Day 21—Feast of the Dead

Baron Samedi’s feast of the dead was impressive. Cooked meats, raw meats, fruits, vegetables, legumes, desserts. Left on an old room and board table in the cemetery. They came to sit at the second hour after Midnight.

Lala had an arrow through her head. Uncle Paul had one of his eyeballs hanging out of his sockets. Mama Marie had her red scarf, as usual. The first course was always the body and blood. The damned humans had already cut much of the fat away from the bones and bloodied all, so there was no joy in preparing the meats. Baron Samedi was extremely disappointed in this. Baron LaCroix’s ridiculous whiteman powdered wig kept dragging in the soup.

“Why you always wearing that, LaCroix? Jesus beg you to do it or something?”

“Fuck Christo, that brown man Greek. All he ever tell me is to do the stupidest things. Other week he tell me I don’t cross myself enough and I don’t take communion. My name is LaCroix, you idiot!”

The entire table laughed in an uproar.

Mama Marie began to complain. “Dieu, dieu, I alive for too damn long. I gotta keep eating glass every single day just to get me through it. How do these humans do it? How do they put up with it? And Baron Samedi, why Maman Brigitte don’t help me with preparing the meals these days when they gets to our land??” She spilled some rum while pouring it.

“Marie, don’t you fret now. You know Brigitte been making lists and learning how to use those stupid human computers. All the things they make us dead learn these days.”

“It’s too many people. You know I hates putting my hands up inside the chicken because nowadays they don’t even give us the hearts. How I gonna save them for the girls who need to be virgins?”

“Those girls…I appreciate that you want to help them, Marie. We knows it’s to us to trick those living bastards in things of satisfaction. But I think maybe you don’t need to worry you about it too much.”

Samedi was surprisingly levelheaded. Then again, it was early. Usually he was drunker and louder. Everybody was still too busy laughing at LaCroix and his silly wig.