Merrick by Anne Rice Page B

here, partly,” I answered. “However, Merrick may do more than simply baffle us, you understand me. We must approach Merrick and what she will do with the utmost respect.”
    “I do understand you,” he said. “But if human beings have souls that survive death, souls that can manifest as spirits to the living, then human beings have magical components as well.”
    “Yes, a magical component, and you and I still possess this magical component, along with some additional vampiric component, but when a soul truly leaves its physical body? Then it is in the realm of God.”
    “You believe in God,” he murmured, quite amazed.
    “Yes, I think so,” I answered. “Indeed, I know so. What’s the point of hiding it as if it were an unsophisticated or foolish frame of mind?”
    “Then you do indeed have great respect for Merrick and her magic,” he said. “And you believe that Great Nananne, as you call her, might be a very powerful spirit indeed.”
    “Precisely,” I said.
    He settled back in the chair, and his eyes moved back and forth a little too rapidly. He was quite excited by all I’d told him, but his general disposition was one of profound sorrow, and nothing made him look happy or glad.
    “Great Nananne might be dangerous, that’s what you’re saying,” he murmured. “Great Nananne might want to protect Merrick from . . . you and me.”
    He looked rather splendid in his sorrow. Again he made me think of the paintings of Andrea del Sarto. There was something lush in his beauty, for all the sharp and clear well-drawn lines of his eyes and mouth.
    “I don’t expect my faith to make a particle of difference to you,” I said. “But I want to emphasize these feelings, because this Voodoo, this matter of spirits, is indeed a dangerous thing.”
    He was perturbed but hardly frightened, perhaps not even cautious. I wanted to say more. I wanted to tell him of my experiences in Brazil, but it wasn’t the time or place.
    “But David, on the matter of ghosts,” he said finally, again maintaining a respectful tone, “surely there are all kinds of ghosts.”
    “Yes, I think I know what you mean,” I responded.
    “Well, this Great Nananne, if indeed she appeared of her own volition, from where precisely did she come?”
    “We can’t expect to know that, Louis, about any ghost.”
    “Well surely some ghosts are manifestations of earthbound spirits, don’t students of the occult maintain this truth?”
    “They do.”
    “If these ghosts are the spirits of the dead who are earthbound, how can we say they are purely magical? Aren’t they still within the atmosphere? Aren’t they struggling to reach the living? Aren’t they divorced from God? How else can one interpret Claudia’s haunting of Jesse? If it was Claudia, then Claudia has not gone on into a purely spiritual realm. Claudia is not a partaker of the laws beyond us. Claudia is not at peace.”
    “Ah, I see,” I answered. “So that is why you want to attempt the ritual.” I felt foolish for not having seen it all along. “You believe that Claudia’s suffering.”
    “I think it’s entirely possible,” he said, “if Claudia did appear to Jesse as Jesse seemed to think.” He looked miserable. “And frankly, I hope that we can’t rouse Claudia’s spirit. I hope that Merrick’s power doesn’t work. I hope that if Claudia had an immortal soul, that soul has gone to God. I hope for things in which I can’t believe.”
    “So this is why the story of Claudia’s ghost has so tormented you. You don’t want to speak to her. You want to know that she’s at peace.”
    “Yes, I want to do this thing because she may be a restless and tormented spirit. I can’t know from the stories of others. I myself have never been haunted, David. As I’ve told you, I have never heard this harpsichord music, nor the singing of caged birds here. I have never witnessed anything to indicate that Claudia exists anywhere in any form any longer at all. I want