Chapter 12: January 13th, 1895

Time is like a river for those that love one another. It has its beginnings and its ends. For lovers such as Ayida-Weddo and Frederick, it was a journey that was bound to end in separation for them.

It was nighttime in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, as Frederick lies in his bed in his beautiful large home. It seemed like only yesterday that he had found the Goddess Ayida-Weddo. He could have had anything he wanted. He did as he was requested and gave Linah her freedom a day after he and Ayida went to bed together. He took up the offer that his friend Albert gave him. Linah had no intention of staying on the property and wanted to move west away from the pending struggle and agony that the South was going through when it came to slavery. He gave her a choice if she wanted the property, which she requested that it would be sold. The money from the property was then given to her, whom she used to buy the freedom for most of her family spread around the region. She then got a wagon along with her family and used it to go westward. She would never know who the real identity of Aida was but knew that she was the tipping point for a new beginning for everyone.

Ayida had one final request for Linah and her hospitality and that she and her newly freed family would gather any freed slaves and give her and Frederick an African-style wedding. With laws, the way they were, the lack of much family, Frederick agreed that this would be the better choice of marriage. If it had to be done in secret or lack of knowledge to the public, there was nothing he could do about it or care. Their love for one another was genuine, though, as they were wed after the property deed was handed over to Albert’s friend one month later, with a happy Linah receiving the money for the property. Divine intervention for her part was indeed on her side. Linah was delighted for the unity of both Aida and Frederick as they told her that it was time for them to move on. With a simple goodbye and farewell to her, they walked out to the dirt road and into the forest, where they disappeared forever to the few that knew them.

Of course, for Frederick and Ayida, they knew exactly where they were going...

It was calm and quiet with a coughing and hacking Frederick in his bed. Ayida-Weddo was by his side. A Haitian nurse sat beside him as she had a damp cloth brought to his bed. Frederick could have had anything he wanted. He took some of the riches that she offered but no extension to his life. He tried to live normally, healthy, and happy with his wife. Frederick that was a wrinkly old man and gray-haired, was exhausted and lay dying in his death bed with his wife Ayida at his side. A tear fell from her eye as she knew that death was near him and ready to take him at any minute’s notice.

Ayida-Weddo, in her human form that could never age, stayed beside him till death do them part. She did not want this day but always accepted how humans and their brief lives were to the deities. Their love and desire never grew old.

The bedroom was large, with a two-person bed (or something larger) on the center edge of the room. There were no windows in the room but the various set of furniture of cabinets, tables, and chairs in the room. Candlelight provided the light in the room as he was on his last hour of life. He was diagnosed with lung cancer and knew that his time was at its end.

He coughed and hacked in his bed as he starred at his wife, Ayida. She held his hand tightly.

“I can undo this at any time,” she whispered in his ear while the nurse was with them. “I can get the best healer deities here, and they can...”

“No...” he whispered back. “It is my time ... I must move on and face my judgment for my actions. My love for you, my beloved, is unending for all time.”

The nurse came back with a damp cloth that she put over his head. “There is not much else I can do for him. He does not have much longer now.”

“Thank you, nurse ... please leave us,” Aida told her.

She nodded as she left the room and closed the door behind her.

“Please, my love,” she begged him. “I don’t want to lose you like my last husband. I can...”

“No ... I can’t. I refuse...” he tried to finish when he coughed. “It is my time...”

She tried to hold back the urge to cry as another tear fell from her face. She struggled to keep her grip on his hand.

“I know ... that it is difficult for you ... I want ... to see your true form again ... one last time.”

She took her other hand and rubbed his gray hair, and then cradled his cheek. “Of course, my husband.”

He nodded. “I admit to you that I fell in love with that human slave woman ... so long ago. It must have taken me years to fall in love with your true form.”

She tried to think of the good times together. “Remember the time I took you swimming in the ocean in my human form, and then I leaped out as my most powerful form? You must have thought you were about to become my snack.”

He smiled but was unable to laugh too much. “I remember when the seaweed got caught on your ... your.”

“My horns,” she finished. “In which you had to pull it off me.”

“Remember the time ... you pulled that boy out of the water that was drowning?”

She nodded. “Yes ... her family gave us the idol.”

“You have been good keeping your human form in front of them.”

“And you have done a wonderful job in making sure that no one knew who I truly was. Of course, I don’t think they would have believed you anyway.”

He chuckled a little bit. “Yeah ... man sleeps with a large serpent ... you think they would have believed me?”

She laughed. “No, they wouldn’t.”

“Remember when...” he started to cough and hack violently. Blood started to pour from his mouth more and more with each cough. It was a matter of minutes now. She could not hold her crying any longer as she could no longer hold back. “Don’t fear for me, my beloved ... I had a wonderful life. I couldn’t imagine a time we were ever separated. Since the day you first worked in the fields with me ... I never knew that you...” His coughing continued making it harder and harder for him to speak. His breathing was irregular as he was gasping for air.

She looked down at his withering body. Her smile faded as she let go of his hand in which she stood up and backed away from him. He watched as a light emitted from her and a sudden flash. She stood there in her true form of the rainbow serpent. Her myriad of colors radiated from the candlelight. She stood there in her proper form, naked without any shed of clothing. The door was locked to ensure that no one could come in to see this moment.

“My only resentment is that our daughter was not here to see this,” she remarked.

“Kacela ... gods ... I wish she were here...,” he said.

Ayida-Weddo knew that she put out the word to their daughter that Frederick was dying. Sadly, there was no sign of her. It would be too late anyway.

“Beautiful...” he said. “So ... beaut ... I ... lo...” were his last words as his eyes grew still. His lungs ceased functioning as he made a wheezing breath before it went silent. His last sight was her true form. There was a brief smile as she slithered up and grabbed his hand.

“Frederick?...” she said as she pressed her snout to his chest and face. She began to cry from her eyes as they fell onto his face. Her scales rubbed against his lifeless body. This day would mark the end and final time Ayida-Weddo and Frederick would be together but fate ... sometimes goes differently...

“Hmmm,” said a distant female voice. “It appears I have arrived just in time.”

Ayida-Weddo looked up as she heard the voice. It came from everywhere in the room. The accent had a distinct Arabic accent to it, most likely somewhere in the area between Iraq and Iran. The flames of the candles came to a standstill. It was as if time itself was stopped as she looked around the room. Her grip on his hand was strong as she knew who had shown up.