The second half of the evening proved no different from the first, only the longer I stood beside Abby, the less and less I was approached too. By the time the next-to-last musical number was played, Abby and I were the only ones not dancing. Just before the last dance of the night, Mrs. Ironwood went to the microphone once again.
'It is a tradition here at Greenwood, as most of you know, that at the end of a social event, especially at the end of a formal dance, the girls choose their queen of the dance. The social committee has tallied the votes and asked that I call up Gisselle Dumas to announce the results.'
Abby and I looked at each other with surprise. When did Gisselle arrange this? I wondered. She backed herself away from her male admirers and wheeled herself across the floor to the sound of applause. Then she turned and faced the partygoers, a happy smile across her face. One of the members of the social committee then brought the results to Gisselle. The microphone was lowered so she could speak into it.
“Thank you for this honor,' she said. 'It's just peachy.' She turned to the girl who had the results. 'The envelope, please,' she said, as if it were the Academy Awards. Everyone laughed. Even Mrs. Ironwood relaxed her lips into something of a smile, Gisselle tore open the folded paper and read it to herself. Then she cleared her throat.
'We have a somewhat surprising choice,' she declared. 'A first for Greenwood, according to what the committee has written here.' She gazed at Mrs. Ironwood, who now looked more intense, more interested. 'I shall read the winner's name and exactly what the committee has written after it.' She looked our way. 'The girls of Greenwood have chosen Abby Tyler,' she declared.
Abby's eyes widened with surprise. I shook my head in wonder, but it was as if the first shoe had dropped. The room became silent. Abby started to stand up. My heart began to pound when I looked around at the faces of the other girls. They all seemed to be holding their breaths.
Gisselle gazed at the card and then brought her mouth to the microphone to add, 'Who is the first quadroon ever to have been chosen.'
It was as if we had fallen into the eye of a storm. There wasn't a giggle or even a cough. Abby froze. She looked down at me, her eyes filled with shock. So this was why none of the boys would ask her to dance. They had been told she was a quadroon. And this was why Gisselle had been so sweet and offered the white silk ribbon for Abby's hair: so all the boys would know who she was the moment they set eyes on her.
'Who told her?' Abby whispered.
I shook my head in denial. 'I would never . . .'
'Come get your trophy,' Gisselle screamed into the microphone.
Abby stood in front of me, even straighter and taller than she usually did, looking for all the world like a beautiful princess. 'Won't worry, Ruby,' she said, 'its okay. I had already decided to tell my parents that they must stop living a lie. I relish each and every part of my ancestry and never again will I hide any of it.' She walked across the room and out the door.
'I guess she didn't like our trophy,' Gisselle quipped. There was a roar of laughter that continued even after I had run from the ballroom after her. I flew into the hallway and hurried to the side door that just closed behind my friend. By the time I was outside, she was halfway across the campus, her pretty head held high, walking into the darkness.
'Abby! Wait!' I called, but she didn't stop. By now she was crossing down to the driveway that led to the road away from the school. I started in that direction too, when I heard my named called.
'Ruby Dumas.'
I turned to see Mrs. Ironwood standing behind me in the pool of illumination from the lights above the doorway of the school.
'Don't you dare set foot off the grounds of this school,' she warned.
'But Mrs. Ironwood, my friend . . . Abby . . . ?
'Don't you dare.'
I turned and looked in Abby's direction, but all I could see was darkness now, darkness and deep shadows that reached back and extended deep enough to drape over my own broken heart.
9
A Friend in Need
1'd advise you to get yourself back to your social,' Mrs. Ironwood warned. She had stepped up and now hovered behind me like a hawk about to pounce. The sky had turned stormy and foreboding in the distance, heralding rain and wind. For a moment I continued to stare into the darkness of the road, hoping to see Abby reappear, but I saw nothing. I stood like an island with the sea eddying around me, so miserable and unhappy. 'Did you hear what I said?' she snarled.
With my head down, I turned back toward the building and walked past Mrs. Ironwood without so much as glancing at her
'Never have I seen such behavior,' she continued, following me and chanting. 'Never. Never. Never have one of my girls so openly embarrassed the school.'
'How could having a bright, beautiful, and kind student like Abby ever be an embarrassment? I hope she will be proud of her heritage, just like I am of my Cajun past,' I shot back. She hoisted her shoulders and glared down at me with her stone-cold eyes. Silhouetted against the increasingly foreboding sky, she had become as ominous and as dark as one of Nina's voodoo spirits.
'When people go where they don't belong, they only make problems for themselves,' she declared with her imposing, authoritative tone.
'Abby belongs here more than anyone else,' I cried. 'She's the smartest, nicest . . . ?
'This is not the time nor the place to discuss such matters, and anyway, it is no concern of yours,' she spit out,
