“I’ve got some weed in the glove box. Roll us up a fatty. What’s up with Brit? Shall we
do a
drive
-
by?”
Rio
nodded as he twisted the rolling papers. “She begged me for your homework today, you lucky bitch. She is smoking hot!”
Rio
torched the joint up and passed it to Bart. “Don’t kiss and tell.” His smile was superior.
“Bullshit! Let me live vicar
iously. Give me something, bro!
”
exclaimed Bart.
“She’s quite a woman. Too much of a woman for you. We’ve got plans tomorrow. She’s not sixteen yet either
, but will be next month.
Can you drive? She’ll set you up with her girlfriend, Rachel. She’s also hot.”
“I know who she is.
Not bad!
Thanks. I owe you for that one,” Bart said approvingly. “Now quit grinning down on us not so fortunate. Talk.”
“I didn’t do anything. It was her. She was all over me. Got the best blow job of my manhood. She really know
s
her way a
round the kitchen. I’m in love,
”
Rio said.
“That’s quite an endorsement. Especially since you’ve got at least a thousand other blow jobs to compare hers with,” Bart joked. Both boys uncontrollably laughed, feeling the effects of the weed.
They slowly drove by Brittany’s house as they had done before. She lived
a block away from the downtown area
with her mother.
Her parents were divorced and her father
lived in another state.
Her house was modest, but pretty. All of the lights were off and the driveway was empty.
“No one is home. She said she had some family thing to go to. Hey, how about we drive by that fuck
er
Henry’s house. I want to see where he lives,”
Rio
suggested.
Rio
didn’t have to remind
Bart
about the address. Anyone who
was the talk of the high school w
as automatically entered into the card index
inside
of
Bart’s
brain
. He turned the car around and headed for Norway Point.
“Nikki gave me his address. She’s an aid in the main office. The secretary leaves a binder of everyone’s information on her bookshelf. What do you
wanna
do with him? He’s got some weird disorder. Maybe you should drop your revenge fantasy. He’s strong. He broke your arm,” Bart said as he turned down both Henry’s and
Rio
’
s
street.
“We’re just cruising around on a Friday night. No harm in that,”
Rio
answered. Like he presumed, Henry lived only a couple of miles away from him.
Rio
could see his own house from across the lake.
“Nice
lake house
. Very rustic,” Bart commented as he pulled off to the side of the road.
“Turn off your lights. There’s a car up the road,”
Rio
warned.
The car pulled into Henry’s driveway.
It was the fuck himself w
ith his mommy and another girl.
Was this his Friday routine?
“His sister?” Rio asked.
“Must be,” answered Bart.
“She’s cute, really cute. Looks like the mom,” Rio said.
“A little young, don’t you think? C’mon, let’s go play
Halo.
” Bart drove to Rio’s house for the night.
***
Early Monday morning Candy Fontana strolled
down
the hallway to her classroom an hour before school started. Normally empty, a dozen or so students were taping up posters, balloons, and streamers throughout the hallway.
“Someone’s birthday?” she asked Brittany
Bonaducci
, the only student she knew in the small group.
“Morning Mrs. Fontana. We’re decorating the hall and
Rio
’
s
locker. Today is his first day back from his suspension. He still has to go to the Zoo for another week.”
Damn. Trouble
.
Candy had forgotten about Rio’s return.
“Quite the homecoming you’ve all created. I’m sure he’ll appreciate your effort.”
“That’s the plan.” Brittany was gushing.
Were
she and
Rio
involved? More trouble.
“See you in class.” Candy unlocked the door to her classroom and marked up the dry erase board for the day’s lesson. She hoped Henry would join her for lunch. She was anxious to see if he and
Rio
could get along in the Zoo. She sat down and filled out a new seating chart.
Rio
would be sitting in the back of the room, Brittany on the other side in the middle of the room, and Henry would be in the front row
in the
closest
seat
to her desk. She moved the other students around as well. The class would groan, but first semester just ended. She could blame the new seating chart as her second semester policy.
The clock showed ten minutes until the first bell. Time to patrol the hall. She walked out of her room and waved to Mr.
Hines. He looked at her, looked down the hallway, and then rolled his eyes. What Candy saw earlier was a mere sampler of what the Welcome-Back-
Rio
Committee had accomplished. The dozen or so students of an hour ago had grown into a movement. Candy walked over to Mr. Hines.
“The only thing missing is a marching band,” she said.
“No doubt. Much to
o
distracting. I’ll te
ll them to take some of it down,
”
Mr. Hines said.
“The bell is about to ring.
Let’s address it after school,
”
Candy suggested. He nodded in agreement.
The
whole third floor
sophomore
wing
screamed
as if the Black-Eyed Peas had just walked into the building.
Rio
swaggered
down the hall
with his adoring fans hanging on his every word. He wore his slung arm and brace like a proud battle wound. Candy knew he was popular, but not to this extreme
.
Brittany squirmed her way inside the
horde
of teenagers and took his side, claiming all the credit for the fanfare. He put his good arm around her and kissed her on the mouth, marking his
territory
in front of many
witness
es
.
Candy admitted to herself they sparkled as the new King and Queen of Freemont High. Their alliance would be
the scuttlebutt of the
school by first hour.
Lunchtime arrived and Henry was promptly waiting for her by her classroom door.
“Hi Henry. How much longer are you supposed to be in the Zoo for?”
“The rest of this week
,
and then the week after that.
Rio
was in there this morning.”
“Are you both behaving?”
Candy asked.
“Yes, but I just saw him in the hallway with Brittany. They were kissing. He had his hands all over her, up her shirt. Disgusting,” Henry reported. “Isn’t there some school rule that you can’t be having sex in the hallways?”
“I’ll talk to them about it. Unfortunately
,
staff has to catch them, not another student,” she explained.
Henry was green with jealousy.
Even more trouble.
“Henry, how are you going to act with
him
once you’re
both
back in the classroom?”
“I’ll ignore him, but if he starts up with me…”
“You’ll what? Hit him? Get in more trouble? My room is not a boxing ring. So we’re clear, if he is upsetting you then you come to me immediately.”
“
Yes
,
Ms. Fontana. But he should be the one in trouble. He and Brittany are practically making a porno in the middle of the school.”
“Worry about yourself, not
Rio
and not Brittany, okay?” Candy emphasized.
“I promise,” he said.
Henry had h
is flaws, but he was not a liar, at least not a traditional liar. He tended to omit information instead of making up stories. Maybe Rio and Brittany were too sexual in the hallways, maybe Henry wanted them to get in trouble. Candy’s defense was on high alert.
Chapter 19
Lucien was feeling weaker as each day went by. The last
ti
-bon-
ange
he had
swallowed
hadn’t lasted a month.
Death loomed over him like a patient vulture waiting to snatch him up and pick him clean. No longer able to walk, he crawled into his bedroom and
unlocked his
armoire
. There sat his
most precious ingredients for black magic. Among the most important, were
only two more
ti
-bon-
anges
, both from elderly residents of Chippewa Park.
They belonged to
Ed
Carillo’s
wife
, Maureen,
and Dorothy Schroeder’s husband
, Maury.
Lucien
reached for the shelf with what little energy he had left, grasping Maureen
Carillo’s
ti
-bon-
ange
trapped
in a
hand-painted
govi
. He simply opened the jar, sucked through a leather tube, and said a quiet prayer to Baron
Samedi
. The initial shock caused him to
double over and
convulse
on the floor
.
Pain spread throughout his body like waves of electrocution. The pain faded,
replaced with
a tingling sensation.
H
e passed out.
He
woke up
at sunrise
, feeling
a couple of
decades younger.
S
igns of his rheumatoid arthritis, crushing migraines, and aching back were
erased
. He relished the ease of his movements, knowing they soon would end.
Looking at the microwave clock
and calendar
, he was surprised he had slept
for thirty-six hours.
Today was
Saturday,
T.J. McGrath’s funeral
. Ed
Carillo
would be picking him up in a few hours.
Lucien dug through his closet until finding his only suit made of black wool.
He showered and combed his long white hair into a neat ponytail.
Ed
was one of the few residents
who
still had a driver’s license. He affably volunteered to drive
the
neighbors
who
were interested in attending the wake.
By mid-afternoon
Ed rounded up Lucien and three other neighbors
into his roomy
SUV
and headed for Shady Oaks.
Lucien
felt
Maureen
Carillo
’s
ti
-bon-
ange
wander
throughout his body
. His
energy
spiked, causing him to be somewhat irritable
. He couldn’t help but remember
when Ed came to him last year, desperate
,
after learning about his wife’s advanced lung cancer. He pleaded for Lucien to cure her, believing his link with Haitian Voodoo could b
u
y her some time. But it was just too late. Lucien
assembled an elixir, assuring Ed it would ease her pain. She drank
it
and died the next day. Ed never said anything, but Lucien could see the gratitude in his eyes. He was relieved his wife
was no longer in pain
.
Lucien attended
Maureen’s
wake and
funeral. Her grave
, like so many
former
neighbors,
was
adjacent to the
trailer park.
Days
after
she was
buried, he
went there
to pay his respects
in private
.
T
here it was, her
ti
-bon-
ange
floating above the headstone
and
the
freshly
dug-up
grass
. It was too easy. He
coaxed
the blue haze
into his
govi
and went home.
Now he was recharged with her soul,
driving w
ith her
husband while attending another funeral
he was involved in
. He couldn’t decide if this was irony or a bad omen.
Either way,
he knew the
loas
would not approve.