Only Fools Walk Free

by Sandra R Neeley

  Chapter 8

  Days later Claire stood outside the freshly repaired wrought-iron gate that enclosed the crypt she’d always taken care of. She lifted a hand and ran her fingers over the smooth surface.

  “It’s a nice new one. We went ahead and replaced the whole fence. Maybe it’ll keep the damn kids out of it now. They always want to paint symbols on the walls and leave offerings for the Voodoo Queen buried inside.”

  “What?” Claire asked the caretaker, Mr. Deeks. He was the same cemetery employee that had given her and her mother permission to restore the crypt when she was a child. He was much older now, and a whole lot rounder, but he still made his rounds on his little golf cart, checking all the crypts each day after all the tourists left. He’d seen Claire here many times since she was a girl. She’d always tried to keep the crypt nice, so even after she’d grown up, and her mom had stopped bringing her, he’d still given her access.

  “Don’t tell me you don’t know? All these years and you never knew the legend of the Voodoo Queen, Maman ‘Vangeline?”

  She ran her fingers over the gate again, searching in vain for her ghost, her Samuel, to be looking back at her. “Well, yes, a little, but no more than the average person. Is there anyone else in there with her?”

  “Rumor is that when they opened the crypt in the 1940’s to put the last occupant inside, they found the skeleton of a man off in the corner to one side. I’m sure he was there for a long, long time, though. The way we bury our dead down here in communal family crypts, it’s not unusual to have several sets of remains in a crypt at any one time. Some say he was the son of the Voodoo Queen that went missing back in the 1800’s. Others say he was the secret lover of the last soul laid to rest here, and he was murdered for loving a nun.”

  “A nun?” Claire asked, surprised.

  “Yep. See? Right here, Clarice LeChassaise Dupont. Sister of the Ursuline Convent. It was her they were laying to rest when they found the man’s skeleton.”

  “What did they do with his remains?”

  He shrugged. “Left them there. He was already interred, so they just left him there.” He waddled back over to his golf cart. “You gonna be long? I was thinking to get home a little early today. Easter, you know. The grand-younguns going to be hunting for eggs.”

  “Just a little while longer. If you don’t mind.”

  “Suit yourself. I’ll be around for about an hour more.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Deeks.”

  Claire waited quietly until Mr. Deeks was out of earshot. As soon as she was alone again, she called out to her ghost. “Samuel? Are you here?”

  She got no reply.

  “Samuel!”

  There was still no reply.

  “If you can hear me, I’m so sorry. I didn’t want you to lose your soul.”

  When she still got no reply, she began to cry silently and spoke to him anyway as though he was there. Her voice quivered as she forced the words from her throat. “I miss you. I know it was usually me talking, and you just listening, but I miss you so much.”

  She reached into her purse, pulling out the sticky pad she always carried and a pen. She quickly wrote a note, then rolled it up and tossed it inside the gate, up against the side of the white marble crypt. She closed her eyes and sent up a quick prayer. When she was done she just stood there, her head down, holding onto the gate.

  “I’m not sure who he was, Maman. But I love him. He saved me.” Claire’s voice cracked, and she paused to swallow a few times before continuing. “I’ve never asked for anything in all the years I’ve cared for your resting place. But now I do. If you do grant wishes, and I’m really hoping you do, please, make sure he’s at peace. Make sure he’s not wandering somewhere between this world and the next, unable to rest.”

  Claire’s hair lifted on a breeze. Then again. She raised her head and startled when she found a beautiful Mulatto woman standing before her, her image wavering in the sunshine. She was striking in her presence, very proud in her stance, and she had the same luminescent green eyes Samuel did. She was laughing.

  Claire was stunned and simply watched her until she decided to speak.

  “It was April Fools! He was trapped here on April Fools and could only walk free on the same day. Only fools can walk free! That’s what it meant!” Maman said, laughing. When finally her laughter died away, she continued on with her explanation. “Even so, his soul wasn’t lost. It was merely passed on to the man he would be today.”

  “I don’t understand,” Claire whispered.

  “He was cursed, a riddle the only clue to break the curse. But we were wrong. His soul wouldn’t have been lost, it was merely passed on to the man he’d eventually become — reborn again, not taken from him.”

  Claire’s brain locked onto only one thing. “He’s not lost?” she asked, afraid to hope.

  Maman shook her head and smiled, holding her hand out to Claire. Her fingers were closed, hiding something from view. Maman raised her hand a bit, indicating Claire should reach forward.

  Claire reached her hand out, and Maman dropped an antique cameo ring into her palm.

  Maman smiled at her kindly. “He’s not lost, child. He’s walking this earth again, as are you. He’s searching. He’s been searching for so long and has no idea what it is he’s looking for. But now you’ve released the man he once was, and his soul has found its home in him. His struggles are almost over. Put this back where it belongs, child. When he sees it, he’ll know you for his.”

  “Where does it belong?” Claire asked.

  Maman chuckled delightedly. “On your finger, of course!”

  Claire was confused, but she did as Maman told her, slipping it on first one finger, then another until it fit snugly enough that there was no danger of losing it. It fit nicely on her index finger so she left it there.

  She felt a tingle on her face and looked up from the ring on her finger to find Maman stroking her cheek. “Go to him, child. He needs you.”

  Claire watched as Maman faded away with a contented smile on her face. Claire stood there for a moment longer, realizing that she had no clue of where to go to find him, or if she’d even recognize him.

  “I don’t even know where to look! Where is he? Does he look the same?” she cried.

  But there was no answer from Maman ‘Vangeline and no trace of her.

  Claire shook her head, reeling as if she’d just woken from a dream. Surely that’s all it was. She stumbled a few steps away from the crypt that had always called to her, then stopped, looking down at the ring on her finger.

  “Couldn’t have been a dream,” Claire mumbled. She looked around at all the people milling about the cemetery. She glanced at the trees that were hanging low over the walls built to keep the public from meandering through the graves whenever they wanted, and was suddenly overtaken with an intense need to get away from the place she’d always been drawn to. She began to run down the path leading from the crypt as quickly as she could. She needed to hurry, she needed to get outside these walls so she could breathe again.

  She didn’t turn back, but if she had, she’d have seen a faint outline of Maman ‘Vangeline perched atop the crypt that bore her name, watching Claire rushing off to meet her destiny. “Love him well, sweet girl,” Maman said with a smile on her lips as she faded away.

  Claire shouted so many apologies as she ran through the throngs of tourists lingering after their tour of the historic cemetery that she lost count. She was running at the same time she was looking back over her shoulder to shout another apology, and bounced off someone so hard she almost fell on her bottom, but strong arms reached out to catch her. “I’m so sorry! I should have been watching where I was going!” she rushed out as she righted herself and picked up her purse from the ground.

  A handsome young man, with Nordic-like pale skin, blonde hair, and luminescent green eyes stood with his face to the sun, a completely new outlook on life. He didn’t know what had happened. He’d fallen asleep in the cemetery
again last night, and when he’d awakened, all the emptiness was gone. He often slept in the cemetery — he’d been drawn here all his life. Even when he’d been younger back in the halfway house in juvie-detention, he’d run away most nights to sleep here. It was the only bit of peace he’d ever been able to find. But now, this morning, without any explanation at all, the anger, the sense of angst he’d lived with all his life was gone. He still had the niggling feeling that he needed to search for something, but his anger was gone. He took a deep breath and marveled at the difference down deep in his soul. He grinned — yeah, he knew without a doubt, he had a soul. All those idiots that had said he was worthless, he was soulless — they’d been wrong. No one could feel this at peace, this good, without one.

  When he’d awakened this morning, he’d been exhilarated and rushed from the cemetery to the small halfway house he’d spent the last few years of his youth in. He’d knocked on the door, hoping the old woman who’d tried tirelessly to save him was still there. When she opened the door and squinted at him, he broke out into a bright smile.

  “Thank you!” he’d shouted as he lifted her off her feet and swirled her around in a circle before putting her down again. “Thank you for believing in me when I wasn’t able to.”

  She recognized him at once and hugged him to her, her hands old and wrinkled where they gripped his biceps. “You’re well, then?” she’d asked.

  “I am. I’ll be just fine.”

  “But your eyes! They’re green!”

  “What?” he asked, glancing at his reflection in the mirrored glass on her front door. “I hadn’t noticed. Maybe they turned as I matured?”

  “They were such a beautiful blue, but the green, wow!” the old woman said. “The green is so bright it practically glows!”

  He took the woman’s hands in his. “I likely wouldn’t be here without you fighting for me. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. You’re very welcome,” she said, smiling at him proudly.

  But after he’d made things right with the only person who’d ever given him any effort at all, he knew there was one more thing he needed to do. And now he was back at the cemetery, on his way to thank Maman ‘Vangeline. He didn’t know how she’d done it, but she had.

  He’d visited her grave regularly, asking her to help him find his way. And somehow she’d decided it was his turn and reached from her resting place to make it happen. So, he had to go thank her, too.

  He turned down the path that led to her crypt and started walking. He wasn’t paying attention, his hands were tucked in his pockets, face turned up to the sky, enjoying the sun on his face as he made his way to Maman ‘Vangeline’s crypt when suddenly he was shoved backwards. He caught himself, and instinct had his hands flying out to also catch the woman that had bumped into him at a full run.

  “Hey! You alright?” he asked, steadying her where she stood.

  “I’m so sorry! I should have been watching where I was going!” she said, as she leaned over, picking up her purse.

  “No problem. I wasn’t watching either.”

  The woman finally looked up at him and froze, her eyes looking into his very soul.

  He was lost in her eyes as well. They lured him in. “Hi,” he said, looking down at her

  She smiled as she got to her feet. “Hi.”

  “You come here often?” he asked, mentally chiding himself for the bar pickup line his brain had supplied him with to begin a conversation with her. He watched her, taking in her soft-brown skin, her long black lashes, her full, pouty lips, and the contrast of her bright blue eyes. She was the most beautiful girl he’d ever laid eyes on.

  She laughed lightly. “Actually, yes, I do. I was,” she pointed over her shoulder and looked at the crypt behind her before meeting his eyes again. “I, um…”

  He raised his eyebrows, “Maman ‘Vangeline?” he asked, with a smirk on his face.

  She seemed to deflate a little. “Well, yes. Actually, I was asking for a favor.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I was coming to thank her for one.”

  Claire’s lips parted slightly in a surprised expression and she grinned. “Well, don’t let me stop you.” She stood to the side to allow him to pass on the path.

  He inclined his head and walked by her. “Thanks,” he said. “I’ll just be a minute.” He walked right up to the crypt some fifteen feet away and laid his hands on the gate. He closed his eyes and his lips started moving as he murmured a private message to Maman.

  Though reluctant to leave this man’s presence, Claire felt like she was intruding on this private moment, so she turned and headed out of the cemetery. She decided that he’d have to leave through the front gate, so she’d just wait for him there. She had no choice. She had to wait for him — everything in her told her to wait for him.

  No sooner had her foot hit the sidewalk outside the main entrance than she heard someone calling out. “Hey! Hey, hold up!”

  Claire turned and was thrilled to see the man running after her. She paused to give him a chance to catch up.

  “Hey, where’d you go?”

  “I didn’t want to intrude.”

  “You weren’t. I was just saying a quick thank you.”

  He looked around at the cars parked along the street. “You meeting someone? You have a ride?”

  Claire shook her head. “Nope. Just me. Was going to get some lunch somewhere and figure out my next move.”

  “How about lunch with me? Share a burger with me?”

  Claire looked at the man closely, staring right into his eyes, and she had no doubt who he was. She’d looked into those eyes every time it was misty out since she was a child, and she’d stared into them not even a week ago after he’d protected her in her own apartment. “Can I ask what you were thanking Maman for?”

  He canted his head to the side. “You first.”

  Claire smiled. “I was asking her to watch over someone, protect the soul of someone I loved very much.”

  The man smiled at her. “I was thanking her for helping me find mine.”

  Claire nodded, her eyes filling with unshed tears.

  He reached out, touching her shoulder gently. “It’s alright. Don’t cry. I’m sure she’ll watch over your loved one, make sure he gets where he’s supposed to.”

  Claire smiled as she tried to stop her tears. “I’m sure she already has.”

  “No more tears then, I didn’t mean to make you cry,” he said.

  Claire shook her head. “You didn’t. I just wasn’t sure if I was headed in the right direction, but it seems I am.” She raised her hand and laid it on top of his where it rested on her shoulder.

  The cameo on her finger caught his attention. His brow wrinkled, his eyes focusing on it while flashes of partial memories bombarded him.

  “Are you alright?” Claire asked him.

  With effort he dragged his eyes from the ring on her finger to her face. The same eyes he’d seen in those memories were staring back at him. “Yeah. Just kind of got a feeling of deja vu.” He shook his head. “That ever happen to you?”

  “Lately — yes!” she answered smiling.

  He grinned. “You just seem so familiar.”

  “So do you,” she said.

  He seemed to shake it off, and smiled again. “So, how about lunch?”

  “I’d like that.”

  “Yeah?” he asked, smiling.

  “Yeah,” she answered.

  Gently he turned her toward the direction of his favorite burger spot, Bud’s Broiler. “So, what’s your name?”

  “I’m Claire,” she answered.

  He smiled down at her where she walked beside him. “That’s always been my favorite name.”

  He took her hand — the one wearing the cameo ring — in his and was pleased that she held his hand as snugly as he held hers.

  When she smiled up at him, he knew beyond the shadow of a doubt, he’d found exactly what he’d been searching for all his life. His soul was finally at peace. His h
eart was full, and he was standing next to the person who made everything feel just right. He smiled at her again. “I’m happy to meet you, Claire. I’m Sam.”

  From The Author

  Thank you for purchasing this book. I hope that my stories make you smile and give you a small escape from the daily same ole/same ole. I write for me, simply for the joy of it, but if someone else also smiles as a result, even better. Your support is greatly appreciated. If you liked this story, please remember to leave a review wherever you bought it, so that more people can find my books. Each review is important, no matter how short or long it may be.

  See you in the pages of the next one!

  Sandra R Neeley

  Other books by this author:

  Avaleigh’s Boys series

  I’m Not A Dragon’s Mate!, Book 1

  Bane’s Heart, Book 2

  Kaid’s Queen, Book 3

  Maverik’s Ashes, Book 4

  Bam’s Ever, Book 5

  Vince’s Place, Book 6

  Whispers From the Bayou series

  Carnage, Book 1

  Destroy, Book 2

  Enthrall, Book 3

  Lore, Book 4

  Murder, Book 5

  Haven series

  Haven 1: Ascend

  Haven 2: Redemption

  Riley’s Pride series