Voodoo On The Bayou ~Part 2

PART TWO No study of ghostly tales or strangeness in New Orleans would be complete without mention of Marie Laveau, the unchallenged "Queen of Voodoo" in New Orleans.

Part Two 

 

CHAPTER 6

 

It was quite a sight to see those two, one little boy and one old man trudging along down the banks of the Ole’ Mississip', their fishing poles in one hand, and Old Charlie in the other, talking together like only two men friends can do; sharing their secrets and Santi’s loving, fatherly advice.

 

They’d sit there for hours on the banks of the Ole’ Mississip’ with their fishing poles made of old tree limbs and tied with raggedy, old red bandanas.

 

They’d stick their poles in an old, rusty tin can with a small hole punched in the top to hold the poles, just waiting for a wiggle and a bite while Santi taught Lil Babby all the things he knew about playin’ the blues and ragtime on their trusted Old friend Charlie the sax. 

 

That’s not all Santi taught Baptiste. As Baptiste grew older and wiser to the many escapades of New Orleans, he started wondering about all the women he’d see Santi cavorting about with. One pretty little thing after another.

 

The year Baptiste turned 17, after a couple of years of persistently asking Santi question after question after question about women; “What do they do? What are they like? How do they smell”, etc. and etc., Santi decided it was about that time in a young man’s life when he needed to learn a few more lessons other than playing music on Old Charlie. So, after talking it over with Baptiste’s Mam', Santi took Baptiste in tow and they went on down to the La Branche House over on Esplanada Avenue.

Baptiste learned quite quickly and eagerly from Santi and all the ladies down at La Branche House. He ascertained all the debonair skills of charm, wit and gentlemanly skills of how to entertain; but most of all… how to love many women, too many women. Thus Baptiste's fall of too many ladies, gambling and drinking.

Baptiste and Santi were two of the most favored clients of the La Branch ladies. They were treated equally with love and special favors. All the ladies tended to their needs both inside the La Branche House and outside as well. 

 

Things were very comfy and entertaining at the House, except for a few uncomfortable peculiar things and events.Whenever Baptiste and Santi visited La Branche House. They always noticed there were strange, inexplicable events taking place in the elaborate, old house. Among those strange events were unexplained footsteps in a blocked off part of the attic in a remote part of the upstairs portions of the house.

There were voices and many unexplained events in those empty, attic spaces. The eerie, haunting voices of children laughing, accompanied by invisible tiny feet that sometimes left footprints on the old clapboard, wooden floors.

 

Sometimes out in the courtyard, Baptiste would see grayish colored images floating eerily across the gardens.

Strange activity began to occur in the old kitchen pantry with many of the utensils and glasses just completely disappearing. Even tablecloths and linens were found bundled up in the old fireplace grate, completely untouched by burn marks, even after a roaring fire had previously warmed the room.

One morning Baptiste and Santi had gone into the kitchen to start a pot of coffee when a creepy feeling started the hairs to stand up on the back of both their necks.They both looked up at the same time. Standing there with her hands braced on her hips was a vaporous gray figure of a woman with no legs. Her hair appeared to be pulled back into a bun off the sides of her face.

She was wearing a scarf around her neck called a tignon. It was a seven knotted handkerchief. In her long, fingered hands she carried a rather elegant broach that hung from a long, silver chain. This broach resembled the figure of a small child lying in the arms of a woman.

Santi had lived so long he wasn’t scared by much of anything anymore.

He thought he had pretty much seen it all. But that morning in the kitchen, he and Baptiste looked up at the same time into the burned out eyes of that eerie figure standing there and almost got stuck in the doorway trying to get out of that room at the same time.

 

It was rumored that the House was once a place where slaves were kept chained up in their quarters in the top portion of the house and the attic.

 

The main ghost that seemed to haunt and wander about the most was that of a little girl slave, who in order to escape the beatings of her mistress climbed to the roof and jumped to her death in the courtyard below.

 

CHAPTER 7

Many times after Baptiste would leave house he could feel one ghost in particular. It, or shall we should say 'she' seemed to want to follow him about on his nightly strolls down on Bourbon and Bayou Streets. It was the figure of a woman ghost, with no legs. It was the same one that had scared the ‘Be Jesus’ out of him and Santi in the pantry that morning.

 

She would only follow Baptiste on Saturday evenings when he’d take his evening stroll. It seemed rather odd to Baptiste that the only nights she followed him was on Saturday nights. Since it was just the head and torso of this ghostly women, with the knotted handkerchief around her neck, carrying that peculiar, odd broach in her hands, seemed to make it even more eerie and bizarre.

 

Baptiste was oft’ tempted to give up his Saturday night strolls entirely.

With all the rantings and ravings of ghosts and uncanny things that ‘go bump' in the night’ that were talked about so freely in the House, it was no, small, wonder that Baptiste had taken it upon himself to engage Marie Laveau to assist him with her Voodoo skills to acquire some sort of ability to understand and relieve himself of this unwanted spirit.

 

For some odd reason, Baptiste chose to call this ghost Elena. To put it frankly, where that name came from, Baptiste really had no idea. No idea whatsoever!

 

But in no time shortly....Baptiste was surely going to find out. He wasn't going to believe, nor did he want to believe, what was about to unfold, unravel and twist their fabric into his life in forgotten realms he was completely unaware of... and hauntingly unfamiliar with! 

 

(to be continued)

Reviews

[Warrior]

Great story telling. This did justice in the realm of getting the message across. Great message. There's lot of times where a story can have a great message to aim for, and have a lot of under lining things but then no one gets it, and if no one gets it, then the point has failed. But in my opinion this did well to get the message across. You made it clear, which is why I think it's good. Keep up the good work. What was also great was that I could imagine the story as I read it, and that is also a strong point of stories. The ability to have the reader imagine it because after all we're reading not watching it, but it was as if I was there as I read this, and that is great. Good job once again.