VooDoo Follies (11 page)

"Yeah, I know," he all but
whispered, "I know."

***

Where There Once Were Two

My dreams played out like a sordid soap-opera,
and not at all unlike my current real life situation. Stephen and
Trevor were both there, both vying for my attention, only in my
dream world Stephen wasn't dead, but Trevor was. It was actually
hurting my head to think about the two of them at this point. If
Stephen weren't an unknown spirit, my choice would have become so
much more complicated. The only thing holding me back from him was
the fact that he wasn't really here.

Somehow, in the wake of my own personal dramas
I didn't see the point in going to school. I probably would have
stayed home too, if Trevor wasn't on my mind. I just wanted to see
him again. He made me laugh, and he was here, physically. I got
dressed and grabbed everything I needed to head out the door.
Stephen was there on the front porch waiting for me as
usual.

"Hey," I said to him.

"Hi." He said back and then we were walking in
silence once again.

"Stephen, about last night,"

"Don't worry about it, Seraphine. You were
right. Besides, remember what I said about hanging around you
because I didn't feel quite so dead and gone that way?" I nodded my
head. "Let's not talk about it anymore okay? It's starting to make
me feel like that."

I was ready to pity him, and had to quickly
wipe the look off my face. I knew what he meant and my pity would
just make things worse. "So, what are you planning on learning in
school today?"

He smiled, realizing I was trying to change
the subject and act normal again. "I was thinking I could go around
reading all the latest gossip that gets passed around class. Then I
can tell you all about it. You can be anti-social all you want, but
there's no need to miss out on the drama that is high
school!"

I laughed at Stephen's enthusiasm on the
subject. "Sounds like a plan, just try not to make me laugh in
class, alright?"

"I make no promises."

"Oh hell, I guess I'm in trouble then!" I
looked up at Stephen as he walked beside me, "So, now instead of
just being the anti-social southern girl, I get to be the creepy
kid who laughs for no apparent reason." I was warm again on the
inside. It was the happy place that Stephen always sent me to.
Talking to him was always so effortless.

I sat through English class getting updates
from Stephen, who had begun wandering around the class instead of
staying perched on his windowsill. Every once in a while I felt a
small tug on my hair coming from the seat behind me. I almost
forgot that Trevor was there, because I was so wrapped up in
Stephen's antics and the fact that Simone was apparently sleeping
with Josh even though he was dating Rebbecca. I had no clue who
Rebbecca was, but Simone was the perky little blond girl who sat
two rows over from me. Josh sat in front of her, unwittingly
passing the notes about his unfaithfulness between Simone and her
friend Elise, who sat in front of him.

I wrote on my own notebook, "wow, never knew
how much drama I was missing by keeping my head down all this
time." Stephen laughed as he read it.

"You don't know the half of it!" He said as
the bell rang and people started to scramble from the classroom. As
I was getting my stuff ready to leave I heard Trevor clear his
throat behind me.

"Seraphine, can I talk to you for a
minute?"

"Sure," I said turning around to him as I
stood up. "What's up?" I started walking toward the door slowly
with Trevor trailing at my heels.

"I was wondering if you were doing anything
this Saturday?"

"This Saturday?" I questioned. "Not that I
can..." My thoughts were thrown off mid-sentence as I watched a
desk scoot forward slightly, right into Trevor's way. He tripped
over it before I could warn him. While he was distracted, getting
himself up off the floor, I thought I could whisper a warning to
Stephen. "Do that again and I will put a voodoo hex on
you."

Trevor laughed, "Shouldn't you be trying to
protect my clumsy butt instead of putting a hex me?" He laughed
some more. "You're a funny girl, Seraphine, what kind of freak
messes with voodoo anyway?"

That stopped me short. "This kind of freak."
The words were out of my mouth before I knew I had spoken them. The
damage was done though, Trevor was backing away from me
slowly.

"What was that with the desk then?” He
questioned as the panic showed through his eyes. “I knew it moved
out of nowhere!"

"That wasn't me," I protested.

"Well, you just said you were going to hex
me."

"I wasn't talking to you." He looked around,
eyes a little wider than they needed to be when he realized no one
else was there. At least, no one he could see. My heart sank. He
had been asking me out on a date only moments ago, and now he was
looking at me like a side-show freak in a carnival. Trevor
literally scrambled out of sight and I was left standing there in
the classroom alone. Well, not alone, Stephen was still there,
looking rather smug.

"Are you happy?" I started yelling at him. "He
was the first person here in a year who actually spoke to me, let
alone asked me out and now he thinks I’m a freak."

"Seraphine," an odd look passed over Stephen's
face. It was the same look I tried to keep off my face in front of
him earlier. It was pity. "Wait, no one has ever spoken to you
here? That can't be right."

I didn't bother telling him that it was
exactly right. Not one word had been said to me, by a student
anyway, since I came to this school.

"Well, at least you know now, how he would
have felt about the voodoo, you know, before he broke your
heart."

"Better to have a broken heart and know what
it feels like to go on at least one date with a living person
before I graduate high school!" I left Stephen standing there,
knowing my words were like a slap in the face to him. I didn't
really care just then if it hurt, because I was hurting inside.
Trevor was the first person to talk to me, to be nice to me, and he
was the first person who ever attempted to ask me out on a date.
Now, all that was gone in the blink of an eye because my crazy,
jealous, spirit bound friend decided to slide a desk in front of
him. I wondered briefly how Stephen had managed to move the
furniture, but then I dismissed it. Stephen had just ruined my one
chance at normal, I didn't really care how he moved the stupid
furniture. It was hard for me to comprehend how I could have
possibly started my day out with two amazing boys and ended with me
alone again.

*** One week later***

"Hey Auntie Perrine! I've missed you." I
looked at her image in my laptop, thankful to be able to video chat
with her this time instead of talking on the phone.

"I've missed you to, Seraphine. Is Stephen
around, I think I may have some good news for him."

"I'm not sure it will matter anymore, Auntie.
I haven't seen Stephen in more than a week." Tears were threatening
to spill down my cheeks as I talked about him. "I really hurt him,
and even if I could have been nicer about it..."I paused and wiped
at the tears that had begun to spill, "it would have always come
down to the same thing. He's dead. I'm not. We can't be
together."

***

The VooDoo Follies

Part Four: The
Witch

Original Publication Date:

Sept. 6, 2011

I am Seraphine LaLande, voodoo priestess in
training...

Fat lot of good that does me when my best
friend, who happens to be dead, is nowhere to be found; the living
boy of my dreams is now my number one tormentor; and now there's a
witch who wants to meddle in my love life.

One stupid spell really can't be all that bad
can it?

***

The Doll and The Witch

I wished for things to go back to normal, and
for the most part, that's exactly what happened. Stephen was gone.
I was back in class and back to being ignored by everyone. The most
meticulous notes in U.S. History belonged to me.

"Psst," I heard Trevor trying to get someone's
attention, but I didn't think it would be me. It had been two weeks
since the incident. Two very painful weeks without Stephen, and in
which Trevor rose up the high school social ladder while refusing
to acknowledge my existence.

"Psst," I was happy to keep my head buried in
my notes, avoiding what was going on around me until a pencil hit
my head and humiliatingly stuck in the curls of my hair. I turned a
bitter stare back at Trevor, who held something up for me to see.
At first, what he was showing me didn't register, but as he began
stabbing the paper with a pencil I realized what it was. His new
best buddy Brad was pretending to be hurt with each stab. It was
supposed to be a voodoo doll. He took notice when it dawned on me,
his grin - the one I had loved to see just weeks ago - grew wider
with the disappointment on my face as his new friends burst out in
ruckus laughter.

I untangled the pencil that had been lodged in
my hair and tossed it back at Trevor, "I think you dropped
something," I said. That was the end of it. I refused to give them
any more of a response, despite the fact that it was taking every
bit of strength in my body not to run crying from the room. I sat
in silence, as usual, for the rest of the class listening to the
occasional snicker from behind me. Instead of throwing myself into
my notes as I most often did, I spent the rest of the class trying
to hold back the tears that threatened to spill down my cheeks and
give me away. I wished Stephen had been there, sitting in his
windowsill. He would have done something to make it all backfire on
them, or at least done something to make me laugh and feel better
about things. He wasn't there, though, and that was my fault. A
part of me felt I deserved this. It was small retribution for the
hurt I had caused, even if I didn't mean to.

Thankfully, mercifully, the bell rang and
students filed out of class before the first tear fell. I wiped
them away with the sleeve of my hoodie and gathered my things to
leave. As I was heading out the door of the class room someone
tapped me on the shoulder. I jumped, hating myself for being
startled so easily and for obviously crying in the room before
everyone had gone.

"Seraphine?" The petite raven-haired girl
behind me spoke with such a soft voice I almost missed the fact
that she had said my name.

"No offense, but I need to get going," I said
to her, not liking the look of pity she was wearing for
me.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to... can we... I just
wanted to talk." She shuffled her books around a bit, looking
somewhat awkward standing there. "I just thought, you know, we have
things in common."

"Oh," I said, taking my frustration out on the
girl, "so you're a freak here too, then?"

"That's not what I..."

"No, I didn't think it was, look," I paused
realizing I didn't know her name.

"Tina," she supplied for me as a smile crept
along the lines of her mouth.

"Tina, I have to go and I am obviously in no
mood to talk."

"Can we get together after school some time?"
She was calling out to me as I walked away. I hated being rude and
ignoring her, but I was not going to be able to hold back the rest
of the tears that wanted to escape.

"I'm a witch," she blurted out a little too
loudly.

"Shhh," I turned and grabbed hold of her elbow
walking her closer to the lockers and out of earshot of everyone.
"Do you really want them holding up voodoo dolls for you
too?"

"They already know about me. I've been out of
the broom closet since middle school. Most of them don't care
anymore, aside from the Hermoine jokes I hear when I get answers
right in class."

"Yeah, they're a clever bunch!" I thought
about it a moment, "hey, I've heard them call you Hermoine before.
I thought it was just because you were smart."

"We should get together sometime. We could
compare notes, you know - you're voodoo dolls and my know-it-all
wizarding jokes. We could have a laugh over their lack of
inventiveness." Her smile must have been infectious, because for
the first time in two weeks I felt myself smirking too. Then I
thought of the last time I smiled, with Stephen, and my heart sank.
It must have shown on my face.

"You know we can fix that."

"Fix what?" I looked up at Tina, puzzled
now.

"You know," she nodded her head back towards
the classroom, "that whole mess, it can be fixed with
magic."

"I don't know about your style of magic, but
mine is a very fickle thing. One wrong move and you're chasing
zombies in downtown Baltimore." I wasn't actually kidding, since
that did happen, but Tina was laughing at me nevertheless. "No,
seriously!" She just laughed harder at that, so I gave up. "Okay,
maybe we can get together and compare some time then."

"Sure, what are you doing this afternoon?" I
stared at her vacantly, trying to think of what I had planned for
my afternoon. More sulking, maybe? She didn't need to know that
though. She took my silence as her answer. "Great, this afternoon
then, I'll meet you out front and we'll head over to my house for
some brownies and magic."