“I don’t want to hear anymore. It’s disgusting. I need a break from this stuff,” I said.
Grandmother looked at the pair of us, the sad expression on her face revealing her inner thoughts.
Lorin pulled a face and closed the black book.
I was starting to become confused as to what was right and wrong. “Please put the diary back Lorin, I need to go outside for a bit,” I said, leaving grandmother and Lorin on the bed.
A few days passed. We hadn’t touched the diary, and none of us had spoken about it, not even grandmother. Moises had now returned from his trip, and was as distant and moody as ever. He hardly spoke to any of us.
It was a hot afternoon, and so I decided to finish work early. When I arrived home, my beautiful white horse, Brinnquedo, was grazing in the field close to the house. Brinnquedo was a small, overweight horse, which nobody else wanted, or bothered to take care of. But I loved him. Carlito, the farm man from next door, had given the horse to me and I had forged a special bond with him.
I walked over to Brinnquedo and patted him on his flank, before quickly climbing onto his back.
“Come on Brinnquedo, let’s fly!” I shouted.
The horse took off, and I grabbed tightly onto his mane as we flew across the fields alongside the forest. We didn’t slow down until we arrived at a remote river, far from the farm. Nobody ever came to this place. It was our secret place.
I dismounted Brinnquedo and let him drink from the cool river. I then removed the small bag I’d strapped to my waist and sat down on a smooth rock, opened the bag, and slowly removed its contents. I took out a scissors and sewing kit, then a piece of dark hair from my father’s head. He’d had a haircut the day before, and I’d picked up the hair from the kitchen floor before mother had time to sweep it up. I carefully placed the lock of hair on the rock next to me. The next item was a piece of blue T-shirt, which I was going to use to try and make the voodoo doll with. The two personal items of his, according to grandmother, were needed to make the voodoo work properly. Well, I was about to find out.
I carefully cut the T-shirt into a doll shape and tore up the rest of the T-shirt to make some stuffing. I then carefully sewed the doll-shaped material together and stuffed it with the remaining pieces of T-shirt. I ended up with a reasonable-looking rag doll. I then glued father’s lock of hair onto the doll’s head, arranging it to make it look like a mini resemblance of Moises, complete with a moustache.
“What do you think Brinnquedo? Does this look like my horrible father to you?” I said, holding up the doll.
The horse raised its head from the riverbank and neighed.
“I guess that’s a yes!”
I admired the doll briefly, before carefully placing it back in my bag.
“Come on you,” I said to Brinnquedo, grabbing his mane. I jumped onto the horse’s back. “It’s time to return to the farm.”
Once back at the farm, I said goodbye to Brinnquedo and ran inside to find Lorin. I found him sitting on the rear porch, sharpening a stick with his penknife.
“Where the hell have you been?” he enquired, as I approached.
“I’ve been down by the river, making the voodoo doll from father’s personal belongings, like grandma instructed us,” I said, holding the doll up to show Lorin.
Lorin looked at me, his eyes widening with excitement. “When can we try it?” he asked.
“I’m not sure if it will work,” I said.
“Well, it’s too late to go back to the forest and perform a ritual now. It’s been a long day. We can do it tomorrow,” he said.
“Ok,” I agreed. “I’ll hide the doll under the veranda here. We will be in trouble if grandma sees it and thinks we are up to something without her approval,” I said.
“Good idea,” Lorin replied, as he folded his penknife.
“I’m going to go for a shower and have an early night. I hope the night passes quickly so we can test our little doll out in the morning,” I said, leaving Lorin on the Veranda, studying his newly sharpened stick.
CHAPTER 25
The Spell
THE FOLLOWING MORNING, I awoke early, pulled my clothes on, grabbed the voodoo rag-doll from under my bed, and headed into the kitchen. It was still only 06.45, but I was used to getting up at the crack of dawn to start my daily chores.
As I entered the kitchen, I looked out of the window and noticed Moises cleaning his gun, as usual, under the mango tree. The early morning sun caught my eye as it glinted off the barrel of the rifle as my father polished it.
As I was pouring myself a glass of water, Lorin wandered in, a mischievous sparkle evident in his eye.
“What’s that?” I asked, noticing a small book in his hand.
“It’s grandmother’s Shadows Book,” he said, waving it in front of my face.
“Lorin, put it back, we ca –”
Before I could finish speaking, Lorin ran from the kitchen and out of the back door. “Come on, let’s get into the woods,” he said, as he ran.
I followed Lorin through the trees until we found a small clearing in the forest, out of sight from the farm. Moises hadn’t noticed us as he was too busy cleaning his gun.
“This will only be a test,” I said, not really having too much faith in the whole thing.
“I know, we don’t have to kill him right now, we can just torture him,” Lorin joked, his eyes shining with excitement.
We both sat down in the clearing and I pulled the small doll out of my pocket. “Yes, we don’t need to stick a pin through his heart,” she said, cleaning a spot on the ground, like grandmother had told them.
“Ok, here we go,” I said, drawing an upside down pentagram in the earth, the sign of black magic, the devil and witchcraft. In the centre of the pentagram, I placed the small rag-doll, complete with hair and clothing taken from father.
The pair of us then held hands and we started whispering the spell together from grandmother’s book. I then picked up the pin from the ground that I’d found in the kitchen drawer and stretched over and positioned it on one of the doll’s legs.
“Ok, here goes,” I whispered, pushing the pin into the small soft doll.
Bang! The sound of a gunshot echoed through the forest.
I looked at Lorin and screamed in shock. “What the hell was that?!” I shouted, jumping up.
Lorin looked at me, his eyes wide with fear.
“Quick, grab the things,” I said, as I ran off into the forest back towards the farm. I could hear Lorin running closely behind me as we emerged from the forest into the field surrounding our farm. I could see father was still under the tree, but something was very wrong. He was lying on the ground, holding his leg, clearly in pain. There was blood everywhere.
“What happened father?” I asked, panting from the run.
“The damn gun went off as I was cleaning it,” he screamed. “It was an accident.”
I felt my heart racing. Had we caused this? I was so shocked at what had happened I raced into the kitchen, grabbed a kitchen towel, ran back outside and wrapped it around father’s leg.
After, I went back inside the house with Lorin, both of us were too shocked to speak to one another. I went into my bedroom and just lay on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.
“It really works doesn’t it?” Lorin’s voice made me jump.
“Damn it Lorin, I didn’t know you were there, don’t scare me like that!”
Lorin sounded happy at what had just happened, but he didn’t notice the tears in my eyes.
“I know it works, why do you think I’m feeling like this?” I said.
“Well, I don’t know why you’re feeling upset. Think about what he’s done to us, to other people, he is pure evil and you know it!” Lorin replied.
I looked down at the floor. “I know. But you remember what grandmother said. We will also become evil if we take revenge. Grandmother won’t teach us anymore spells if she finds out what we have done.”
Over the following we
ek, I watched as our father slowly healed. I carefully helped him change his bandage each day, until the gunshot wound finally healed sufficiently to allow him to walk properly on his leg without too much pain.
Lorin watched me in silence, no doubt not quite able to understand why I was caring for someone who had been so cruel.
"There's no way I'm going to being doing that again," I said, as I passed Lorin who was fiddling with the voodoo doll out on the porch.
"Why the hell not? I thought you were strong, but you're just a week little baby," Lorin replied, handing me back the doll, before walking off in a huff.
I sighed. It wasn't that Lorin didn't care. I know he longed for a better future and was dreaming of his freedom, which he believed would only come after father was dead.
I walked back into the house and into the kitchen. Through the window I could see mother and grandmother walking together in the garden, ignoring Lorin, who was following them both like one of their shadows.
I sighed again, and went to my bedroom, where I changed into my working clothes. I then headed off to the stables to give them their usual clean. At least the chore would take my mind off things for a while.
Since the incident with the doll, I felt that the outside world had changed somehow. I hadn't spoken to Lorin properly for days now, and I was starting to feel sad and confused, although I didn't know why.
The week following the incident went by quickly, and father had even returned to work on the spice plantation with the rest of the family. Monday morning was soon upon us, and today was a particularly humid start to the week.
Lunchtime soon came and I needed to go back to the house to get some food for all the workers. I placed the harvest of various spices, including black pepper, coloral and coffee into some small baskets and headed into the woods in order to take a short cut home. The air felt heavy and I sensed that it would soon be raining. Not only that, but a strong wind was picking up and bending the tops of the trees in the forest canopy above.
As I hurried along the well-trodden short route home, I suddenly heard something in the forest behind me; the sound of dry twigs snapping and the rustling of leaves under foot.
Was someone following me?
I turned but couldn't see anything. "Is there someone there?" I shouted.
There was no answer. Then, through the foliage, I made out the edge of a man's shadow against the trunk of a large tree a short distance away. It didn't move, but I could see the outline clearly. I started to feel scared, so I turned and ran as quickly as I could along the path, not stopping until I got home.
I returned to the plantation an hour later, taking an alternative, but slightly longer route, without incident.
Later that afternoon, after we got home, I was helping mother wash up the dishes. "I had a weird experience today mum. When I left the plantation lunchtime to get food for everyone, I was followed by someone.
Mother looked up from the dishes she was washing.
“I saw the shadow of a man hiding behind a tree in the forest," I said, as I finished wiping the glass I’d just washed.
Father, who was sitting at the kitchen table with grandmother and watching the pair of us, suddenly looked concerned. He then stood up and disappeared into the bedroom, locking the door behind him. I glanced at mother, who just shrugged her shoulders.
“Are you sure there was someone there darling?” she asked.
Before I could answer mother, father returned with a gun in his hand.
"Nobody leave the house! I'm going outside to check who followed you," he snarled.
As soon as father left the kitchen, Grandmother gave mother a knowing look, and the pair of them walked out onto the veranda together. I pulled the plug from the kitchen sink and stood there, trying to eavesdrop on what they were saying.
"Moises has done too many bad things and now people are after him, I can sense it," I heard grandmother say to mum, as she grabbed mother's hand in support.
"I know. I am worried about it now. If someone is hunting him, what's stopping them coming for us too," she said, in a hushed tone.
At that moment, rain started striking the kitchen window and I could hear thunder rumbling in the distance. The rain I'd felt in the air lunchtime had finally arrived.
Mother and grandmother continued talking and I finished stacking the dishes and headed to my room. As I passed the front door, father burst through it, soaked through from the downpour outside, a furious look on his face; like a wild animal.
He scowled at me. "What the hell are you looking at?" he asked, as he stomped off into the kitchen to take off his wet clothes.
I smiled to myself, knowing he was clearly scared about something. Now see how you like it, I thought, as I headed to my room.
CHAPTER 26
Permission Denied
OVER THE NEXT few days, our father acted very oddly. He kept looking out of the window, but keeping out of sight at the same time, so nobody knew he was there. I realised that he was bothering less with us, not abusing us. Father’s mind was clearly on other things and life seemed at last to be going smoothly.
Lorin was still acting a little distant towards me however. Perhaps he realised that I was still very sensitive to what had happened, but it was a little unusual for him to be acting like he was, for so long. One afternoon, I noticed him way down by the lake, at the end of the field surrounding the farm. He appeared to be alone, so I put down the bucket of fresh water I’d just collected from the well, and headed over to the lake to see him. As I approached, I could see he looked very sad and lonely.
“Hey brother, what are you thinking?” I asked, as I sat down next to him and placed my head on his shoulder.
Lorin had seen me coming and so wasn’t shocked. “Oh, nothing much. I was just thinking about life, the fact that you are no longer talking to me. So I decided to be quiet,” he said, as a black and orange Nymphalidae butterfly floated down and landed on his ankle.
We both laughed out load.
Suddenly we heard someone walking through the thick bushes on our left. My heart skipped a beat as I wondered if the person in the forest could be the person hunting our father.
Bang! A shot ran out and a bullet zipped over our heads, embedding itself in the trunk of a large tree behind us.
The birds in the forest rose up into the sky in a cacophony of sound as they fled their treetop homes.
Before I had time to react, a man shouted in a familiar voice.
“I told you to keep away from her!” the man screamed, as he pushed his way through the bushes towards us.
It was father!
He marched over, rifle in hand, and pushed Lorin to the ground, placing his hand around his neck.
“We were only talking; nothing more!” I screamed. “Please, just let him go.”
Father looked at me, scowled, and finally let Lorin go, before stomping off back into the forest from where he’d come.
I bent down to help Lorin up, but he pushed me away, his eyes burning with anger.
“Keep away from me,” he shouted. “This is your entire fault. I told you to use the voodoo to kill him, but you’re too soft,” he said, as he got up and ran off back up the field.
I looked up, my eyes locking on to the bullet hole and splintered bark in the tree opposite, the hole that could have been in Lorin’s head, and I started to sob.
The following night, I was seated outside on the veranda, listening to the cicadas and staring up at the stars twinkling in the night sky, like billions of diamonds. The moon was low in the sky and shone brilliantly, flooding the canopy of the forest with moonlight.
“Emilia, come and help me with dinner.” Mother’s voice startled me.
I dragged my gaze from the stars and headed slowly and carefully inside, making sure I didn’t step on anything.
I walked along the corridor towards the kitchen. As I passed my older sister’s bedroom, I heard sobbing coming from inside.
That’s odd, I thought. Although n
one of us were treated well, it was usually I who suffered at the hands of our father, not my other sisters. It was the first time I’d heard Joana crying.
I quietly opened my sister’s bedroom door and immediately saw Joana sitting on the bed, facing the door.
Through the darkness, I looked at Joana’s face. I could see that something wasn’t right. I moved closer, and was horrified to see that her face was covered in bruises, and that both her eyes were bruised and swollen.
“My God, what happened to you?” I asked, as I sat on the bed and hugged her.
“He…he, did this to me because I…I asked him if I could have a boyfriend,” Joana sobbed.
I took a deep breath, and sat there for a while, smoothing Joana’s head. I didn’t know what to say to her. After a short while, I quietly got off the bed and slowly walked away, leaving my sister sobbing alone.
I entered the kitchen. Mother was cooking and father was seated at the kitchen table, cleaning his gun, as usual. He only did it to scare us all, showing us he was master.
At the dinner table, we all ate in silence, except Joana, who was still hiding in her bedroom. The muffled sound of her sobs could clearly be heard above the awkward silence. The horrible, miserable atmosphere could be cut with a knife.
Lorin was glancing at me, but I could see father was watching us both, just waiting for one of us to say something. We finished our dinner and I nodded my head subtly at Lorin, who stood up and left the kitchen.
I followed shortly after, leaving the house and heading back outside into the dark. I found Lorin around the side of the house, hiding in the shadows.
“What are you doing here? Are you crazy?” I whispered to him.
“We just can’t continue living like this,” Lorin replied, the whites of his eyes, glistening in the moonlight.
Daughter of the Forest: Diary of an Assassin Page 13