Bad Juju (7 page)

The state of Wisconsin initially stepped in, securing Jake a home with his mother’s cousin he barely knew.  She and her husband weren’t around very often, but he liked them.  Nosy neighbors reported their neglect, landing him in the foster care system for couple of years.  Once his mother’s brother found out he could make over a thousand dollars a month as a foster parent, he suddenly became paternal.

At thirteen years old
,
Wisconsin’s child services officially placed Jake with Uncle Pete and his wife, Auntie Leah, in a trailer park on the outskirts of town.  Jake’s uncle’s home fit the stereotype: two rusted out jalopies in a littered front yard of beer bottles and cigarette butts.  But the remainder of the park was tidy, well-kept, and held a majority of elderly tenants.  Jake’s uncle and aunt still found others like them who liked to party, but because of the neighbors, they kept their socializing to a dull roar.

Jake’s room was on the opposite side of his guardians.  Even though the trailer was small, he was fortunate enough to have his own attached bathroom.  Soon this would change.  Leah was
several months
pregnant.  They planned on using the extra room that was designed to be a walk-in closet for the baby. 
Three years
later, Leah’s brother, T.J. McGrath, moved in temporarily, causing more stress on the already cramped living quarters.  He claimed he would only stay for a month or two until he could patch things up with his girlfriend, Mona.  Although Jake somewhat liked T.J., he understood why she threw him out.  T.J. wasn’t particularly ambitious, preferring drunkenness over fulltime work.

Jake shamefully found his aunt very attractive.  She was only four years older than him and dressed in low-cut, clingy outfits always accessorized with high heels.  Her hair was bright blonde with black outgrowth, and tattoos covered her shoulders.  Although she was still so young, she had the hardened look of a washed-up woman just
trying to survive, as if she permanently was broken.  And she could be mean, especially in the morning after a long night of drinking.  But she also could be kind, and was the only one in his home who ever remembered his birthday.

His uncle was beyond mean, beating on Jake and Leah during his drunken blackouts throughout the years Jake had lived there.  He kept quiet, scared to wind up somewhere else with new guardians.

Jake
was thankful for his
elderly neighbors
.  They
welcomed his attention.  He’d help them unload groceries or plant bushes or paint - whatever they needed.  In return, they would feed him, pay him, or insist he stay with them and visit. 
Lucien was his favorite
.

Lucien was old, at least eighty years old, quite possibly a hundred.  With his wild, long white hair, black skin, and hazel eyes he looked like a character out of a horror movie.  His Haitian accent only added to his mystique.  But his warmth, compassion, and quick wit were why Jake kept coming over.  They would play cards, chess, Scrabble, or just talk.  Jake adored Lucien’s pet boa constrictor,
Mami
.  He’d take her out of her cage and hold her every time that he was over.   

Lucien also had some fascinating stories from when he lived in Haiti.  He was once a
bokor
or a Voodoo priest back in his hometown.  Jake begged Lucien to teach him some aspects of the Voodoo religion.  Lucien enthusiastically agreed and began teaching him some of the symbols of the
loas
or spirits of the Cosmos.  Jake hung onto every word.

While
Jake was little he
remembered his uncle as being a quiet man, never warm, never part of the family.  Jake’s mother said very little about him, giving Jake the impression that she didn’t like him.  A family member had made some negative comments about Pete during Jake’s grandma’s funeral.  Apparently
,
his uncle couldn’t attend because he was locked up.  Jake was only eight years old at the time.  Pete must have been let out early because Jake remembered spending the next Christmas with him.  When
his
mother had gotten sick Pete could not be counted on to visit or help her out.

Once Jake was placed with his uncle in foster care, he realized why his mom kept her distance. 
Pete’s mood swings made
him
feel like he was
walking on
broken glass.
 
His uncle looked
even
scarier than he acted.  He was huge in a former football player
gone fat kind of way.  His blue eyes were
filled with
ice. 
Greed, lust, and anger
were
the only things that motivated him. 

Jake saw their
relationship
as give-and-take.  He
needed a guardian until he turned eighteen
,
and
Pete
needed the
state of Wisconsin’s
assistance checks for foster parenting
.
  Once he was an adult, all ties between them would be permanently severed.  There would be no family cook-outs or Thanksgiving invites.
Getting away from his uncle, the foster system, and all threats of living in a group home
were the rays of
light
seen
at the end of his tunn
el.

Jake didn’t know what he wanted to do after high school, but planned on getting his own place, finding a job, and trying college.  He was almost there, less than two years away.  Unknown to his uncle, he saved a few thousand dollars from doing odd jobs throughout the trailer park for his elderly neighbors.

After Henry’s mother picked him up, Jake and Lucien continued watching the earthquake coverage, flipping back and forth to news channels during commercial breaks.  Lucien invited him to stay for dinner, offering some frozen Stouffer’s lasagna.  Jake gratefully accepted.  He felt safe with Lucien, and had grown to love the man like a father.  The alternative of going home only added to the invitation’s appeal.

The phone simultaneously rang at the same time Lucien put the lasagna in the oven.  He struggled to answer it before the machine went off.  “Yes?” he answered.  “Oh, he’s here.  We were just about to eat some dinner. 
Here.
”

While
Jake
detangl
ed
the long, curly knotted cord,
he
wondered if anyone else in America had
failed to purchase
a cordless phone.  Assuming it was his uncle,
he
cautiously spoke.  “Yeah, sure.  Can I eat here?  Okay, then I’ll be right home,” Jake hung up.  “
Gotta
go.  They want me to baby-sit
Rhianna
.  They are all going to th
is
new place my aunt waitresses at.  See you tomorrow.  Can I bring Henry over again?”  Lucien nodded.  “To
Bondye
.  And Papa
Legba
.”

Chapter 9

Jake was greeted by his aunt with a gourmet dinner of micro-waved hotdogs and Lay’s potato chips.  This was a real treat compared to other dinners
they
had fed him
. 

“Eat up.  You know what to do,” she said and kissed his forehead.  Her fuzzy sweater
reeked
of marijuana
and accentuated her
gigantic breasts.
 

Pete, Leah, and her brother, T.J.,
left
.  S
everal uneventful hours went by.  Jake read the
almost three-
year old
stories, watched cartoons, and then put her to bed. 
Rhianna
was like a sister to him. 
He
f
elt guilty as he looked at
her ‘room
’
which was
better used as a storage closet or
possible
area for a
double-stacked washer and dryer. 
A
small
air mattress took up the floor space
,
and her clothes were shelved above her head. 
Rhianna
hugged and kissed him goodnight.  She would be the only one he
’d
miss once he was gone.

He watched an hour more of the news and then finally turned in.  A few hours later he was awoken by a heated argument.  He could hear every word through the paper thin walls that separated his room from the living room.

“You’re a God-damned slut!  Whore!  How could you…He was touching your…All over!” Pete bellowed.

“How dare you!  You’re the one who told me to get up on the stage and make some real money!” Leah screamed back.  T.J. tried playing mediator
, but his
slurred words were ignored.

“But then a lap dance?  You waste no time
,
you
little
cunt! 
Kinda
like you
’ve
been stripping
since you started working there
and lying about it!”

“If you weren’t such as lazy drunken slob then maybe I wouldn’t have to work!  Someone has to pay for things around here.  You sure
a
in’t
…”

Oh no! 
Smackdown
time!
thought Jake, too afraid to move.  He hated it when his uncle got like this.  These violent moods were usually alcohol induced.  The familiar sounds of s
laps, thuds, cracks, and painful
moans
were on the other side of his
bedroom door. 
He heard
Rhianna
’s
crying in the
background.

“
Rhi
, go back to bed.  Mommy’s alright!” yelled T.J. who was trying to calm Pete down.

Jake
rolled out of bed and
army
crawled to the doorway.  Looking through the opening that separated the door from the carpeting, he saw Leah’s head bloodied.  She l
ay
limp on the floor.  Pete stopped hitting her.  His whole demeanor changed.  With a wolf
ish
expression
,
he began to unbuckle his belt.

Rhianna’s
screams got
closer
.
  She must have
darted
to the other side of the living room
, putting her
smack-dab in front of Jake’s bedroom door.  He could
now
see her foot.  It partially blocked his view. 
Shit!  Can’t get involved!  If I open the door…

“Pete, what the hell is a matter with you?  Stop it!  She’s passed out.  You beat her into a coma, man!  And now you’re
gonna
…Sober up and think of what you’re doing!  Right in front of your daughter!” T.J. yelled. 

Is he
suicidal?
  Jake knew his uncle would make T.J. regret his words.  Like Leah, T.J. was small
. 
H
e was filled with faults, but violence was not one of them. 
On perfect cue, Jake could hear his uncle’s bare fists hooking T.J. in the jawbone. 
Rhianna’s
screams turned into full-blown hysteria.  The poor
girl
was hyperventilating
while desperately
grasping Jake’s locked doorknob for refuge. 
I don’t want to be involved!  Go back to your closet and lay still!
 

“
Jakey
,
Jakey
,
pwwweeeze
!”
Rhianna
sobbed.

Jake couldn’t take her suffering any longer. 
Quickly unlocking the door, he grabbed the little girl and pulled her inside his room and then relocked the door.

The living room had grown eerily quiet.  Jake had a difficult time hearing while
Rhianna
wailed.  “It’s okay now.  Try to be quiet,” he whispered, straining to hear. 
Nothing but silence
was
on the other side of his door.  His
heart rate
doubled
. 
Always quiet before the storm
. 
Was it over?  Or was I
next
?
  He slid on his gym shoes
, took a
can of
Comet
cleaner
from his bathroom,
and crept up to the only window in the room.  It was small, but Jake knew he could fit through. 
T
hen
came the
sound he was waiting for. 
Click, click, click
.  Pete was
delicately
trying to open the door
.  He now
knew it was locked.

“Jake, open up!  Let me get
Rhianna
and put her to bed.  Adults just having adult conversation.  Can’t a man have any privacy in his own home?”