Echoes in the Bayou (29 page)

Well of
course he couldn’t refuse me
so I told him
exactly what to do. I told him that he needed to lure Zelia down to the bayou
because Celeste was in danger and knowing that a mother wouldn’t desert her
child I knew she would follow Leon into the bayou. Once he got her there he was
to hit her on the back of her head, and then shove her into the murky waters of
the bayou. And that's just what he did," she looked at Zelia with as much
jealously now as she had centuries ago.

"That
not all you did, tell him da rest." Zelia spoke with such power and grit,
Amelia began to tremble.
  "Son, when
your daddy returned I simply told him that Leon had raped and killed Zelia and
that he tried to have his way with me. Well, upon hearing this, your daddy
became enraged and told his men to find Leon and bring him back to the house.
Your daddy told me to go upstairs to my room and that’s what I did but I
watched from the window.
 
I watched your
daddy drag Leon over to the big oak, he then told his men to gather up all the
slaves and when they was all gathered round, your daddy commenced to beatin',
and whippin Leon. But that wasn’t the worst of it, your daddy wanted to make an
example out of him, he needed to show all the other nigga's that they was to keep
their thangs in their britches and out of the women. He pulled down Leon's
pants and cut off his penis right then and there, and by the time he stopped
hollerin, most of the blood had left his body and your daddy had them dump his
body in the bayou."

By now
Sinta, Magnus, Kelly
, and Steve had made their
way over to the back of the house and stood outside listening to all that was
going on. Under Sinta's insistence Magnus stayed outside as a bystander, she
told him that there was no need to interfere and that Ava was going to come out
of it alright. 

"Momma
I despise you," Will said and took hold of Celeste's hand. Ava slowly and
carefully moved away from John DuPonte and stood alone in a corner of the
kitchen.

"Son,
now I am still your momma, you show me some respect." She was growing weak
now and Ava could see that she was losing her strength. She hoped that the evil
women would disintegrate, but not yet as there was
more of the story that needed to be told.

 
"Will, my plan backfired because with Zelia out
of the picture, your daddy took to catering upon Celeste, why that nigga whore
had your daddy wrapped around her little finger. He even took to teaching her
to read and write, he took to her as if she was his own child and I just
couldn’t have that. But if there's one thing your momma is darling, it's
patient and I waited and waited. But once I began to see that the older you got
the more you took to Celeste, I devised another plan, but this time I was going
to make sure that the only person who was going to get hurt was her."

Amelia
pointed a long, bony finger at Celeste and Will slapped his mother's hand
away. "Don’t you even look at her you old
bitty," Will cursed.

"And
now here is where we get to you," Zelia turned and looked at John DuPonte
who had been standing in silence staring at Ava and Celeste. In the midst of
all that was going on, John DuPonte
had thought
of nothing but himself and his selfish, fleshly needs. He wanted to take
possession of either Ava or Celeste, it didn’t matter which one.

 
"Your words mean nothing to me old woman,"
he said as he faced Zelia.

"My
words may mean no
thing Mister DuPonte but my
actions surely will. Baron Samedi is coming for you," she said with a
satisfied grin.

 
"Who is that?" Magnus whispered to Sinta.

"Mister
Magnus, now not da time to
be askin a lot of
questions but I tell you, Baron Samedi is the loa of death Mister Magnus, and
he coming for your descendant. He gon' bring him back to da underworld."
Magnus needed no further answers, once he heard the word
underworld
; he
thought it best not to inquire about it anymore.

Chapter
Twenty

When he
heard this, John DuPonte let out a chuckle. "Old women, you don’t know
what you're talking about."

"You
took advantage of and murdered the woman I love!" Will shouted at him and
in a stealth move landed his fist a
gainst John's
chest.  While to two began to brawl, Ava had managed to sneak her way over
to the door and was pulled out of it by Sinta and Magnus.  "Ava are
you alright?" He asked. She put a finger up to her mouth signaling him to
be quiet. "Yes," she said with a weak smile.

 
In
an instant the scene in the kitchen turned spiritually frenzied. Will and John
were fighting to the death and while chairs, tables, and anything that wasn’t
adhered to the floor was being tossed around, Zelia held onto her daughter
tight.  But she kept a close eye on Amelia, just in case she decided to
disappear. Zelia knew that Baron Samedi was on his way and when he arrived, he
would finish what Amelia and John had started only he would finish it with just
the two of them.

 
Magnus
turned around and peered into the darkness, something seemed very wrong.
Sensing a nearby presence, they all turned around and saw the shadow of a man
rounding the corner of the house. He was wearing a top hat, black tuxedo, dark
glasses, and cotton plugs clung to his nostrils. He resembled that of a corpse
dressed and prepared for burial in the Haitian style. He had a white skull for
a face and nodded at them as he made his way into the kitchen.
The
astounded emotions coming from the group silenced them all momentarily. It was
like seeing the grim reaper, they had all hoped that by remaining silent, that
it would somehow make them invisible. "He's not here for us," Magnus
whispered and let out a heavy sigh.

Amelia
let out a horrific scream when she saw Baron Samedi standing in the doorway,
she tried with all her might to exit the kitchen but her legs were frozen with
fear along with the rest of her body. She knew what awaited her in the
underworld, an eternity of repetition. Will had John DuPonte right where he
wanted him, on the floor and when he saw the Baron he took his hands off of
John and raised them in surrender.

"You belong with her,"
Baron Samedi said, his voice sounding nasally. Will slowly bowed his head
to Baron Samedi and made his way over to Celeste and Zelia. Without so much as
another word, he held out his arms as if he was about to take flight and with
ethereal hands took hold of Amelia and John. Neither one could move as his grip
was death, and they knew that this time, there would be no resisting.

 
 At
that moment John DuPonte saw himself being prodded and assaulted by the demons
of hell. He saw sunken, bloody holes where eyes should have been, long and
sharp fanglike teeth replaced genitals. Horrific, terrifying screams came from
the darkest recesses of his soul and he begged the Baron for mercy. The Baron
merely let out a deep sinister chortle as he pulled Amelia in closer.

 
She
saw that not only was there repetition, but there was to be darkness all around
her. She could hear what sounded like hounds, howling for her, pouncing on her,
suffocating, and holding her head down as she drowned. And as if he'd had
enough of displaying the forewarning, Baron Samedi scooped them forcefully into
his arms, dove up into the air and into the night. Ava swore she saw wraithlike
wings sprout out of his back as he headed towards the bayou, the shrieks of
John and Amelia being drowned out by the flapping of the wings.

 
 When
she peeked into the kitchen she saw that Will, Celeste and Zelia were still
there, they were huddled together and it looked as if they were saying
goodbye.  After hugging and kissing her daughter, Zelia turned towards the
group standing in the doorway and offered her thanks. She thanked them for not
giving up and told them that the hard part was over and that the big house
would now and forever be free of Amelia and John.

 
Ava
fought hard to hang on, she felt weak and drained. And she knew that at any
moment she was going to pass out. She was unable to get her breathing under
control and there was tightness in her chest and she fought hard to smile.
Zelia looked at her as if she knew her secret and whispered in her ear,
"You gon' be alright Miss Ava, your heart is weak now but you gon' be
alright." After one more glance at her daughter, Zelia too disappeared
into the night.

Will and Celeste were next, Celeste
went over to Ava and held her in a warm embrace. When they separated, she
placed her hand over Ava's heart. "Your soul was once my soul, and we
forever will be one."
 
The tears
began to flow down Ava's face, they were tears of pain, sorrow, joy, and
happiness. Never before had she known a love so strong could exist but it did
and it existed between Will and Celeste. She was so incredibly happy for them.

 
"Until
we meet again beautiful lady," Will said and kissed her hand. He then
turned to Magnus, "Thank you for everything." And shook his hand
heartily.  The familiar scent of gardenias returned and a loon bird sang
quietly in the night, calling them home.

"They gone now Miss Ava, they
at peace and they together. Yo
u and Mister
Magnus did it!" The old woman shouted with joy.

 
Magnus
picked up the old woman and kissed her on the cheek. "It's finally
over," he said to his friends. "Now Ava, I think we need to…"
that was all she heard before she succumbed to the pain.

 "Well good morning,"
a voice said as she opened her eyes.

"Where am
I?" Ava asked. For a minute she thought she was
in limbo but after what happened last night came flooding back into her mind,
she breathed a sigh of relief. "Breathe, feels good to breathe," she
mumbled.

"I imagine that it does
chère," the nurse smiled at her.

"They
brought you in last night clai
ming that you
passed out and was gasping for air. Turns out you needed some oxygen, but now
that your awake we're going to keep you here for a few days and run some tests
on you, just to make sure that everything's okay Miss Montgomery."

Ava nodded her head, for whatever
reason, she was glad to be out of that house even if it meant spending time in
the hospital, at
the moment anyplace was better
than the Montieu Plantation.

 
 "Where's
Sinta?" Ava asked when her friends were allowed in the room.

"She's back at the house, she
couldn’t come for obvious reasons," Magnus told her.

"I
know that, I just wondered if she was going to up and disappear too," she
snapped at him
.

"Ava what is it?" Magnus
could hear the anger in her voice
.

"
Nothing,
it's nothing, I'm just tired is all," she managed a weak grin.

"I know you are sweetheart and
when we get home I intend on taking ex
cellent
care of you." Magnus squeezed her hand.

"About that," she said.
"The doctor might want to hold me longer than expected and if he does, I
want you to go home Magnus, I want you to go home and finish your book. All of
what's happened has put a hold on our lives and its time now that we get back
in the swing of things. Besides, I could use a little one on one time with
myself she told them. "Kelly, I hope that you understand."

Kelly walked over to the bed and
held her hand. "Of course I understand Ava, you've been through a lot, and
you need your rest.
"

Magnus stood up, he looked hurt. But
at the moment she didn’t care, she was drained, emotionally and physically.
After saying goodbye to Kelly and Steve and thanking them for all their help,
she found herself alone with Magnus.

"Ava I don’t understand how you
could want to go through this
alone," he
said. He was referring to the list of tests that the doctor had lined up for
her.

 
 She
didn’t want to lie to the man she loved, nor did she want to sugarcoat
anything. That wasn’t how she started a relationship, not now, not ever.
"Magnus, I want to tell you something," she said and patted her
bedside. When he sat down she told him that she had no desire what so ever to
return to the big house. She told him that she felt as if something died inside
of her and she no longer wished to be in that house.

"Then I'll put it up for sale
and we'll find someplace else to live," he said reassuringly.

But he wasn’t getting it.
"Magnus, I'm not even sure that I want to settle here in Louisiana
anymore, everything that's happened has
left a
bitter taste in my mouth and I'm not sure that moving somewhere else in
Louisiana will get rid of it."