The Soul Compact (Now Free on Amazon)

Chapter 5

Located less than twenty miles from Port-au-Prince, the city of Leogane looked like a ghost town, with remnants of destroyed houses stretching all across the fields that bordered the gravel road that led to the seaside area.

As if he were reading Heather’s thoughts, Ronald explained that Leogane was the city that suffered the most damage during the 2010 earthquake. “Ninety percent of the houses in Leogane were destroyed. Most of the people left and never returned. They couldn’t afford to rebuild their houses.” 

Marc, who was silently riding in the front passenger seat, nodded his head in agreement.

“That’s sad,” Heather said, as she remembered seeing news reports of people living in tents throughout the capital after the earthquake.

“I know.  The government wants to help but doesn’t have the money.” 

They continued the rest of the drive in silence, which was only broken minutes later when Ronald who, after turning onto a road leading to a cul-de-sac , announced that they had reached their destination.

The house could not be seen from the road.  It was hidden by tall walls that surrounded the property. They waited in the car for a few seconds until a young man came out and opened the large front gate to allow them to drive in. “That’s Jean Robert.  He and his wife work for my mother,” Ronald told Heather, as he waved to the man.

Linda’s place was a salmon-colored two-story Mediterranean-style house with a circular driveway and arched doorways and windows.  It had an airy interior with beautiful exotic looking tiles, and four bedrooms, all on the second floor.  The back of the house had both a large porch on the first floor, and a beautiful balcony on the second floor, overlooking the ocean.   The two-acre property contained several fruit trees, including mangoes and guavas, as well as other trees that Heather didn’t recognize. It was a beauty, Heather admitted to herself.

By the time they sat down for supper, it was getting late and Marc had already walked home.  Heather was disappointed that Mar had left because she wanted to talk to him about voodoo practice. She decided to wait until the next day when she was to attend an afternoon party that Marc’s parents were hosting for Heather and her father.  Remembering now her conversation with Peter, Heather wanted to ask whether selling somebody’s soul was part of voodoo beliefs. Maybe, in the process, she would discover the history of these silly superstitions, she thought.

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When Peter’s father woke up that morning, it was the first time that he had felt at peace since his meeting with the voodoo priestess in Haiti. After that meeting, and as the days and weeks had passed, he had gotten more and more depressed.  The spirit had told him during the meeting that he only had months left to give Peter or himself up.  Since he didn’t have any intention of honoring the spirit’s request, he had promised himself to find a way to save the two of them.  What made things worse, however, was that the day before when he told Peter about the spell, Peter didn’t believe him.  Peter’s life was in grave danger and Peter didn’t even realize it.

Peter’s father was feeling at peace because today was the day he and Lionel were supposed to meet and go see the new voodoo priest. Based on his own calculations, he only had a few weeks left before the second soul was due. He knew that he had to hurry because in the last few days, once in a while, his speech would get slurred.  He recognized the symptom because the same thing had happened to his wife a few weeks before her death.

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When the man known to Dimitri as Lionel entered the hotel’s reception area to meet with him, he was a few minutes late. Those few minutes had made Dimitri feel like he was doomed.  For one thing, if the man didn’t show up, Dimitri wouldn’t know how to reach him.  He didn’t have the man’s phone number or address.