Daniel found the boy’s aunt and friend in the waiting room. The moment they noticed him heading their way, they stood and met him. He focused on the woman. “And you are related to the patient how?”
“I’m his aunt.”
He nodded. “I need you to answer some questions for me. Has Luc been out of the country anytime in the last year?”
“No.”
“Has he been swimming in a swamp or bayou?”
The woman turned to the young man. “Not swimming, but we did go into a swamp a couple nights ago.”
Daniel focused on him. “You are a good friend of the patient?”
“Yes. My name’s Jake, we do just about everything together.”
Daniel looked to the aunt for confirmation.
“Yes, Jake live wit’ us. Da boys close,” she said.
Now he knew where to get his answers. The patient might keep things from his aunt, but not his best friend. “At any time did you see him drink any water while you were out there?”
“God, no. We carry bottled water when we go hiking.”
“What kind of shoes did he wear?”
“Hiking boots.”
“Does he have any open wounds that might have been in the water?” Dr. Scott asked.
The kid waited a beat before answering. “Not when we were in the swamp.”
“Does that mean he has some now?”
“Maybe.”
The kid was holding something back. “I’m not a cop. If we are to treat him properly, we need to have as much information as possible.”
“Well, he had an accident yesterday where he was dragged on his rear end and the backs of his legs.” Jake hesitated. “He also has an, ah, injury on his shoulder, but nothing low enough to get water on it.”
“Why chew ask such thin’s?” the aunt said.
“He appears to have a parasite and we need to know where it came from. We’ve seen this kind of thing with people who travel to Africa, South America, or third world countries. Parasites can enter the body several ways, not just by swallowing them. Swimming in infested waters, for example.”
“I saw a show on TV where a guy had a fish stuck in his penis from swimming in a river. You mean like that?” Jake asked.
“That would be the Candiru, or the toothpick fish. It’s attracted to warm water, so if you urinate in the vicinity of this fish it will swim up the urethra and attach itself while it feeds on the blood. There’s only one known documented case and it happened in the Amazon.”
The kid looked green.
“But as you say, he hasn’t been out of the country. Besides, the Candiru has no reason to travel further into the body. Once it finds a blood supply, it stays put. I’m more concerned about undocumented species that could be found in the waters around Louisiana. Think about it. I’ve got to get up there. I’ll come see you after surgery.”
Everyone was in the operating room by the time Daniel joined them, but no incision had been made.
“What did they say?” Russell asked.
“They’ve got nothing. But his friend did say he had a few open wounds, on his shoulder, his buttocks and the back of his legs. What did you find?”
“Let’s roll him,” Russell said.
“Nothing on the buttocks or legs, but what the hell is this?” Daniel pointed to three distinct red cuts on his shoulder.
“It looks like one hell of an angry wound, but he has no fever so it’s not infected,” Russell replied.
They rolled him back and Dr. Harris asked for a ten blade. As he held the scalpel in place, ready to cut, the skin underneath it moved and he jumped back. He stared at Daniel, who shook his head.
Once the ripple had gone still, Dr. Harris slid his blade through the dermis and into the stomach lining, making a straight incision. No sooner had he handed off the blade then a black snake head popped out of the opening. Its tongue flicked out in quick succession.
Shrieks filled the operating room and mass hysteria erupted. People backed away, some left the room and watched through the window. The tray of instruments crashed to the floor. Stunned, the doctors stood back and watched the large creature slither out between the flaps of skin and down the patient’s leg.
“Somebody get that thing before we lose it!” Russell exclaimed.
“Kill it!” a nurse screeched.
New screams echoed here and there throughout the room.
“Dammit. Can I get some help here?” Russell roared.
“Sadie, grab that biohazard bin and bring it over,” Daniel instructed a nurse as he picked up a large pair of forceps off the ground. She stared at him without moving. “STAT. Sadie!” The woman jumped into action.
Daniel Scott followed the snake with the forceps until he could get them behind its head. He made a grab for it, but the serpent was slippery. He tried again, this time with success. He lifted the creature in the air; it was much heavier than he’d expected, so he used both hands. “Where’s the bin?”
“To your right,” came Sadie’s voice from across the room.
As the thing squirmed over to the bin, he shouted, “Somebody get me a damn scalpel.” He squeezed the shit out of the beast with his dominant hand so he could use his other hand to accept the blade. “Come on. It doesn’t need to be sterile!” He felt the handle slapped into his palm. Awkwardly, he pressed the blade below the head and sawed back and forth until the body dropped.
Sighs of relief and gasps filled the room.
“Now get me some sterile tools,” Russell Harris said to no one in particular.
“I need to scrub again,” Daniel explained as he headed for the door.
“No.” Russell’s clipped tone made Daniel spin around but he was focused on the patient. Russell had revealed the open stomach cavity. Daniel slowly made his way back. “Holy mother of God.” Everyone crowded around the table. A new round of shrieks erupted.
There were about twenty tiny snakes the length of earthworms squiggling around in the stomach’s fluid.
“How the hell is this guy still alive?” Russell said under his breath.
“Bring that bin back.” Daniel pointed to the far side of the room. A young nurse pushed it toward him, but stayed put next to the wall. He retrieved the hazardous waste container from the middle of the floor and positioned it next to the operating table. The damn things moved so fast, he couldn’t catch them with the forceps so he tossed them.
He then put his gloved hands inside the patient. The way he saw it, a staph infection was the least of this guy’s worries at this point. At first, he couldn’t catch any of the suckers, but soon he got the hang of it.
By moving quickly, he scooped them out with both hands and dropped them into the deep bin. Once he’d removed them all, he continued to stare to make sure there were no more surprises.
“You okay?” Daniel whispered to the other doctor.
Russell nodded.
“Do you want me to stay?” Daniel asked.
Another nod.
Daniel removed his gloves and tossed them, he remained not to assist in the surgery, but merely for support. He and Russell both were in a state of shock. The rest of the operation was uneventful. Russell ordered a strong antibiotic to be administered through an IV and asked to be kept apprised of the patient’s status.
The doctors stood at the sink scrubbing their hands.
“Do you have any idea what kind of snake that was?” Russell asked.
“I don’t have the faintest idea,” Daniel answered.
“Excuse me, doctors?”
They turned to find a nurse standing behind them. “Yes?” Daniel said.
“Manuel, one of the orderlies, recognized the adult as a black rat snake. But he says they lay eggs so he doesn’t know where the babies came from.”
“Would you ask him to come in here please?” Daniel asked.
“Yes, doctor.” The nurse ducked out.
“I wonder how long the eggs need to hatch?” Daniel said.
“You don�
��t think—” Russell stopped mid-sentence when the door opened.
“You asked for me, doctors?” A heavy-set Latino man stood in the doorway.
“Are you certain the species we found is a rat snake?” Daniel asked.
“Yes, sir. I had one when I was a kid. But they don’t give birth to live babies. So I don’t know what that’s all about,” Manuel said.
“How long is the gestation period for the eggs?” Daniel asked.
“Forty-five days for eighteen.”
“Eighteen, as in eggs?” Daniel said.
“Yes, sir.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
The orderly left.
“Could he have ingested snake eggs?” Daniel asked.
Russell faced him while he dried his hands. “Like caviar? There’s no way they could stay in the body that long without being flushed out. Even if they somehow lodged themselves on the lining of the stomach, the acid would dissolve them. Besides, that wouldn’t explain how the adult snake got in there in the first place.”
“What if the snake positioned them on the top lining of the stomach? Normally the acid would boil up, but what if something large was in there keeping that from happening? I’m just trying to wrap my head around this,” Daniel said.
“You think the snake was inside that boy’s body for forty-days?” Russell shook his head. “You saw the kind of pain he was in.”
Daniel thought about it. “But what if the snake was hibernating and awoke only when the babies hatched?”
“Impossible,” Russell scoffed.
Daniel stared at him in stunned disbelief. “You have a better explanation for what just happened in there?”
Russell frowned. “You’ve got a point.”
*
Jake Spaulding sat in the hospital waiting room, his arm wrapped around Clara’s shoulder. The woman rubbed the medallion hanging from her neck and murmured prayers in Haitian. Every now and then, she would say ‘Amen’ in English, and went back to speaking in her native tongue.
Hours had passed since they’d seen the doctor. His ass was killing him from sitting on the hard chair, but he didn’t want to disturb Clara by getting up and walking around. When the doctor finally appeared, they both jumped to their feet and rushed over. The look on his face was not comforting.
“What’s wrong?” Clara asked while the doctor was still across the room.
“Ah.” Dr. Scott pursed his lips.
“Well?” Jake was starting to panic. “Is he alive?”
His head bounced up and down slowly before he focused on Jake. “Yes. The surgery was successful.”
“Can we see ’im?” Clara asked.
The doctor looked down at her. “He’s still out from the anesthesia.”
The man was acting mighty squirrelly. “What the hell was wrong with him?” Jake barked.
Dr. Scott blew out a big breath. “I, ah, it’s hard to say.” He put his hands in his pockets and searched the waiting room.
“Why don’t you just spit it out?” Jake was really getting pissed.
“You know what? Let’s go to my office.” Dr. Scott spun around and they followed him down a few corridors before they came to a room where he shut the door. “Have a seat.” He rounded the desk and sat himself.
“To be honest, I’ve never come across… actually I’ve never even heard of a case like this.” He faced Clara. “Maybe you can explain it to me. I’ve lived in New Orleans for only fifteen years. I’m originally from Michigan.
“In that time I’ve come to think of Louisiana as not another country like I’d been led to believe, but more like a completely different planet.” He put his hands out. “Don’t get me wrong, I love it here now, but just when I think I’ve seen it all, something happens to prove me wrong.
“I’ve heard tall tales of things like the Rougarou; a hairy man with the head of a wolf who subsists on the blood of animals, and the Fifolet, an unexplained light in the sky. I know Voodoo is a religion and who Marie Laveau was.”
Dr. Scott paused and glanced down at his desk. “But what I just witnessed in that operating room is so peculiar I don’t think there is a reasonable explanation. I’m just hoping against hope that maybe you could shed some light on it.” His head lifted and he stared at Clara.
“I do ma best.” She snatched Jake’s hand and squeezed.
“Okay, here goes. Inside the stomach of your nephew, we found a black snake and a bunch of babies. All of them alive.”
Clara’s eyes turned to saucers and she gasped. “No!”
“Actually, I have many witnesses.”
She grabbed her medallion. “Bad juju. Very bad juju.”
The doctor stared at each of them. “That’s not exactly the response I was expecting, but okay. Can you tell me how those snakes got into Luc’s stomach?”
Jake shook his head, a terrified look on his face.
“Hoodoo Cunja. Bad Hoodoo magick. Must get Mama Arelia here,” Clara mumbled as she shook her head slowly.
The doctor rubbed his temples to soothe the throbbing that had begun. “Is this Mama Arelia the person responsible for this?”
“No. No. She powerful mambo. She fix dis.”
Clara jumped to her feet.
“Where da snakes? I need da snakes!”
Shocked by her outburst, he jerked back in his seat.
“Well, ah.” Daniel shrugged. “They’re dead.”
“Must do bindin’ spell.”
Clara put her hands on the desk and leaned forward.
She pinned him with an ominous stare. “Make dem stay dat way.”
“I, ah,” the doctor stammered.
Surely, she didn’t mean that those snakes could come back to life?
“I don’t know where they are exactly,” he finished.
“Chew get ’em,” Clara commanded.
“Bring ’em ta me.”
She slammed her hands down on the desk.
“Now!” she yelled.
Daniel stared at her fierce determination. He consciously tamped down his panic before it showed and slowly rose. “I guess I could find them if it’s that important.”
He quickly left the room. With all the bizarre shit going on, he strongly yearned to flee the hospital, maybe even New Orleans, and never look back. The only thing keeping him there was the threat that those snakes would somehow wind up inside of him if he didn’t do what that creepy little woman demanded.
TWENTY-THREE
Luc awoke to the smell of antiseptic. Other than the steady rhythm of the heart monitor, it was quiet. He appeared to be in a private room, not another living soul in sight. Thankfully that wretched pain had subsided. He hoped it was completely gone and not just silently waiting to rear its ugly head.
It was no surprise he saw spirits. Besides the ever-present aunts, a string of children holding hands surrounded his bed. Their expressions were grim. He didn’t blame them, after all, they were dead. Charlotte was back, tugging at his hand.
He supposed he should be grateful it wasn’t the one with the IV attached, but nothing good came from one of her visits.
“Jon-Luc you have to save the children,” she pleaded.
“I tried, ma petite, and look where it got me,” he replied mournfully.
“You are fine now.” She nodded with a big smile. “So let’s go.” With that, she yanked.
He eased up to look at her. “Aw, come on, Charlotte. Give me a break. I just had surgery and I’m feeling all woozy. Can’t this wait until tomorrow?”
“No. If we don’t get there in time, four more souls will be damned.”
“How am I supposed to stop that all by myself?” His head dropped back on the pillow.
The next thing he knew he was standing in mud up past his ankles. “Oh, crap, not again.”
He glanced down and noticed he wore only his hospital gown. He felt something tickle his naked ass and swatted it. His hand came away with a giant mosquito.
“Dammit, Charlotte, couldn’t you
have at least let me put some clothes on first? My body will be covered in bites. Again.”
He surveyed the area and noticed it looked familiar. That’s when he saw the shack on the water, the one Duke had been scoping out the night he died. Half the roof had been destroyed in the fire, but other than that it appeared fine; at least it still stood.
A light glowed in the window.
He heard voices and hid behind a bald cypress tree, three figures approached mere feet from him. He held his breath.
“What the hell are we supposed to do? She’s going to be royally pissed.”
“Let me handle her.”
“She’ll probably kill us.”
Luc swore two of those voices were familiar.
“We might be able to get by with just the three.”
That sounded like Gator.
“I’m going to kill Piggee when we find him. He’s such a fuck up.”
That was Spike.
“He’d better be dead. That’s the only excuse I’ll accept for him putting our lives in danger.”
Luc didn’t recognize that voice. Things were beginning to make sense now. His old gang was behind the kidnappings, that’s why Duke was trying to stop them.
Duke knew what was going on.
The realization hit him. His old friend was still one of the good guys. Luc was relieved beyond measure. If he’d learned Duke was involved with killing innocent kids, it would have devastated Luc.
Luc silently watched as the men marched past his hiding place. They each dragged a heavy burlap sack. He was certain that each bag carried a child meant to be sacrificed.
Luc had to do something, but what? He was only one man.
He waited until their voices were mere murmurs in the distance before he retraced their steps. He broke branches along the way to mark the passage. The dense humidity made it hard for him to breathe. The constant buzz of mosquitoes had him swatting the air around him as he made his trek, ever vigilant for gators and water moccasins.
It was a long arduous journey, but finally he emerged from the swamp and climbed the dirt bank toward the road. There he found a black Range Rover parked haphazardly. Although the ride was completely out of their league, Luc knew it had to be theirs. It’s not like the swamps got a lot of night traffic.
Spirits of the Bayou Page 15