VooDoo Follies (8 page)

"You know," he started while grinning at me,
"I must be a great friend."

"Oh yeah?" I was looking at him with one
eyebrow cocked up in question.

"Yeah, because I don't even have to go to
school. I can be anywhere in the world and I am going to school
with you to make sure you don't sit there and sulk all day like you
used to."

"I did not sulk!" I looked up at him and got
ready to punch his shoulder, then remembered that he wasn't really
solid like that. "I was just concentrating."

His laugh was magical. I could listen to that
laugh every day for the rest of my life and I would be happy.
Stephen's head tipped back as the full on, deep, infectious
laughter stole through him. I giggled with him for a minute,
because I couldn't help myself. Then I remembered I was outside and
no one else could see Stephen. I looked around self-consciously to
make sure no one saw me.

"Maybe I won't make things much better there?"
A sudden sadness was there waiting to swallow him up as I watched.
It was a stark contrast to the beautiful laughter that rushed
through him only moments ago. "I forget sometimes, you know." He
hung his head and I watched as that lovely sandy hair fell
shimmering back across his eyes to hide everything he didn't want
me to see.

"I know." My feet shuffled in front of me, one
after another, not wanting to go anywhere at all and yet stuck on
the path to my own personal hell - high school. "Maybe there's a
way to get you back."

"My body's gone, Sera. My parents cremated
it." He kicked at a rock that never moved and I choked back a sob
that I didn't know was waiting. "Besides, what would you bring me
back as? Another zombie? Would you let me eat people, as long as it
meant we could be friends? I wouldn't want that."

"Stephen, I didn't mean like that."

"I know. I'm going to leave you alone,
Seraphine. I think we both need the quiet in our heads today." He
looked up from under that hair. I wanted nothing more than to push
it out of his eyes, to feel the silkiness I saw before me. I wanted
to... "See ya later." A small smile was there for me and then he
was gone. I realized what the smile was for a second too late. My
hand had betrayed my thoughts. I had actually raised my hand to
move that precious hair out of his face, to see those crystalline
blue eyes that always hid behind it. I wanted to kick myself. I
wanted to crawl under a rock and stay there until the end of time.
I was Seraphine LaLande, Voodoo Priestess (almost) and I was
apparently stupid enough to be falling for a boy who was dead.
Worse yet, I seemed unable to stop myself. What I needed was a
distraction.

***

The Distraction

School wouldn't be much of a distraction,
since nothing ever happened there, but I figured it was better than
sitting outside in the middle of the street crying my eyes out over
my budding affection for a spirit-bound boy. Of course, maybe I was
a little too distracted for school, because I turned the corner to
get to my locker and walked right into Principal Johns, fell to the
floor, dropped my books on his toe, and managed to smack the back
of my head on a partially opened locker when I tried standing. I
would have been fine with everything ending there, but no, my
humiliation had to continue on because not only had Principle Johns
been unwittingly involved in this whole drama, but he had a very
tall, gorgeous witness to everything standing right beside him
trying desperately not to laugh. I gave him points for trying, blew
the curls out of my face that had flopped there when I smacked into
the locker, and even managed an embarrassed smile. "Sorry, sir. I
wasn't..."

Mr. Johns held his hand up to silence me and I
was finally smart enough to take a cue on something today. I shut
my mouth and just added a mortified shoulder shrug to the mix.
"Ms..." He was struggling to remember my name. I thought about
making him ask, but after everything, this just added to my
embarrassment.

"LaLande," I added quietly.

"Ah, yes, LaLande, from down south in
Louisiana right?"

"Yes sir." I guess the name tends to trigger
that memory.

"You just came to our school recently, didn't
you?"

"Yes, sir. I came in November last
year."

"Ah, good, then you at least know your way
around." He handed me a white piece of paper as I was struggling to
toss my backpack over my shoulder without knocking anyone out. "See
to it that Mr..."

"Daniels," the tall stranger supplied for our
dear, yet forgetful principal.

"Yes, Mr. Daniels. Make sure he can find his
way around to all his classes and maybe introduce him around,
please."

I was about to protest this assignment, but
Principle Johns walked off too abruptly. I could have stumbled and
rolled down the hall and still not caught up to him. I sighed and
looked up again, bringing my hand to my head to feel the knot that
was starting to grow there.

"I was thinking, maybe you should show me
where the nurse’s station is first." A quirky little smile played
at the corner of Mr. Daniels' mouth as he continued, "you know, in
case you bump into anything else."

"Har, har. Very funny. Tease the special ed
girl."

He had the sense to look awfully sorry for
stumbling into that one, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't
mean..."

"Neither did I! Gotcha!" The humor in the
situation as his face turned back to instant fun was lost on me as
my head began to throb harder. "Right, so the nurse’s station is
this way." I pointed and began to head there first. I figured we
could be late to class together since he was in my U.S. History
class next period. "I think I could use some ice, before I start
looking like some thing's trying to hatch out of my head." His lip
twitched again with repressed laughter. "What? Okay, that better
not be a hair joke rolling around in that pretty little head of
yours." The minute I saw his eyebrow cock I realized what I said.
Of course, that was a minute too late to take it back.

"So, you think my head's pretty do you?" I
rolled my eyes at him, but he wasn't deterred now. "Well, for your
information, I was admiring your curls before you jammed them so
violently into the locker door. Now, I just pity them for having
such a careless owner!"

"Okay, smartass."

"Seraphine!" Mrs. Jackson, our history
teacher, walked out of the office just in time to hear what I said.
I asked for a distraction from the crazy world of Stephen, but this
was becoming ridiculous.

"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson." I managed to mumble out
as I clutched the goose egg that had now sprung from the top of my
head.

"Ma'am, it's my fault, I was lost and
Seraphine?" he questioned, but continued on, "well we bumped into
each other and her head hit an open locker, and I just wanted to
escort her to the nurse to make sure she was okay. "

"Let me see," Mrs. Jackson grabbed hold of my
head, none to gently, and easily found the growing knot. "Yes, I
see. Well, Seraphine you go on to the nurse." She grabbed the white
slip of a schedule back out of the new guy's hand and looked it
over. "You, Trevor, can come with me. U.S. History awaits us just
around the corner."

I saw the cringe, the shrug, and the “sorry”
he mouthed as he walked off with Mrs. Jackson. I was lingering on
the fact that I now knew his first name, Trevor. Maybe the bump on
the head would turn out to be worth it.

***

Dreaming of More

It bothered me all day that I left Seraphine
this morning. I knew it was for the best, and yet I couldn't stop
thinking about her. So, here I was again. There really was nowhere
else in the entire world that I wanted to be more than by her side.
Sitting here, looking on as she slept, was better than nothing,
though I wished I had been with her today in school. I watched her
sleep for the longest time, noting the times she smiled and wishing
I could get inside her head to see what was going on in there. I
sat down on the chair in her room, not because I needed to, only
because it put me closer to eye level. I keep telling myself that
if anyone could save me from this spirit life I have, if anyone in
this world could bring me back, and give me a second chance, it
would be this girl. I know that sounds selfish, but there's more to
my attraction to Seraphine. She's amazing in every way, and I find
myself having to remember that I am a ghost and she is a human.
Every day, I tell myself that because if I were to forget for a
minute, I could allow myself to fall madly in love with
her.

I heard the hiss of the door running across
the carpet before the sound registered in my mind. I managed to
jump up and stop Seraphine's mom from launching into some crazy,
full blown, screaming fit. I walked with her out into the hall,
just beyond the door.

"You better have a good damn explanation for
why you're in my daughter's room in the middle of the night,
watching her sleep."

I had no good reason to give her. I tried to
put my hand on Angelique's arm, to reassure her, but it just sank
through her living flesh and out the other side. I watched as the
realization dawned on her face, about the same time the chill swept
through her.

"So, you're a dead boy then?"

I nodded. She looked into the bedroom at her
sleeping daughter. My eyes followed and watched as Seraphine
continued sleeping through this exchange. I never knew what it
meant to be in love when I was alive, but standing there in the
hallway with Seraphine's mom, looking in on her daughter, all I
could think was that Seraphine was perfection.

"Boy," she started.

"Stephen," I corrected her, still not taking
my eyes off of Seraphine.

"Stephen, you can't do this. I see the way you
watch my daughter. She's of the living, you are of the spirit
world. This won't do anything, but hurt one or both of
you."

I thought I saw Seraphine squirm a little bit,
but I turned my attention back to Angelique.

"I know how impossible things seem and I still
can't help the way I feel when I’m with her." The look of pity that
crossed Angelique's face was not one I cherished, but it softened
her. "Your sister is working on something that may help me with my,
um, situation." She gave me that look that was more 'don't be
stupid' than pity. "I know, I'm dead and my body is gone, but I
have to hope for something more than this." I gestured to the body
she could see, but was invisible to most other people. She simply
nodded to me knowingly.

"You can stick around, and I hope my sister is
able to work things out for you, though I wouldn't put much stock
in that voodoo world being much help. You've seen the trouble it
gets Seraphine into. That reminds me, Seraphine needs to know when
you're going to be here at night. You know, she still needs privacy
even if you've forgotten what that's like."

"I'm a ghost," I couldn't help the smile that
spread across my face, "all I have is privacy, unless one of you
two sneak up on me."

Angelique laughed at that and then walked back
down the hall. She threw one last comment for me over her shoulder,
"I can see why my daughter thinks so highly of you. You're two peas
in a pod!"

~...~

Stephen was in the chair next to my bed
looking out the window when I woke up. The conversation he had with
my mom last night came back to me. I thought it had been a dream,
but seeing him here this morning made me confident that it
wasn't.

"Stalk much?" I made sure the laughter was
there in my facial expression as I spoke. Stephen turned those
intense blue eyes of his on me and a smile lit across his
face.

"Why, yes, it's my favorite past time. Didn't
you know? That's what we spirit-bound souls do. We stalk people."
He tried for a creepy face and failed miserably as his hair fell
back down across his eyes. "Damn hair, I had been meaning to get
that cut, but I guess I'm stuck with it now."

"No, I like it the way it is." I felt the heat
spreading to my cheeks in a blush, so I added, "I mean, it adds to
your mystique."

"Just what I needed, to be more mysterious
than an oddly spirit-bound teenager."

"The Unknown." I said absently.

"The what?"

"That's what my Auntie Perrine called you. She
said people like you were called The Unknown, because you got
trapped in the spirit world while your body was still alive. It
makes you something different from the spirits of the dead." I
shrugged at him and pulled the covers closer around me as I sat up
in bed.

"But, my body is dead." The sadness that swept
across him jolted me a bit and sent goose flesh rippling across
me.

"I know, but it wasn't gone when you first got
lost." I looked up at the clock, noting the time. "Stephen, I need
to get ready for school. Can you go hang out in the living room or
something? And try not to scare the step-parent. He can't see you,
but I’m pretty sure he can sense when you're around."

"Oh, yeah, sure." Stephen just disappeared
into nothingness. It was the first time I had seen him use his will
to just be somewhere else. It was disturbing and fascinating all at
once. I lay back down for a moment thinking about what I overheard
last night. I'm glad it was Stephen explaining things to my mom and
not me. I would have probably found myself on restriction again had
I tried.