Bad Juju (16 page)

Once they arrived
at Shady Oaks
, Lucien coached Jake into
correcting
the bungled hex
that led to
T.J.
’s death.
  The boy was beyond nervous.  “Be patient,” Lucien advised.

Jake awkwardly hid the poppet under T.J.’s body and sprinkled the contents of the gris-gris inside of T.J.’s suit
as he lay inside of his casket
.  Some remnants of the
mixture
were
lightly dusted over T.J.’s mouth. 
Henry’s sister who was behind them
in line
,
noticed and loudly questioned what the material was. 
Jake’s expression looked like the
picture
of guilt.  Feeling eyes upon them, Lucien glanced to the other side of the room.  He
locked eyes with the
mortician, but the mortician quickly looked away.
  He
had been
watching them. 
Did he know
our
intentions?
Lucien wondered.

“Jake, get a hold of yourself
.
 
It looks
like
dirt and dried up leaves.  It could have fallen from one’s coat or blown up from the vent.  Relax!”

The mortician hurried over to the casket in response to Natalie’s loud comment and wiped the
light sprinkling of
earthy mixture into his
handkerchief
and then pocketed it.

“See.  The little mess is all gone. 
Our prayers, the mixture, the Voodoo doll…
Part of T.J.’s s
oul
can now
ascend into the
C
osmos
.”

“How?” Jake asked.

“He
and the
loas
have
your apology
.  There is no
need
for him
to come back.
”  Lucien saw the dumbstruck look on his face.  “I’ll explain later.  My house this week.  Bring Henry.  He will be of some use.  And don’t worry so much.  You’ve just turned a
wrong into a right.  The
loas
are going to like you.  You will be one of the best
bokors
in Wisconsin.”  Lucien hugged him and smiled.  “Now I’ve got to say something comforting to your aunt.  She loved him very much.”

Lucien
joined Ed and his other neighbors as they inched their way over to Leah.  After they gave her their condolences, Lucien was pleased they came.  Their presence seemed to move her.  Pete, on the other hand, looked bored, even
annoyed
.

On the way home, Ed invited everyone inside for a drink.  All were anxious to
hear
each other’s spin of the service.  T.J.’s death
evoked
plenty of gossip and conjecture throughout the trailer park. 
Pete was universally disliked.

Ed poured Lucien and his three other neighbors each a hefty glass of Scotch.  He was anxious, as if he had tantalizing information to share.

“Some of you may not know this, but my son
is a Hayward cop
. 
Pete’s got himself quite a rap sheet-lots of Drunk and
Disorderlies
, DUI, Assault and Battery, Weapon without a Permit, maybe some other little things, but up until now, he hasn’t really done a lot of time in jail.  He’s claiming T.J. was the one who
got drunk, demanded
to
go
over
to his ex
-girlfriend
’s
house
, and brought
Pete’s gun with him. 
T.J.
supposedly
w
ent ballistic after learning the ex-girlfriend changed the locks
.  He then
supposedly
fired three
rounds of
bullets at the front door in order to get inside. 
And then
supposedly
kicked down the door, and there was the new boyfriend, waiting for him with a baseball bat
, smacking him into
permanent
unconsciousness,” Ed shared
, dripping with sarcasm
.

“What the hell was Pete doing while all of this was going on?” Esther
Muddraker
questioned.

“Well,
according
to him, he
was just a victim in all this. 
Poor man was only
helping his
brother-in-law and
best
friend get back t
ogether with his ex-girlfriend,” Ed said.

“
Bullshit!
” exclaimed Esther.

“We all know
T.J. was scared to death of Pete.  I can’t see him
taking his gun
or even
demanding
Pete
to
do anything, let alone
go
over to the
ex
-girlfriend
’s. 
The only true part of the story was T.J. being drunk.  You know what I think?  I think Pete set the whole thing up.  He resented T.J. living there.  If only T.J.’s ghost could go tell the police what really happened. 
Well I’m not afraid of the bastard. 
I told my son I would testify
about what a psycho Pete really is. 
But I guess it doesn’t matter.  T
he police
will
probably drop the charges later this month.  Lucien, you’re close with Jake.  Is there anything else you could add?”
asked Ed.

Lucien shook his head and remained quiet while the others spew
ed out never-ending questions. 
He had grown tired of the conversation and got up to leave.  As he opened the front door, he said, “
God doesn’t like ugly.”

Ed briefly froze and the shook his head.  “Funny, that’s what my wife
would
always sa
y
when it suited the discussion.  I never heard anyone else ever use that
phrase
until today.”

Lucien nodded and left.  He walked back to his trailer, shivering,
not because of the subzero temperatures, but because of fear. 
Exploiting the dead had
always
had
drawbacks, but not like this.  Maureen
Carillo
had
used Lucien to communicate with her husband. 
My time is almost up.

***

A few days after T.J. was buried, Lucien
once again
turned to
the
loas
for a disguise, or more specifically a
shape-shifting
. 
He planned on capturing
T.J.’s
ti
-bon-
ange
.  After he made meticulous preparations
, Lucien prayed
f
or a
l
oa
to
would transform him into an animal.

Lucien
had an empty
govi
fastened around his neck.  He lit homemade candles made from paraffin, fingernails, and hair.  He then
drank a
potion of
rum,
powdered bone
, and safflower
while
Mami
,
his snake
,
slither
ed
around
the floor
.  Making sure the blinds were shut, he began
the ritual.  For over an hour, h
e beat a series of intricate rhythms on his drums while chanting in broken French and English. 
Doubt set in.  Maybe death
was much too close to call in more favors. 

Then the familiar
orgasmic
sensation overwhelmed him.  As the
loa
mounted
his body, he rolled his eyes back in ecstasy. 
He was ready
.  Stripping down to nothing, Lucien allowed himself to be lead outside of his trailer.  Standing naked in the deep freeze of winter, he shivered. 
What would I become? 

An animal
coat covered
his
body
,
and he
felt himself shrinking. 
Once on all fours, he saw his gray and white paws.  A large wolf
?  No, much bigger
,
a loup-garou
or
werewolf. 
With grace and agility, he ran into the cemetery, easily jumping over the eight
foot high gate that was locked due to closing.  It
was well
past midnight.  Lucien had briefly lost his sense of direction. 
Once he found the
visitor center
, he knew the way to
T.J.’s grave.  Oddly, the lights were on inside and a white sedan was parked in the lot.

The twilight hour
and the shape-shifting
should have given him the
privacy he required. 
But the smell of fear sailed in the wind. 
Just someone working late
, he reasoned. 
He trotted to the other side of the cemetery
to where
T.J.
was recently buried. 
The ground was dug up
. 
L
ike an apparition,
T.J.’s
ti
-bon-
ange
wafted above his headstone in a
crystal blue haze.

The
loa
exited
Lucien’s
body, leaving
him
in human form. 
Lucien
patiently
waited for
his
loa
t
o take
a
part of the
new
ti
-bon-
ange
. 
Once finished,
Lucien was then allowed to take the remainder.  He leaned in and sucked
the rest
of the blue haze into his mouth and then blew it directly into his
govi
, tightly twisting the cap shut.  He dropped to his knees and prayed f
or T.J.’s afterlife, for Jake,
and
for his family’s absolution. 
He
may have
lived a selfish life
, but he would pay for it. H
is family did
not deserve the bad juju h
e inflicted so many years ago.

Lucien saw the headlights from the distance. 
His
loa
quickly repossessed him, turning him back into
a loup-garou.  There was a car approaching.  He
crouched
down
, hoping the car would pass, but it stopped with its headlights glaring into his
green-
yellow eyes. 
A man got out of the car.  Lucien instantly recognized him as the
mortician from Shady Oaks. 
What was he doing here so late?
 

“
You’re not a wolf! 
I know
your kind! 
You devil! 
It was you who put this
inside that man’s casket!” yelled the mortician as he held up the Voodoo doll Jake had clumsily jammed under the corpse. 
Lucien’s eyes flashed fire.  The man trembled.

Lucien had no time to reason
his way out of this predicament. 
The
loa’s
instinct
took over
his
self-control. 
Unwillingly, he
pounced on the mortician
and mangled his body into tiny, chewed-up pieces
. 
Oh
Bondeye
, what have I done?
 
Lucien l
ooked up to the full moon and howled in misery.  This was not what he had planned.  Grabbing the Voodoo doll with his canine teeth, he trotted back to Chippewa Park, leaving the man
’s remains
on the service road
with his
car
still
running
.  He hoped no one would connect T.J.’s grave to the mortician. 
Once home, t
he
loa
ascended
,
leaving him naked and
barely alive with a
govi
tied around his neck.

Chapter 20

Breaking news this morning right here in Hayward. 
Nicholas
Ben
nings
, part owner of Shady Oaks Funeral Home, was found dead
hours ago this morning. His
mangled
body was found
on
a
n access
road of
St.
Mark
’s Cemetery.  Police and Animal Control units are canvassing the area for large
animals, possibly a dog or wolf. 
We will continue
to
report as details come in.