Bad Juju (11 page)

“Lucien, my mom wants to meet you when she picks me up.  Is that alright?” Henry asked.

“Absolutely.  I can’t wait to meet her
,
”
Lucien said.

Jessica pulled up.  Jake instinctively placed the poppet behind the couch cushion not wanting her to know about their Voodoo lesson.  Lucien graciously offered her tea, and she accepted.  Jake could see Henry’s mood sour.

“So, you spend a lot of time with Jake, and now Henry…That’s wonderful.  I understand you’re from Haiti?  Is your family safe?”  Lucien shrugged.  “I’
m so sorry.  Hope they surface soon,
alive and well.  Like your pet snake.  He friendly?”  Henry
grunted a sound of disapproval.  “Nice
meeting
you
, but
Henry thinks I’m intruding so that’s my cue.  Boys, you ready for some lunch?”

Jake was dropped off late afternoon after having lun
ch with Henry and his mother.  Mrs. Novak
offered a second invite on attending church with them the next day.  He felt pressured into going and finally agreed.

“Okay.  You can pick me up tomorrow morning,” he said.  It seemed to make
Henry’s
mother happy he would join them.

Onc
e inside, the trailer was still.  S
omething felt wrong
o
r at least more wrong than usual.  Jake crept through the rooms to double check its vacancy.  A
few
minute
s
later
the phone rang.  The caller I.D. showed Leah’s cell phone number.

“Leah, it’s Jake.  What’s wrong?  I can hear you crying.”

“T.J.  He’s unconscious.  Mona officially ended it.  She threw all of his stuff out in front of our house.”  Jake already heard a different perspective of the story from Esther
Muddraker
, but continued to listen.  “
She’s got a new
boyfriend
and he
just moved in
, Cody something or another. 
She didn’t want any of his shit in her house.”

“Where’s
Rhianna
?” he asked, worried.

“
She was here earlier, but then my mom took her for the night
.  I don’t think T.J. is going to make it.  The doctors…they say he’s got a depressed skull fracture.  That’s code for he had his brain
pulverized
with a baseball bat.  He bled from the ears, nose…and then yellow gooey stuff came out from his eyes.  It’s not good, Jake,” Leah cried.

“Who
hurt him?
  Pete?”

“No.  It
wa
s the new boyfriend.  I don’t know exactly what happened, but according to Pete, he and T.J. got to drinking.  As we both know, nothing good ever comes out of that.  Anyway, they went
to the bars and did some more drinking.  Then they went
over to Mona’s, begging her to give T.J. another chance. 
I’m sure
Pete had ulterior motives
of getting my brother out of the house
. 
Supposedly
,
T.J. brought Pete’s gun
with them
.  One thing led to another
,
and I get a call
just as I’m don
e
working
that
T.J.
’s in the hospital and Pete’s in jail.  I tried to call you
this morning
, but
you were working for our neighbors. 
So I thought now would be a good time to call…” 
Her voice was shaky and almost
incomprehensible.

Jake
couldn’t help but glow with
joy.  Thankful Leah couldn’t see his facial expression, he asked, “Why is Pete in jail?”

“Oh, he’s in the process of getting bonded out.  I’m not sure if he’s coming straight here or if he’s getting you.  He’s using T.J.’s car if you
were
wondering why his is still at home.”

“What’s the charge?” Jake asked almost doing a
n unseen
victory dance.

“B & E and gun charge.  You
wanna
come visit T.J. with me?  He might not have much longer.  When Pete calls, I’ll have him pick you up be
fore coming here,
”
Leah offered.

His victory was
put on hold.  J
ake
knew
if the situation was reversed, T.J.
might not have
visit
ed
him in the hospital
, but
Leah would.  Could this be part of the
Voodoo
spell?

Within the hour, Uncle Pete pulled up in T.J.
’s
old, dilapidated Camaro
, honking the horn for him to hurry up.  They drove in silence to the hospital.
  Jake took a chance and spoke, hoping his uncle was in a mellow mood.

“So, how long were you held
for
?”

“Well, let’s see...There was the initial arrest, hours of questioning, mug shot, prints…by the time they finally locked me up
,
it was morning, light out.  And then I was just released now, about a half an hour ago.  So
eight or nine
hours in the shithole.  Met some interesting cellmates.  I won’t be serving any real time for this trumped up bullshit….”

Eight or Nine
?  That’s close enough to nine!  My new favorite number
, thought Jake, remembering
his nine welts, nine X’s for the bastard’s face, and
nine cigarette burns he gave
the poppet
.

“Could
’ve
spent the whole day and night, but got lucky I guess. 
Bonded out. 
Now T.J…he’s not so lucky.  Cody, that’s his replacement
for Mona
, swung a baseball
b
at at his head, legs, everywhere.  I can still hear the thuds.  But he claimed self-defense because we broke into the house and T.J. had my gun. 
Mona backed him all the way. 
Poor bastard.  That piece of shit is
gonna
pay.  Listen, I’m warning you T.J. looks like something out of a horror movie,” Pete said
as they parked in the visitor’s parking area and approached the entrance. 
Because of his mother’s cancer he knew the hospital well.

They
slowly entered the room.  Leah was at the foot of the bed.  Her face was still bruised from the other night’s scuffle.  Her blue eyes were red and veiny.  T.J. lay unconscious with tubes sticking out of his arm and th
roat
.  His leg and abdomen were braced.  Jake looked at the machines.  They flashed and blipped in perfect unison.  As his eyes made their way up to T.J.
’s face, he was rep
ulsed
.  Part
of his head
was
bandaged
, but the rest
was swollen.  His one eye was sealed shut with yellow glop oozing out from it.  His cheekbone was caved in, giving him no facial structure. Jake tried to piece together T.J.’s misfortune while questioning if
the Voodoo
spell had anything to do with it.  He felt nauseated.  Had the doll
been a
mistake
?

“Thanks for coming.  The doctor says he probably won’t make it through the night.  He’s hemorrhaging and there’s nothing they can do.  His cranium is fractured all over,” Leah said.

“Pete says he was beaten up by a baseball bat? 
But it was
self-defense
?  How did they get in all of this trouble?”
Jake asked.

“Well,
Pete’s version of the story claims…”
Her tone was no longer sad, but angry.  She shot Pete a
dagger sharp
look.  “
…that
they just wanted
to scare Mona’s new boyfriend.  Someone fired a shot from Pete’s gun
at the front door. 
Cody
thought they were breaking in and
beat T.J.’s brains to a pulp.  And
Pete, you don’t have a scratch.  W
hat’d you do while all this was going on, huh?”  Leah turned to
his uncle
.

“I got arrested, that’s what.  Your brother was never one to think things through.  Not that
brainy
,” Pete
said with a laugh
.

“How dare you make a joke as he’s dying.  Look at him.  Look at my face.  Look at Jake’s back.  It’s because of you…”  Pete waved Leah off and
stormed out of
the room.  Jake had never seen her so angry.  Once alone, the silence became awkward.

“Leah,
h
ow many times did Cody hit him in the head?” Jake asked.

“Uh, lots.  He’s hit all over.  Doctor says nine alone in the head. 
Then another twelve all over the rest of the body. 
He’s only twenty-four.  So young.  I know he was going through a rough patch, but there was hope.  Now there’s nothing.”

Jake couldn’t help but think of his spell.  Pete should have been the one dying or
even
better, dead
.  Jake couldn’t shake the overwhelming
feeling of
guilt.  Nine.  Nine
was the theme of the week
.
  No coincidence.

“How’s your back?” Leah asked as they watched the heart
-
rate monitor.

“I’ll heal.  I’m so sorry.  Do you think Pete egged him on?  Maybe could have stopped it?  I mean, your brother doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to have a showdown with the new boyfriend.  And a gun?  That’s odd
.
”

“No, he’s not
the kind of guy that likes confrontation
.  And it’s Pete’s gun.  I bet it was Pete’s idea as well.  Pete is leaving out a whole lot of details.  He either had something to do with it or did nothing to stop it.  He couldn’t stand T.J.  All he did was bitch about him staying with us. 
Since I’m the only one working, I insisted that T.J. stay. 
I hate him, Jake.  And one day I’ll leave him.  Just watch me,” Leah whispered.  Her eyes darted towards the door, not sure if or when Pete was coming back.  They continued to watch the monitor in silence.  A few hours later T.J. died.

***

Tom Novak was annoyed with his wife.  She had ignored his advice
about being too
pushy
with
Henry’s new friend. 
Tom
silently fumed on the way over to Chippewa Trailer Park.  Jessica pointed to his trailer, letting Henry out of the car to knock on his door.  Henry came back without Jake.

“No one home.  Maybe it’s not his house,” Henry said.
  “But I could have sworn I went here to use the bathroom once.”

“That’s a good one.  All this fussing over the boy and you don’t even
know where he lives.  Alright
. 
Jake will have to sit this sermon out,” Tom said as he headed out of the trailer park.

Tom was forced to park in the overflow parking lot also known as the late parking lot because of the time wasted
at Chippewa Park. 
They walked into the modern building and were surprised all of the children’s classes were canceled.

The pastor was doing a series of sermons on Jesus’ view of forgiveness.  He abruptly announced the series would be continued later during the month
.  Today
he wanted to preach about Haiti.  Regular attendees were asked to watch a short mini-movie about the island in lieu of their devastation.  The film was less than
thirty minutes
.  It amazed both Tom and Jessica their church could put something this well done together right after the earthquake.

Pastor Franck took the podium after the film.  “As you can see from the film,
from
the news,
from
word of mouth, Haiti needs help.  We’ve got aftershocks, probably more to come.  Chaos and destruction everywhere.  Thousands of more dead bodies are being found
every day
.  What
can we
do when we are so far away?
  The question is
‘
W
hat
can’t we do?
’
  We can lift these people back up by giving them a helping hand.  Food, water, medicine drives, donations, and clothes are all needed.  We’ve go
t
tables setting up in the lobby for you to sign up after the service. 
W
e also planned mission
trip
and in
need of volunteers.  Some of our sister churches have jump
ed
on missionary work.  They will be going over spring break as pioneers of sorts
, s
etting up a missionary
camp
fo
r us to work safely.  I’m calling
on
all families
willing to sacrifice
their
time during the summer
to go to Haiti and do
a number of things such as clearing rubble, rebuilding their toppled buildings, encouraging sanitation, and spending time with Haitians who are curious about Jesus.  We are prevented from making any concrete plans
until we have some numbers of those willing to go, who want to share their valuable skills with those in need.
”