As "Stare at the Same Fires" opens we find a wilted Charley (Dawn-Lyen Gardner) sitting at some bar in New Orleans drinking away her sorrows. She begins venting to the bartender in a very un-Charley-like fashion and though he tries to suggest that she slow down or call someone to help her Charley simply puts on her sunglasses and keeps on drinking. Charley has given up. After the fire at the Mill, Romero's (Walter Perez) rejection, Blessing & Blood and everything in between, she has nothing left to give.
Somewhere else in Lousiana, Nova (Rutina Wesley) finds herself on the doorstep of her mama's cousin, who lives in a large white house in a rural area. As Nova approaches the house, the two women gleefully greet one another. Ms. Martha is a regal woman who works as a healer. She tells Nova that she is the spitting image of her late mother, Trudy. Nova seems grateful to have a family member to grasp on to. She also tells Ms. Martha that the place feels familiar to her. It turns out that Trudy used to bring Nova to visit her cousin. Those visits stopped once Nova turned three.
The women have a long sit down where they discuss family, healing, and Ms. Martha's past. Nova also reveals to Martha that her mama has been visiting her in her dreams. Martha, in turn, reveals some things that shake Nova to her core. She learns that she was never a burden to her mother. She also learns that her father buried her mother's body on their land. For years, Nova was under the impression that her mama was cremated.
Continue reading at Shadow and Act.
Image: OWN.