Twin Eidolons - Chapter 2

In this chapter I use a couple of Haitian Creole words since the family ancestry is from Haiti. If you do not understand one of those words there are definitions at the bottom. Thank You

***** 

  "Mom, what are you talking about?" I ask her. "Why haven't I ever heard about these twins before?"

  "Because of the curse," she utters, while looking around to see if someone is listening. "After brutally killing the twins, this Haitian man went after your great grandfather Louis. But Louis already had his pistol in hand and shot him. The man didn't die right away. Asked why he did it, he said Louis had stolen all of his family money, leaving them desolate. Most of his family starved to death when the monsoons came. Then, with his last dying breath, he put a curse on our family. Saying the twins could never leave this house and find peace in heaven. Also, the Beauvais family must always live in the house, never returning to Haiti, or the twins would descend into hell to pay for Louis's sins!"

  My husband, not overly distraught by the news, chuckled under his breath and asks, "Do you mean like a voodoo curse?"

  "Do not joke about such things," Mother scolds him. "My Manman told me many stories about the local Mambo in her village and how she cursed people to have their fingernails and hair fall out. While still others, became zombies to do the bidding of the Mambo!"

  "Mom," I butted in. "You were born here. You never even set foot in Haiti. How can you believe in this voodoo stuff?"

  She looks at me seriously. Takes a deep breath and almost whispers, "Because of the curse. I was never allowed to see my Manman's home."

  Then she tries backing out the door without looking behind her. But I grab her arm before she can escape. She knows I need more answers. So she says, "I do not believe my Manman would lie to me. She taught me spells and charms to ward off the evil that could be coming to attack our family. This is why I am setting up a trust fund for you. She said that the blood money Jean-Claude had, also carries the curse with it. He never spent much of it. If you use a little bit at a time, the curse on it is weak."

  I let go of her arm and watch her go outside to sit in the car. Before opening the door, she makes the sign of the cross, then silently slips inside.

  "Well, that was pretty funny," my husband says. "I didn't realize how superstitious your mom is. Believing all that mumbo jumbo."

  "Maybe I should go see if see is okay?" I say worriedly.

  "Don't be ridiculous," he tells me chuckling. "She is probably in the car right now praying, holding onto some kind of talisman, wiping grey ash all over her face, and talking in tongue."

  I look at him frustrated and say. "It's called, Speaking in Tongues."

  "Oh, sorryeee!" he says sarcastically.

 Grabbing my hand he pulls me towards the staircase and says, "Let's go see what's upstairs first."

  He is pulling hard enough for us to have to take two steps up at a time. I yell, "Let go of my hand. I'm pregnant!"

  He releases me. But like a kid in a candy store he continues on his way without me. Jumping up two steps at a time, reaches the first landing, turns right, and jumps out of sight.

  Standing there alone, I try slowing my heartbeat.

  "All this excitement can't be good for my baby," I say out loud hoping my husband can hear me. But just like him he pretends he doesn't hear or he doesn't care. "What am I doing here?"

  Then a cold feeling rushes over me, no through me, as a mist takes an oval shape a couple of stairs up. It looks as if it is turning around to look at me when, poof! It disappears as my husband asks, "Are you coming?"

  To Be Continued.....

This is,

The Assumed Novella Length Is Beginning To Look Like Novel Length

Jim Hauenstein

And,

"Les loas sont les dieux des nègres d’Afrique. Dieu est universel. Les loas se vengent de la désertion des nègres car ils ont été esclaves et persécutés et que le vaudou sera, un jour, leur point de ralliement"

- Marie Vieux-Chauvet -

 

 

That is my story and I am sticking to it!

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I'll Be Seeing You!

 

 

Manman - Mother

Mambo - Voodoo Priestess

Loas - The Loa are the spirits of Haitian and Louisiana Voodoo

 

Twin Eidolons - Chapter 1

  My story begins like all stories of this nature. In a new home.

  Recently, my Grandma's eccentric, much younger stepbrother had died and willed his house to my mother who gave it to me because she didn't want to leave the home she has lived in for the past 40 years.

  Jean-Claude was maybe 102 or 3 when he died. My mother doesn't know for sure because in those days in Haiti, where he was born, a child's birth isn't registered until one of the parents informs a government census official. She says that home births are very common and sometimes a child could be registered right before they start school.

  Jean-Claude never married and never worked a day in his life. Family folklore has it that his parents were eccentric too! Eccentrically rich. Somehow escaping the country's military government with millions in U.S. currency made on the backs of other Haitians from the sugar and coffee fields.

  That part of the will my mother decided to hold onto. The millions of dollars. She felt it would corrupt our family's love for one another.

  Still my husband was thrilled to death inheriting a home already paid off and we could stop wasting his money on renting an apartment. My mother told me that I would never have to worry about paying property, state, or federal taxes because she would take care of it while she was still alive and eventually I would inherent a trust fund she was setting up in my name. So that was one less thing to worry about.

  I was happy because it came with 5 acres of land, mostly covered in trees, but I knew, if my husband and I put ours minds to it we could clear a large enough area for our expectant baby boy to have a place to play around in as he grew up.

  On the first Saturday of May, my husband, my mom, and myself, took off on a two hour drive for the country. We were all giddy to see the three story mansion I would be raising my child in.

  We had only seen yellowing old photographs of the estate before that day and the idea of living the life of Downton Abby from TV quickly exploded into disappointment as it was almost impossible for my husband to get the front gate open, to drive up to the house.

  The mansion and the surrounding grounds were in very bad shape. Years of neglect from a 102 year old recluse who wouldn't let a soul near his home while alive had weathered the building and let the weeds and wild brush take over the yard.

  My mother said she would have workers out tomorrow morning painting the inside and outside of the house. Electricians and plumbers making sure everything was working properly. With landscapers and gardeners fixing up the grounds.

  "If all goes well," she tells me. "You could be moving in by the end of the month."

  Pretty optimistic I felt. But still, we all agreed to go inside and see if any of the furnishings and other household items were salvageable.

  Before going up the steps to the front door my mother announces to my husband and me that, "The lawyer for Jean-Claude's estate gave me the keys yesterday said there would be an envelope waiting for us on a small table just inside the door." She paused, then asked herself out loud, "I wonder what that could be all about?"

  I saw a gleam in my husband's eyes and I knew he was hoping it was cash. I was hoping it might be a personal letter for my mom giving her well wishes. But my mother kept ominously saying to herself as we entered, "I wonder what it could be?"

  She found the envelope, opened it, and let out a little shriek.

  I picked up the the letter off the floor to see what had frightened her so. It read, "Please take care of Widelene and Mirlande for me. Jean-Claude."

  My mother looked to be in shock.

  "Mom. Mom!" I had to shout to get her attention. "Who are these people?" I asked.

  "They were Jean-Claude's twin sisters. They were killed inside the house by a Haitian man who said your great grandfather stole all his money." She continued with tears in her eyes. "Your great grandfather shot and killed him, but it was too late to help the girls!"

To Be Continued.......

 

This is,

A Fictitious Story And All Characters Are From The Imagination Of The Writer

Jim Hauenstein

 

And,

 

“The ghosts of things that never happened are worse than the ghosts of things that did.”
- L.M. Montgomery -

 

That is my story and I am sticking to it!

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I'll Be Seeing You!

 

Eidolon means Ghost by the way.

Do I Look Cool Now

 My consistent,

lucid,

annotator,

Yaz 129,

brought up the wonderful comparison of me,

getting a little embarrassed,

and a little anxious,

when I spouted out,

"It's my daughter's car!"

in my story,

"A Dynamic Father,"

to that of being asked by my daughters to buy tampons for them.

(Read "A Dynamic Father" and you'll see why.)

Raising four daughters I have gone to the store to buy tampons on more then one occasion.

It was about 10 years ago,

that I swore I would never do it again when,

at the time,

I got in line,

at the 15 items or less aisle.

  I plopped down a large 72 count bag of tampons.

Trying to look cool in front of the attractive,

twenty something checkout girl.

She immediately looks me in the eyes

and says,

"That is really embarrassing. I can't even go to the checkout and buy tampons for myself in front of other people. I check out in the self serve aisle!"

Of course I have gone back since then,

shamefully,

with my tail between my legs,

to buy tampons for my girls.

Now,

I buy smaller bags of tampons,

hide them under other groceries,

and I use the self serve check out aisle!
And man,
do I look cool now!

This is,

The Proud Papa Of Four Girls

Jim Hauenstein,

And,

“Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.”

- Robert A. Heinlein -

 

That is my story and I am sticking to it!

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Sign up as a Follower,

or leave a Comment.

If it's worthy enough,

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Be Kind To Everyone.

I'll Be Seeing You!

 

Why Oh Why

Summer is coming so I thought I would bring this story back for your reading pleasure.

*****

Why oh why didn't anyone ever tell me about this little secret when I was drinking beer?

You want to know how to drink beer all night on 

New Year's Eve,

at a

Birthday Party,

or at your local

Bar,

and still be the designated driver?

First a little background.

What?
You can't wait to hear it?

If I told you everything right away,

I wouldn't be able to babble as much as I like to do.

And what would the fun in that?

Our sober guru,

Doctor Joe,

as he was fondly called,

was -

Educated at Harvard with a troika of degrees, a BA, a JD, and an MBA. The late-Joseph Owades was a flat-out genius. With a PhD in biochemistry from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and an early job in the fermentation sciences department at Fleischmann's, (Fleischmann's Yeast) Owades probably knew more about fermentation and alcohol metabolism than perhaps any man who has ever lived. In fact, he has been called "The best brewer who's ever lived." He used that immense knowledge to eventually become a consultant for most of the progenitors of America's early craft brewing movement such as Anchor Brewing in San Francisco, New Amsterdam Brewing in New York, and the Boston Beer Company in, you guessed it, Boston. There he became good friends with Jim Koch, helped perfect Boston Lager, and passed on to Jim his little yeast secret. "One teaspoon of yeast per beer, right before you start drinking." You see, what Owades knew was that active dry yeast has an enzyme in it called alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH). Roughly put, ADH is able to break alcohol molecules down into their constituent parts of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Which is the same thing that happens when your body metabolizes alcohol in its liver. Owades realized if you also have that enzyme in your stomach when the alcohol first hits it, the ADH will begin breaking it down before it gets into your bloodstream and, thus, your brain. "And it will mitigate – not eliminate – but mitigate the effects of alcohol!" By Aaron Goldfarb for Esquire

There you have it.

Jim Koch,

the guy you see on television all the time selling

Samuel Adams,

has been drinking this way for years.

So you can too!

Put some yeast into some yogurt right before you drink

and maybe,

just maybe,

we will have one less drunk driver on the road this

Year.

I had to quit drinking so there would be one less drunk driver!

I'm Not Bitter!

This is,

If You Decide To Carry White Powder Around With You

Make Sure The Bag Has A Fleischmann's Yeast Label On It,

Jim Hauenstein,

And,

“I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in which I sometimes so madly indulge. It has not been in the pursuit of pleasure that I have periled life and reputation and reason. It has been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom.”

- Edgar Allan Poe -

 

That is my story and I am sticking to it!

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Sign up as a Follower,

or leave a Comment.

If it's worthy enough,

I'll answer you in a Post.

Thanks for reading.

Be Kind To Everyone.

I'll Be Seeing You!

 

The Surgery

I want everyone to know that I am going to be away from writing on my blog for at least

Four or Five

days as I recover from minor surgery I'm having tomorrow.

Nothing too serious,

but in my brain I'm thinking,

anytime you go under the knife you have to hope that the person cutting into you wasn't told by their companion that they wanted a divorce that morning from the now crazy

Surgeon!

I know,

it sounds like an episode from

"Criminal Minds."

Where the innocent victim is sliced into little pieces because the

Crazed Surgeon

is enraged because life has given them lemons.

This is,

A Lot Of Stuff On This Blog For Your Entertainment

So I Hope You Keep Coming Back Even Though I Will Be Away

Jim Hauenstein

And,

“Cutting out bad habits is far more effective than cutting out organs.”
- Herbert M. Shelton -

That is my story and I am sticking to it!

Like what you are reading?

Sign up as a Follower,

or leave a Comment.

If it's worthy enough,

I'll answer you in a Post.

Thanks for reading.

Be Kind To Everyone.

I'll Be Seeing You!