Kiki nodded philosophically and a face leered out, the face of a middle-aged man with a cast in the right eye. This must be Kiki's macambo magic master, I decided.
'It was his destiny,' Kiki said. 'Look at these.' He spread some postcards circa 1913 on the table. The photos showed soldiers hanged from trees and telephone poles with their pants down around their ankles. The pictures were taken from behind. 'Pictures get him very hot. He want me pull scarf tight around his neck when he come.' Kiki made a motion of pulling something around his neck.
'Jerry's spirit had got into my assistant. Only you can call him out.'
'Why me?'
'Jerry's spirit has to obey you because you fuck him the best.'
Kiki's eyes narrowed with calculation and he drummed on the table with his fingertips. I was thinking I could use an interpreter on this trip ... after all, expense account. My Spanish is half-assed and in any case he could find out more than two nosy
'Like to come along with to Mexico and South America?'
I named a figure. He smiled and nodded. I wrote the address of my loft on a card and handed it to him. 'Be there at eleven in the morning. We make magic.'
When I got back to the loft Jim was there, and I explained that we were going to perform this ritual to get Jerry's spirit out.
He nodded. 'Yeah, he's half in and half out and it hurts.'
Next day Kiki showed up with a bundle of herbs and a head of Elleggua in a hatbox. As he was setting up his altar, lighting candles and anointing the head, I explained that he would fuck Jim and evoke Jerry to bring Jerry all the way in—and then I had good strong magic to exorcise the spirit. Kiki watched with approval, one magic man to another, as I set up the altar for the noon ritual and lit the incense. It was ten minutes before noon.
Kiki was wearing red shiny boxer shorts, and when he slipped them off he was half-hard. Jim was stiff and lubricating. I drew a circle around our bodies. We were facing south for the noon ritual and I had set up a red candle for fire, which was Jerry's element. The amulet was on the altar and there was a tube of KY by the unguent jar.
'When I say ahora, fuck him.'
Kiki picked up the KY and moved behind Jim, who leaned forward over the altar, hands braced on knees. Kiki rubbed KY up Jim's ass and hitched his hand around Jim's hips, contracting his body as his cock slid in. Jim gasped and bared his teeth. His head and neck turned bright red and the cartilage behind his right ear swelled into a pulsing knot.
Holding the amulet, I took a position on the other side of the altar. Jerry's face was in front of me now, as the red color spread down Jim's chest and his nipples pulsed erect. His stomach, crotch and thighs were bright red now, and the rash spread down his calves to his toes and the fever smell reeked out of him. His head twisted to the right as I touched the amulet to the crown of his head, to the forehead between the eyes, and to the cartilage behind both ears.
'Back to earth. Back to air. Back to fire. Back to water.'
For a split second Jerry's face hung there, eyes blazing green light. A reek of decay filled the room. Someone said 'Shit' in a loud voice. We carried Jim to a couch. Kiki got a wet towel and rubbed his chest, face, and neck. He opened his eyes, sat up, and smiled. The decay smell was gone. So was the fever smell.
At two o'clock O'Brien called: 'Well, I think we've found your head for you—or what's left of it. Can't be sure until we check the dental work....'
'Where did you find it?'
'At the airport. Crate labeled MACHINE PARTS sent by air freight and addressed to a
