Chapter VI.

The next morning, Solange woke Amanda early with, "Hey, up. We're going shopping."

Amanda rolled over and pulled the pillow over her head, "We have enough food for two days. Let's go tomorrow."

"No, not grocery shopping. We need to booby trap this house so if those thugs do find us, we can capture them," replied Solange.

"What?" asked Amanda sitting up in bed.

"Remember when you were staying with Auntie Tina and she captured those two thugs," said Solange.

"Yes," replied Amanda.

"Well, now you are going to find out just what she did to them," said Solange.

"You are going to show me how to create a Voodoo spell?" asked Amanda.

"Voodoo, Santeria, Halloween-whatever works. It's show business, baby. Auntie Tina taught drama in Harlem for thirty years and she figured out a few things about how to scare folks who were getting on her nerves," replied Solange.

Solange saw the look on Amanda's face, "Hey, Auntie Tina really likes you. She told my Mama that you and Peter were really special and we better take good care of you."

"She did?" Amanda was always a little worried about just what Thibodeaux's great aunt thought about her. She got to know Auntie Tina when she stayed with them in Connecticut after the bombing, but she was always a little nervous when she was with her.

Amanda quickly got dressed and followed Solange downstairs, grabbed a cup of coffee in a paper cup and was ready to leave.

"Are we going to walk?" asked Amanda.

"No, I was up late last night on the internet researching shops and getting bus directions," replied Solange.

"So we're going to take a bus?" asked Amanda.

"Yep," replied Solange.

"Hey, we need to leave a note so Michael and the boys don't worry about us," said Amanda.

"I already did. I told them we would be shopping most of the day and that I had already planned dinner," said Solange.

"Like Michael is going to be mad at us because he thought we didn't plan dinner," replied Amanda.

"He'll be fine," said Solange.

"Yeah, right," replied Amanda.

Everyone else was still sleeping when Amanda and Solange quietly left the house. They walked out to the main thoroughfare and stopped at a bus stop. After about twenty minutes, a bus came by and Amanda and Solange got on.

The bus passed the Catholic Church, "I want to go to Church on Sunday, do you want to go with me?" asked Solange.

Amanda thought a minute and said, "I am supposed to be Jewish. My Dad is Jewish but that does not make me Jewish because being Jewish passes through the mother. My Mom was raised a Methodist, but she doesn't go to church and my Dad does not go to synagogue so I am not really anything. But when this is over, I want to find out just what it means to be Jewish."

"Well, you don't need to become a Catholic just to walk in the church door with me. You can just watch. It can be part of your education. And when all of this is over, maybe we can visit a Temple together, would you like that?" replied Solange.

"Sure," said Amanda.

They traveled for about twenty minutes on the bus and then stopped in front of a dingy shopping mall. Solange walked to a store in the middle of the mall which was filled with overflowing shelves stocked with brightly colored pottery. Fake birds with garishly colored feathers hung from the ceiling. They walked up to the man behind the counter and said, "I am here to see Paul Seu."

"He's not here," said the man behind the counter who looked to be about fifty years old. His hair was in dreadlocks and he was wearing an old orange Bob Marley tee shirt with a pair of old ripped jeans and flip flops.

"Yes, he is. He's talking to me right now," replied Solange.

"How do you know who I am?" replied Paul Seu.

"I've seen your photo," said Solange.

"Where?" asked Paul Seu.

"On an altar at a rite in the Bronx. I'm Tina de Bruni's niece. So I know who you are and you know what I want." Solange got a shopping list out of her purse and handed it to Paul Seu, "I have cash."

Paul looked at them for a moment, starring at Amanda. It was obvious that he wondered just why Amanda was there. He then looked at the list and then at Solange and said, "You know these things are not all Santeria."

"Yes, I do," said Solange with a meaningful glance in Amanda's direction.

"And you still want them?" asked Paul Seu.

"That's why they are on the list," replied Solange.

"Follow me," replied Paul Seu.

Amanda followed Paul and Solange into the back of the store wondering just what she was getting herself into. Why was that guy nervous about giving Solange the things she wanted? But when they went into the backroom, all she saw was a dirty old room filled with metal shelving and boxes. If this was a Santeria showroom, someone needed some decorating and housekeeping skills.

Solange had brought a huge vinyl shopping bag with her and she handed it to Paul who started going through some old boxes to find the items she requested. Paul filled the bag with what seemed to be a small amount of artifacts and some ziplock bags filled with some kind of herbs and said, "That will be three hundred dollars."

"Three hundred dollars? For those little things?" asked Amanda.

"It's okay," said Solange as she handed Paul three one hundred dollar bills. "Come on, we have a lot more errands to run."

As they left, Paul turned to Solange and asked, "You know what you are doing?"

Solange looked at him for a moment and replied, "Yes."

Solange and Amanda then walked back on the street to wait for another bus.

"Where are we going now?" asked Amanda.

"A theatrical shop, Home Depot, a sporting goods shop, and a drug store. We have a lot to do today," replied Solange.

Amanda sighed. She never liked running errands with her Mom but she knew better than to complain. Whatever Solange was doing needed to be done. At least Amanda thought it needed to be done.

The bus arrived and they traveled back the direction they had come and then got off and walked to a cross street to wait for a bus to take them West.

This bus took a long time to arrive and Amanda and Solange sat in the bus kiosk looking at the other riders. Everyone looked poor or disabled in some way. The bus riders in Los Angeles looked nothing like bus riders in New York where everyone rode the bus. On the Madison Avenue bus in New York City, people dripped with designer handbags and jewelry. But they were in Los Angeles so Amanda just sat slumped in her seat in the kiosk and tried to fit in.

The bus finally arrived and they traveled to their next stop-a theatrical supply house. There Solange purchased black lights, iridescent paint, and some sound effect CD's. Solange asked for fake blood but was told that they were out and they could go to a Halloween store which was just two bus rides away.

Amanda groaned at the idea of getting back on the bus By then their bags were heavy but they were too far away from home to drop things off, so off they went to the Halloween store for the fake blood and then on to Home Depot to buy an electrical drill, some electrical wire, some switches, some staples, and a staple gun. The last stop was to be one of those huge drug stores where Solange would buy two cheap CD players and some blank CD's.

Before they took the bus to the sporting goods store, Amanda insisted that they buy something to eat from a food truck vendor she saw in a parking lot. They ordered some tacos and cokes which they ate sitting in the bus kiosk while Amanda thought just how much her world had changed since she was trapped in that New York City basement during the bombings. One thing she knew for sure-if she had never been in that basement, she would not be sitting in a bus stop in Los Angeles, surrounded by huge bags and eating a taco. She was really sure about that.

When they reached the sporting goods store, Solange purchased two fishing nets. Amanda looked at her in amazement wondering just what she was going to do with fishing nets, but she certainly could not discuss that in public.

Their bags were really heavy by now, especially with the fishing nets, and Amanda was really tired by the time they were through shopping. It was 3 p.m. and except for the taco and coke, they had not eaten all day, but they had too many bags with them to be able to go into a restaurant so they got back on the bus and, making two more transfers, returned to the house.

When they walked up to the door, Michael opened it, and Amanda could see he was really mad.

"Where have you been? I tried calling you and you left your cell phone in your room. You know it is not safe for you to be out by yourselves. And just what is all this stuff?" asked Michael.

"Did you get all of it?" asked Thibodeaux.

"All of what?" asked Michael.

"All the voodoo sorta stuff to booby trap this house so if the thieves do arrive, we can get a drop on them," said Thibodeaux.

"You can't booby trap this house. We don't have permission to alter the house," said Michael.

"Hey, I overheard Miss Gaby telling Cyrus that when Mr. Loomis gets back in town in five months, he has hired a contractor who is going to gut and renovate this house, taking it down to the studs. So I think we can make a few alterations since these walls will be sitting in a dumpster out front," replied Solange.

"But how do you know how to booby trap a house?" asked Michael.

"My Mama and Auntie Tina taught me; it's part of our family's heritage. We don't really practice the dark arts, Voodoo or Santeria, well not much, but sometimes it's a good idea if a few people think that you do. People are always scared of the unknown and when we get through with this house, it's going to be the unknown," replied Solange.

Michael still looked really mad. He looked at Solange and said, "Hey, I want to talk to you alone."

Solange walked past him and grabbed his hand and pulled him into the kitchen.

Amanda saw Solange grab Michael's hand and she was intrigued. She did not think Solange liked Michael, but then she remembered the night they had to leave the motel after those awful men had tried to break into their room. That night Michael drove the motorhome and Solange sat shotgun to keep him company while everyone else slept. Amanda had been asleep too, but she had heard them talking all night. Not what they said, but how they sounded. And they did not sound like they were unhappy to have to drive through the night together.

Amanda was starving. It was four o'clock and that food truck taco was certainly not enough food. So Amanda decided to go to the kitchen, supposedly to get food, but also because she was dying of curiosity to find out what Michael and Solange were talking about. Amanda opened the door very quietly and looked into the kitchen and stopped in shock. Michael and Solange were kissing. Solange had her arms wrapped around his neck and he had one arm around her waist and another on the back of her head. Amanda stood very still. She knew very little about kissing, the only boy she had ever kissed was Thibodeaux, and that was just a peck, but she knew enough to know that this was not the first time Michael and Solange had kissed. But Amanda also knew that she did not want to talk to them about it and she certainly did not want them to see her spying on them so she quietly walked away from the kitchen.

Solange opened the door to the kitchen and said, "Hey, I'm starving. Who would like an omelet and some pancakes?"

This question went over very well. Everyone wanted an omelet and some pancakes, so Solange, Michael, and Amanda went into the kitchen to cook.

Amanda was determined to break her new habit of being helpful without being asked as soon as she was back at home. Or maybe not. Solange was always trying to help someone and she seemed to be a lot happier than Amanda, so maybe there was something to this helping other people. Amanda thought about it again and decided she would try being helpful again when she was about eighteen. Everyone deserved a childhood.

After they ate and cleaned up (the kitchen had an old working dishwasher), Solange put everyone to work securing the front and back doors. She had bought enough props for the living room and kitchen, but first the doors.

Solange walked outside to the porch, insisting that no one else go with her, and taking the electric drill, she drilled a small hole through the door jamb from the porch to the entry hall. She drilled high on the door jamb, but not so high that Peter could not reach it. She then threaded some electrical wire through the hole. On the porch side she installed a tiny button which she then wired into a battery operated buzzer inside the house which she attached to the inside wall just above the baseboard using the electrical drill to drive in the screws. She then painted the button to match the color of the door jamb using a tiny paint brush and a small can of paint that she had bought at Home Depot.

Solange then repeated the exact same process with the back door from the yard to the kitchen.

Solange came back in and said. "From now on when any of us comes in the front or back doors, we need to press this buzzer. The buttons are practically invisible so no one else will know they are there. It will be our signal that it is one of us.

"Also, we need a sign that the people inside the house can use to signal anyone outside that things are not okay in the house. I took two plastic cats off the wall in the bedroom and I am going to put one in the front window and one in the kitchen window. If you are ever in the house and something is wrong, knock the cat off the sill. And from now on, everyone look for these cats before you come into the house," said Amanda who was really getting into this bobby trapping and security routine.

Solange looked at Amanda with approval, "That's my girl."

Solange had bought four cheap electric CD players at a drug store which she installed close to the baseboards and hidden by furniture-two in the living room and two in the kitchen. She then handed the sound effect CD to Peter with some blank CD's and asked him to make a CD of the people screaming on two of them and guns shots on the other two. "Loop the sound so each one lasts about three minutes."

After the CD's were made, Solange turned the volume of the players up as high as she could. Solange then wired the CD players into several switches which she hid on the walls and in the furniture. Solange made sure everyone knew where the switches were and she took some red nail polish and marked the ones that were for gun shots so they could tell which switch activated which CD's.

"Where did you learn how to wire things like that?" asked Michael.

"My uncle Tito is an electrician and I used to follow him around and he taught me how to fix things. My Mama wasn't into home repair so Uncle Tito taught me so our house would not fall apart. He taught Thibodeaux too, but Thibodeaux moved to New York after the flood so he does not know as much as I do. But of course, my boy is so smart, he catches onto anything," said Solange pointing at Thibodeaux who was sitting on the floor behind a chair installing a switch to the CD player under a window.

"So, are we going to just scare them to death with loud noises?" asked Michael.

"Oh no, Hon, I'm just getting started," replied Solange.

Amanda looked at Michael after Solange called him Hon and saw that he looked both embarrassed and pleased.

The next step was the lighting. Solange installed the black lights in both the living room and the kitchen and then she wired them to switches that both turned on the black light and disabled all the other lights in the room. To do this she opened the electrical box and started changing the wiring.

Michael was pretty horrified to see Solange fooling with the electrical box.

"Hey, I flipped all the breakers before I started," said Solange.

"It's okay, Solange has been helping her Mama and Auntie Tina with home repairs since she was a little kid," said Thibodeaux.

"I do not think you should be rewiring the house," said Amanda.

"Why not? You drive and shoot guns," replied Solange as she twisted the rubber headed screwdriver in her hand.

"That's different. My grandfather taught me how to drive and shoot," replied Amanda.

"Well, my uncle taught me about electricity," replied Solange.

"Besides, I thought you were just going to spell the house," said Amanda.

"I'm going to do that too. My Mama taught me how to scare the living daylights out of anyone who would ever want to harm us," said Solange.

"It's okay," said Thibodeaux. "Solange is great at whatever she does."

"We all know that but I agree with Amanda, I don't think we should be rewiring the house," said Michael.

"Hey Michael, come over here and I will show you exactly what I am doing so someday when you get married, you can say, 'Here honey, let me fix that for you," replied Solange.