Ladjablès Read online

  Ladjablès

  A Love Story

  By O’Nika Auguste

  © 2022, O’Nika Auguste, All Rights Reserved.

  Ladjablès: A Love Story

  Edited by: Julie Lafrance

  Formatted by: JA Lafrance

  Published by: O’Nika Auguste

  Cover by: JA Lafrance

  Copyright © 2022 by O’Nika Auguste

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses allowed by copyright law.

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any names, places, characters, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally Any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary Ladjablès: A Love Story

  Text Copyright © O’Nika Auguste

  Full Copyright © O’Nika Auguste

  Copyright © 2022 O’Nika Auguste All rights reserved

  Blurb

  Professor Nikita Burnett is teaching remotely and enjoying the sun, sea and food in Saint Lucia, her country of birth. After hearing rumours that there may still be Kalinagos (Caribs, the Indigenous people of Saint Lucia) on the island, Nikita embarks on a search to find them.

  During her search Nikita meets a Ladjablès and begins a love affair with her.

  Against the backdrop of Covid 19, a deeply religious and Catholic Society, Nikita must balance her faith and sexuality with love.

  Can she be religious, a lesbian and love the devil’s woman?

  Please note: This story is written in Caribbean British English and Saint Lucian Creole French.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Epilogue

  Chapter One

  Oshun lying in bed with Chango in their golden palace in òrún, they had just finished making love. Oshun decided to get up to shower, as she had to visit Ayé. As the orisha of love, she had the duty to lead humans to love. Oshun was watching Ayé, specifically Saint Lucia. She had her eye on Nikita and that Ladjablès. Aimee, Aimee had made a deal with this deity from the eastern part of Ayé, instead of waiting until she dies to go to Oya’s realm. This deity’s name is Lucifer. If Aimee can fall in love and sacrifice herself for love, the deal with Lucifer will be done, and she will be able to come into the spirit world.

  Oshun's thoughts were on the Ladjablès as she got up from the bed. Chango wanted more of her stood up to stop her. Nothing was covering his divine body. His lower part was hanging out so beautiful, she thought. Chango knew what was on her mind. He knew that Aimee was on her mind. He still could not believe that this woman decided not to go into Oya’s realm but make a deal with this thing called Lucifer. All the orishas were shocked that a woman one of their own would do such a thing.

  ***

  We have all heard the story of the Ladjablès, how she lures men to their deaths and how this creature looks like death. When sugar was king, he enslaved the people that were squatting on the land. When the British established full control of the island, and when they were trying to figure out how they were going to replace slave labour, the Ladjablès was created. The Ladjablès was once human, just like us, she loves, she feels sadness and grieves. The men she lures to their death are adulterers. Not everyone who comes upon a Ladjablès is murdered, only men who cheat on their significant others and men who know how to escape.

  There was once this Ladjablès woman named Aimee. She was born on a plantation in Choiseul Saint Lucia, her father was the planter, and her mother was an enslaved African with Kalinago ancestry. Aimee was born in 1810 on a hot, humid day. She was twenty-four years old when slavery ended. Aimee was born during the time of great conflict and trials on the island. Saint Lucia was one of the hot spots for war between the British and French, who fought bitterly over the Helen of the West. In 1794 the French had abolished slavery. During this time, an enslaved mulato named Flore Bois Gaillard led an army of maroons and enslaved people with the help of the French against the British. She and her army burnt down British plantations and even killed her master. However, this was short-lived as her army surrendered in 1797, the British had full control 1803 of the island, and the French handed over the island in 1814. Aimee was a product of this period. When she was growing up during this time in history, she was always hearing about on her father’s planation and how the other estate masters were always on edge on whether there would be another rebellion. Conditions on the plantations were harsh, but Aimee was not on the receiving end. She was lucky, her father was not harsh, and she ended up in the main house, an enslaved person to her brothers and sisters. Her father educated her. She learned French, writing, knitting, embroidery, and other classes for upper-class ladies. In 1834 slavery on the island ended, and she was free to live her life.

  She married a sailor, but he was drunk, abusive, and always cheating on her. He was a Dutch sailor named Johannes, a remnant of the time the Dutch tried to settle on the island,

  One day, in one of his drunken moments, Johannes punched her and was going to hit her again until a woman with blond hair and blue eyes like the sea appeared. This woman was tall, slender, and chic woman showed up.

  Aimee, shocked and relieved at the same time, got up from the defensive position she was in and said to this woman, “Who are You?” and the woman said, “I am Lucifer.”

  Aimee's face was ashen, and she looked horrified. “The Devil,” I thought you were a man,” she said.

  Lucifer smiled slyly and shook her head and then replied, “I can take any form I want.”

  “You are a shapeshifter then,” Aimee exclaimed, still in horror.

  “Yes!” Lucifer said, laughing.

  Johannes, who was drunk, stood up and said, “I don’t care if you are the devil, I am going to kill you,” and Johannes takes his broken rum bottle and charges towards Lucifer. And Lucifer, with a snap of her fingers, killed Johannes with a flash of light. Johannes laid dead on the ground of his house.

  Aimee screamed and ran towards his body, crying,” Johannes! Johannes! “Wake up!” Even though he beat her, Aimee stilled loved the bastard. “You killed him!” She screamed at the Devil.

  In a blind rage, she races to the Devil and hits her. Lucifer grabbed Aimee’s hands tightly and looked into her eyes, and exclaims, “you care that piece of shit is dead? I did you a favour. You owe me.”

  Lucifer lets go of Aimee, and she wiped away her tears and says, “I still love him. How I am going to explain this, I would need to get out of Saint Lucia quickly.”

  Lucifer smiled and said, “you don’t need to get out of the island. “I can make you immortal.”

  Aimee’s eyes widened, and then she looked up to the heavens and called on Oya, Oshun, Chango, and all the orishas, but they seemed not to hear. Lucifer looked at her and said, they are not coming to help you, and neither is God. Free will and all that, she said.”

  “I will make you immortal, and you will punish and send to hell adulterers and wife beaters. I need a beautiful woman to lure these men, and you, Aimee, are beautiful.”

  Aimee looked at the Devil. “And said I did not think you would shapeshift as a woman. I need to think about this before I make any decisions. I need to go somewhere not here and think. Being immortal means I get to live forever, and I can be free.”

  “Yes, you will get to be free forever and be free. I do not keep people from making their choices. Unlike the orishas and God, free will and all is important to me.”

  And Aimee thinking about being free decided she would. She would live forever and have powers and attract handsome men. What could go wrong with making a deal with the devil?

  “Yes! I want to be immortal.” She replied

  “Are you sure? “Lucifer asks?

  Aimee nodded her head

  Lucifer snapped her fingers, and suddenly, Aimee saw her foot turned into a cow foot, and she realized her face was starting to change into rotten flesh.


  She was alarmed. Realizing what was happening, she shrieked, “turn me back, turn me back.”

  Lucifer laughed “No, a deal is a deal, and don’t worry, your face can be changed back to your beautiful face. I cannot turn you back. And the beautiful blonde devil disappears.

  Aimee still yelled “Turn me back.”

  And this is how the Ladjablès was created, the devil saving her from an abusive man and turning her into an immortal, evil spirit. Aimee, disgusted with herself, ran out of the house looking for some remedy. But she was stuck, and she had no idea where to go and what to do. She found herself near the river in the forest and sat on the rocks thinking of her predicament. Crying, not sure what to do. She was stuck like this, a hideous woman, a monster with a cow’s foot.

  ***

  Lightning, thunder, and rain suddenly came down on the island. Chango was seething, this deity that had nothing to do with West Africa, and the enslaved West Africans took one of his own. Aimee’s grandmother was one of his priestesses. She was brought from Africa on the slave ship, and her dying breath, she asked the orishas to protect her family. Chango was not sure if he was mad at himself, at Aimee, or Lucifer.

  Lucifer, in the rain, noticed the warrior god and said to him, “You are too late now? How is the beautiful Oshun?

  Chango still seething. Thundered at Lucifer, “How dare you take a form of a woman.” A white woman at that and pretend to be a saviour and turn one of my people into a monster?

  Lucifer replied, “it was her choice, free will and all.”

  “Damn free will. I will release her from this curse, and Chango takes out his double axe, ready to do battle with the Devil,”

  Lucifer, still in a white woman’s form, pulls out her sword, and the two deities are ready to do battle until Oya, one of Chango’s wives and whose realm Aimee must enter to after death or sacrifice, comes down in a violent wind and pulls out her sword between the two male deities

  “Chango! Stop, this is not what Olodumare wants! Olodumare was the supreme deity as sickening what Lucifer did! Oya looks at the deity with disgust. Whether that tricked her, she chooses to be immortal. “

  “So, father who decides not to be directly involved with humanity decides that it is not right to break Aimee from some curse.? “Chango said in disbelief.

  “He made some deal with Lucifer’s enemy that we should not take away free will from Aimee.”

  Chango looked up to the heavens in rage and shouted, “So Olodumare made some deal with the god in whose name, our people were pulled from their homes tortured and put in chains and brought here to be overworked on large farms, no plantations because they are too lazy to do their own work.” The God in whose name our people were beaten to stop worshipping us to start worshipping him. That God!” Chango raged

  Although she agreed with him, Oya needed to calm Chango down because she did not think the world needed another war among the gods.

  “Chango calmed down, let us go home. Aimee must figure this herself. You should see Oshun; she is worried about you.” Oshun was Chango’s favourite wife, but Oya did not care. She was more interested in her sword, axe, and battles.

  Chango calmed down and answered Alright. I will go. And he disappeared into the heavens to bask in bed with Oshun.

  Lucifer is still in woman form, “what a hothead! And blows a kiss to Oya and disappears in flames.

  Oya knew if Lucifer continued to play with human lives and meddle in affairs not of her realm, another war would happen between the gods and deities around the world. The last war happened around the time of Constantine, and they barely made it out,

  She sure hoped this would not happen again and hoped Aimee would eventually free herself of the curse.

  Chapter Two

  July 2020

  Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology, Nikita Burnett was packing up her bags in her apartment in London. She could not believe that Mya cheated on her with her best friend, Whitney. She was fuming, and she could not get the image out of her head. Her mind flashed back to the scene. She just came from her office at the University of England. Since March, she had not been in her office because of this Covid 19 situation. Since she was teaching remotely, Nikita wanted to take Mya to her island and propose on the beach, yes propose with mask and sanitiser and all, but then she caught Mya and Whitney naked in the apartment in her bed.

  Nikita was numbed. She could not believe it, she went straight past them, did not say a word, went into the closet, pulled out her suitcase, and started emptying draws/

  She is unsure when Mya got up, but she did get up. Mya started to say something to her, “Nikita, I am sorry,” Nikita cut her short and said furiously Do not say a damn fucking word!

  In a fury, Nikita furiously threw her clothes in the suitcase and then took her cell phone from a purse and called Air Antilles, “Good evening. I like to book a ticket to Saint Lucia tonight, I know it is Covid, but I would like to fly to the island.”

  ***

  While Nikita was still on the phone, Mya again interrupted her, “Nikita, please say something.”

  Nikita glanced over at the bed and realized that Whitney was gone and left Mya to deal with this on her own. Nikita ignored Mya’s pleas to speak to her and continued the call. After hanging up. Nikita took her suitcase, took her passport, and started heading out of the apartment

  Mya is still trying to get her to talk.

  “Nikita, please say something,”

  Nikita turned to her, and her face filled with anger, and said to her calm and cool, “Please leave this apartment, lose my number and stay the hell away from me. In fact, you know you can keep this apartment. I will not be needing it anymore.

  And Nikita angrily leaves to check into a hotel so she can fly to Saint Lucia the next day.

  ***

  September 2021

  A year after Nikita was back home, there was an election in July, and her party won. Well, not her party, the party candidates won the election, and she hoped that the Covid 19 numbers would go down. She was tired of lockdowns, curfews, and shutdowns and wanted to return to a normal life. Now, the Delta variant is here. She heard on the news, unsure which station, but delta was here. Nikita wanted this Covid to be done, but this would not happen. It was for the best because she would not see Mya until she was ready and good.

  This past year was a blast. She found her soulmate in this pandemic. Nikita could not wait to tell her best friend, Danny. Danny was going to freak out when she told her best friend. She was a medical doctor and a strong Catholic. They were to meet at Vigie beach before curfew, which was at 7. Nikita took the Gros Islet bus to town; she rented a lovely place in Corinth. She would stop the bus at the bus station at the roundabout and walk the stretch to the beach. It is good exercise. Nikita was a health fanatic. She believed in eating right and staying in shape. She had issues with her body, but she had overcome them. Vigie was not as bustling as it used to be in 2019, and there was not much traffic going on. The aeroplanes and jets that blew over the beach skies were no longer there. The people usually went to the little caravans on the beach to get some bakes and saltfish, roti, green figs, and backs or fried chicken or whatever delicious food, but these caravans were no longer here. Nothing except a few people on the beach, the now clear blue of the ocean. The sea water was clear and cleaner, maybe because we humans did not pollute it, Nikita does not know. The clear blue water was good. However, people were still not following protocols and from Saturday evening on October 2nd, 2021, we will have three nights, three days curfew. She hated it, but she was glad that she was getting to spend some time with her best friend, deeply religious Catholic and medical doctor, Danielle Foster. Nikita started to walk the sands of Vigie, looking to where Danny sat. Nikita had a purple bikini on with pink shorts, pink and purple slippers, and hair in an Afro. And as she was walking the beach, she spotted her friend speaking to someone. Danny was sitting on what looked like a blue towel. She was light-skinned, was half Indian by her father’s side, and part Kalinago and part Black on her mother’s side. But her grandmother was Kalinago from Dominica, who left Island Carib territory to marry a local Dominican man. The two women had known each other since preschool, they went to the same church and the same primary school, but they did not go to the same Secondary school. Nikita went to Leon Hess, and Danny went to St. Joseph’s Convent both attended Sir Arthur Lewis Community College. Danny did Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology, and Spanish. Nikita did French, History, and Literature. Danny went to university in Canada, and Nikita went to university in the United States.