"Nothing," said Myshtigo, "except that it's mainly mud and sand and hot, and has nothing whatsoever to do with what I'm after."
"What are you after?"
"A story."
"What kind of story?"
"I'll send you an autographed copy."
"Thanks."
"Your pleasure."
"When do you wish to leave?" I asked him.
"Day after tomorrow," he said.
"Okay."
"I've had detailed maps of the specific sites made up for you. Lorel tells me they were delivered to your office this afternoon."
"Okay again. But there is something of which you may not be fully cognizant. It involves the fact that everything you've named so far is mainlandish. We're pretty much an island culture these days, and for very good reasons. During the Three Days the Mainland got a good juicing, and most of the places you've named are still inclined to be somewhat hot. This, though, is not the only reason they are considered unsafe…"
"I am not unfamiliar with your history and I am aware of the radiation precautions," he interrupted. "Also, I am aware of the variety of mutated life forms which inhabit Old Places. I am concerned, but not worried."
I shrugged in the artificial twilight.
"It's okay by me…"
"Good." He took another sip of Coke. "Let me have a little light then, Lorel."
"Right, Srin."
It was light again.
As the screen was sucked upward behind him, Myshtigo asked me, "Is it true that you are acquainted with several mambos and houngans here at the Port?"
"Why, yes," I said. "Why?"
He approached my chair.
"I understand," he said conversationally, "that voodoo, or voudoun, has survived pretty much unchanged over the centuries."
"Perhaps," I said. "I wasn't around here when it got started, so I wouldn't know for sure."
"I understand that the participants do not much appreciate the presence of outsiders-"
"That too, is correct. But they'll put on a good show for you, if you pick the right hounfor and drop in on them with a few gifts."
"But I should like very much to witness a real ceremony. If I were to attend one with someone who was not a stranger to the participants, perhaps then I could obtain the genuine thing."
"Why should you want to? Morbid curiosity concerning barbaric customs?"
"No. I am a student of comparative religions."
I studied his face, but couldn't tell anything from it.
It had been awhile since I'd visited with Mama Julie and Papa Joe or any of the others, and the hounfor wasn't that far away, but I didn't know how they'd take to me bringing a Vegan around. They'd never objected when I'd brought people, of course.
"Well…" I began.
"I just want to watch," he said. "I'll stay out of the way. They'll hardly know I'm there."
I mumbled a bit and finally gave in. I knew Mama Julie pretty well and I didn't see any real harm being done, no matter what.
So, "Okay," said I, "I'll take you to one. Tonight, if you like."
He agreed, thanked me, and went off after another Coke. George, who had not strayed from the arm of my chair, leaned toward me and observed that it would be very interesting to dissect a Vegan. I agreed with him.
When Myshtigo returned, Dos Santos was at his side.
"What is this about you taking Mister Myshtigo to a pagan ceremony?" he asked, nostrils flared and quivering.
"That's right," I said, "I am."
"Not without a bodyguard you are not."
I turned both palms upward.
"I am capable of handling anything which might arise."
"Hasan and I will accompany you."
I was about to protest when Ellen insinuated herself between them.
"I want to go, too," she said. "I've never been to one."
I shrugged. If Dos Santos went, then Diane would go, too, which made for quite a few of us.
So one more wouldn't matter, shouldn't matter. It was ruined before it got started.
"Why not?" I said.
The hounfor was located down in the harbor section, possibly because it was dedicated to Ague Woyo, god of the sea. More likely, though, it was because Mama Julie's people had always been harbor people. Ague Woyo is not a jealous god, so lots of other deities are commemorated upon the walls in brilliant colors. There are more elaborate hounfors further inland, but they tend to be somewhat commercial.
Ague's big blazeboat was blue and orange and green and yellow and black, and it looked to be somewhat unseaworthy. Damballa Wedo, crimson, writhed and coiled his length across most of the opposite wall. Several big rada drums were being stroked rhythmically by Papa Joe, forward and to the right of the door through which we entered-the only door. Various Christian saints peered from behind unfathomable expressions at the bright hearts and cocks and graveyard crosses, flags, machetes and crossroads that clung to almost every inch of the walls about them-frozen into an after-the-hurricane surrealism by the amphoteric paints of Titan-and whether or not the saints approved one could never telclass="underline" they stared down through their cheap picture-frames as though they were windows onto an alien world.
The small altar bore numerous bottles of alcoholic beverages, gourds, sacred vessels for the spirits of the loa, charms, pipes, flags, depth photos of unknown persons and, among other things, a pack of cigarettes for Papa Legba.
A service was in progress when we were led in by a young hounsi named Luis. The room was about eight meters long and five wide, had a high ceiling, a dirt floor. Dancers moved about the central pole with slow, strutting steps. Their flesh was dark and it glistened in the dim light of the antique kerosene lamps. With our entry the room became crowded.
Mama Julie took my hand and smiled. She led me back to a place beside the altar and said, "Erzulie was kind."
I nodded.
"She likes you, Nomiko. You live long, you travel much, and you come back."
"Always," I said.
"Those people…?"
She indicated my companions with a flick of her dark eyes.
"Friends. They would be no bother…"
She laughed as I said it. So did I.
"I will keep them out of your way if you let us remain. We will stay in the shadows at the sides of the room. If you tell me to take them away, I will. I see that you have already danced much, emptied many bottles…"
"Stay," she said. "Come talk with me during daylight sometime."
"I will."
She moved away then and they made room for her in the circle of dancers. She was quite large, though her voice was a small thing. She moved like a huge rubber doll, not without grace, stepping to the monotonous thunder of Papa Joe's drumming. After a time this sound filled everything-my head, the earth, the air-like maybe the whale's heartbeat had seemed to half-digested Jonah. I watched the dancers. And I watched those who watched the dancers.
I drank a pint of rum in an effort to catch up, but I couldn't. Myshtigo kept taking sips of Coke from a bottle he had brought along with him. No one noticed that he was blue, but then we had gotten there rather late and things were pretty well along the way to wherever they were going.
Red Wig stood in a corner looking supercilious and frightened. She was holding a bottle at her side, but that's where it stayed. Myshtigo was holding Ellen at his side, and that's where she stayed. Dos Santos stood beside the door and watched everybody-even me. Hasan, crouched against the righthand wall, was smoking a long-stemmed pipe with a small bowl. He appeared to be at peace.
Mama Julie, I guess it was, began to sing. Other voices picked it up:
Papa Legba, ouvri baye!
Papa Legba, Attibon Legba, ouvri baye pou pou passe!
Papa Legba…
This went on, and on and on. I began to feel drowsy. I drank more rum and felt thirstier and drank more rum.
I'm not sure how long we had been there, when it happened. The dancers had been kissing the pole and singing and rattling gourds and pouring out waters, and a couple of the hounsi were acting possessed and talking incoherently, and the meal-design on the floor was all blurred, and there was lots of smoke in the air, and I was leaning back against the wall and I guess my eyes had been closed for a minute or two.