Are you some kind of witch doctor… ?
[image error]
I’m sitting with the old sheriff, his big desk between us. He’s cheerful, smiling, telling stories… back in the day.
Behind him and along the walls, rustic paintings, shields, masks. On the desk behind me, a collection of dolls, stuff for potions.
This is his office.
He downplays his reputation, but as we’re talking, there’s a spark, a flash of light.
Something just flew through the air. A tiny bolt of lightning? A visitor will flinch when something unseen collides in the corner of a room.
He smiles. He’s amused, keeps talking.
Ed McTeer was a South Carolina sheriff when Beaufort County was still a patchwork of islands populated by shrimpers and netmakers, basket weavers and root doctors.
McTeer, something of a medicine man himself.
Hard to imagine people today could enforce law and order as he did then. He’d drive out some sandy road, pull over to chat with some folks. If you see Aaron, he’d say, tell him I’d like him to come in.
And he would. Even if it meant jail.
Fair amount of respect.
A tall man, thin, comfortable with his life. They built a new bridge out to Lady’s Island and named it after him.
His daddy had been sheriff. Ed grew up around former slaves and learned the ways. And he learned it’s what people believe that matters.
When his father died, Ed took over his job. He was 22, mebbe 23, still a kid, really. Those were Model-T days, back in the late 20s.
And for nearly 40 years, McTeer would run things. A lifetime. As the years passed, the legend grew. The man had a power. It was best to comply. Others might use that power for darkness. Not Ed.
He would say it was just a matter of understanding people, getting to know them.
He could have felt alone. This was a place said to be full of haunts. But the thing about Ed, he was confident. He learned some conjuring from the old men, he said. And he was born with a gift.
He tells more stories, but it’s all about the same thing. His kind of lawman was gentle, easy, respectful. But he was tough. He didn’t step away from a challenge. He kept the peace. Didn’t carry a gun.
But he could cast a spell.
I walk to the door. There’s a sudden crackling and I can smell smoke. I look, but there’s nothing there.

