'It better not be you, Jean Andreas. There's plenty that has to be done around here all day. Don't get underfoot and don't aggravate Mommy and Daddy,' I warned.
'We can stay up until everyone leaves tonight,' Pierre declared.
'And Mommy let us invite some of our friends,' Jean added. 'We should light firecrackers to celebrate.'
'Don't you dare,' I said. 'Pierre?'
'He doesn't have any.'
'Charlie Littlefield does!'
'Jean!'
'I won't let him,' Pierre promised. He gave Jean a look of chastisement, and Jean shrugged. His shoulders had rounded and thickened this past year. He was tough and sinewy and had gotten into a half dozen fights at school, but I learned that three of those fights were fought to protect Pierre from other boys who teased him about his poetry. All their friends knew that when someone picked a fight with Pierre, he was picking a fight with Jean, and if someone made fun of Jean, he was making fun of Pierre as well.
Mommy and Daddy had to go to school to meet with the principal because of Jean's fights, but I saw how proud Daddy was that Jean and Pierre protected each other. Mommy bawled him out for not bawling them out enough.
'It's a tough, hard world out there,' Daddy said. 'They've got to be tough and hard too.'
'Alligators are tough and hard, but people make shoes and pocketbooks out of them,' Mommy retorted. No matter what the argument or discussion, Mommy had a way of reaching back into her Cajun past to draw up an analogy to make her point.
After breakfast I returned to my room to fine-tune my valedictory address, and Catherine called.
'Have you decided about tonight?' she asked.
'It's going to be so hard leaving my party. My parents are doing so much for me,' I moaned.
'After a while they won't even know you're gone,' Catherine promised. 'You know how adults are when make parties for their children; they're really making them for themselves and their friends.'
'That's not true about my parents,' I said.
'You've got to go to Lester's,' she whined. 'We've been planning this for months, Pearl! Claude expects it. I know how much he's looking forward to it. He told Lester, and Lester told me just so I would tell you.'
'I'll go to the party, but I don't know about staying overnight,' I said.
'Your parents expect you to stay out all night. It's like Mardi Gras. Don't be a stick-in-the-mud tonight of all nights, Pearl,' she warned. 'I know what you're worried about,' she added. Catherine was the only other person in the world who knew the truth about Claude and me.
'I can't help it,' I whispered.
'I don't know what you're so worried about. You know how many times I've done it, and I'm still alive, aren't I?' Catherine said, laughing.
'Catherine . . .'
'It's your night to howl. You deserve it,' she said. 'We'll have a great time. I promised Lester I would see that you were there.'
'We'll see,' I said, still noncommittal.
'I swear, Pearl Andreas, you're going to be dragged kicking and screaming into womanhood.' She laughed again.
Was this really what made you a woman? I wondered. I knew many of my girlfriends at school felt that way. Some wore their sexual experiences like badges of honor. They had a strut about them, a demeanor of superiority. It was as if they had been to the moon and back and knew so much more about life than the rest of us. Promiscuity had given them a sophistication and filled their eyes with insights about life, and especially about men. Catherine believed this about herself and was often condescending.
'You're book-smart,' she always told me, 'but not life-smart. Not yet.'
Was she right?
Would this be my graduation night in more ways than one?
It was difficult to return to my speech after Catherine and I ended our conversation, but I did. After lunch, Daddy, Mommy, and the twins sat in Daddy's office to listen to me practice my delivery. Jean and Pierre sat on the floor in front of the settee. Jean fidgeted, but Pierre stared up at me and listened intently.
When I was finished, they all clapped. Daddy beamed, and Mommy looked so happy, I nearly burst into tears myself. Graduation was set to begin at four, so I went upstairs to finish doing my hair. Mommy came up and sat with me.
'I'm so nervous, Mommy,' I told her. My heart was already thumping.
'You'll do fine, honey.'
'It's one thing to deliver my speech to you and Daddy and the twins, but an audience of hundreds! I'm afraid I'll just freeze up.'
'Just before you start, look for me,' she said. 'You won't freeze up. I'll give you Grandmere Catherine's look,' she promised.
'I wish I had known Grandmere Catherine,' I said with a sigh.
