This Flight Tonight This Flight Tonight A cooling breeze blew gently across the islands. In the middle of summer this place was hotter than one of Mamma Suzie’s hot fish stews. Tobias Avery fanned himself with the newspaper and sat back in his wicker chair and watched the bugs fly in frantic circles around the storm lantern above his head. He was in a relaxed mood. He had tonight to rest up and then in the morning the ship would arrive. The ship would bring more tourists. More paying visitors who wanted to experience the real Caribbean as only he knew how to show it to them. For now though, he sipped his rum and coke and watched the mad dance of the insects. The next morning he was not feeling so good. A mixture of too much rum and too much good food the night before. Rice and beans with spicy chicken and half a bottle of Three Barrel Rum had seen to this for him. He wanted to sleep longer, but the ship would soon be here and he needed to be ready for the visitors when they arrived, or someone else would snap them up for an island tour by boat. He dragged his sorry frame out of the bed and into the shower. Dressed and feeling slightly better, he set out for the dock in his jeep. He parked up and watched with the others who had gathered to do business with the next batch of tourists to visit their island paradise. The ship manoeuvred into the dock like some lumbering giant, but at the same time with the grace of a ballet dancer as it gently kissed the dockside and came to rest. Tobias moved forward to get a better place. There was an unwritten law that those who had worked the dock longest got to be at the front when the tourists arrived. Everyone respected the rule. The gangplank was lowered down and the tourists began to disembark the ship. Tobias held his hand made sign high above his head on its pole. He knew that he would get a good crowd from this ship, he knew one of the crew and he advertised Tobias’ services in advance of the docking to the passengers, for a small consideration of course. The first of the tourists arrived on the dockside and began to look around, lost. A small man with what he presumed to be his wife and daughter approached Tobias. “You Tobias? The guy with the plane that I heard about?” Tobias gave his best grin. When he grinned at the tourists, his face spilt wide from ear to ear and showed his fine white teeth to best effect. “You have the honour of addressing Mr. Tobias Avery, pilot extraordinaire and island guide par excellence. How may I serve you sir?” he said in his broad West Indian accent. Tobias gave the same regal patter to every prospective client and it worked every time. The men scowled, thinking he was making fun of them, but the women loved it. He knew he had a customer as soon as the mother and daughter smiled at him. He worked the dock for an hour and soon he had enough passengers to fill three island flights. At one hundred US Dollars a head, this would leave him enough cash in hand after the fuel and paying the crewman who gave his name out to the tourists, to spend a leisurely three weeks until the next ship arrived. He briefed all of his new friends as to where to be and when and then set off to prepare. Before going to the airfield, he made a side trip to visit the Ju Ju Man. The Ju Ju Man was a mystic, a holy man with the power to see what is hidden. He was a practitioner of the religion known as Voodoo on the islands. He was feared and respected all at the same time. Tobias pulled his jeep off of the road and walked through the small market, stopping only to purchase a cockerel from one of the many vendors. He made his way through the market and found the small side road that led to the home of the Ju Ju Man. He walked along it for about a mile and then, through the trees, he saw the shabby hut away to one side. Outside was a melange of broken cars and general junk. A few thin animals, goats and chickens mainly, ran free amongst the automotive graveyard. He approached the hut with a degree of trepidation. No one liked to visit the Ju Ju Man for fear of what he might tell you. He could see all that was to come and he would tell you with glee of any bad news that was coming your way. It made no difference to him. Tobias found himself in front of the hut. He knew the routine. You walked in, because the Ju Ju Man knew you were coming. There was no reason to call out or knock. He entered the hut and a voice called out to him, causing him to nearly drop the bird he was carrying by the legs. “Tobias Avery. Bring the bird in here with you. Come now man, you’ve been to see the Ju Ju Man enough to know his ways. Why so afraid today?” Tobias followed the voice into a small back room where the Ju Ju Man sat waiting for him. They shook hands and Tobias sat down. “So, airplane man. Why do you want the wisdom of the Ju Ju today? Ahhh I see. You got more tourists to fly around with and you want to know if everything will be OK? Give me the bird and fetch the knife from the table for me.” Tobias handed over the black cockerel and moved across the room to find the knife. On the table was a large, heavy bladed knife with many nicks in its sharp blade. He turned it around and gave it to the Ju Ju Man. He rose with the bird in his hand, held up side down by its legs. He turned away from Tobias and began a chant. He started moving in small circles, the bird held out at arms length before him. Tobias watched entranced as he had done on every previous visit to the Ju Ju Man’s hut. The Ju Ju Man circled around and around, getting slightly faster, then, with a one swipe of the blade, he decapitated the cockerel. Its wings fluttered in response to the nerve reaction and then after a few seconds, it became still. Tobias watched carefully. This was the part that would tell him if everything would go OK. The Ju Ju Man lifted the bird above his head and let the blood drip onto his face. He lowered the bird and plunged the knife into its stomach. He dropped the knife and began to pull the birds entrails out and he let them fall in a random pattern on the floor of the hut. He threw the bird to one side and squatted down to examine the gore for signs. Tobias knelt down with him, gazing intently at the bloodied mess on the floor. The Ju Ju Man ran his fingers through the guts before him and looked thoughtfully at the resulting patterns. “This is difficult to read Tobias. I have never seen this before.” He looked puzzled and he ran his fingers through the entrails a second time. He looked again at the result and he shook his head. Tobias was getting worried. What had the Ju Ju Man seen? The Ju Ju Man spoke again. “Tobias. I have to ask you. Have you summoned The Baron?” The question was like a slap to the face for Tobias. The Baron was Baron Samedi, the Voodoo Lord of the Dead. To summon him was for one reason only. To make a pact. Your soul for whatever you desired. Tobias stood up suddenly. “I knew I should not have come to you. You are a foolish old man who frightens people with stupid talk. Why would I, Tobias Avery, a very successful man on this island need to summon the Baron? I know what he asks in return for his help. I want my soul to go to heaven when I die not to the Baron’s land.” He stormed out of the hut in a fit of rage and made his way back to his jeep and then to the airfield. The Ju Ju Man cleared the mess away. He knew what he had seen. He had seen Tobias in the grip of the Baron, being taken down to the underworld. He had seen it happen today. * Tobias arrived at the airfield. He was in a terrible mood. What had the old fool done to him? He had frightened him, that’s what he had done. Talk of the Baron was not taken lightly on the island and to be accused of bringing him here to make a pact was just about the worst crime you could commit. Only the Ju Ju Men were allowed to do that. You had to pay them and they summoned Baron for you and you made your pact. Tobias was afraid because he had been found out. He had indeed performed the rite, which summoned the Baron. He had seen it done before. It was easy. The dangerous part was keeping the Baron at bay and stopping him from taking you there and then. Tobias had done it many years ago. He had needed money to set up his business. He had learned to fly working on a sugarcane farm on one of the other islands. He had been taught to fly by the farm owner, so as he could spray the crop. He had been a natural. The farmer had put him through his private pilot’s license course and he had been set for life. When the farm laid him off, he returned to his own island and decided to set up in business for himself, but it was expensive and the bank thought he was a bad risk, so they would not let him have the money. Then when one night, when drinking rum with his friend Melville, he had come upon the idea of summoning the Barron. Melville had laughed so hard he was nearly sick when Tobias told him what he intended to do. “You? Summon the Baron? Man you have rum rot on the brain I tell you. You are crazy Tobias, but you make me laugh and for that I thank you.” He had laughed all the way home that night. Tobias, in his drunken haze had gathered the few simple things he needed to perform the ritual and had begun. His own blood was what had saved him. He could not find a chicken to sacrifice so he cut a slash on his own arm and let his own blood be the sacrifice to The Baron. This way the Baron could not take him there and then as he had given his own blood to raise him. The Baron had appeared to him and they had made their pact. Tobias would get the money he needed and the Baron would have his soul. Tobias awoke the next morning and thought that the whole episode had been a bad alcohol induced dream. To hell with that Melville. God alone knows where he got his rum, but it sure made you see strange things. Tobias had been shocked some weeks later when the farmer he had worked for previously suddenly died and had left his farm to Tobias. He had no children and he had always had a soft spot for him. He was sad when he had to lay him off when times were hard, but this was his way of making up for it. Tobias sold the farm and bought a small twelve seater Islander aircraft. The rest was history. He had been very successful. His island flights were the highlight of most tourists’ stay on the island. He was a happy man. * At the airfield Tobias checked the Islander and fuelled her up for her two and a half hour round trip. He was agitated and angry at what had happened, but he had to be composed when the customers arrived. The first few arrived early. He greeted them with his usual island welcome, full of laughter and his big wide smile. He offered them rum to drink and made them comfortable until the rest arrived. Within half an hour he had his full compliment of passengers and Iris, his girlfriend cum cabin attendant had also arrived. They boarded the aircraft and Tobias made his announcement as to their flight plans. A trip around the beautiful islands from the air. A chance to see spectacular sights that are never seen from the ground or the sea. The trip of a lifetime. An evening flight into paradise. The plane taxied onto the runway and Tobias began his take off. In a few seconds the small plane was airborne and gaining height. Tobias set a course out to sea and made himself comfortable. The first sight they would see would be the coral reef from the air. At sea level it was pretty, but from up here it was spectacular. He checked his instruments and set the autopilot and kicked back. Iris came to the cabin and handed him a coke. No rum. Not when he was flying. He kissed her and she went back to the passengers. Tobias looked out at the vista before him. What more could a man ask than the sight of the ocean from the air, he thought to himself. They had been flying for fifteen minutes when it happened. Tobias had been shaken from his daydream by he sight of the huge cloudbank that they were rapidly approaching. They weather report had sad nothing about this. It was not storm season yet for another three months. Where the hell had this sprung from? He took control of the plane and disengaged the autopilot. He tried to bank the plane around, but the controls refused to respond to his insistent urging. He pulled hard on the column, but still it refused to respond. The cloudbank was approaching rapidly now and he did not know what he could do to avoid it. He flicked the intercom switch and spoke hurriedly, but as controlled as he could to the passengers. “Hello friends, Tobias here. Look, we got a spot of bad weather ahead and there is no way to avoid it, sorry bout this, but we gonna get a little bit rough for a few minutes. Buckle in and let Iris give you another rum to ease the bumps out. I will try and get us out of this as soon as I can. Enjoy the rum. I wish I could.” He signed off and tried again to take control of the aircraft. Still it refused to respond as he wanted it to. Tobias was a little bit afraid now. He had never had a mechanical failure on the Islander before. She was nearly new and the weather had never done this before. What was going on here? Iris came to the cabin and sat beside him. “What’s happening Tobias? Why we flying into rough weather when the forecast says clear from here to Tobago? Why don’t you turn de blasted machine around and head home again?” Her face showed anxious concern. Tobias looked at her and smiled his wide smile. “What? And loose all dis money. You gotta have a rock loose in yer head woman. Just a bit of weather that’s all. Not a problem for Tobias Avery.” He returned his concentration back to the controls that still refused to respond. Iris got up and went back to the passengers. The cloudbank came ever closer and eventually, Tobias had to admit defeat and fly into it. He had pains in his chest now, brought on by the stress of the day no doubt. The cloud enveloped the Islander and they were in the belly of the beast. The darkness was unnerving and the cold silence, the only sound other than the sound of the Islanders twin props was almost deafening. Tobias was worried now. He tried in vain to move the control stick but it refused to budge. He thought for a second and then let go of the stick altogether. Nothing happened. The aircraft should have pitched forward and warning lights and sirens should have gone off. Nothing, except for straight, normal flight. He cursed the Ju Ju Man. He had made him so afraid today that everything smacked of Voodoo. He expected to turn in his seat and see the Baron sat next to him in the co-pilot’s seat. He laughed out loud at the absurdity of the thought. He was letting things get to him. He had to get control of himself and then the plane. He put his hands on the stick again and tried to pull her round, he pushed his feet down on the pedals of the ailerons, but nothing happened. He shook his head and turned to check the weather from the other side of the Islander. He turned his head slowly and saw sat beside him, as cold and as grey as a corpse, The Baron. Tobias shrieked with fear and surprise, the pain in his chest becoming more intense. He clutched his hands to his heart and looked in wide-eyed horror at the apparition beside him. The Baron turned and looked at him with dead eyes. Tobias was breathing heavily now. This could not be. He had not summoned the Baron, that had been a drunken night’s excess. He had done some stupid things, but surely he had not actually managed to summons him. It was all down to Melville’s bad rum. That was what it was. He continued to look at the figure beside him. He knew that in a second or two it would go away, he would be alright, once he got control again. He looked back at the control column and then turned his head very slowly back towards the co-pilot’s seat. He was still there, watching him. Tobias felt the temperature in the cabin fall rapidly. He was sweating though. This was the fear coming out of him. At last he found his voice and he spoke. “What is it you are wanting of Tobias?” he asked looking all the time at the dead cold eyes. The figure beside him moved slightly and a smell of death pervaded the cabin. “What do you think Tobias? I have come to claim my prize. We have a pact and it is time for you to honour it. You come with me. We go down.” The voice was as old as the earth and as cold the stars. Tobias was in shock. “No, this is not how it should be. I am young. When I die you have me. Not now, not yet. This is not the pact I made with you man.” Tobias did not know how else to react. The Baron laughed a mirthless laugh. He shook his head. “No Tobias. I take you when I want. That is the deal. You have everything you asked for. You have the money. You have the business you so dearly wanted. Now I claim my prize from you. Your soul.” Tobias thought desperately or a way out. “What about the people on the plane with us? If I die they die too and that was not a part of the deal. Baron, I know you are an honourable man and you take only what is due to you. You cannot take me now.” He felt this would buy him a little time. He needed time to think of a way out of this mess. “Do not presume to tell me what I can and cannot take Tobias. If I wish it, I will take everybody on this plane.” Tobias sensed a degree of uncertainty in the Baron’s voice. Could this be his chance to exploit it and save his soul? The aircraft flew on into the deep black clouds. It flew of its own accord, with no assistance from Tobias as such. Tobias felt the bowl loosening fear of death close at hand and he was not ready for it. “Tell me. Tell me what I can do to make you let me live?” he cried in his terror. The Baron looked deep into his frightened eyes and said, “Nothing.” Tobias blacked out. * He had no sensation of moving from the plane, but when he opened his eyes, it was to find himself on the ground again. The Baron stood a few feet away from him. They were in a wooded glade that Tobias did not recognise. “Where are we?” he asked in shock. “Where is the plane? How did I get here?” The Baron looked at him. “This is the entrance to my world Tobias Avery. The land of the dead. You are to come with me, that is our pact. I claim you now.” As he spoke, he waved a rotting corpse-like hand and the ground shimmered and a huge hole opened before them. Steam rose from the pit with a terrible stench of decay and death that made Tobias gag. The screams of the damned echoed up from the hole and Tobias began to weep. “No, please let me live. I will give you anything you ask, just let me live,” cried Tobias. The Baron shook his head. “No Tobias, you are all I want. Your soul will be my reward.” He raised a hand and began to swirl it around on the air in front of Tobias in a circular motion. The air became a swirling vortex as the tunnel of the tornado approached Tobias at head level. When it reached his head, he felt his body go rigid. He could not move to avoid it. The vortex entered his gapping mouth and plunged down inside of him. The pain was incredible as the tornado ripped his body into thousands of fragments from the inside. The last thing Tobias saw before he succumbed to death was his heart being torn from his chest and flung far from the remaining pieces of his destroyed body. The Baron stopped swirling his arm and reached out his other hand and grasped something from the air, as insubstantial as a whisper as, feint as a dream. He held it up for inspection and closed his hand around it. He had his prize. The soul of Tobias Avery writhed in agony in the eternal grip of the Voodoo Lord of the Dead. The Baron entered the hole in the ground, which closed over him as though it had never been there. From a distant clump of bushes, the Ju Ju Man watched, hidden from view and protected by charms against the dread Baron. He was now satisfied that what he had seen in the entrails of the cockerel was true. * The plane flew on and the cloudbank vanished almost a fast as it had arrived. The turbulence was minimal and Iris wondered what Tobias had been so het up about. He was an experienced pilot and he knew the skies around these islands better than anybody. Anyway, everything was back to normal now and she went to the cockpit to see if Tobias wanted anything. She knocked on the door as Tobias had always told her to do before entering. There was no response. She knocked again. Still nothing. She tried the handle but the door was locked. “Tobias? Tobias, what is going on? Let me in,” she called. She heard a movement from behind the door and Tobias’ voice came through it. “Iris, please go back to our passengers. I have to turn back. I don’t feel so good. I got pains in the chest. Just make them comfortable and keep the rum flowing OK?” Iris was not sure about this, but she knew better than to question Tobias. She went back to the passengers and explained why the tour was being cut short. The plane turned around, one hour into the two and half hour trip. The skies were clear and the flight back was uncomplicated and smooth. The passengers were disappointed, but lashings of rum and a promise of a part refund helped smooth out the gripes. * The little Islander aircraft set down on the grass runway and taxied to the small hut that served as a terminal for the island’s airport. Iris saw the passengers off the plane and returned to speak to Tobias, to see if he was OK. She knocked on the cabin door, but no reply came. She tried the handle and the door opened. She stepped inside the cockpit and there she saw Tobias, still sat at the controls of the plane. She went to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. Tobias slumped forward, his head knocking the control stick forwards. Iris jumped back and screamed. A man who served as general helper at the tiny airport came running in to the aircraft. He found Iris crying hysterically and Tobias slumped forward in his seat. He picked up the microphone of the plane’s radio and called for an ambulance. Tobias’ body was taken to the small hospital and was then sent on to another island for a post mortem examination at a larger hospital. Iris went with him on his last journey. The policeman that interviewed Iris seemed a little perturbed about something. “So, Iris, you say that you took off at about four in the afternoon. The flight was two and a half hours long, but he turned back an hour into the flight, making it two hours in the air all told, is that correct?” Iris nodded her confirmation of he details. She was still too upset to speak properly. “Iris, I have to ask this because the doctor examining Tobias says he has been dead for at least ten hours, which means that he died about forty minutes into the flight. This I am sure you agree is not possible, but the doctor insists this is so. Please tell me Iris, tell me again what time you took off and what time you landed?” * In the morgue of the hospital, the doctor examining the body of the late Tobias Avery made and incision into his chest. He had known Tobias. Everyone on these islands knew Tobias Avery. He was a well-loved character. The doctor cut the sternum open with his surgical saw. He wanted to examine the heart. Tobias had complained of chest pains. It could be he suffered a heart attack, thought the external indications showed no signs of a coronary. No blue lips etc. The only strange thing externally was the expression on his face. He looked as though he had died terrified. Possibly at the thought of killing his passengers if he crashed. The sternum now open, the doctor reached inside the chest cavity. He moved his hand around inside. A shout from the examination room made the other duty doctor jump up from the newspaper he was reading. He rushed into the examination room. * The doctors’ and the police reports made for interesting reading. Time of death did not concur with the time of the flight. It was not possible for Tobias to have flown the plane when Iris said he was. But the passengers all agreed on the time. The doctor maintained time of death as forty minutes into the flight. The post mortem report was the most unusual. Despite examination by three doctors in the end, they could not find a heart in the body of Tobias Avery, no matter how hard they looked.
Copyright © 2000 David Godden |