That Voodoo That You Do

 

          That Voodoo That You Do 

I lived in New Orleans Louisiana for a large portion of my adult formative years.

 I actually became an adult there.

 I fell in love a time or two.

 I drank too much, fought in public, became a bodyguard and a bouncer, and I also discovered that Vudun also known as Voodoo is very real. 

I was a typical 20 something young man, in an endless pursuit of a certain part of the female anatomy. 

To that end my then best friend Jarrod and I hung out on college campuses regularly.

I swore that I had a “billion dollar mouthpiece” I thought that my game was strong enough to knock down any woman’s defenses. Our favorite colleges were Xavier University and Dillard. The pair of us spent so much time at those schools that people honestly thought that we attended there.

On one of these missions to find the fairer gender, I encountered her. She was beautiful. That’s not fair, she was as far beyond simply beautiful as the Sun is from being merely a light.

This girl was perfect. She looked like Eve. Not the rapper, I’m talking about Adam’s old lady!

From her keen aquiline nose, screaming hints of Greco-Roman in her ancestry, to the beauty mark at the left corner of her mouth, to the porcelain-esque, perfectitude of her teeth. She was stunning.

For some unfathomable reason she felt that I was worth spending time with and man did we spend time together. I had a non-traditional job so I was able to spend entire days lounging with her, weeks even. I might have to leave for a few hours on a weekend night but other than that Clarice and I were together.

Well if you read how Etta James saved my life, you know that my friend Jarrod was very overprotective of me. I think that it had something to do with the fact that the girl who broke my heart was his cousin. Whatever the reason, Jarrod decided that I was spending too much time with Clarice and that he needed to help me realize it.

Jarrod and I normally hung out in epic fashion. Not only are we both tall men but we both have loud personas. 
If we were in a club everybody knew we were there. 
Several bars in the French Quarter and beyond had drinks and or Sandwiches named after us or at the least created by us.

We were such party animals that One bar in the French Quarter had named their wet t-Shirt contest in our honor or dishonor. We were frequently judges of the aforementioned contest.  

With me spending the majority of my Time with the lovely Ms. Clarice, Jarrod had to fend for himself.

About two months into my relationship, Jarrod calls me and says “Say Bruh, the finals of the Wet T-Shirt contest is this weekend. Bruh we got to go.”

The night of the contest, I could not go the entire day without seeing my woman, so Jarrod and I stopped by her school and sat in the visitation lounge.

The large open room was designed for the resident’s suitors and courtiers. (It literally said that on the sign!)

Clarice brought one of her friends to be introduced to Jarrod.

She too, was a beautiful woman and I knew she was Jarrod’s type. 

However my friend sat in this big room and ignored this fetching young woman.

Pouting like a child.

Clarice nestled against my chest and whispered sweet nothings with me while Jarrod was rude to her girlfriend.

Suddenly another friend of Clarice’s poked her head into the room and asked a question that I only heard subconsciously, by that time I was having some temporary blood distribution issues.

She said: “Reece are you going to Ouija with us tonight?” I heard the question, but Clarice hand was inside my Levi’s and nothing else mattered. Jarrod perked up though. “Say Ma, you play with the Ouija board?” He directed the question to my lady even though he should have been astute enough to tell that she was busy.

“Yeah, why?” Clarice queried, her ministrations now suddenly halted.

Looking smug Jarrod says; “Word? Ya ever ask it about him?”

I just wanted him to shut up I was trying to finish something.

Ignoring my angry expression, Jarrod continued. “Yeah bay you should ask it about him.”  Clarice assured him that she would.

Within moments Jarrod and I left the Dillard University Campus and headed to the quarter for the Wet T-Shirt contest.  

Serving as one of the Judges, I missed how many times Clarice had paged me.

 Yeah, it was a long time ago.

I returned her calls as soon as I got home.

“Hey Baby. You miss me don’t cha ya?” I felt like teasing her would be okay I hadn’t done anything wrong,  and we were silly like that with one another.

I wasn’t prepared for her serious demeanor. “Baby.” Her voice was sterner then I could ever recall it being, with me.

“You need to forget about me. The Ouija board said that I should leave you alone NOW.”

I wasn’t letting some freaking board game tell me what to do. 

“Girl stop playing yeah. You can’t shake me like that no. Girl you know you love me yeah.”

The tears were evident in her voice. “I do love you boy. I do for real yeah.”

 To me that was the entire answer, what else needed to be said?

“Okay, and I love you too so fuck the Ouija board talking about!” 

I had decided I was going to kick Jarrod’s ass the next day. I also was determined not to lose my girl.

Which was why her next words shook me. “No Michael. There’s something about your spirit that make the Ouija board and the Tarot want me to avoid with you. As a priestess of Vodun I have to do what the spirits say.”

Didn’t make sense to me, and the fact is that I don’t recall much else of our conversation. 

I do recall the words: “You will forget me.”

The next morning I awoke with the world’s worst hangover.

 My phone was ringing. I answered it with a loud yell, something Jarrod and I had adopted before I met Clarice and begun using proper grammar and telephone manners from her influence.

“Waaaaaaa!!! What’s happening?” 

I fairly screamed into the phone.

 On the other end a shocked Jarrod responds; “What’s happenin round? What you doing today?”

“Bruh you serious?”

I almost choked.

 “I’m doing the same shit we do every day. Holla at broads, get numbers, get drunk, and eat at Anita’s and We Never Close? Why would anything change from yesterday?”  

My friend suddenly sounded confused. “Yeah we anit did none that yesterday woe, you anit going ta see ya girl?”

I laughed. “Jay, you need ta stop playing bruh. I’m the biggest player in the city, I anit got no girl.”

He must have spent the following hour trying to remind me of somebody that I had never heard of. 

I remember going to Dillard that day, and some pretty girl calling security on me when I asked her for her number.

Six years later. April 18^th 1997 I was lying in bed, when suddenly I remember Clarice Mathis!

Wow, I’m flooded with these memories and they are almost painful.

I wonder how I could have forgotten her in the first place. 

I wonder why she called security on me, and why I didn’t recognize her. It’ was too much of a mystery I had to find out what happened.

Clarice Mathis was killed in a car accident on April 18, 1997. Until that accident took place, I was unable to remember her. I went to Dillard University at least twice a week for the next couple years and I can’t say that I remember running into her on Dillard’s minute campus. The closest I can figure Clarice was a real magic user, and when she told me to forget about her I was under a spell until her death broke it. 

I still have no idea how Jarrod knew that if Clarice asked the Ouija board about me that it would be the end, but some things are better off not being figured out.