'Coming, Daddy.'
Beau and I started back. Daddy and Edgar were taking Gisselle off the galerie and transporting her to the rear seat of the Rolls-Royce. The wheelchair was folded and placed in the van.
'Beau, good morning,' Daddy said.
'Morning, monsieur.'
'How's everyone at home?'
'Fine,' he said. Despite the passage of time and the healing of wounds, it was still hard for Daddy and Beau to speak to each other. Daphne had done so much to sensationalize and escalate the situation.
'Ready, Ruby?' Daddy asked, looking from Beau to me. Daddy knew what it meant to leave someone you love behind. His eyes were full of sympathy.
'Yes, Daddy.'
Daddy got into the car, and I turned to Beau for our goodbye kiss. Gisselle had her face in the window.
'Come on, already. I can't stand sitting in here when we're not moving.'
Beau smiled at her and then kissed me.
'I'll call as soon as I can,' I whispered.
'And I'll come as soon as I can. I love you.'
'Me too,' I said quickly, and ran around the other side to get into the car.
'You could kiss me goodbye too, Beau Andreas. It wasn't so long ago that you couldn't wait to kiss me every chance you got,' Gisselle said.
'I will never forget those kisses,' Beau teased, and he leaned inside to kiss her quickly.
'That wasn't a kiss,' she said 'Maybe you forgot how. Maybe you need an expert to teach you again.' She flashed a look at me then and added, 'Maybe you'll practice while we're away.' She laughed and sat back.
Daddy conferred with the driver of the van, reviewing the route to Baton Rouge and the school just in case we got separated.
'What's that?' Gisselle asked when she saw the locket lying between my breasts.
'A gift from Beau.'
'Let me see it,' she said, leaning forward to take the locket in her fingers. I had to lean over so she wouldn't snap the chain off my neck.
'Be careful,' I said.
She opened it and saw our pictures. Her mouth dropped open and she looked back through the window at Beau, who stood talking with Edgar.
'He never gave me anything like that. In fact,' she said angrily, 'he never gave me anything.'
'Maybe he thought you had everything you wanted,' I said
She dropped the locket back on my chest and flopped back in the seat to pout. Daddy got into the car and looked at us.
'All set?' he asked.
'No,' Gisselle said. 'I'll never be set for this.'
'We're all set, Daddy,' I said. I looked through the window at Beau and mouthed, 'Goodbye. I love you.' He nodded. Daddy started the engine and we began to pull away.
I looked back through the rearview mirror and saw Nina and Wendy on the galerie, waving. I waved to them and to Edgar and to Beau. Gisselle refused to turn around and wave goodbye to anyone. She sat with her eyes forward, hatefully.
When we reached the gate, I lifted my gaze slowly up the front of the great house until my eyes focused on a window in which the curtains had been drawn back. I studied it, and as the shadows moved away, I saw Daphne standing there gazing down at us.
She was wearing a smile of deep satisfaction.
2
Further from the Bayou
As we drove out of the Garden District and headed for the highway that would take us to Baton Rouge, Gisselle grew unexpectedly quiet. She pressed her face to the window and gazed out at the olive-green streetcar that rattled down the esplanade, and she looked hungrily at the people who were sitting out in the sidewalk cafes as if she could smell the coffee and the freshly baked breads. New Orleans always seemed busy with tourists, men and women with cameras around their necks and guidebooks in their hands, gazing up at the mansions or at the statues. Some parts of the city had a quiet, lazy rhythm, and other parts were bustling and busy. But the city had character, a life of its own, and it was impossible to live here and not become part of it or stop it from becoming part of you.
When we passed under the long canopy of spreading oaks and passed the great homes and yards filled with camellias and magnolia trees, I too suddenly felt melancholy. The feeling surprised me. I hadn't realized that I had grown to think of this as home. Perhaps because of Daddy, because of Nina and Edgar and Wendy, and certainly because of Beau, I felt a sense of belonging now. I realized I would miss this part of the world that I had come to
