Devil Incarnate (On Hiatus)

Chapter 8

Once we arrive to the field trip sight, all of the worries from earlier melt away. The tour guide is a lively young woman who didn't look much older than us. She led us through the historic sites like the grave of Marie Laveau. It was an instant immersion into the rich, beautiful culture of the city we live in. I wish Mama were here to experience this with me.

Once we stop at Marie's grave, my mind starts to wander and the voice of the tour guide fades into the background. Why had crazy Anne called me Marie Laveau when I was at the hospital? Could it have just been my imagination?  I just got a concussion after all. Maybe she is just a senile old lady and messed my name up with the greatest voodoo practitioner in New Orleans.

Voices started to make me lose my train of thought. I couldn't make out what they were saying, but it sounded important. I tried to focus on the voices and they all came into focus and merged into one strong voice to say one word.

"Run!"

I get pushed back into reality and don't even take a second to register where I am before I dart forward. Before I even had a chance to look behind me, I hear a huge crash and everyone in the area runs toward me. What was happening? They run past me and start surrounding the big pile of rubble that lay exactly where I just stood a few seconds ago. I take a second to take in my surroundings. It seems that the group, along with me, had moved on from Marie's grave and were standing in the street somewhere. The giant pile of rubble that lay behind fell from the front of a building.

"I told you not to trust that guy to set up the new awning! This historic building was made before I was born and now a huge chunk of it is missing," yells an elderly woman, clad in a colorful and seemingly handmade dress who is standing closest to the pile of rubble.

"How could I turn up such a great deal? Now, I wasn't expecting expert craftsmanship but I wouldn't have asked him to do it if I knew it would cause this." replies an elderly man, who is dressed in a stretched out tank and dirty blue jeans and is standing next to her.

"Of course you didn't expect anything bad to happen! You never think about-" the woman continues before she is cut off by our tour guide.

"I'm sure you two can discuss this another time, but there was a woman standing under your awning when it fell." says the tour guide. The whole crowd gasps.

I don't feel comfortable talking in front of this many people but the crowd won't let me get any closer to the tour guide to let her know that I am not under that pile of brick.

"Hey!" I yell, "Over here! I was standing under the awning but I moved out of the way."

Everybody turns to look at me and the crowd parts to let me walk up to the tour guide. She looks at me with a sad smile and says, "Your teacher was standing behind you and didn't get a chance to move."

My voice catches in my throat as I choke out, "Mrs. Larson?"

The tour guide slowly nods as I feel like the whole world comes crashing down. The crowd springs into action as somebody calls the fire station and others start sorting through the debris. The tour guide and a couple of others round up all of us kids and walk us to the bus and hand out lunches. They do a headcount and the bus driver gets ahold of the school to let them know what happened. I just sat and stared at the brown bag in front of me as it sank in that my favorite teacher could be dead.

I feel a huge lump in my throat as I try to force down the ham sandwich gripped in my hands. I get about two bites in before I the sandwich reanimating in my stomach and making its climb back up to my mouth. I run out of the bus as quickly as I can and heave up my innards onto the front wheel of the bus. The bus driver runs out to check on me and gives me a disappointed look as she goes to grab something to clean the tire with.