My Mother has Lost Her Mind
Chapter 9
Rhett’s POV
“Victoria, you cannot be serious right now. It is one thing to sacrifice an animal. That is perfectly acceptable, but you cannot sacrifice a human being. It is illegal. You will be arrested and put in jail. What about your temple? Your people who follow you? Do you not care about leaving me and Rhett? Your devotees? Are you out of your mind? I can see the headline right now mentioning you, and then our businesses. We will be destroyed by public outcry. We will lose everything baby, please tell me that you are not seriously considering this. I cannot allow it. I just can’t wrap my head around what you just said” my father tells my mom, after she drops a bomb on us at dinner.
Dad's face is getting red, and his veins are sticking out on his arms. I have never seen him so upset. He looks like he is going to have a heart attack. I don’t blame him though. Mom just dropped the idea of her sacrificing a person for us to get back into her God’s good graces. She has gone too far. I am still too surprised by what she said to respond just yet. It was more like can you pass the potatoes, than an admission that she was actually going to kill someone. I have no idea what she is thinking. It doesn’t seem like she is thinking at all right now.
“If you would just calm down for a minute I will tell you why we have to do this James. We need to give a bigger gift to the God’s. To get a greater reward from them, you have to give them a bigger gift in return. I have already done it once before. I didn’t get caught and your business flourished for the last 4 years. It happened a few months after I lost mom. I was struggling and upset. I needed something to help me move past losing her, for Rhett to continue having success on the team, and the business became much more successful for it. Seriously James, I have put in many months trying to figure out a way around it. I am not a vicious person, I do not want to have to do this. I killed a homeless man last time. I put knockout drops in his wine for the meal we gave him, and he fell asleep. He went peacefully. I am not a cold-blooded killer. I put a great deal of time and thought into it. It will be what is best for all of us. It will help my devotees, Rhett, and your business. It will solve everything. I am planning on speaking to my mom about it tomorrow. Don’t just shoot it down because you don’t understand it, James. I am the mamba, I know things that you can never understand” my mother tells him, and she is really upset too.
“Victoria, you are a cold-blooded killer. With deciding to kill a second person, you are on your way to becoming a serial killer. I don’t know what is going on in your head. You are the high priestess for a religion. How can you condone murder? I cannot agree with, or be a part of this. You need to change your mind, you are not thinking correctly. Maybe you need to go meet with one of your mamba friends, or another high priestess to discuss what you are thinking about doing. I think you are way off center with this. No wonder your members have declined, you are not in the right mindset anymore. Sacrificing animals is one thing, but to kill a person, Victoria, baby” my dad had to pause and close his eyes. It is almost like he cannot look at mom anymore.
“I love you, very much, but I cannot agree with you at all on this one. I usually can go along with you on most things, but I can’t with this. What you want to do is past the scope of morality. This goes against all of my principals. I can't wrap my head around your conduct. You mentioning that you killed a homeless man like you were discussing what we want for dinner tomorrow night. It is callous and unfeeling, this is not like you. You killed a human being, Victoria. You took a life. There is no coming back from this. I feel sick, and you sitting there looking at me like I am the one with the issue. I can assure you Victoria, it is not me with the issue” my dad tells her and the look on his face clearly shows just how upset and disappointed that he really is in her.
“Baby, just listen to me. He had a bad life, and I helped him to get to the next plane of existence. He is no longer in pain, he is at peace now. He is not angry with me. You are way more angry with me than he was. You need to calm down James. Just hear me out, OK? We need a bigger payoff. To get it, we need a bigger sacrifice. I have put a lot of thought into it. You forget that I converse with the dead all the time. According to Mauss, in giving, it is not merely the object that is passed on, but a part of the giver, as well. Doing this will allow a part of me to go along with my sacrifice. By me doing this a better bond is forged and by giving such a valuable object to the God’s, I will share in the mana from it. The additional power will go to both the God’s and me, for the larger offering. Don’t you see James, the gift creates the bond. It makes power flow both ways to connect me being the giver, and the receiver, being the God’s. It then invites a gift back in return. So with me giving them this great gift, a great gift will be coming back to us as well. Just like the Latin phrase, do ut des. It means I give, that you may give. You need to realize that I just didn’t come up with this today. You already know that going to prison is not acceptable for me. No matter what I have done, I do not want to be caught. I would rather die than go to prison. I have a plan, it is fool-proof. Once you calm down and are willing to speak calmly with me about this, I think that you will see the wisdom in what I want to do” mom told dad. He is calming down, but he is not on board with her.
“Mom, I don’t think that this is a good idea. There is no such thing as a fool-proof crime. There is always a mistake made. I think you need to stop while you are ahead. I can’t see how you can get away with it. I really hope that you let it go, and figure out something else. I don’t want to be a part of this, at all. Dad doesn’t either. You have changed since we lost grandma, and I think that maybe you need to go to therapy or something. I love you, I don’t want you to sink into depression, or do something else that could result in you going to prison mom. Do not mention any of your plan to kill someone either. You talk about it like it was nothing, but mom, you killed someone. A living breathing person, who never did anything wrong to you. You act like you did him a favor, and you didn't. You ended someone’s life, for what? To get stuff, it just isn’t right, dad is right, we cannot support you in this” I told her.
I can see that she is getting angry at what I just said, and I cannot believe what she has said. Stated it so matter of fact to us, like she was telling us she needed a pair of new shoes. Mom needs to go to a mental facility because I don’t think that there is any coming back from this. I knew she had a small breakdown before when we lost my grandmother, but for her to kill someone, that is next level shit. I keep my head down looking at the table. She is really angry at us for not getting on board with her big plan.
“I did what I did for all of us. Not just for me, I took care of both of you. I have my practitioners praying for you too. Did I get off course, maybe I did. I went too far with the sacrifice idea. But I needed some big tickets items, your business James is tough, and you needed the shot in the arm that it provided. Rhett, you are very ungrateful for being the only one on your team that has never received a serious injury. Those scholarships were because you play well, and that was because of the prayers and the sacrifice that I gave to the God’s. Yes I twisted the religion that I love, but I swear to you both that once I get us reset, and back to where the business is thriving again, your pro career is back on track, and my temple is saved, I will stop. I only need one person, an innocent is what I need this time. I know exactly what we need to do here. I will be speaking with my mother tomorrow, one of my congregants is going to be there while I am possessed to be able to ask her the questions I have prepared. She was present before for me to do the questions the last time. I will make sure that she knows that this is the last time, and I will stop. We need to do this James. You know me, I would never do anything that would hurt you, or Rhett. Not for anything in the world. You two are the most important people in this life, or the next. I just need a very specific person. I already know what I need. I have already been told what they want. I just have to find them” my mom told my dad. I cannot believe that I see him actually entertaining this idea at all.
“Dad, we can’t, it isn’t right. Mom may be trying to help, but this isn’t the way to do it. She has already killed, and is now wanting to kill again. We cannot encourage or allow it dad. Can you imagine the headlines. You business will be destroyed, right along with any chance I have at playing as a professional football player. Once this gets out, all three of us will be destroyed. I cannot believe that you are even entertaining it. Mom, can you not spend one minute to think about what people will think about your actions. You will be playing right into the prejudice’s that people already have about our religion. What would grandma think about that. She was such a staunch supporter, she knows that it is based on healing, and what you are planning on doing is the complete opposite of that. You are planning on taking an innocent’s life away from them. Please listen to me, this is wrong, on many levels. I love you mom. I support you, and the religion that you practice. I know it for what it is, but if you do this, you will be playing into the hands of so many who have badmouthed and maligned it for so long. Do you actually want to be the person who becomes the face of the wrong way to practice Voodoo? This isn’t you. Please, just stop and think about what you are wanting to do. We can just never mention it again, like it never happened. We can get past this, but I don’t know if we can if you actually decided to go through with it” I told my parents. I cannot believe that I am the voice of reason in this room.
“Rhett, just listen to the plan. You don’t even know it yet, and you can keep an eye out for me to find a good candidate. I want a girl this time, I want to sacrifice a virgin. I think that I might get extra consideration for that from the God’s. I want her to not be able to be missed when she turns up missing. I can absolutely assure you that no one will ever find her body, well not enough of it to be able to bring charge against anyone. If you two will just listen to me, I can let you know what my full plan is. We can tweak it, but I assure you that no one will ever find out what happened to her. She will be a missing person for the rest of her life. I will never get caught. We will never get caught. My devotees that helped me the last time, will help me again. We will take care of everything, you two can be out, at a movie or something just in case it comes up. Your names will never be tied in with this, ever. Just listen to me, hear what I have to say, and we can make this plan fool-proof” my mother tells us.