The Soul Compact (Now Free on Amazon)

Chapter 9

Dimitri felt bad that he had to mislead Peter and Heather’s mother about the real purpose of his trip to Haiti.  After Peter’s slur began, he quickly drove back to the bar, hoping to seek Lionel’s help, but Lionel was gone.  The next morning, he drove to Immokalee, only to find out that the voodoo priest had left for Haiti a couple of hours before his arrival.  He was on his own. 

To save Peter, he decided that he needed to take him to Haiti and seek the voodoo priestess’ help again.  However, he couldn’t tell Peter or Heather’s mother the real reason for the trip because Peter would not go and Heather’s mother would be furious. Instead, he pretended that the trip was for all of them to visit Haiti to see Heather.

Dimitri would not be able to live with himself if something bad happened to Peter because of him. So, he made up his mind that he was going to plead with the spirit to accept a chicken sacrifice instead.  If the spirit refused, maybe he would agree to give his life for his son.  He was desperate.  Somehow, he would save his son, he decided.

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Most of the kids at Betty and Robert’s party were gathered on the terrace overlooking the ocean.  They were kids of rich Haitians and spoke English fluently.  They attended the same American school for diplomats in Port-au-Prince that Ronald and Marc attended.  Some were spending the summer either in Leogane or at Grand-Goave, another seaside town not too far from there.

Heather could not remember everyone’s name.  All of the kids were very nice, especially the two daughters of the Haitian prime minister, who were staying during the summer at their parents’ beachfront house in Grand-Goave. Like Jackie, the girls were very down to earth, and invited Jackie and Heather to come spend time with them at their house to do some water sports.   Jackie, who had been there before, accepted right away. Heather accepted after asking her father, who knew the girls’ parents. 

 “You will have fun,” Margarette, the older sister, said to Heather.

  “We plan to snorkel and do all types of water sports,” Lourdes, the younger sister, added.  

Although they were two years apart, the two sisters looked more like twins.  One just graduated from high school and was going to France to study, while the other was entering eleventh grade. Both were very pretty and tall, with very dark skin that reminded Heather of a famous African model she saw once in a magazine.

“It’ll be fun,” Jackie agreed.  “We will get to go to town and visit the marketplace.”  As Heather talked to them, music from famous French singers including Charles Aznavour and Mireille Mathieu, could be heard coming from the hidden speakers behind the terrace, while trays of a succulent seafood dish called lambi, together with rice, beans and sweet plantains were being served.  All in all, it was a fun afternoon, and Heather was now excited about her upcoming stay with Margarette and Lourdes.

By the time the party was over, it was already late in the evening.  Heather’s thoughts about Peter’s health had returned. Maybe Peter was eating something that was making him sick, she thought.   She had heard in a science class once about bacteria that could reach even the brain and cause these kinds of symptoms.  The good thing was that Peter was young, unlike Mrs. Egorov, who was old and weaker when she had gotten sick with the same symptoms. 

When Heather got back to Linda’s house, she rushed to call Peter on her cell phone.  She wanted to make sure that Peter had gone to see a doctor because he might need to be put on antibiotics if the slur was due to a bacterial infection.

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The day after, Steven, whose known to Dimitri as Lionel, left home early to go to a new casino in Fort Lauderdale.  He loved gambling.  Since he and his brother usually received multiple large payouts from lottery winnings each year, from the spirit, it didn’t matter whether Steven won or not at the slot machines.  The money from the spirit never ceased coming.