'Good,' he said with visible relief. 'My parents have been invited to dinner at your house next weekend. We'll just have to cool it a bit,' he suggested.
But cooling things down was not to be my destiny. As soon as we entered the school, I sensed a different atmosphere about me. Beau thought I was imagining it, but it seemed to me that most of the students were looking my way and smiling. Some hid their smirks behind their hands when they whispered, but many didn't try to be discreet. It wasn't until the end of English class that I found out why.
As the class filed out, one of the boys came up beside me and bumped his shoulder against mine.
'Oh, sorry,' he said.
'It's all right.' I started away, but he seized my arm to pull me back beside him.
'Say, are you smiling in this?' he asked, holding out his hand and unclenching his fist to reveal a picture of me naked in his palm. It was one of the pictures that had been taken at Claudine's slumber party. In it, I had just turned back and wore a look of shock on my face, but most of my body was clearly exposed.
He laughed and hurried on to join a pack of students who had gathered to wait at the corner of the corridor. The collection of both girls and boys gazed over his shoulder to look at the photograph. A kind of paralyzing numbness gripped me. I felt as if my legs had been nailed to the floor. Suddenly, Gisselle joined the group.
'Make sure you tell everyone it's my sister and not me,' she quipped, and everyone laughed. She smiled at me and continued on, arm and arm with Martin.
My tears clouded my vision. Everything looked out of focus or hazy. Even Beau coming down the corridor toward me, a look of concern on his face, seemed distant and distorted. I felt something within me crack and suddenly, a shrill scream flowed out of my mouth. Every single person in the corridor, including some teachers, froze and looked my way.
'Ruby!' Beau called.
I shook my head, denying the reality of what was taking place before me. Some students were laughing; some were smiling. Few looked worried or unhappy.
'You . . . animals!' I cried. 'You mean, cruel . . . animals!'
I turned and threw my books down and just lunged at the nearest exit.
'RUBY!' Beau cried after me, but I shot through the door and ran down the steps. He came after me, but I was running as hard and as fast as I had ever run. I nearly got hit by a car when I sprinted across the street. The driver put on his brakes and brought it to a screeching stop, but I didn't pause. I ran on and on, not even looking where I was going. I ran until I felt a dozen needles in my side and then, with my lungs bursting, I finally slowed down and collapsed behind an old, large oak tree on someone's front lawn. There, I sobbed and sobbed until my well of tears ran dry and my chest ached with the heaving and crying.
I closed my eyes and tried to imagine myself far away. I saw myself back in the bayou, floating in a pirogue through the canal on a warm, clear spring day.
The clouds above me now disappeared. The grayness of the New Orleans day was replaced by the sunshine in my memory. As my pirogue floated closer to the shore, I heard Grandmere Catherine singing behind the house. She was hanging up some clothes she had washed.
'Grandmere,' I called. She leaned to the right and saw me. Her smile was so bright and alive. She looked so young and so beautiful to me.
'Grandmere;' I muttered with my eyes still shut tight. 'I want to go home. I want to be back in the bayou, living with you. I don't care how poor we were or how hard things were for us. I was still happier. Grandmere, please, make it all right again. Don't be dead and gone. Perform one of your rituals and erase time. Make all this just a nightmare. Let me open my eyes and be beside you in the loom room, working. I'll count to three and it will be true. One . . . two . . .'
'Hey, there,' I heard a man call. I opened my eyes. 'What do you think you're doing?' An elderly man with wild snow white hair stood in the doorway of the house in front of which I had collapsed. He waved a black cane toward me. 'What do you want here?'
'I was just resting, sir,' I said.
'This isn't a park, you know,' he said. He looked at me more closely. 'Shouldn't you be in school?' he demanded.
'Yes, sir,' I said and got up. 'I'm sorry,' I said, and walked off quickly. When I reached the corner, I gathered my bearings and hurried up the next street. Realizing how close I was, I headed for home. When I arrived, Daddy and Daphne were already gone.
'Mademoiselle Ruby?' Edgar said, opening the door and looking out at me. This time I couldn't hide my tear- streaked face or pretend to be all right. He tightened his face into an expression of concern and anger. 'Come along,' he ordered. I followed him through the corridor to the kitchen. 'Nina,' he said as soon as we entered. Nina turned around and took one look at me and then at him. She nodded.
'She'll be fine with me,' she said, and Edgar, looking satisfied, left. Nina drew closer.
'What happened?' she demanded.
'Oh, Nina,' I cried. 'No matter what I do, she finds a way to hurt me.'
Nina nodded.
'No more. You come with Nina now. This will be stopped. Wait here,' she commanded, and left me in the kitchen. I heard her go down the corridor to the stairway. After a minute or so, she returned and took my hand. I thought she was going to take me back to her room again for one of her voodoo rituals. But she surprised me. She threw off her apron and led me to the back door.
'Where are we going, Nina?' I asked as she hurried me through the yard to the street.
'To see Mama Dede. You need very strong gris-gris. Only Mama Dede can do it. Just one thing, child,' she said, stopping at the corner and drawing her face closer to mine, her black eyes wide with excitement. 'Do not tell Monsieur and Madame Dumas where I'm taking you, okay? This will be our secret only, okay?'
