Bad Juju (9 page)

“So…I’ve
gotta
tell you about my night.  And Henry, please don’t repeat this to anyone.”

“You don’t have to worry.  I’m good at keeping secrets.  Sometimes I don’t even remember them,” Henry answered.

“My uncle is a real dick.”  Jake retold every dirty detail he endured from his uncle’s wrath.  For the grand finale of the tragic tale, Jake lifted up his shirt, displaying him numerous welts.

Lucien’s face
flashed with anger
, but Henry
remained unaffected
.  “Jake, my dad always says the only way to get someone to quit picking on you is to defend yourself.  That’s why I didn’t get in any trouble at home after I punched
Rio
.  Maybe if you hit your uncle back, then he wouldn’
t mess with you.”

“Ah Henry.  Your dad is a very wise man when it comes to giving his big son advice, but you don’t know Jake’s uncle.  He’s bigger than even you.  And he’s a mean drunk
who’s
used to fighting,” Lucien explained.

“Jake, I consider you my friend.  My best friend and my only friend.  If you need me to go punch your uncle’s lights out, no problem.  Where does he live?  I’ll go do that now.  Get it out of the way,” Henry offered.

Jake smiled.  Henry’s loyalty was touching.  “Henry, that’s okay.  And
since you’re my only friend, you’re also my best friend
as well.”

“There will be no fighting from anyone.  Now Jake, I love you like a son.  And you’re welcome to stay here as much as you want, as long as you want…I’d adopt you myself, but no one would give someone my age custody,” Lucien added.  Jake couldn’t help but feel he was holding something back.
  “
He’s done this before, hasn’t he
?”

“
Yes.  Lots of times.  B
ut
this is the
worst time,” Jake cried.  Emotions suddenly overcame him.

“This is unforgiveable. 
T
he next time might be worse
.  He needs to be stopped.  Police?”  Jake shook his head.  “Let me make you an ointment for your back.”

Lucien opened a drawer with endless
containers
of odd spices labeled in French.  He began to boil water.

“Lucien, why don’t you make a
V
oodoo doll?  Isn’t that what you do in Haiti when someone is making you mad?  We can make one of Jake’s uncle,” Henry suggested.

“Can you do that
,
Lucien?” Jake asked.

“I haven’t done that kind of thing since, oh, since I left Haiti.  And sometimes it doesn’t even work. 
It’s
such a
small
part of the
V
oodoo religion.  Some would call it
H
oodoo.  These things take time
, but we could try
. 
Although I’d feel more comfortable showing you how to make a healing ointment for scarred skin. 
R
evenge
is one of the trickiest of the hexes.  It has a
power
of its own
, making it easy to backfire
. 
Any more
harm than what your uncle deserves
might
invite evil
loas
into your life.  And Henry, your parent
s
might not approve of this.  Maybe it’s a bad idea.
”

“
L
ike I said earlier, I’m good at keeping secrets.”

“But from your parents?  I don’t know if that’s right.”

“He’s cool.  And like you said,
t
his probably won’t even work.  It’s worth a try
.  You’re
cheer
ing me up just talking about it,
”
Jake said.

“Then I’ll need a few personal items from your uncle.  Hair, Q-tips, trinkets, clothes, anything he personally uses,” Lucien instructed.  “I also need dirt.  Large Ziploc bags of dirt from
the graveyard next door. 
I think I can provide the rest.”

Lucien dabbed his herbal healing concoction over Jake’s back.  Once it absorbed into the skin, the
boys bolted out of the house to gather everything on Lucien’s list.  They
first
headed towards the
adjacent
cemetery.

“How
are
we
gonna
get dirt if the ground’s frozen?” Jake thought aloud.
  He was very familiar with the cemetery.  His mother
was
buried there.  For the time being, he kept that information to himself.

“Let’s walk around.  Maybe someone just got buried and there’s fresh ground dug up.”

A half an hour later they stumbled upon a new grave.  “Henry, you’re a genius, you know that?  Let’s see, we are taking Mary Ann Shepard’s dirt.  She lived from 192
3
until last week.  This must be her husband, Paul, next to her.”

“Jake, what time is it?  My mom picks me up at 5:30.”

“We still got some time.  Come
to my house
.  I’ll ask if you could use the bathroom.  My uncle won’t want you using mine because my room is messed up from what went down last night.  Once you’re in there, grab whatever you can that’s his.  The laundry basket is in there.  Nothing too noticeable.”

Jake’s uncle
, preoccupied with the hockey game,
sat on the couch with his sleeping daughter and brother-in-law.  The coffee table was covered in empty bottles of Miller Draft.

As planned, his uncle
mindlessly pointed to the other bathroom, too
absorbed
to question who Jake’s friend was
.

A few minutes later, Henry
was finished
.  They returned to Lucien’s
and emptied
their collection.

“Ah…A razor…good.  And a pair of dirty underwear…a pair of scissors, dark brown hair clippings,
Sports
Illustrated
,
a St. Anthony medal…”

“Henry, he might miss that!”

“Jake, it’s okay.  You can return it in a day or so.  He’ll just think he
lost
it.  And here’s the dirt. 
Oh, and several cigarette butts,
”
Lucien said. 
“Tomorrow I will be ready.  Will you boys be back?”

“I’ve got
Awanas
tomorrow night at 7
p
.
m.  Will we be done by then?”  Lucien nodded.  “Then tomorrow.  Jake, do you want to come with me?  They won’t mind if I bring a friend.”

As lame as
Awanas
sounded
,
it would keep
Jake
away from his uncle’s house for the night.  He
eagerly
accepted.  Just then, Henry’s mother pulled up in front of Lucien’s window and Henry bolted out the door.

“Jake, you are going to help me assemble a poppet
.  Don’t worry. 
He’ll get what he deserves.  It’s in the hands of the
loas
now.”

Jake and Lucien quietly worked together for a couple of hours sewing burlap fabric together and stuffing it wi
th different kinds of herbs
Lucien boiled
and dried
.  Jake
imagined
many
different ways
his uncle
would suffer.

Chapter
11

Plotting revenge had given Jake a new optimism.  Lately
,
he couldn’t help but think of his mother.  He recalled seeing her go from a young lively woman to a sickly, bald one in only a few months.  The endless visits to the hospital, constant care she required, and
desperate
financial situation
were more
than most kids could handle. 
He
took on the role of the parent
and watched
her
deteriorate
to infant status
.  She didn’t just die.  He had to watch her die slowly, over two years. 
His uncle’s lack of support never bothered him before.  Pete did
manage to
take time out of his busy day to attend
his mother’s
funeral. 

As Jake grew older,
seeing people’s true colors became less complicated. 
His uncle
’s color was evil in its deepest shade. 
He didn’t just hate his uncle, he hated his life
. 
Pete
was
every obstacle, every tragedy, every injustice Jake
had
ever
encountered. 
Bondye
, Papa
Legba
,
Mami
Wata
, and all of the
loas
put together were going to give
Jake
the
judgment he craved. 

***

For the third day in a row, Henry’s mother dropped them off at Lucien’s home.

“Mrs. Novak, on Saturday
s
I help my neighbors with chores, handy-man type of work, errands…Some of them pay me
.  S
ome of them don’t.  Would it be okay if Henry helps, too?  He might earn
some money.”

“That would be nice, but I don’t want Henry taking away money that you earn.”

“Mom, I wouldn’t take any money.  Just give me something to do,” Henry lobbied.

“Very well, then.  He’ll come over to
morrow morning.  Around 10-ish?
  And then I’ll pick him up in the afternoon.  And Jake, you’re coming to
Awana’s
tonight, right?  If you come early, they feed you.  Usually pizza.  It’s free.”

“Great,” Jake replied.

“Then I’ll pick you both up around 6:00
p.m.  One day I’d really like to meet your friend, Lucien.”

“Yeah, soon, Mom. 
Gotta
go,” Henry said, cutting her off.  They both dodged out of the car and waved her off.  “My mom hovers.  My dad gets annoyed.”

“At least you have a mom.  Mine died.  And your mom is really nice, and pretty too.”

“She’s okay.”

Jake was half expecting
the
standard ‘I’m so sorry’ plea of sympathy with a side of ‘What happened?’, but Henry seemed uninterested.  Jake appreciated his eccentricities.  He didn’t have to explain himself around the boy.

“Both on time.  Let’s continue assembling our poppet. 
Jake and
I didn’t finish it because
we
wanted to show you how it’s done. 
When
I was a
bokor
in my village
, I
used to do this kind of thing all the time.  It’s been a while.”

“How long does it take to work?” Jake asked.

“Varies.  You
’ve
got to pray to the
loas
and remind them of your reasons.  Step one: 
Take
burlap from a bag of potatoes
and cut it out into a doll figure.
  You can use other kinds of fabric.
”

“Like a gingerbread man,” Henry observed.

“Yes.  And then
we
stitched around the outline of the doll, leaving part of it open.  Notice the material is flimsy,
so
I doubled it up, but you don’t’ have to do that if the cloth is real thick.  Now we are going to stuff it up with some of the things you gathered yesterday and some of my own special mixture.”

“What’s in that?” Jake asked, pointing to the dried out plant clippings and ground up spices he had mixed into a bowl.

“I’ve got a little mandrake root
,
wolfsbane
, crushed glass, ginger, and a pinch of some other special ingredients. 
Basically
,
dried up plants. 
Put this mix
,
along with
the graveyard dirt and
your uncle’s
taglocks
,
inside of the doll
.”

“Huh?” Henry asked.

“
Taglocks
?  They are
Jake’s uncle’s
personal things
. 
The reason you make the doll determines what herbs and spices to use for the stuffing. 
Like a recipe of sorts.  We’ll use his hair, some of his cigarette butts,
necklace,
and underwear to stuff the rest of the doll.  Good.  Now I’ll stitch it back up,” Lucien explained.  “I
’ll
get
Mami
out of her cage
.  Get my
drum.  Try to
repeat
after me. 
Damballah
, o
h
Damballah
, we call on you to invade Pete’s evil soul.  Possess him.  Torment him.  Let him experience
the kind of violence that
Jake
has suffered from
.”