Just a Touch of Voodoo
Copyright© 2025 by Flavorfulcorpse
Chapter 1
Jennifer and Mark Daniels: Parents of Rudger.
Rudger Aron Daniels: Eighteen-year-old orphan.
Pure Léon: Creole, twenty-eight-year-old guardian to Rudger.
Meadow (Nan) Léon: Creole Voodoo Priestess, Mother to Pure, Protector of Rudger.
Lori and Lewis Hughes: Long-time friends and attorneys for Rudger’s parents, Rudger and Pure.
My mom and dad were both biomechanical engineers and were at the top of the field. We live in Louisiana, and we weren’t super rich, but we had money, as they had several patents in the works. I was five when I met Pure, who was fifteen at the time. My parents hired her as my babysitter, and we hit it off immediately. Anytime my parents needed her to watch me, she was there. Pure quickly became a part of our family, always going on trips and celebrating holidays with us. My parents even bought her a car and a cell phone so she could come at a moment’s notice.
Mom and Dad always seemed to prepare for every contingency, which turned out to be a good thing. In July 2015, when I was eight, my parents had gone to a conference, and on their way back they were in a car accident. They died instantly when an eighteen-wheeler lost control, crossed the median, and crashed into their car. I woke up that night to pounding on the front door, and as I walked out of my room, I saw two state troopers talking to Pure, who I could hear crying.
Not knowing why she was crying, I walked up to her and hugged her waist. She kneeled and hugged me tight, and I could feel her shaking. She pulled back from me and said, “Your Mommy and Daddy are in Heaven with the angels now.”
My eyes filled with tears, because I knew what that meant. I had been told that by Mom when Gran and Pap died. So, after the troopers left, Pure went to her purse, pulled out a business card, and called the number on it. I cried myself to sleep that night, and the next day, a bunch of people in suits came to the house; they ended up being Mom and Dad’s attorneys.
We all sat in the living room while they told Pure what was going to happen. Pure was named my sole guardian by my parents, so, at eighteen, she had just been given the sole conservatorship of an eight-year-old boy. She never wavered and signed the documents they presented without hesitation. While we were sitting there with the attorneys, there was a knock at the door, and more people in suits were standing there when Pure opened the door. They barged in without saying a word to her, but what they hadn’t expected to find was a room full of attorneys sitting there.
“Where’s Rudger Aron Daniels?” a large, balding man asked while the woman with him looked around.
One attorney, an older man, stood and asked, “Who might you be?”
“None of your business. Who are you?” the man replied.
“I just so happen to be Mr. Daniel’s attorney, Lewis Hughs, and this is my wife, Lori, of Hughs and Hughs Attorneys at Law.” Lewis said and gestured toward his wife, who was the older woman who was standing next to him, with a look of fury on her face. “And I ask you again, who are you?”
“Darek Albright and Nora Vickers with Child Protective Services,” the man said with a scowl.
“Ma’am, you might just want to stop what you’re doing,” Lori said to the woman.
“Now, what do you say about showing us your credentials before things turn really expensive for you!” Lewis told the duo.
“We’ll be going now,” the man said as he turned to leave.
“I think not, and you’ll stay right where you are until the cops talk to you!” Lori said as she talked to the 911 operator.
Lewis had stepped in front of the man to keep him from leaving as the man reached into his coat, but that’s when Lewis pulled a stun gun out and dropped the man where he stood. “You sit!” Lewis told the woman and pointed at a chair near the front door; the woman sat down.
The man lay on the floor, and every time he tried to get up, Lewis would tase him again. When the cops showed up, they ran the man’s and woman’s names from their driver’s licenses. When the dispatcher called back on the radio, “S.O. to 1227.”
“1227, go ahead.”
“1227, is your radio secure?”
“Negative, S.O., stand by.”
The officer’s partner turned off his radio while he stepped outside, but then the officer came back inside a short time later and spoke to his partner, “They’re not valid,” grabbing the woman and putting her in cuffs. When the officers searched them, it revealed that the man had a pistol on him, and the woman had a Taser of her own. They led them out of the house and to their patrol cars, putting one in each car and leaving.
“We’ll take care of everything with them, so don’t worry about ‘em,” Lori told Pure.
“Do you have a place you can go for a few days?” Lewis asked Pure.
“We can go to my house.”
“Good, go there and don’t tell anyone Ruger’s with you, or make any posts of him in them!” Lewis said, looking at Pure.
Lewis left my house for a little while; Pure and Lori packed me some clothes and loaded up the Rover. When Lewis got back, he gave Pure another cell phone and took hers. He also had us switch cars with him and Lori. Lewis went out and moved our stuff to his Tahoe, and they stayed behind to lock up the house. The ride to the bayou was a quick trip. Pure pulled into a general store on the water and went in, leaving me in the car.
A short time later, she and a big, burly man came out to the car. She popped the back, and the man took our things out. She and I followed the man to the dock behind the store, where we got on a small boat. It was like being in a whole different world to me as we traveled through the cypress trees; Pure held me close the whole time.
Again, the trip was over quickly when a house appeared out of nowhere. The boat stopped next to a small dock and tied off, then we got out of the boat and walked to the house. The big man grabbed our things and carried them to the porch of the house and dropped them there, then returned to the boat and left, without saying a word.
A beautiful woman, who looked like an older version of Pure, came out of the house, with the screen door creaking as she opened it. “Hi, Baby, is everything alright?” She asked.
Pure shook her head and said, “No, Momma, it’s not.”
The woman picked up our bags and took them inside, as Pure led me over to a couch, where we sat down. A short time later, the woman came back and sat next to Pure in a chair next to the couch. “Tell me what’s going on, Baby,” the woman said. Pure told her everything. I, for some reason, got up and got in the lady’s lap. She stroked my back gently, putting me to sleep, and when I woke up, I was in a bed, with Pure next to me.
I started to cry, which woke up Pure. “What’s wrong, Rudger?” She asked.
“Are you going to leave me too?” I asked.
“No, sweet boy, I’m not going anywhere,” she said, pulling me closer to her.
At some point during the night, Pure’s mom joined us in bed, because I woke up between Pure and her mom. They both had their arms over me like a protective blanket. I went back to sleep, and when I woke up again, they were both out of bed. I called out for Pure, who came running into the room. “What is it, sweet boy?” She asked.
“I thought you left,” I told her.
“No, never. I was making breakfast for you with Momma.”
I got out of bed and ran to her, hugging her as tight as I could. She held me just as tight, and then we walked hand in hand to the kitchen, where her mom was cooking something that smelled wonderful. I was seated at the table, and Pure went back to helping her mother cook.
I had biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, and a bitter drink that Pure’s momma told me was going to help me. “Hi, I’m Meadow, but you can call me Nanna, or Nan,” Pure’s momma told me, extending her hand for me to shake.
I sat at the table, afraid to move. Nan must have picked up on it. “You can get up and go explore a little, just don’t disturb the salt, and definitely don’t go near the water, because there are some big alligators there.
I was now more afraid of getting up than I was before, so I shook my head and sat there at the table while they washed the dishes. It didn’t take them long to finish the dishes, then Nan came over and held out her hand for me to take, which I did. She led me back into the front room, where we had sat yesterday, then she pulled me onto her lap when she sat in her chair, and I melted into her.
Looking around the room, there were jars and containers all over the place, and there were some symbols I didn’t understand drawn on the walls. Pure came in with wet hair, having just taken a shower, and took me by the hand, saying, “Come on, you need a bath,” leading me to the bathroom. The water was already drawn, and my change of clothes were waiting for me. The water was nice and hot, then Pure left and let me bathe.
When I was done with my bath, I went back to the front room, where more women were sitting. “These are my sisters, and we will put protection over you. Will you let us do that?” Nan asked.
I looked over at Pure, who nodded her head. “Yes,” I told her.
Nan had me stand in the center of a white circle on the floor, then they walked around me, speaking in a language I didn’t understand, shaking chicken feet rattles, while one cut a piece of my hair, and Nan pricked my finger, taking a drop of my blood, and dripping it on my hair that was in a pouch of some kind. I received a kiss from each of them, and then they all hugged me at the same time.
Nan removed me from the circle; as the others left, Nan placed the pouch into another pouch and placed it in a cupboard of some kind. I got back in her lap when she sat in her chair again and fell back to sleep. I dreamt of my parents; they told me they loved me and they were sorry for leaving me. I felt their hugs one last time as I woke up to Nan singing to me, and she had as many tears as I did. She kissed my forehead and told me, “You are loved, sweet boy,” and went back to singing.
On our last day, Pure got a call on the cell phone Lewis had given her. She had to go back to the store we had initially left from to meet with Lewis and Lori. Nan’s sisters showed up shortly after Pure left and had me stand in the circle again. This time though, I was in my ‘Superman’ underwear. They rubbed a white liquid all over me, from my head to the bottom of my feet. No, they didn’t touch me there! The liquid seemed to soak into my body and disappear, leaving my body feeling warm all over.
When Pure got back, Nan’s sisters had already left, and I was in Nan’s lap being sung to. Pure packed what things of hers she could along with my things and told Nan where we were going and why. We said our goodbyes to Nan, who cried as we left, and I, too, cried when we left. The trip back seemed longer than our trip to Nan’s had been. I didn’t want to leave, but school was about to start, and we needed to get back, so Lewis had given Pure the ‘all clear’ to come back.
What I didn’t know was that the ‘all clear’ meant going to a private school where I didn’t know anyone. The ride to the new apartment, in a new town, was long; it took forever. The apartment was a nice two-bedroom, two-bath that was furnished and had my things there. Pure had to get new things because we couldn’t bring all her clothes with us on the boat. Lewis had given Pure a credit card to use because they were the trustees of my trust fund, and she was my guardian. I had to miss my parent’s funeral because Lewis didn’t know if I’d be safe or not, so he erred on the safe side.
I started school a few days later, where the rich kids were all assholes. Pure started school too, because Lewis and Lori wanted her to have an education so that when I was old enough, she could live her own life when that time came. The classes she chose were business management and accounting. Her class times mirrored mine, so she would be out of school when I was and made sure, she never missed a parent-teacher conference, play, or anything else I had going on at the time.
It took two years for the trial of the trucking company whose truck killed my parents. The company had been taking shortcuts in the maintenance of its trucks, and it had caused the death of my parents. I was awarded a hefty settlement of seven hundred fifty million by the court. The company appealed, of course, which was shot down, so they appealed again to a higher court; that too was shot down.
Their attorneys failed to notice a clause in the settlement paperwork. They filed for bankruptcy and tried to sell the company, and that’s where the clause got them. The clause stated, ‘If they filed for bankruptcy and tried to sell the company, I would get the full amount of the sale.’ That turned out to be a lot more than what I was awarded—four hundred million dollars more. The courts held them to it, and it all went into my trust.
We moved out of the apartment and into a nice house in a gated community surrounded by older people. I never really made friends with anyone at school, nor did I care to. Most of the older boys picked on me and called me “Little Orphan Andy” or would say, “Your parents died because they couldn’t stand to be around you anymore.” Kids can be so cruel.
It was also the year I got into my first fight. I’d had enough of the remarks from the other boys and decided to shut them up. I came home that day, and Pure saw my black eye and went ballistic. She asked, “Who did this to you?” holding my chin and turning my head so she could get a good look at it. Pure called Lori and not Lewis because of the Momma Bear thing, and she was right. Lori ripped them a new asshole and got all the tuition they had paid for me to go to that school and more. I never knew how much more, but I’m pretty sure it was a lot.
The very next week I would start at a new private school, which meant we had to move to be closer to the school. I didn’t want to move, but Lewis didn’t think a public school would be safe enough yet. The high point of us moving is Nan coming to visit. I hadn’t grown much in the two years, so I was able to sit in her lap while she sang to me. We both cried when she had to go home, but she promised me she would visit again real soon. She would visit every six months or so and stay a week. I loved the weeks that she stayed with us.
Pure had to change schools too and was a trooper about it. She never once complained about anything to do with me. There were times I would fall asleep in her lap, and she wouldn’t move so I could sleep. She never dated either, and I’m sure she had offers as beautiful as she was, but her focus was always on me, and I love her for that.
On our holidays, we would go stay with Nan. The last time we went, there was an alligator as big as the boat we were in lying on the bank next to the dock. The big guy just got out and shooed it away like it was a cat or something. We went to the movies and the park and just hung out in general together. The longest we were apart was when we were in school.
I was at this school long enough for Pure to graduate with her degrees in her chosen fields, then all hell broke loose. I was walking by the restroom, and the four biggest bullies of the school pulled me into it. Josiah and Jonah Hildebrant, whose mom was a faculty member, and their lackey followers, Matt Forehee and Kaleb McAlester. The twins, Josiah and Jonah, took my backpack and started rifling through it. Matt held me against the wall, and Kaleb took my wallet.
Matt pulled the picture of my mom and dad out and made sexual remarks about my mom. He showed it to Jonah, who took the picture, pulled out a lighter, which we weren’t supposed to have, and acted like he was going to light it on fire. The next thing I knew was that all four were on the ground groaning and moaning, and I was putting the picture back in my wallet. I picked up my backpack and gathered all the things that Jonah and Josiah had dumped on the floor.