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In the west part of the city there exists a community of small black churches, nursing homes, home-run daycares, small businesses and many hardworking individuals. There is an underground network where certain services are available. It is it's own well-kept secret and movement within that circle is risky.
I know a healer/intuitive named Knalyi. By day she is a nurse, working with the elderly at a convalescent home. She dresses in native African-American fashion- donning colorful dresses that swish, long-beaded dreadlocks and heavy cuff jewelry. Her green/gold eyes add to the mystique and her sensuality. When evening falls she is "Spiritwomon" - counseling, laying on of hands and performing "procedures." About six months ago, a friend of mine sent a young man to Knalyi for some "counseling". He is about 27, slender black male, with learning disabilities. His dilemma revolved around his inability to cope with the fact that he was gay. His struggle came about because the church he attended preached against that lifestyle with fire and brimstone and the certainty of going to hell. Daniel is a gentle soul, with child-like innocence that charms the hardest of hearts. Daniel revealed his pain and shame to Knalyi, who listened with compassion as she held his hand in hers. "Help me," he pleaded. Knalyi could do no less than cry for this boy...and offered him a solution. "Daniel,there is a way to remain pure and gain your place in the kingdom," she softly said to him. "Miss Ni, I just want to go to heaven." Daniel wept. "I am here. I am Spiritwomon,no?" she stated. "Yes, you are." he replied. "You can attain a holy status, Daniel, if I take away your desire to do things that keep you from the light." she offered. "I will cut out that which keeps you from attaining the kingdom,"she went on. "Tell me, Miss Knalyi." he pleaded. Knayli looked at him seriously. "Daniel, if I cut off your testicles, you won't feel the temptation to do what is shaming you." "You will always be you, but enlightened." Daniel's hands went straight to his crotch as if to protect them. "I will not hurt you, Daniel and no one has to know. Your secret is safe with me and your spirit will again soar," she plyed him. "Ok" he said timidly. A time was set in the evening for the following week. In the meantime,Knalyi had pilfered pads, medication, and other tools of the trade from the convalescent home. She felt they owed her anyway, for all the "extras" she had given the residents. The week passed and Daniel rang the buzzer to her third-floor victorian apartment. She answered him in a dazzling pink and gold get-up. They sat and prayed together. Her Rwandan chanting filling the room, lulling Daniel into acquiesence. They walked to the basement where upon what was a ping-pong table,was now an operating theatre. The laundry cart acted as a tray for her many instruments, needles and other accoutrements. She gently urged him to lie back onto the blanketed, padded table. Soft chanting from a tape played for Daniel. She offered him some valium to relax his nervous body. She turned around as he stripped and donned a pilfered hospital gown. She eased him into the restfulness by running her fingers along his cheeks and hair. Knalyi injected his groin area with the proper anethestic. Covered in scrubs and using the laundry tub to prepare for the operation, she blessed him and offered a prayer to the deity of "opening the path.". She blessed the scalpel as Daniel lay awaiting his resurrection. Knalyi cut with the precision of a trained surgical nurse and removed the testicles, preserving them in a nearby chosen jar. She cut away the sac for the smoothest presentation she could give him. He only cried out once, at the initial cut. Not sure he would heal. With love, she sutured him and curled around his head soothing him with words of encouragement and sucure. "You are loved Daniel, now love yourself, you are free and pure." She waited two hours before she called his friend, Pilar to pick him up, checking his blood pressure, his sutures, and providing pain-killers (also pilfered) for the next few days and instructions on the healing process. Daniel kissed her on the cheek and walked up the stairs to the waiting Pilar. "You are Daniel, free from the lion's den", she whispered to him. Epilogue: Daniel spent almost 2 months in the mental ward at the state hospital. He had a breakdown. Knalyi lives with this guilt, and has moved on to NY. The friend who recommended Daniel to Knalyi has told me that he came up to her to say, "Miss B, I'm not gay anymore." A part of me thinks she knows what Knayli did, but at this point, I have no words to back that up.
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