VooDoo Follies (12 page)

"Okay, see you after school then." I left for
my next class, feeling at least a little better.

~...~

I found Tina standing next to an older 1970s,
black Volkswagon Beetle in the parking lot after school. "Hop in."
Tina said as she jumped in the driver's side. As much as I wanted
to be able to share my magical world with another living, breathing
soul; I was also scared. There was an anxious nervousness rolling
through my stomach that I couldn't quite put to rest. I wished
Stephen were here to tell me I was just being silly and then I
quickly regretted thinking of him. I missed him and I was only just
beginning to feel how completely I had begun to depend on him since
everything that happened with Adrianna and my zombie raising
escapades. I looked over at the girl in the driver's seat as I
climbed in. She was all smiles and chattering on about the song
that was now playing on the radio. "I wish she'd just crawl in a
hole and die somewhere. I can't stand her or her supposed singing
abilities." I barely registered who was actually singing, never
mind the commentary that Tina was spewing throughout the duration
of the song. Before long, we were pulling into one of the row homes
closer to the city. I looked at Tina questioningly.

She shrugged as she said, "I know, it's out of
the district. We had to move out of my Aunt Jess's house because
she got a new boyfriend who didn't want us there spoiling their
privacy. So, here we are. I just drive back and forth, but no one
is supposed to know, so please don't say anything." I was shaking
my head no, that I would not ruin things for her as she continued
on, "I just don't want to go to the city schools. There are far too
many people roaming those halls for my taste, and let's face it,
it's hard enough to get teachers to notice you in Rosedale. It
would be a nightmare in the city schools."

"Why would you want them to notice
you?"

"Oh," she said smiling at me as we both got
out of the car. "I forgot, you're the ghost in the classroom." I
must have paled noticeably, because she quickly corrected herself.
"No, I mean, well, you don't mind being invisible. I need to stand
out because I need some good recommendations for scholarships. Do
you have plans for college?"

"Oh, huh, I hadn't thought about
it."

"You're a junior right?"

"Yeah, but I had just planned on going back to
New Orleans and helping out in my Auntie's shop or something. I
don't know."

"Oh." That seemed to stifle the rest of our
conversation until we got into Tina's house and I walked into the
bedroom behind her.

I stopped walking and stood gawking at the
room instead. I imagined this is what people must have thought my
room should look like since I was into Voodoo. "Wow," was all I
managed to articulate as I took in the black walls with red trim
and lace black curtains flowing over what looked like red velvet.
Everything, and I do mean everything, in Tina's room appeared to be
red and black, with black being the predominate color.

"Oh, I sometimes forget it can be shock to see
for the first time." She smiled at me and then dropped her book bag
off in a fuzzy, black chair across the room. "Mom let me do what I
wanted with the place when she bought it. I was poking around a bit
while she talked and came across a black book with red lettering on
her dresser before I realized what I was doing; I was picking the
book up and examining it. "My Grimoire." Tina said as she walked
over to me. She grabbed the book and opened it so I could see a
random page. "All my spells and their results are in here. Well,
most of them anyway." She handed the book back to me, so I began
flipping through the pages. There were spells for luck, vengeance,
and of course - love. I shook my head when I saw the many pages
Tina had dedicated to love spells.

"My Auntie Perrine once told me dabblers never
fair well. My mom, the only thing she had to do with voodoo, had to
do with finding true love."

"Well, how'd the dabbling work for
her?"

"You know, one crackpot after another." I was
laughing a bit remembering the numerous "loves" of my mother's
life. "My Auntie says that my mom never found a good man until she
stopped dabbling. It's true too. I didn't want to like my step-dad,
but he's growing on me. He's not like the others she's trailed in
and out our doors for so many years."

"What about your real dad?"

"I don't even know who he is." I hadn't said
that out loud in a long time. "My mom has never said and my Auntie
won't break that silence." I shrugged and turned around, putting
the book back down on the dresser. "I've always thought if it was
that hard for them to talk about, that he probably wasn't worth my
time." I noticed a couple pictures that were up around the mirror
on the dresser and one in particular caught my eye. "Umm, is that
Stephen?" I had the picture in my hand before I realized what I had
done.

"Yeah," Tina replied with a twinge of sadness
in her voice. "Don't laugh. I was so in love with him! I tried a
couple spells, but he was never interested in me."

"Do you think it was because of the magic?" I
asked.

"No, I don't think he was ever judgmental
about it. I heard him tell Adrianna before to stop tormenting me
about the witch stuff."

"Oh," I said. It was all I could manage. I sat
there staring at the picture of Stephen in my hand, missing him. It
had been weeks since I last saw him and the hurting hadn't stopped.
I wondered and worried every day about him.

"I didn't realize you knew him," Tina said
quietly. It broke me out of my reverie enough that I was able to
save the photo from the onslaught of tears that had sprung
themselves free.

"I didn't know him that well, it's just...
it's sad to think he was gone long before he needed to be." I
couldn't very well tell her that I met Stephen after he died and I
couldn't seem to go on living my own life without the constant
reminders of him. "Were you guys close then?"

Tina's cheeks turned a bit red, her dark hair
and pale skin making it all the more obvious that she was blushing.
I nearly laughed because for a split second I thought, 'she matches
her room now.' "No," she said, I just had the biggest crush on
Stephen, but he was always looking at someone else." Tina threw a
glance my way that I could have sworn was almost a glare, and then
she turned from me so I couldn't see anymore. I decided it was best
if I put the picture back at that point, although there was a part
of me that wanted to pocket it, because I had no pictures of
Stephen.

"So, you said at school that you had a lot of
mishaps with your kind of magic. Have you ever wanted to try a
different kind to see if maybe you were better at it?"

I wasn't sure if this was a jab at me or if
she was trying to be helpful. "I've never really thought about
other kinds of magic before. My family has been practicing voodoo
for generations. It never even occurred to me to think about
anything else."

"Yeah, I can understand that." She was back
over at the dresser now, fiddling with her book, her Grimoire. "Do
you want to try something anyway?"

"Like what?"

"I don't know, you seem lonely a lot, maybe a
love spell would be just the thing. I know a spell to help you find
your one true love. I used it on my aunt two years ago, and,
well... I told you we had to move out so they could have her house
all to themselves. We could put a love hex on Trevor instead. I
thought you two were going to get together when he first got here
and then...."

"And then he became the jerk who torments me.
Yeah, I seem to recall something like that happening. No, I don't
do love spells or hexes at all. You do remember what I told you
about my mom, right?"

"Oh, sorry, I forgot. I just
meant..."

"I know what you meant," I said to her. In a
way, I wish a love spell could fix my feelings. I was in love with
two impossible to love boys. One was dead and was my biggest
tormentor at school now. "yeah, I guess my life does get lonely
sometimes, but it's always interesting."

"I bet, with all the zombie raising and voodoo
doll stuff." Tina perked up a bit. "Hey, have you ever used one?"
At my quizzical, arched-brow expression she continued, "you know a
poppit - a voodoo doll."

"No, I haven't. I mean, they have their uses,
and not all of them bad, but I just never saw a need for such a
personal spell."

"Oh, too bad. I was hoping maybe you had one
for Mr. O'Brian. He is such a douche-bag."

I had to laugh. Mr. O'Brian was indeed a
douche-bag of the highest order. We talked a while, Tina lit some
candles and we said an incantation to give us luck on our tests
tomorrow. She also shared the most amazing brownies in the world
with me. Before I knew it, time had flown by, the moon had replaced
the sun, and my cell phone was ringing with a very worried mother
on the other end wondering what I had gotten up to now.

"No, mom. It's okay, I will be home soon. I
met someone at school today, I've been at her house talking. We
just lost track of time. No. No, mom. I swear... sorry. I... Yeah,
I'll be there shortly. Sorry."

"Forgot to tell your mom, huh?" Tina had a
very sympathetic expression plastered across her face. "Been
there!" She grabbed her purse and keys from the bed, where she had
flung them when we came in, "come on, I'll get you
home."

"Thanks," I managed as I stuffed my cell back
in my pocket and grabbed my bag. As I tossed my bag across my
shoulder I felt the uniquely painful sensation of my hair being
ripped from my head. "Ow! Damn!" I pulled the rest of my unruly
curls out from underneath my book bag and looked back at Tina. "I
swear, some days, I really think about cutting all the curls off my
head and going bald."

Tina was laughing, right behind me as we
walked out her bedroom door. "Don't do that. You just have to
remember that you have so much hair." She was stuffing one hand in
her jeans pocket and closing her bedroom door with the other.
“Let’s get you home, before your mom freaks out any
more.”

***

Errands and Coincidence

I walked into the drug store, headed to the
back to pick up my mom's prescription. My mind was in a million
different places all at once, so it didn't surprise me when I ran
straight into someone as I turned the corner of the aisle. What did
surprise me was who I happened to run into.

"Are you a stalker now along with voodoo
princess?"

Trevor was standing there with that grin
plastered across his face. It was that same grin I had begun to
love when we first met. Now, it was a sign of my great
torment.

"I'm picking something up," I mumbled as I
tried to move past him.

"More herbs for your spells?" He grabbed a
bottle of St. John's Wart from the shelf and tossed it at me. "Hey,
look, it's on sale too." The grin never left his face, but it
wasn't the same one I remembered from our first meeting. The
playfulness I had seen in those eyes was long gone, replaced by a
cruel new look. This was not the Trevor I remembered. "I think they
use this stuff for crazy people. You know, the kind who talk to
themselves and whatnot." He looked around, as if searching for
something and then added in a conspiratorial whisper, "I don't
think you'll find a live chicken to sacrifice here
though."

I tossed the St. John's Wart back to him, "I
think you need this more than I do." I said and continued walking
back to the prescription counter. I tried putting the whole scene
with Trevor out of mind, but I couldn't. The tears came and
threatened to betray me.

"Are you alright, dear?" The blond woman
behind the counter was smiling at me as she asked. She was quite a
bit older than my mom with the most startling blue gray eyes I had
ever seen. She reminded me of someone, and I tried to place where I
had seen her before when she asked again. "Are you okay? What can I
help you with?"

I stumbled over my words a bit. "Sorry, I just
need," I stopped to wipe the tears away from my eyes, "I need to
pick up a prescription for my mom." I handed the woman behind the
counter the slip of paper my mom had give me. When she turned to go
get what I had asked for I noticed some movement out of the corner
of my eye. "Stephen?" I called out, without thinking. I could have
sworn it was him.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" The woman
behind the counter had blanched and was now looking almost as
traumatized as I felt. It was then that I connected why she looked
so familiar.

"Oh, no. I'm sorry. I just, I thought you
looked familiar and it just hit me. Are you Stephen's mom?" I asked
as gently as I could, but I could see the pain spread across her
face. "I'm sorry," I all but whispered to her.

"No, it's okay. It's just still...hard." She
smiled at me now and asked, "did you know Stephen well?"

"We had French class together," I admitted.
Obviously, I couldn't tell her I didn't know her son when he was
still alive, but that I spoke to him at length after his death. I
also couldn't tell her about how he helped me save the world from a
zombie apocalypse. My life was getting more and more complicated by
the day. "I miss him." The words were out of my mouth before I
could pull them back.