Abnormal Lives (9 page)

Simone and Stefan sat at a small table in a room on the second floor of the hotel. They looked out of the window, watching the cars that cruised up and down Broad Street as they waited for Ivan to retrieve his friend from the adjoining room.

Stefan sighed. “I hope my client's as fine as that thing you're gonna be romping with tonight.”

Simone looked at Stefan and smiled. “He probably will be. You know what they say; birds of a feather...”

“Well, I hope this little birdie has a tongue he wants to put to work as badly as yours does.”

Ivan swung open the door to the adjoining room and stepped to the side as his friend walked in. Stefan's eyes widened and Simone smirked as they eyed the blond, spike-haired man. Tattoos overlapped his face and thoroughly covered both arms. Strains of thread hung loosely from the arms of his tee where the sleeves had been torn off and his stomach protruded and hung over his black boot-cut jeans. He turned to Stefan and smiled, revealing his enamel-striped teeth. He then walked over and extended his hand to Stefan.

“You must be Stefan. I'm Earl.”

Stefan reached out his hand and Earl kissed it. Stefan looked at Simone and rolled his eyes. He was pissed and Simone was tickled
to the point of no return. Stefan's face turned three different shades of red and Simone's grin became broader with the change in his color.

Earl motioned toward the door. “I think it's time to retreat to my quarters, don't you?”

Stefan sighed and made his way to the door where Earl stood.

Earl leaned forward and licked Stefan on his lips. “Smile; we're going to have a lot of fun tonight.”

They walked into the adjoining room and shut the door.

Ivan turned to Simone and smiled. “Would you like something to drink?”

“Sure, why not.”

Ivan's smile made Simone wonder what sort of acts Stefan might've begun to perform on the not-so-handsome, gray-toothed man in the next room. She sat there with her hands on her stomach, giggling to herself as she imagined what Stefan was being subjected to.

Paris stood in front of the altar in the corner of his room. His naked body was still wet from his ritual bath. He allowed the warm breeze coming in from his window to dry his body as he prepared for his spell work. He held his intention clear in his mind while he anointed a purple candle with Just Judge oil. The purpose of his spell was to get the charges against Crystal thrown out at his preliminary hearing. Paris invoked Isis, lit the candle, knelt in front of his altar, and prayed Psalms 37 repeatedly.

Paris had been interested in the occult since his mother had taken him to a New Age bookstore. His mother was desperate for his father to come home. His father had left a week earlier.
He had gotten his mistress pregnant. Paris overheard his father explain to his mother how he could not walk away from his mistress, how she was so young and vulnerable. Paris listened as his father asked his mother what kind of man he would be if he turned his back on his mistress after planting his seed, knowing she had no one else to look out for her. Paris watched his mother beg his father to stay as she tried to wrestle the trash bag he carried his belongings in out of his hand. His father shoved his mother away and walked out of the door. Paris hoped his father never came back. He was tired of his father's criticism about the tone of his voice and how he held his head down and swung his arms when he walked like a little wimp. But his mother spent days in the bed crying. She didn't bother to bathe, brush her teeth, or comb her hair; she just lay there groaning about how she could not live without him.

At the end of the week, his mother got out of bed and put on a pair of sweatpants and a blue tee with a college logo on the front and a big hole under the arm. His mother woke him up and told him to throw on some clothes so he could accompany her to the store. Paris was so happy his mother was out of bed, he put on the wrinkled clothes he had worn the day before and ran downstairs to ride with her to the store.

The exterior of the store had the visage of an antique shop but as soon as Paris walked through the door he was greeted by candles, incense, powders, New Age books, and washes that brought fortune and dissolved various problems. Paris scanned the store while his mother consulted with the shop owner about a spell to bring his father back.

Paris was drawn to a picture of a tall, slender woman who wore a sheath dress and held a staff in her right hand and an ankh in her left hand. The woman had dark eyes that appeared to be able
to disregard flesh and look right into the soul, and a throne sat on her head. She stood out from the other deities that were displayed throughout the shop. She was beautiful but her stance was one of strength and fearlessness. Paris asked the shop owner about the woman while his mother gathered the supplies listed in the spell book the shop owner had shown her. The shop owner told Paris that the woman was the goddess Isis. She explained that Isis was the mother of all mankind and the goddess of magic. Isis loved all of her children, sinners and saints, and she heard the prayers of the wealthy as well as the oppressed. She went on to tell Paris invocations of Isis were extremely powerful, being that they not only involved her powers but the powers of her offspring, the god Horus, as well. The shop owner showed Paris a book about Isis that he could read to find out more about her. Paris asked his mother to purchase the book for him. His mother ignored him, only concerned with buying the spell book the shop owner had shown her and the supplies for her spell. Paris pleaded with his mother and told her that she wouldn't have to give him his allowance for two weeks if she bought the book for him. His mother snatched the book out of his hand and put it on the counter so it could be rung up.

Paris peeked in on his mother as she performed the spell to bring his father back. He could feel the energy in the room increase as his mother chanted. Later that night he snuck into his mother's room and took the spell book out of her underwear drawer. He had to learn the craft. The knowledge of it would be beneficial to him in the future but he had no idea how soon he would actually use it.

Within three weeks, Paris's father was back and his mother loved his father more than ever. His mother directed all of her attention to his father and began to ignore him. His father was
more critical of him than ever. Every time Paris spilled something or knocked something over, his father would call him a doofus. When he retreated to his room to read his mother's spell book, or his book about Isis, his father would poke his head into his room to tell him how strange he was for reading such nonsense and how he should be out playing with other boys his age instead of wasting his time reading about demonic shit. He would finish the conversation by telling Paris that if he caught him trying to work a root up in his house, he would beat him within two inches of his life. Paris was upset that his mother never intervened and told his father how helpful the craft could be; especially since she had it to thank for bringing him back.

A man named Larry, one of Paris's father's friends, was the only outlet that Paris had. Larry would come home with Paris's father after work so they could sit around and smoke marijuana. Although Larry spent most of his time talking to Paris's father and mother, he would find time in between to talk to Paris to see how his day had gone and help him with his homework.

Larry offered for Paris to come over his house to get help with his homework. He assured Paris that there would be fewer distractions there. Paris had taken him up on his offer and went to his house to do his homework.

Larry leaned over Paris's shoulder, explaining how to come up with the correct answers to his equations. Paris turned around to ask Larry a question and their lips touched. Larry did not turn away, nor did Paris resist. During the fourteen years he had been on earth, Larry was the only male who had ever paid him any attention and the only male that had ever shown him any type of love. Larry did not have to tell Paris not to tell anyone, or that it was their little secret; Paris already knew.

After a few months passed, Paris began to think of himself and
Larry as an item. His relationship with Larry made him feel loved. That love gave him the confidence he needed to be content with himself.

One afternoon, Paris came home from school and saw Larry sitting in the living room with his arm around a light-skinned female. Paris's mother and father announced to him that Larry was getting married and the female was his fiancée, Jackie, whom he had purchased a house with. Paris looked at Larry and Larry looked away. Paris's eyes filled up with tears and he ran upstairs to his room and slammed the door. He could not believe Larry would do something like that to him. The love he had felt was fake. All the time Larry had spent showing him affection was only a scheme to gain access to his body until he found someone that he liked more. He couldn't believe Larry had the nerve to sit in his home with his arms wrapped around some woman. Paris hated her; green eyes, long, stringy brown hair, and all. And to make matters worse, she had a body out of this world. One that women dreamed of having but could only be witnessed on cartoon characters little Betty Boop and Jessica Rabbit. The kind of body he wished his head were attached to. Paris wanted Larry to pay for his deceit and he was not about to wait on karma. If he waited on karma, he might not be around to witness Larry's misfortune and he wanted to witness it as soon as possible.

Paris went in his parents' room and searched his father's pants pockets. He took twenty dollars and then slipped out of the back door and walked to the New Age store to purchase spell supplies.

Paris was nervous about casting his first spell. He had practiced performing rituals and visualization but he was not sure if that was enough. He planned to stay in his room the entire night. He shoved a towel under his door so the scent of burning wax and incense wouldn't go out into the hallway. He doubted that the
little bit of smoke that seeped through the vents would alarm his parents. He would have been surprised if they could have smelled it over their cigarette and marijuana smoke. Paris opened the window so the smoke from his candles and incense could escape his room and carry his spell out into the world. He took his pre-ritual bath and gridded his space with stones. He held the image of his intention in his mind's eye while he cast the spell three times. He visualized Larry and his fiancée arguing, pushing dishes off of the table, calling each other derogatory names, and breaking their vows of happiness. In his mind's eye, he saw Larry sitting at the table resting his head in his hands, weak from hunger; his heartache prevented him from eating. His lips were chapped and his arms were thin and flabby from his weight loss. Larry would feel as inadequate as he made him feel and it would drive him to tears and to the point of madness.

Paris looked at the clock. The night had passed and it was two o'clock in the morning. He was exhausted and decided to take a nap before he disposed of the leftover materials from his spell. As he slept, the energy from his spell surged through his body and brought him a dream.

Paris sat at the table doing his homework while his mother and father watched television in the living room. There was a knock on the door and, all of a sudden, Larry floated through the door, defying the laws of the physical realm. Larry screamed for help and said someone was trying to ruin him; someone was trying to kill him. The screams jolted Paris out of his sleep. Paris went into the bathroom and splashed water on his face, and then went back into his room to prepare the final part of his spell. The final part of his spell was sure to speed things up. He filled a small gris-gris bag with the contents said to bring quarrels and ill luck to the person whose home it entered. Among its contents were
black pepper and animal feces. Paris slipped out of the house and walked four blocks down to Larry's house and slipped the gris-gris bag through the mail slot in the door. Afterward, Paris walked to the store and bought a bag of chips so if his parents had woken up while he was gone and decided to question him about his whereabouts, he would say that he had been to the store and he would have the chips to prove it.