'I never felt anything like that, Beau, and I never even dreamt of healing people. I don't have that sort of mystical insight.'
He nodded and thought a moment and then said a startling thing. 'Sometimes, when I'm with Pearl and she's jabbering away in her baby language, I see her fix intently on something, and suddenly her face seems years older than four. There's an awareness in her eyes. Do you ever feel that when you're with her?'
'Yes,' I said, 'but I was afraid to even mention anything like it for fear you would laugh at me.'
'I'm not laughing. I'm wondering. You know,' he said, 'she's even beguiling my parents these days. Mother tries not to show it, but she can't help but dote on her, and my father . . . when he's with her, he's like a little boy again.'
'She has her way with them.'
'With anyone,' Beau said. 'I think she's charmed. There. I've said it. Just don't tell any of my friends,' he added quickly. I laughed. 'Next thing you know,' he said, 'you'll have me believing in some of those voodoo rituals you and Nina Jackson used to practice.'
'Don't discount anything,' I warned.
He laughed again, but two weeks into my ninth month, he managed to surprise me with a wonderful present. He had located Nina and he brought her to our house to see me.
'I have a surprise visitor for you,' Beau said, coming into the sitting room first.
Then he reached around the door and brought Nina forward. She didn't look very much older, although her hair was completely gray.
'Nina!' I struggled to my feet. I was so big, I felt like a hippopotamus rising out of a swamp. We embraced.
'You be big, all right,' Nina said. 'And close. I can see it in your eyes.'
'Oh, Nina, where have you been?'
'Been travelin' a bit up and down the river. Nina be retired now. I live with my sister.'
She sat and talked with me for an hour. I showed her Pearl and she ranted and raved about how beautiful she was becoming. She told me she thought she was a special child, too. And then she told me she was going to light a blue candle for my new baby so the baby would have success and protection.
'It don't be long,' she predicted. She reached into her pocket and produced a camphor lump for me to wear around my neck. 'It keep germs away from you and your baby,' she promised. I told her I would wear it even in the hospital.
'Please, don't be a stranger. Come see us again, Nina.'
'Be sure I will,' she said.
'Nina,' I asked, taking her hand into mine, 'do you think the anger I threw into the wind when I went to see Mama Dede with you about Gisselle has blown away?'
'It be blown from your heart, child. That's what matters most.'
We hugged and Beau took her home.
'That was a wonderful present, Beau,' I told him when he returned. 'Thank you.'
'I see she left something,' he said, eyeing the camphor lump around my neck. 'Figured she would. To tell you the truth,' he admitted, 'I was hoping she would. Can't take any chances.'
We laughed about it.
Four days later my labor began. It was intense, even more so than it had been with Pearl. Beau was at my side constantly and was even there with me in the delivery room. He held my hand and encouraged my breathing. I think he felt every stick of pain I felt, for I saw him wince each time. Finally my water broke and the baby started to enter this world.
'It's a boy!' the doctor cried, and then screamed, 'Wait!'
Beau's eyes widened.
'It's another boy! Twins!' the doctor added. 'I thought it might be. One was hiding the other, covering his heartbeat with his own.
'Congratulations!' he said, and the nurses held two blond, blue-eyed baby boys in their arms.
'We're not giving either of them away,' Beau joked. 'Don't worry.'
Twins, I thought. They're going to love each other from day one, I pledged, day one.
Pearl was overwhelmed with the news that she would have not one baby brother, but two. Our first great task was going to be finding names for them. We had already discussed the possibility of a girl and then a boy, thinking the boy would be called Pierre, after Daddy. I knew what I wanted to do, but I wasn't sure how Beau would feel. He surprised me in the hospital room afterward by suggesting it himself.
'We should call our second son Jean,' he said.
'Oh, Beau, I thought so, but . . .'
'But what?' He smiled. 'I told you. I'm a believer now. It was meant to be.'
Maybe, I thought. Maybe.
Beau had a photographer waiting at the house the day we brought the twins home. We had pictures taken of the five of us. We were quite the little family now. We hired a nurse to help with the twins in the beginning, but Beau thought we might keep her on longer.
