'I have to be there at midnight,' she declared. 'My dream told me so.'
'You can't go to the cemetery now, Ruby,' Daddy said. 'Be reasonable.'
'Don't worry, Daddy,' I said. 'I'll go with her.'
'But, Ruby, it's so late, and you know there are thugs loitering around the cemeteries.'
Mommy continued to dress. Daddy grimaced and struggled to get his leg over the edge of the bed so he could reach for his crutches.
'What are you doing, Daddy?'
'If she insists on going, I'm going too,' he declared. I turned and ran back to my room to put my clothes on.
'At least wait for me,' I heard Daddy cry. Mommy charged out of the bedroom and down the stairs. Her face was like a mask, her eyes fixed and cold as she hurried by.
'Mommy, wait,' I called.
'See to your father,' she replied.
Daddy emerged on his crutches, moving as quickly as he could. I went to help him, but by the time we got downstairs, Mommy had already driven off.
'She's gone mad again,' Daddy declared. He and I got into his car and followed. I drove. Mommy had already parked her car and gone into the cemetery when we pulled up behind her.
'What is she doing?' Daddy mumbled. I helped him out. We had a flashlight in the glove compartment, but we were fortunate in that the moon was nearly full and there were only a few small clouds. The moonlight made the tombs and vaults gleam. The polished stone looked bone-white against the darkness. I stayed right next to Daddy as he hobbled along the pathway toward my brother's grave. Mommy had lit a candle beside the vault and then had knelt and pressed her forehead to the stone. Her shoulders lifted and fell with her sobs. I left Daddy's side and hurried to her.
'Mommy.' I hugged her.
'I begged him,' she whispered in my ear. 'He was lonely without Pierre, but I begged him to let Pierre come back.' Daddy leaned on his crutches as Mommy lifted her head from my shoulders and looked up at him. 'I had to be here at midnight, Beau. It's the time-when the door between the two worlds opens just enough for my words to follow the candle smoke through.'
Daddy leaned on his crutches and shook his head. 'You're driving us all mad now, Ruby. You've got to stop. Come home and go to sleep.'
'I couldn't sleep. That's why I came here,' she said. 'You see that now, don't you, sweetheart?' she asked me.
'Yes, Mommy.'
She touched the stone of Jean's vault lovingly and smiled. 'He heard me. He won't let Pierre leave us. Jean is a good boy, a good boy.'
'Come home now, Mommy. Please.' I helped her to her feet. She looked at Jean's tomb again, and then the three of us, crippled by our tragedy, hobbled along the pathway past other vaults and other scenes of sadness where the ground was soaked with similar tears.
I gazed back once and shuddered with the horrible vision of a second vault, twin to Jean's.
'Please, God,' I murmured, too low for Daddy or Mommy to hear, 'please help us.'
17
Please Wake Up
Despite being exhausted by the time we all returned home and to bed, I tossed and turned, slipping in and out of nightmares. When I woke, I welcomed the morning sunlight, but I felt as if I had just run a marathon in the middle of the summer. My sheet and blanket were drenched with perspiration, and when I sat up, my legs and my back ached from the twisting and turning I had done in my sleep.
I was the first to rise, wash, and dress. Both Mommy and Daddy looked as if they had been through the same wringer of horrors when they entered the dining room and sat down to breakfast. Mommy had already phoned the hospital and spoken to Pierre's nurse, who told her there was no change.
'At least he's not getting worse,' I said, hoping to find a ray of sunshine in all this gloom.
'Yes, but he's not getting better,' Mommy replied in a voice that was totally devoid of energy and expression. She ate mechanically, her eyes fixed on nothing. Daddy reached across the table and took her hand. She smiled weakly at him and then turned and chewed and stared. Daddy flashed a sad look at me, and I could tell that he was at his wit's end.
'Jack's coming tomorrow,' I announced, deciding that a change of subject might be the best antidote to our depression. Mommy's eyes widened with some interest, and Daddy looked impressed. 'Is that all right?'
'He's coming here?' Mommy asked.
'Yes. I invited him to stay.'
Mommy looked at Daddy, who shrugged.
'From what I hear, we owe this young man a great deal,' Daddy said. 'The least we can do is offer him hospitality.'
