Le Carte Rouge

Angie saw that I had that stupid smile that says I know what life is all about as I joined her back on the street. I shoulder bumped her to communicate something good has happened. We were on the way to the motel and away from the last book store. Holding a book at chest level I look at Angie.

Angie gives in, ‘Okay, what is the book?’

I smile broadly holding the book closer to my chest. ‘It is the book.’

Angie smirks, ‘What book?’ she asks, looking both ways as we cross the street.

I shake my head in slow motion as I also look both ways while crossing. ‘The book.’

‘What is that the name of the book…the book?’ she smiles, returning my smile, then she looks seriously at me. ‘You don’t mean the book?’

‘Yep, I do mean the book.’ I steps up with her on the curb and we stop. I hold the leather bound book outward with my fingertips gently holding its edges. ‘Angela Demarche, may I introduce you to the Le Carte Rouge.’ I pass it gently to her and she takes it with crossed brow.

‘Naw, can’t be.’ she opens it and her eyes widen. She reads aloud, ‘Le Carte Rouge.’ she looks up at me, ‘But, this can’t be, Rod’ Shaking her head to fathom the finding.

‘Come on, Angie, think of it without the comedy. Claudi says, as we are leaving, and rather secretly, to find some book for him that will somehow find me and voila it finds me in this city with all its libraries and book shops. I mean, what are the chances?’ I take the book back, softly patting the black leather bindings.

She smirks in thought, ‘Okay, this is the book? The exact same book? The title is exactly the same?’

‘This is exactly the same name.’ I look at it then back to her without opening it.

‘Let me see it again?’ Angie puts out a hand.

‘Don’t open it again until we get back to the room though. It looks kind of brittle.’ I hand it over to her. ‘The cover is strong but the pages look, you know, kind of, like if a breeze comes it might all blow away. Probably why they were throwing it away.’

She runs her fingers upon the edges of the gold leaf pages, nodding at the book’s apparent fragility. She finds herself smiling at the richness in texture of the binding and smells from the types of trees and cotton used in the production of the paper. ‘This is a beautiful book. Yeah, I agree we should hurry and get back to the room, Rod. Play it safe.’ She holds the book against her breast and quickens her pace. ‘I can’t believe you just found it in that dumpster overflow.’

‘You are into it now. Claudi and his magic shit. But, here it is.’

‘Things happen, Rod,’

In the room, I open the curtains and go over to the phone. I pause to look through the list of my numbers to dial Haiti and Claudi. The phone connects and rings the double ringing that after almost a year of living in the Caribbean I still wasn’t used to.

‘Allo?’ Claudi’s voice sounded tinny.

‘Claudi? This is Rod. I found your book, the Le Carte Rouge. We found it.’ I looked over at Angie who, without taking her jacket off was laying on the bed with pillows propped to work her fingers through the book.

‘Rod. You found Le Carte Rouge? Oh, my god, this is wonderful. This is wonderful. I had a feeling. No. I knew.’ There was a pause and Rod knew some instructions were on the way. Claudi the lawyer was quelling his excitement. ‘Okay, this is what you do: first, put the book in a safe place, like your pack, no, wrap it in something protective. It has to be sensitive, no? Wrap it good and put it in your backpack or the duffel, no backpack because when you get on the plane you carry it, no, you carry it with you. Do not put it above but at your foot, feet, no?’

‘Henri, wait, man. We just got it and our flight isn’t until tomorrow, but we were thinking of spending some time down in Key West.’

‘No!’ Claudi almost shouted, ‘that is not what you do. Please, this is so important. You have something that is powerful and must be gotten here as soon as possible… Rod, do you understand me? This is an urgent thing, my friend. I will pay for a ticket for the next flight you can get and I will pay for you to return to the States and Key West and I will pay for you to have a good room in Key West for a week if you want, but please bring Le Carte Rouge back to Haiti.’

‘Back? Did you mean it was in Haiti before or do you mean just to bring it there?’

‘I will explain it all to you when you are here. It is a long story. Where do you have the book now?’

‘Angie has it on the bed.’

‘Okay. Now, wrap it and put it in your backpack.’

‘It might be a little hard to get it away from her.’ I chuckled, looking at Angie’s intense expression and concentration.

‘She is reading it?’ there was alarm in Claudi’s voice over the phone.

‘Yeah, she…’

‘Tell her to put it down now.’

‘Hunh?’

‘Hurry. It is dangerous, Rod.’

‘Dangerous?’

‘Yes, please tell her to put it down now.’

‘Angie, Claudi says to put the book down.’

She looks over to me blinking herself back to the motel room. ‘What?’

‘Put it down. Claudi says to put it down now.’

She frowns at me, then the book, then the phone in my hand. Angie gently closes the book to the point that her index finger marking her page allows.

‘Okay, she stopped reading it.’

‘Put it in the backpack.’ Claudi ordered.

‘Look Claudi’ Rod did not like the tone, ‘we will get the book to you and take you up on Key West. I will check and see about the flight and switching the tickets and pay with you refunding, so see you as soon as possible.’

‘Let me know and I will pick you up at the airport.’

‘Okay. Bye, now.’ I hung up trying to stop the irritation at being ordered around.

Angie was already back in the book and lightly smiling.

‘Angie, he said to put the book down. Maybe it has poison on the pages or something weird.’

‘Yeah, right.’ Angie nodded comically. ‘Look at this pen and ink.’ She turned the book so I could see.

I moved over to look down at a detailed scene of a man and a woman peering over a ravine of tangled growth reaching down into a black abyss with writhing figures etched in outlines of grotesque and mournful stares. I could make out their mouths twisted in anguish and did not want to look at the illustration again.

‘Put down the book, Angie.’

She looked up at me, ‘Don’t you see what we have here?’

‘I think I am seeing too much.’

‘No, not the hocus-pocus stuff but the value of a book like this? I think we have some money here, Rod.’

I slowly shake my head, ‘No, Angie. This is Claudi’s book and it is not a good one to do anything with but give to the guy.’

‘Fuck him, Rod. He is just gonna sell it and I’ll bet for a fortune. He is a treasure hunter, for god’s sake.’

‘He is a lawyer for treasure hunters. Claudi never gets his hands dirty. Naw, there is something about this book that he knows and we don’t. Look, when we get the book to Haiti, we keep it until he explains what it is and what it is about and what he plans on doing with it. Then, we make up our minds about what we will do about it.’

Angie looks at me incredulously. ‘Rod,’ she says in an exasperated tone, ‘we have the book. We found the book. This is right here in our hands. Let’s go to an antique book dealer, look one up in the phone book, and see what a value is. Then, we make up our minds about what to do with it. Shit, I really wish I could remember half of the Latin I had in school, just a third. Some of this stuff is just phenomenal… the stuff I can get that is. But my conjugation is no good anymore and I only can get some of the stuff. Mixtures of stuff are just not translatable but amounts are and the warnings are simple.’

‘Warnings?’ My eyebrows raise up. ‘What warnings?’

‘Relax, it’s just some stuff about some of these mixings, potions, you know the dangerous stuff he told you, woouooo, hahahaha.’

‘Hey, Angie, what if there is a danger with this kind of thing?’

‘Look, I am not touching the pages too much and I doubt the words can kill, so…, look, Rod, I didn’t know you were so tender, man.’

I knew I was frowning, something I do when I have to think quickly about something I know is important to make a decision about, ‘You know, you are right. I got caught up in his thing. This might be valuable and we take it to him? Strange. I don’t know what came over me.’ I shake my head and look down at the book, then at half of Angie’s concentrated face fixed on the elaborate pages of mixed inks. There are browns and whites and some hints of pink with a thread of red slightly visible. The pages are not rotten, just lightly papered, like rice paper but of some other material. The colours of the images almost move with an unfocussed vibrancy. I move closer with the paper tending toward glowing behind the inked words. I lick my lips and bend over to study the scripted words almost all joined with interlocking curlicues and slants. I blink hard and pull my head back. The book seems to draw me in and I recognise it.

‘Angie.’ I shout to her though she is only a few inches from my mouth.

She jerks her head up, ‘What?’ she is looking around the room and toward the door.

‘Something about that book makes me want to go into it.’ I say with wide eyes and sweat rounding the sides of my eyebrows.

She smiles, ’Yeah, exactly. That was what you were yelling in my ear about?’

I move back a bit, ’Unhunh. I don’t like this.’

Angie smirks, exhaling impatience, ‘Cut it out, back off. Take a walk or something. I know, I am hungry and you must be too. Why not go out and get us some Chinese from that place down the street?’

I look down at her, and find myself trying not to look at the book. My mouth opens but no words would come out. I did not know what I wanted to say. I breathe in deeply and come to the conclusion that her logic overshadows what was becoming my superstition. Claudi planted that seed, I think to myself. Maybe some air was exactly what I need, and food, especially Chinese food was a very good idea. I nod in agreement, but she is already back studying the book.

I ask, trying not to look too stupid, ’What do you want? Duck? Chow Mein? Pan fried noodles?’

She looks and up back at her place in the book. ‘Yeah.’

I go out and close the door softly. It is hot outside. I walk between two parked cars, a black one and a beige one. I notice pieces of paper on the ground and a broken whistle laying under one of the tires of the beige car. It was almost dark already and the amber street lights seem slightly blurred.

When I return with the meals she gives him a hungry look that I recognised as a swelling of passion. I must be reacting in a protective of my space way because she physically backs off. We eat in silence. I want to ask her what she found in her study of the book but felt it was wrong somehow. When we finished she acted shyly when taking his paper plate. She took the food bag, boxes into the bathroom. The shower ran with pressure and he felt relieved like things were going back to normal. Then the question came to him of why had he thought things were not already normal?

Angie came out naked with tiny drops accenting her curves. I felt my self rising and took in the sight of her beautiful colours and tightness of skin. The small tuck of tummy that moved in and out with her breathing made me smile. She smiled and nodded slowly. I opened my mouth as her’s came closer and appreciated my own breathing as she turned sideways and ran her fingertips over the outer ring of her areola, then pinched her nipple with thumb and forefinger and made a throat sound that welcomed me.

That night I could not sleep. The air conditioning made noises and the bed creaked when he or she turned even slightly. There was a drip in the bathroom that I did not want to investigate and lose my moment to fall asleep. I did not want to look at Angie though he felt an erection thinking about her lying next to me. My mind raced with snatches of dream that were probably just thoughts. Sailing, water and placid horizons that were neither the sea nor the land. No people. The window drapes were pulled back and a street light gave contrast to the room’s shapes. The dead television on its weird, long, dark table that was a chest that could not be used. The curving shadowed lamps sitting on the side tables, on each side of the bed, with small hoods that let the little baldness of the bulbs show just slightly above.

I pulled my covers to the side careful not to wake Angie. I forgot exactly why I pulled them off as I was rising so just lay back down and pulled them back up to keep off the dull chill of the air conditioning. The book lay on her side table aside her lamp. I swallowed, wanting to reach over her to get it though I knew nothing in Latin. That realisation made me nod a smirk, ‘What am I going to do with the thing? Hold it? Lick it?’ I grinned with that thought. Then, I looked at her bare shoulder with a touch of dread. What would she do if I licked the cover? I looked down at her and was shocked to find her looking back at me.

‘Rod,’ she smiled, do you want to lick something?’

I jerked my head back.

Her face in the street light held a smile.

I breathed easier recognising that that was what she was talking about, not that she heard my actual thoughts.

We both slept late the next morning. The plane we were taking was to leave within two hours of our waking and we had to get to the airport so there was a hurrying with no showers. I wiped the stickiness off with a damp towel and she laughed fully dressed with the Carte Rouge under her arm. We called a cab and made the flight.

We followed the orders and placed the backpack holding the precious book in a plastic bag under the seat in front of us and smiled at each other. When the plane landed we waited until most of the passengers were off and all the jostling with bundles and children and pushing was gone. I picked up the pack that seemed lighter, so I unsnapped the the two catches, loosened the drawstrings and looked at this underwear and socks but no book. I tilted my head and dug my hand into the pack only finding softness. I looked at Angie who was looking down at the pack.

‘What the fuck?’ I told the back of the seat with its worn magazine in a torn holder. I wondered why I hadn’t noticed the torn holder before, then remembered what I was doing and pulled out his underwear.

Angie looked at me, then at the underwear, then back to me. ‘Shit.’

When we met Claudi in the echoing airport hall, he said before they said anything, ‘You lost it?’

My mouth opened. ‘How did you know?’

Claudi smiled and said matter of factly, ‘Because it is at my home in my book case.’

‘Claudi,’ I rolled the words out, ‘what do you mean?’

‘This morning when I came down for breakfast, Michelle, the maid, you met her, she said that a book was on the floor and told me I should not leave old, maybe valuable books on the floor. She had put it up on my bookshelf. I went over and saw what it was and thought you guys had played a trick on me but there were no flights before this one. I looked through it and took some photos on what I needed to.’ He smiled at both of them. ‘You did good.’

A month later Claudi was dead. The book disappeared again. Angie and I broke up on that same day after finding out about Claudi. I left Haiti for the States and never returned. Angie opened a beauty parlour.