Chapter 5

Chapter 5

When the man known to Dimitri as Lionel reached his luxurious beachfront home in Boca Raton, it was already very late in the afternoon. He parked the Toyota in one of the side garages of the house and sat for a moment in the car, reliving what had happened that day. He only used the Toyota for work and he felt that his work in Immokalee had gone well.  It was only a matter of time. He knew he would collect very soon.

When he finally entered the house, his younger brother was waiting for him. “How did it go, Steven?” The brother asked, anxious to learn about the trip to Immokalee and about the next big payout.   

“I saved a life today,” Steven said to his brother, which prompted his brother to emit a sarcastic laugh.  Steven’s Haitian accent had evaporated.  Even his New Orleans accent was barely noticeable.

“Where does everything stand now?” The brother asked, looking restless.

“Same as before,” Steven answered. “The spirit had told Dimitri to give four more souls or it was going to be him.  When he didn’t deliver and was becoming sick, Dimitri seemed to think that the spirit had decided to take his life in exchange for the four souls.  Then he figured that if the spirit agreed to spare his life, he would no longer be required to give the other four souls since the spirit had released him.

“Does he really think that the spirit is that stupid?” Steven’s brother asked, with an incredulous look on his face.

“I don’t know what he’s thinking. I’m just telling you what’s going on.  In any event, in a couple of weeks, his son will pass and we will have another big payday,” Steven reassured his younger brother.  Seeing his brother relax at the news, Steven said, “Go get dressed. Let’s go to a bar.”   

“Maybe we might be able to do some soul hunting while we are there,” his brother jokingly told him, causing both of them to laugh.

 

##

Jackie’s parent’s property was nearly twice as big as Linda’s.  The main house on the property looked more like an old Caribbean plantation house.  It was blue and, although it looked like a wooden house, it wasn’t.  It was designed and painted to look that way.  Each of the five upstairs bedrooms had its own private balcony with views of the ocean, and there were two hammocks on the back porch that overlooked the ocean.  Although the elegant dining room was designed for entertaining large parties, Jackie confided that her parents never had parties inside the house. It was more for show. They usually entertained under portable tents on the back terrace. 

Like Linda’s property, Jackie’s parents’ property had an abundance of fruit trees. There were two other houses on the property. One was a very small two-bedroom house on left side of the property, where the  couple overseeing the property resided.  On the right side, sat a one-room house that Jackie described as the peristyle. 

“Ready to see inside the temple?” Jackie asked Sabrina.  When Sabrina hesitated, Jackie guessed what she was thinking. “Don’t worry, I’ve done it before.  My parents don’t mind.  In fact, they’re not even home.  They had something to do in the town nearby.

“It looks kind of primitive,” Sabrina said.  It wasn’t what Sabrina had expected.  The peristyle was made entirely of straw and looked more like an African village hut, except that it was very large.

“Due to poverty and customs, the majority of peristyles in the country are built this way,” Jackie explained. “Sometimes there are ceremonies that are done here for other voodoo priests. So, my dad wanted this to be authentic.”

“I still don’t understand why your parents do it,” Sabrina admitted.  My dad thinks it’s a bunch of superstitions and my mom says that it’s devil worship.  As soon as it came out, Sabrina regretted what she said. She didn’t want to insult Jackie or be harsh about Jackie’s parents’ religion. 

Instead of being insulted, Jackie laughed and said, “My dad told me that all religions have some form of superstitions, and those who think of voodoo as devil worship are usually ignorant people who formed opinions without knowledge of the religion.” Seeing the hurt look on Sabrina’s face, Jackie felt bad and added, “I’m not saying that your parents are ignorant.  That’s just what my dad usually says.”

“That’s Ok,” Sabrina said.

“I didn’t mean to offend you, really,” Jackie apologized, before addressing Sabrina’s question regarding possible devil worship in voodoo. 

 

##

As Jackie and Sabrina were talking about religious superstitions, across town, Sabrina’s father was having an animated telephone conversation with Sabrina’s mother.

“I just called Sabrina and they told me that she went to visit this woman named Lucy, who owns the house next door to your girlfriend’s house.

“So?”  Sabrina’s father asked, not understanding what the fuss was about.

“Did you know that she and her husband are voodoo priests?”

“Your point?” Sabrina’s father asked, now annoyed.

“I don’t want my daughter to get involved with people who are into voodoo,” Sabrina’s mother said firmly.

“Don’t you think she is old enough to decide for herself?” he asked, not believing he was having this conversation with Sabrina’s mother about people that she had never met.

“Not when it comes to devil worship,” she said.

“What are you talking about?  Sabrina is not into devil worship.  Thank God, Sabrina is not into your religious superstitions either.”  This last statement caused Sabrina’s mother to explode.

“You think you know everything, don’t you?” She yelled, sarcastically.

“I don’t know where this conversation is going,” he interrupted her. “If you want, I will tell Sabrina to call you back. As for our neighbors, Lucy and her husband are great people that I have known for years and I’m not going to sit here and let you insult them because of your crazy delusions.”

Sabrina’s mother was irate and frustrated.  She was so far away and she had hoped that he would listen. “I just had a conversation with Dimitri, who told me that Peter is dying, and all this started to happen after he went to a voodoo ceremony at that house,” she told him.

“I can’t believe I’m having this conversation with you. I don’t have time to argue with you about old Haitian superstitions. When I met Dimitri, he seemed to be a reasonable man.  I should have known that sooner or later your delusions would grow on him. You’re wasting my time. This conversation is over,” he said angrily, before hanging up the phone.

 

##

While Sabrina’s mother was debating her next step, Sabrina was still with Jackie discussing voodoo practices and beliefs.

“Voodoo is not devil worship,” Jackie was saying. “My mom told me that this was propaganda started long ago by people who didn’t like voodoo and wanted to convert Haitians to their religions. In voodoo, we believe in one God, which is the same God other religions believe in.”

 “Really?” Sabrina asked surprised.

“Yes.  We call him Bondye, which means Good God, or sometimes Granmet, which means Grand Master. But voodoo people don’t go to God directly. God is busy and deals with humans through intermediaries.  These intermediaries are the spirits that we call loas.”

“What about the zombies?” Sabrina asked.   “Linda told me that they exist.  I think that’s evil.”

“I am not saying that there are no evil spirits,” Jackie argued.  “The making of zombies is extremely rare and it is done in a type of voodoo called Petro, where a voodoo priest gone bad, called a bokor, gives some drugs to a person and turns the person despondent for the rest of the person’s life.  However, ninety-five percent of voodoo priests practice a type of voodoo called Rada. The central  aspect of Rada voodoo is healing people from illness.  In Rada voodoo, the spirits are called peaceful and sweet loas and are mostly known for their knowledge of herbal medicines.”

“So, Petro voodoo is evil?” Sabrina asked, thinking that her mother might be right concerning this type of voodoo.
                “No.” Jackie said. “As my mom told me once, the power of the Rada loas comes from their wisdom and knowledge of herbal medicines. The power of the Petro loas comes from their knowledge of everything, including how to make money, be good in business, black magic, death curses, and the making of zombies.   You have all types of spirits in Petro voodoo, some good ones and some not so good, and even violent ones.  Evil spirits exist in Petro voodoo.   If you practice Petro voodoo, you just have to stay away from them.”

“Do you practice Petro voodoo?” Sabrina asked.

“No.  If you want to practice voodoo, be a Rada girl.  Petro spirits are too dangerous and finicky for me,” Jackie added, before entering the temple and describing the numerous items on the altar to Sabrina.