Justify.

Sit down.

Now...

the way I heard it, old man Thorpe,

he didn't know...

that Papa Justify was

a "two-headed doctor."

He was a conjure man. So was Cecile.

- They believed in-

- Hoodoo.

Yeah.

That was their room.

VlOLET:
They were famous

all through the bayous.

They healed the sick

and they hurt the mean.

"Hit a straight lick with a crooked

stick," as the coloreds say.

But old Thorpe, he just saw them as help.

And he worked them to the bone.

He abused them.

Until one night, as the story goes...

there was a party.

VlOLET:
It was the bank's anniversary,

all the big mucketymucks were here.

Politicians, sugar barons, riverboat tycoons.

There was a lot of drinking and dancing...

and a couple of trysts, I'm sure.

And then, finally,

when it was time to say farewell...

some of the guests wanted

to wish goodbye to the children.

But nobody could find them.

They hadn 't seen them in hours.

So, being all full of brandy,

they made it a game.

"Let's Find the Children. "

Room after room after room.

Finally, someone heard music...

Martin? Grace?

... and voices and shouting...

up in the attic.

[Record] From the devil's house.

[Record] It is time, Lord.

VlOLET:
The servants were up there

with the children.

They were trying to teach them

how to conjure hoodoo.

MAN:
And take his head.

Thorpe went about insane,

and so did the rest of the guests.

I mean, how long had this blasphemy

been going on?

The children said it was their

fault, that they'd wanted to learn.

But they weren 't having any of that.

[Woman screaming]

All that power and rage and insanity.

The party was over.

It was a terrible thing.

Terrible.

Rumors got out, But no arrests, no trial.

Money had its way.

What happened to the family?

The bank went under.

Thorpe shot his wife to death,

and then turned the gun on himself.

People in the bayou say

it was Justify and Cecile's revenge.

The children stayed here till '62.

But they never, ever, told us

why that room was locked.

Or why there were no mirrors

in the whole house.

Now we know.

You know what?

You see them in the mirrors.

Who?

The servants.

I've gone and read

some hoodoo books, and they say...

- putting brick dust down will keep harm away.

- Mrs. devereaux.

So I made a big circle of it around

the whole house.

You can't expect me to believe

you see ghosts in your mirrors.

The ghosts are here now.

But whatever they did to him...

I am not going to let them do it to me.

Now you'll leave...

Iike all the rest of them.

That's some superstitious wife

you got there, Ben.

She thinks you have ghosts in the attic.

Spooky, huh?

Ouch.

Hold on. I'll be right back.

She says you see them in the mirrors.

Ghosts in the mirrors.

I'm sorry, Ben.

Ben, stop it.

Relax. I'm so...

I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry.

You see them, too.

I'm going to town.

Shopping.

VlOLET:
What for, Caroline?

Caroline, what for?

We'll just have to see.

[Thunder rumbling]

MAMA CYNTHlA:
He won't beat you again.

CUSTOMER:
Mama Cynthia,

he beat me last night.

CYNTHlA:
You use the potion

that I'm gonna fix for you...

and it won't happen again.

I will promise you that.

CUSTOMER:
I'm scared.

CYNTHlA:
Don't be afraid.

CUSTOMER:
Are you sure that I can do it?

CYNTHlA:
I know it will. It will work.

Just do as I say. Don't be afraid.

It will work, and it won't happen again, ever.

Don't worry about it. He won't hit you again.

Just use this potion I mixed up.

I have a lot of things in here.

And you use it as I told you.

- Okay, I'll trust you, Mama.

- You'll do fine.

That brick dust at the door,

how does it work?

You lay a line down.

Nobody that means you harm can cross it.

It's how you tell who your enemies are.

It's like hypnotism, right?

Suggestion?

And when this stuff works, it's

because someone believes it works?

And if you thought, you know...

magic made you sick...

you might believe in a magic cure, right?

Even though it's all in your head.

Somebody been working roots on you.

Say I knew someone

who believed he'd been...

- Crossed.

- Crossed.

Would he believe he could be uncrossed?

What's the nature of his condition?

He can't speak. Barely moves.

He had a stroke...

but he seems to think

someone else made him that way.

And you want to know

what happened to him?

Yes.

JlLL:
You went in there.

You actually went in.

Are you out of your mind?

Come on. Haven't you ever heard

of psychosomatic treatment?

Yeah. But this is not that.

How much of a patient's recovery

depends on his believing he can?

What recovery? This is hospice.

You're just supposed to help this guy die.

He believes in this stuff.

So what? Who is he to you?

Forget it.

No, you forget it. He's not your dad.

Not this one, the last, or the one before.

Why are the two of you so attached?

I'm sorry, Cary.

Just so you know,

if I'm not attached to him...

I'm abandoning him.

Attached is better.

I know. Cary, I'm sorry. Okay?

But would you look at yourself?

You want to be a nurse and you

just walked out of a witch doctor's.

It's not for me.

[On radio] Forecasters are calling

for up to a foot of rain...

in the coastal areas...

as this storm makes its way across

the delta, starting overnight.

Radar already shows

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