Chapter 4

Chapter 4

They only knew each other by their first names.  To the man from the bar, Peter’s father was simply Dimitri. He similarly had introduced himself to Peter’s father as Lionel.  Dimitri doubted that it was the man’s real name.  In their first meeting, at a luxurious bar in an affluent section of Miami, the man had said that he was born in Haiti and had lived in Fort Lauderdale ever since he came from Haiti more than a decade ago.   

During their first meeting, Dimitri, who had been distracted by thoughts of his wife deserting him, had gone along with the man’s offer to help Dimitri get back at his wife.   After the man had dropped Dimitri off at the voodoo priest’s house in Miami and Dimitri had participated in a voodoo ceremony, several weeks later, Dimitri’s wife was dead.

After his wife’s death, when Dimitri began to believe that the spirit was real, he had tried to locate the man to help him reverse his agreement with the spirit but was unable to locate him.  As a result, Dimitri had gone to see a well-known voodoo priestess in Haiti, but she was not able to help him.

The man had never given Dimitri his last name nor talked much about himself.  Now, after an exhaustive search, when Dimitri finally saw the man again at another bar of a very expensive hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Dimitri was baffled that the man could afford drinks at a place where one shot cost more than most people’s hourly wages.  Since the man never asked Dimitri for money and had refused to even let Dimitri pay for his drink, Dimitri was content not to ask too many questions because he wanted the man’s help.

“Five souls?” The man had repeated, surprised, when Dimitri had told him about what had happened. “Why didn’t you bargain with the spirit?” He had asked Dimitri.

“I thought it was a joke,” Dimitri had replied.

“I see,” the man had said, tactfully.  The man seemed to be in his mid-thirties and was wearing a blue blazer, which slightly covered his expensive watch.

“OK, I’m going to help you.  I know of a voodoo priest who can help people in your situation. Meet me here at 2:00 p.m. tomorrow and I will take you to him,” the man had promised before leaving. 

Dimitri would have been even more baffled if he had been in front of the hotel when the hotel’s valet retrieved the man’s Rolls-Royce for him.  However, he was still sitting at the bar, content that this mysterious man was going to help him one more time.

 

##

Located less than twenty miles from Port-au-Prince, the city of Leogane looked like a ghost town, with remnants of destroyed houses stretching all across the fields that bordered the gravel road that led to the seaside area.

As if he were reading Sabrina’s thoughts, Ronald explained that Leogane was the city that suffered the most damage during the 2010 earthquake.

“Ninety percent of the houses in Leogane were destroyed,” Ronald said. “Most of the people left and never returned. They couldn’t afford to rebuild their houses.”  Marc, who was silently riding in the front passenger seat, nodded his head in agreement.

“That’s sad,” Sabrina said, distressed by the ruined properties that she had seen.

“I know.  The government wants to help but doesn’t have the money,” replied Ronald. Then several minutes later, turning onto another road that led to a cul-de-sac, he announced that they had reached their destination.

The house could not be seen from the road.  It was hidden by tall walls that surrounded the property. They waited in the car for a few seconds until a young man came out and opened the large front gate to allow them to drive in. “That’s Jean Robert.  He and his wife work for my mother,” Ronald told Sabrina, as he waved to the man.

Linda’s place was a salmon-colored two-story Mediterranean-style house with a circular driveway and arched doorways and windows.  It had an airy interior with beautiful exotic looking tiles, and four bedrooms, all on the second floor.  The back of the house had both a large porch on the first floor, and a beautiful balcony on the second floor, overlooking the ocean.   The two-acre property contained many fruit trees, including mangoes and guavas, and several other trees that Sabrina didn’t recognize. It was a beautiful place, Sabrina admitted to herself.

By the time they sat down for supper, it was getting late and Marc had already gone home.  However, Sabrina had many questions for Marc about Rada voodoo and planned to ask them tomorrow at a late afternoon party that Marc’s parents were hosting for Sabrina and her father.  Remembering now her conversation with Peter, Sabrina wanted to ask whether selling somebody’s soul was part of voodoo beliefs. Although she did not believe it herself, she wanted to know what a voodoo practitioner believed, to accurately write about it. Maybe, in the process, she would discover the history of these silly superstitions, she thought.

##

When Peter’s father woke up that morning, it was the first time that he had felt at peace since his meeting with the voodoo priestess in April. After that meeting, and as the days and weeks had passed, he had gotten more and more depressed.  The spirit had told him during the meeting that he had two months left to give Peter or himself up.  Since he didn’t have any intention of honoring the spirit’s request, he had to find a way to save himself and Peter.  Although he knew that the first voodoo priest that he had met in Miami had passed away, he had gone back to the house, hoping that another voodoo priest had moved in.  When that didn’t work, he had gone several times to the bar where he first met the man who had taken him to the voodoo priest in Miami, hoping to find the man and ask him for help. He had promised himself that no matter how, he would save himself and Peter.  What made things worse, however, was that Peter didn’t believe him.  Peter’s life was in grave danger and Peter didn’t even realize it.

Peter’s father was feeling at peace today because he had finally located the man from the bar, and he was meeting the man today.  The man had promised to take him to another voodoo priest who might be able to help.   There were only a few weeks left before the expiration of the two-month period that the spirit had given him.  He knew that he had to hurry because in the last few days, once in a while, his speech would get slurred.  He recognized the symptom because the same thing had happened to his wife a few weeks before her death.

##

 

When Sabrina woke up the next morning, it was already almost 9:30 a.m.  She could faintly hear her father’s laugh coming from behind the house, over the rushing sound of the ocean waves.  Since her bedroom faced the street up front, she could not see her father from her bedroom window, and she had forgotten that, in Haiti, people tended to get up very early. Sabrina then took a quick shower and rushed downstairs, not wanting to miss out on anything on her first full day in Leogane.  When she reached the back terrace, she noticed for the first time the two circular marble tables surrounded by half-circle benches. Her father and Linda were seated at one table and were having breakfast, while Ronald, Marc and another girl with auburn hair were seated at the other table playing an unfamiliar card game called bezigue.

As she approached, both her father and Linda looked up and smiled, and Linda said, “I hope you slept well.  Come meet Jackie, Marc’s sister, and have breakfast with us.”   Both Jackie and Marc had light hazel eyes.  However, that was where the resemblance stopped.  While Marc had very fair skin, Jackie’s olive skin was a result of the biracial marriage of their parents.  While Jackie was attractive and thin, Marc was average-looking and heavy.   Sabrina and Jackie hit it off right away.  Jackie was one year older than Sabrina and had just finished high school, and Sabrina was pleased to learn that Jackie was going to attend a college in Boca Raton, which was very close to Sabrina’s mother’s house.  After breakfast, while Ronald and Marc went to a nearby town with Linda and Sabrina’s father to shop for food and other supplies, Sabrina and Jackie stayed behind.

“Marc told me that you were asking Linda questions about voodoo,” Jackie said to Sabrina.

“Yes, I wanted to ask Marc about it too, because Linda told me that he has been initiated,” Sabrina said.  Sabrina’s statement caused Jackie to laugh, which made Sabrina wonder whether she had said something wrong.
                “It’s not a big deal.  Marc did it for the money,” Jackie said. Then looking at Sabrina’s confused expression, Jackie clarified, “Whenever my parents have voodoo ceremonies and we work in the peristyle, my parents pay us. They think…”

“What’s a peristyle?” Sabrina asked, interrupting Jackie.

“That’s the voodoo temple, the place where they do the ceremonies,” Jackie replied. “Anyway, we didn’t want my parents to think that we were helping just for the money. So, like my brother, I went through the initiations, and my parents think that we like this stuff.”

“You don’t like it?” Sabrina inquired.

“I guess so,” Jackie said, nonchalantly, while shrugging her shoulders. “It’s like my mom says, if you get a degree in archeology, you are not a real archeologist until you go on your first dig.  It’s one thing to read books about voodoo, but it’s another to experience it.”

“Why do your parents do it?  Do they make money from it?” Sabrina asked, now excited that she might learn everything she needed to learn from Jackie.

“If people made money from voodoo, all Haitians would be rich. Voodoo is a religion.  It’s like asking why someone goes to church,” Jackie said. “Actually,” Jackie continued, “my mom was from Tennessee.  She met my dad when she went to study at Florida State University on some kind of scholarship.  My dad graduated from there also with a degree in engineering.  After graduation, my dad and my mom got married, and my dad returned to Haiti with my mom and opened a chain of restaurants called Burger Queen.  The funny part is that the restaurants don’t even sell hamburgers. When that became successful, then they opened a chain of department stores called Century stores, which also became profitable. That’s how they make their money.  It’s not from voodoo,” Jackie added with a chuckle.

“Your parents accomplished a lot,” Sabrina said.

“Well, it helped that my dad is the brother of the President,” Jackie continued.  Both Jackie and Sabrina were sitting on large colorful towels on the sandy beach, enjoying the smell of the sea air, when Jackie suddenly asked, “Do you want to see the peristyle?”

“Oh yeah,” Sabrina replied, excited.

“Come on, let’s go,” Jackie said, as she and Sabrina got up. “We have three hours before the little party my parents are having for you and your dad this afternoon.  By the time we finish our tour, you will be ready to write a lot about voodoo on your college application.”

As Sabrina followed Jackie to the rear gate of her parents’ property, which was next to Linda’s, Sabrina remembered her mother telling her to stay away from voodoo, and that it was devil worship.  Sabrina liked Jackie and didn’t want to offend her.  However, her mother’s statement caused Sabrina to make a mental note to ask Jackie about it when the opportunity was right.

##

It was 2:05 p.m. when the man known to Dimitri as Lionel entered the hotel’s reception area to meet with him.  Although the man was only five minutes late for his appointment with Dimitri, those five minutes had made Dimitri feel like he was doomed.  For one thing, if the man didn’t show up, Dimitri wouldn’t know how to reach him.  He didn’t have the man’s phone number or address.

“Sorry I’m late.  The traffic was really bad today,” Lionel apologized.

“I wasn’t worried.  I knew you would keep your word,” Dimitri lied.

“The houngan is waiting for us in Immokalee, which is slightly over an hour from here,” Lionel told Dimitri.

“The houngan?” Dimitri asked, waiting for clarification.

“A voodoo priest is called a houngan and a voodoo priestess, a mambo,” Lionel explained. “Yesterday, when I told the priest what you wanted, he gave me a list of items to buy for the voodoo ceremony for you.  I didn’t know where to reach you so, to save time, I bought them and sent them to the voodoo priest this morning.  I hope you don’t mind.”

“Mind?  You’re kidding? I’m grateful that you would do that for me,” Dimitri said, profusely thanking Lionel. “How much do I owe you?”

“Nothing.  You would have done the same thing for me,” Lionel said. “The priest told me that once your soul is sold to the spirit, all you can do is to exchange your soul for another soul. The soul of an animal like a chicken may also work.  If the spirit agrees to the exchange, then you are set free.” Then Lionel asked, “Are you ready to go?  I’ll take you there.”

 When Dimitri got into Lionel’s Toyota and noticed two baby car seats in the back, he realized how much he didn’t know about Lionel.  Lionel never talked about a wife or kids. Taking a second look at the car seats, Dimitri asked, “How many children do you have?”

“I don’t have any.  I’m using a friend’s car.  My car is in the shop.  Like you, my wife left me long time ago and I swore that I would never get married again and I never did.”

They talked some more about Lionel’s life in Haiti prior to moving to the United States.  The more Lionel talked about his life, the clearer it became to Dimitri that Lionel didn’t like to talk about himself. Lionel told him that he was an orphan and didn’t have any family and only remembered living in some old orphanage in Haiti that closed long ago.  By the time they reached Immokalee, Dimitri hadn’t learned any more about Lionel than he had known before, which was almost nothing.

 

##

 

Immokalee was located northwest of Fort Lauderdale, and was home to a large Mexican and Haitian population who worked mostly in farming. Although it was not far in distance, it was far from the luxuries and convenience of Fort Lauderdale or Miami.  When they reached the priest’s voodoo temple, which was built in the middle of a large cornfield, a lot of people dressed in red could be seen coming in and out of the peristyle.  The temple was an old building that looked more like a miniature sports stadium, where people were dancing in the middle of the floor to the sound of African musical instruments being played by members of the temple. As directed, Lionel and Dimitri stayed outside the temple for more than thirty minutes before they were finally summoned to enter.

When they entered the temple, Dimitri noticed that the young priest’s eyes were all red, which Dimitri attributed to too much alcohol.  The voodoo priest recognized Lionel and said, “Ayi Bobo”, which Lionel explained was a form of salutation.   The ceremony lasted over an hour, and by the time it was over, all of the items that Lionel had purchased for the ceremony were used up. The chicken was slaughtered and Dimitri was required to drink some of the blood.  To Dimitri’s profound relief, the spirit agreed to accept the chicken sacrifice. When the ceremony ended, the spirit told Dimitri that he would no longer die. 

By the time Dimitri left the voodoo priest, his slur was gone.  It was the first time in days that Dimitri could talk without fear of mumbling his words, and also the first time in months that Dimitri felt like things were turning around.

After Lionel dropped him off at the hotel to pick up his car, Dimitri grabbed his cell phone and called Peter.  He wanted to share the good news with him.  The phone rang three times before Peter was able to pick up.

The cell phone reception seemed spotty, so Dimitri couldn’t understand everything that Peter was saying.  Finally, Dimitri said, “I will see you soon.  I’m coming home and will explain what happened today.”   However, Dimitri’s relief was short-lived when, to his horror, he heard Peter say, “It’s not the reception Dad. For the past hour, my speech has been slurry and that’s why it’s very hard for you to understand what I’m saying.”