Mama Mambo
Chapter 5
“Cher, you have some business to attend to. Gather up your zombies, my son, and teach Jean-Claude a lesson he won’t soon forget. He’s returned to the embassy despite our warning. We’re getting good money from the Cubans and need to keep up our part of the bargain.”
Mama Mambo was the ruthless, high priestess of The Family and someone to be reckoned with by all concerned. Her reputation for violence was well know throughout Haiti and everyone feared her and for good reason. She was one crazy bitch who stopped at nothing to get her way! And that indisputable fact made her very unpredictable and dangerous.
Her real name was Marie Claire Dumont and her imposing size scared the bejesus out of almost everyone who came into contact with her. But Mama Mambo was the name she chose, mambo meaning voodoo priestess. She stood over six feet and weighed more than 300 pounds, although no one was sure, even Mama, since she refused to weigh herself. She believed her own potions and lotions would protect her against a heart attack, stroke and other ills besetting ordinary humans. She truly believed in her own powers and invincibility. So did others, especially her many followers.
She was speaking to her son, Desmond, who people called the Poison Dwarf and the name was apropos. He was a hunchbacked dwarf who dabbled in the black arts of poisoning, not only for the arcane purposes of voodoo, but as a discreet means to eliminate those who crossed him or his mother. Marie Claire thought him an abomination, an embarrassment and a weakling who would never rise to become a Houngan, a voodoo priest. Perhaps a Bokor at some point, a sorcerer who dabbled in dark spells. But she thought him useful as someone who would unquestionably carry out her orders. That meant beatings, mutilations and killings to further The Family’s lucrative enterprises involving smuggling, drug trafficking and extortion. So, in her mind, he served a useful purpose. Moreover, he was usually pretty good at what he did!
As to Jean-Claude, he was a foolish person, one who needed to be punished for ignoring her warning. Desmond and his zombies would make sure he never returned to the embassy to work for the Americans again. Some people were simply too foolhardy and stubborn for their own good. Well, a little lesson in pain was in order. Others would learn his fate and abandon the Americans as well. And the Cubans would pay dearly for The Family’s good works.