Bad Juju (46 page)

Lucien said something incoherent and then jumped head first into the fire.  The smell of charred flesh made her cough. 
He’s insane!  What did he do to my son?  Father God, where’s Henry?
A sense of peace took hold.  She moved closer toward Jake and Leah.  They knelt over something, crying. 
Wait…That’s Henry! 
Noooooo
!

The smell of burning flesh nauseated her as she approached.  The fire grew bigger.  An orange and yellow fireball catapulted into the sky then exploded like a firework.  She was close enough to hear Jake.

“That must be the Crossroads,” Jake said to Leah.  “The
djab
is gone.  Oh, I forgot to put this around Henry’s neck.”  He removed Lucien’s crystal pendant and pulled it over Henry’s head.

“What about T.J.?  His whatever you called it is…” Leah said.

“Ti-bon-
ange
,” Jake answered.

“His
ti
-bon-
ange
is looming over us,” Leah said as she stared above them.

Jess crept up on them and knelt down over her son.  “We’ll have to pray for all of them, T.J., Lucien, Henry…Is he…”

“Mrs. Novak?  How long have you been…It doesn’t matter.  We don’t know about Henry.  No pulse, no air coming out of his nose.  Lucien saved him.  Actually Lucien and T.J. saved him.  They lured the demon out of him and into themselves,” Jake said.

Jessica positioned herself on her knees and clasped her hands together.  “Guess I was wrong about Lucien.  Care to join me in prayer?”  Jake and Leah clasped their hands.  “Father God, forgive me for my ignorance.  Please be merciful to T.J.  Give him the peace his dead body longs for.  And please be merciful to Lucien.  He died a noble death.  He died to save.  And God, I know Henry was yours before he ever was mine, but you saved him once in Haiti.  Please God, may all of this have a purpose.  God, bring my baby back.  I want my son!”  Jessica sobbed as she stroked her son’s face.

“I’ll try mouth-to-mouth again,” Jake said.  Jessica’s tears were contagious.  The three of them grieved.

The fire’s flames were reduced to a smolder.  A bluish smoke glided above, stopping by the other bluish haze they assumed to be T.J.

“
Look! 
Do you see it?” asked Jake excitedly.

“Look at them.  Right next to each other. 
And now they’re floating away, up towards the sky!
” Jessica said in amazement.

“
May they ascend,” Jake said with awe as they drifted out of sight.

Henry began to stir and then violently hack as he turned to his side.  Jessica hit his back and he vomited different colors of fluids.  His eyes opened, frightened and back to their natural gray-blue.

“Mom?  Where am I?  What happened?” Henry asked after he caught his breath.

“Henry?  You’re alive!  Oh grace be to God.  We got to get you to a hospital!  Can you walk?” Jessica asked as she pulled him up.  Henry staggered to his feet as he leaned on her.  His steps were wobbly, but he could walk.  “I could run back to the car and drive it down here.”

“We got him.  He can use us as a crutch.  The long walk will clear his lungs and do him some good,” Leah said.

“Yeah, we got a lot to tell you, Henry,” Jake said as he placed Henry’s arm around his neck.

They all interrupted each other, eager to tell Henry every detail that happened.  His face remained stoic.  “I’ll miss Lucien.  I hope he’s in Heaven.  I hope he’s with T.J.”

“I think he and T.J. are going to be fine,” said Jake with a smile.

***

Natalie biked up to the community clubhouse on the other side of Lake Hayward.  Besides the pool, the clubhouse featured other amenities such as a game
room, snack bar, sauna, workout area and lounge, all available to residents who lived around the lake.  Many teens used the clubhouse as a hangout during the summer.

Allie met Natalie at the brick and log entrance by the bike rack.  “Hey, saved you a seat.  I’ve never seen it so crowded!”

Natalie followed her friend to their seats she had set up by the shallow side of the pool.

“Natalie, don’t look.  Those boys over by the snack bar are checking us out.  Aren’t they gorgeous!  I think they go to Freemont,” Allie said.

Natalie obliquely saw the group of three and nodded.  “Cut, tan, tall…”

“Oh shit!  I told you not to look!  They’re coming over here!  What do we do?” Allie asked, suddenly a bundle of nerves.

“Too late!  Act natural,” Natalie whispered.

The three boys met their gaze and sauntered to their lounge chairs.  The most handsome of the three began the conversation.  “Hi.  You girls go to Freemont?”  He reminded Natalie of Taylor
Lautner
.

Allie looked too petrified to answer.  “Uh…yes.  We’ll be freshman,” Natalie stuttered.  The boy looked at her in a way that made her both uncomfortable and exhilarated.

“You’ll love it.  I’m Rio and this is Bart, Chad.”

“I’m Natalie.  Natalie Novak.  This is Allie
MacDouglas
.”

“Novak?  You have a brother?” Rio asked.  She nodded, puzzled on how someone like him would know Henry.

Rio grinned, exposing his perfect bleached teeth.  “Truce.  Your brother, Henry, beat the shit out of me last winter. 
Gotta
hand it to him, he’s one strong
mutha
.  He also stole my girlfriend.  No hard feelings.  You might know her, Brittany?”  Natalie and Allie nodded.  “So you must know what happened to her.  Sad.  Had no idea she was on the edge.”

“Quite a coincidence,” Bart said. 

Natalie didn’t know how to react.  She was stuck between defending her brother and wanting Rio and his cool friends to like her.  Silence took over.

“Can I get you girls something from the snack bar?” Chad asked. 

“No, we’re fine.  I’m being rude.  Want to sit down?  I’ll pull up those empty lounge chairs,” Allie said.

Once seated, Bart said, “Rio didn’t mean to suggest…”

“I know,” Natalie interrupted. “It’s fine.  My brother has Asperger’s and he’s not good at reading social cues.  We went to Haiti back in June on a church mission.  Something really bad happened.  We don’t know what, but Henry is not the same.  He’s withdrawn, doesn’t talk at all.  Lots of problems.  Probably won’t be back at school for a while.”

“Bummer.  Sorry.  Hey, how about no more sad stories.  Let’s have some fun before school starts,” Rio said.

The teens hung out in the pool, volleyball court, and pavilion, listening to the band.  By early evening, Natalie checked her phone for the first time-four voicemails and six texts from her parents within the last hour.

“
Gotta
go!  My mom’s worried.  She and my dad are at the hospital.  Something is wrong with Henry,” Natalie said as she threw her belongings into her tote bag.  She said her goodbyes and darted out of the clubhouse.  Rio followed her.

“Natalie, I know this is a bad time, but can I have your number?  We could maybe go out?  Say yes, c’mon.”  He tilted his head and held out his phone.

Smiling, she took his phone and added her name to his contact list.  “See you later.”

He moved in and softly kissed her forehead.  “Hope your brother is okay.”

She rode away in a state of euphoria, feeling guilty about her lack of concern for Henry.  Rio was worth the guilt.  She’d be clinging to her phone, waiting for his call.

Epilogue

Several months later

Jake had a couple hours to kill before starting his shift at
Tilman’s
Rest Home. 
He began working there full-time after graduating high school a semester early. 
He liked his job well enough, but couldn’t fathom doing it for the rest of his life.  The rest of his life…he had no clue what that could even entail.  Today he was officially an adult.  Naively, he thought adulthood would magically provide all of the answers.

After he changed
Mami’s
water and placed a fresh rat in her aquarium, he glanced at the
blank junior college application he printed last week from the college’s website.  It sat on top of his junk mail, daring him to apply.  He wasn’t sure if he wanted to pursue a degree, but thought he could benefit from an education.  He had a shoe box of Lucien’s jewels sitting in his closet.  If he was ever robbed…He already sold one of Lucien’s heavy gold-linked chains at a
Cash for Gold
store.  The heavy chain awarded him $10,000.  He used the money to move out of Leah’s trailer and into his own apartment, learning later on the gold chain could have netted him three times the amount.

He began filling out the application.  Business and finance courses were a must.  College made him think of Lucien.  The old man was the reason college could even be a reality.  All of Lucien’s faults no longer mattered.  He missed the old man almost as much as he missed his mother.

After Lucien died, Jake brought the Voodoo book Lucien gave him to the commons area of the trailer park and torched it.  The
Bizango
Brotherhood was now his past.  He poked around the pit and found the
three
rings Lucien had worn,
still
intact.  He kept them for now.  They would make a nice gift for Henry once he was released from the hospital.  Lucien would have wanted it that way. 

As Jake continued to sift through the fire, he found bones that didn’t ash.  They had to be Lucien’s.  Jake even speculated some of T.J.’s were mixed in.  He took as many as he could carry
, and then
buried them next to his mother’s headstone. 
Lucien and T.J. eternally together, how poetic.
 
They once shared a
ti
-bon-
ange
, now they share a resting place.

In the end Lucien offered protection from the law to both Jake and Henry by leaving a not-so-hidden confession in the bathroom’s waste basket along with T.J.’s dead flesh. 

Lucien was portrayed as a serial killer among the media.  His letter confessed to the murders of Pete
LaRue
,
the caretaker at the nearby cemetery
,
and the attempted murder of Ms. Fontana, claiming he wanted her dead because of her suspicions of his Voodoo black magic.  His letter also declared that he had hypnotized Henry into a rebellion against his doctors and anyone who stood in his way of his escape.  At the cost of his reputation, Lucien wanted both him and Henry protected from the law while giving Hayward some peace.

The police were willing to close most of the cases.  However, they doubted Lucien attempted to kill Candy Fontana.  Instead, whispers and rumor pointed in Henry’s direction.  Brittany was confirmed pregnant, giving Henry a motive.  Still on the hook and very much a suspect, the boy was placed in an institution in hopes of getting some answers to what had happened on the night Brittany died and Candy Fontana was put into a coma.  Jake faithfully visited him once a week.

Lucien’s letter verified what Jake had suspected all along.  The old man sacrificed himself to save Henry as if he knew T.J.’s dead body would not be enough to rid them of the
djab
.  For all of the old man’s talk about good and evil being one in the same, he chose good in the end,
believing
his selflessness would not be rewarded.  To Jake, that was as good as one could get. 
May his last actions count for something with the
loas
, Jake thought. 
It certainly counts for the way I want to live my life. 

Jake filled out the college application and thought of Leah.  Leaving her had broken his heart.  He dated other girls
over the last few months,
but none of them could compare.  He knew if he didn’t leave her, she’d grow to resent him.  Time would eventually wash away his charms.  He also had
Rhianna
to think about.  The little girl already lost her father.  Although a good thing, it was still a loss.  She didn’t need Jake to add further confusion.

Jake gave Leah some of his windfall from the gold chain and suggested she keep on collecting the state’s checks for his foster care.  If she missed him, she could always track him down once he was legally a man. 
She’s not going to remember my birthday.  She probably found someone else.

He arrived early at
Tilman’s
and waited in the
breakroom
until it was time to punch the clock.  His supervisor told him he was needed right away in Room 311.  An ornery patient refused to get out of bed, making it impossible to change the bedding.  Jake punched in ten minutes early and rushed into 311.  Leah and
Rhianna
were sitting on the bed of the empty room, wearing birthday hats.  A clear plastic cake carrier sat on the table.  Jake could see the homemade cake inside.

“Surprise!” exclaimed
Rhianna
, looking more like a little girl than a baby.