Even with Couchemar disturbing their sleep, things seem to go back to normal. Three of the six together, eating curly fries, playing pinball, going to a football game. But then during that normal time together, something unexpected happens and Dice becomes a reluctant hero.

Even with Couchemar in his dreams, things seem to go back to normal for Ro-bear;  eating Cush-Cush at home, Ro-bear helps his father do janitorial work, but then later Ro-bear’s father delivers a dire lesson and warning about “… the walls.”

Even with Couchemar disturbing their sleep, things seem to be normal; but then Ro-bear watches Dice train and sees that something new is going on with Dice as Coach Paxton teachings Dice to run the high hurdles. Something else too, because Dice tells Ro-bear that Mr. Raphael paid him an almost ghostly visit.

No, nothing is normal. Somehow Dice is involved.

It was starting to rain, and the wind was rising.

With Installment-6 the story of “The Seven” continues: Installment 6 Something that didn’t happen

After his friends leave Papa Raphael’s house, his grandfather asks Ro-bear to come back inside. Ro-bear can see that Papa Raphael is not himself.

Mr. Raphael tells Ro-bear he has been hearing “The Binders.”

“I can hear them Binders,” he says to Ro-bear. “In the storm, I can hear them binders. “I shouldn’t be able to, but I know I hear them; those Binders.  They must be getting stronger in the storm.”

Suddenly, through Papa Raphael “The Binders” speak.

“Naught had happened like this before.”

In their own voices, speaking through Mr. Raphael Malveaux, “The Binders” tell of their motivation and the battle they are coming to wage. “The Binders” claim that they have already started to wage that battle by sending dreams to the six. We learn what is at stake. We learn what is in Hurricane Betsy.

Now we know, “…there’s a storm coming.”

With Installment-5 the story of “The Seven” continues: Installment 5 Something that didn’t happen

Some strange things did seem to be going on in Opelousas.

Ro-bear’s grandfather has asked for Ro-bear, Ironhorse, Delores, Earl, Kool-Aid and Ghost to come to his house. Not all of the six wants to do this. They argue, but then Delores says something about having dreams that brings them together in a rough agreement. Each of these six know they have been having troubling dreams, so eventually they go to see Raphael Malveaux, Ro-bear’s grandfather who everyone knows is a healer, and maybe more.

And so. they leave school together; walk and talk about what’s been happening in Opelousas. Some strange things did seem to be going on.

Images of the Virgin Mary appearing. Ro-bear’s Uncle Joe is involved in a “mustard green murder.”

At his house the six tell Papa Raphael their haunted dreams and he lets them in on what’s really going on. Mr. Raphael tells them why that dream demon Couchemar has come into their lives. He then gives them guidance for the coming battle that will include one other person whose name Mr. Raphael does not reveal. Even though right now they are six, to win the battle, they will have to become “The Seven.”

Some strange things did seem to going on.

With Installment 4, the story of “The Seven” continues: Installment 4 Something that didn’t happen

Ro-bear is having nightmares.

Ironhorse is troubled.

After school, Ironhorse startles Ro-bear when he says, “… I have a memory of something that didn’t happen.”  He almost demands that Ro-bear speak to his grandfather, Raphael Malveaux, who is himself a mystery. Why?  Papa Raphael is healer; a creole shaman who heals and, if asked, tells people about their future. Ironhorse wants to meet Papa Raphael.

Ro-bear is reluctant and so is Ro-bear’s mother, the daughter of Monsieur Raphael Malveaux. Yet some force is at work; moving everyone to play their unexpected part on this stage.

At school, Sister Edward Vincent has Ro-bear and his classmates working through and learning their parts from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. “Friends, Romans, Countrymen…” Ro-bear is to be Brutus and Ro-bear is starting to sense that Brutus is not an honorable man. Kool-Aid is a marvel as Casca. And something important is happening between Ironhorse and Delores, through their parts.

With Installment 3, the story of “The Seven” continues: Installment 3 Something that didn’t happen

We are thrust into Ro-bears witness of the story of “The Seven.” The story told in the manuscript is the centerpiece of this novella; a story within the story.  Written by the teenaged Ro-bear, but a repressed memory of the adult Ro-bear, the “story within the story” is an account of what happens in the lives of “The Seven”; seven black teenagers who are called to a supernatural battle which will determine the direction of civil rights history.

In the “story within the story,” we start with “The Return of Ironhorse.” We step into an alternate history of America where there had been no Civil Rights Act of 1964 and there are actual, giant physical walls of racial segregation. We enter that world through

Ro-bear’s life in Opelousas as a student at Holy Ghost Catholic High School. We begin to meet Ro-bear’s friends; “The Seven.” We experience Ro-bear’s puzzlement at Ironhorse’s sudden reappearance at the school bringing odd questions. We meet the nuns who teach at the school, especially Sister Edward Vincent their English teacher who assigns Ro-bear’s class Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. And then there’s Mr. T’Garcon; a man who hunts gators.

With Installment 2, the story of “The Seven” continues: Installment 2 Something that didn’t happen