Bones to Ashes

She travels alone and glides through the shadows; others can not see her.

Her hair the amber of late autumn oak leaves, eyes the pale purple of dayclean.

Mouth a red cherry. Cheeks ruby roses. Young bones going to ashes.”

“Same metering,” I said.

“What about vocabulary? You’ve spent time in New Brunswick and South Carolina?”

“The phrase ‘forest primeval’ is straight out of Longfellow.”

“And refers to Acadia. At least in ‘Evangeline.’ What else?”

I looked at my jottings. “‘Dayclean’ is a Gullah term for dawn. And in the South, ‘ailing’ is colloquial for being ill.”

“Exactly. So these two together point to South Carolina.”

A poet with ties to Acadia and South Carolina. A poet influenced by Longfellow’s “Evangeline.” A Francophone writing in English. Talk about a linguistic fingerprint.

Sweet Jesus. Harry was right. Bones to Ashes was written by Evangeline.

A flash fire of anger seared through my brain. Another lie. Or at best an evasion. I couldn’t wait to confront Obeline.

Rob spoke again.

His words sent ice roaring through my veins.

38

“W AIT.” I SPOKE WHEN MY LIPS COULD AGAIN FORM WORDS. “Back up.”

“OK. I said that a speaker’s mother tongue often comes to the fore when he or she is under stress. Then you’re more likely to use false cognates because emotion is boiling through your native language. It may happen in these lines because of the terrible feelings of viewers, because of the unimaginable yet real images on TV of burning victims leaping to their deaths.”

“Read the lines again.” It wasn’t possible. Rob couldn’t have said what I thought I’d heard.

Rob repeated what he’d read.

“I see the terror that comes from hate

Two towers fall while men debate

Oh where is God? Even brave people, chair, blessed by fire,

Jet to death!”

My heart was banging so hard I feared the sound would carry across the line. Rob continued talking, oblivious to the emotions raging inside me.

“‘Chair, blessed by fire’ isn’t very coherent in English, but the medium is poetry, and in poetry the flow of information and the frames of reference elicited are expected to be murky and different than in everyday speech. Except in these lines it is almost everyday speech, at least in French. Chair is flesh. And se jeter, here the verb ‘jet,’ roughly means ‘to throw yourself.’ And blesser means ‘to injure.’ In French this verse means ‘Oh where is God? Even brave people, flesh wounded by fire, throw themselves to their deaths!’”

“You’re certain it’s a reference to nine-eleven and the World Trade Center?” Impossibly calm.

“Has to be.”

“And you have no doubt the poems in Bones to Ashes were written by my friend Evangeline.”

“None. Can I finish explaining how I arrived at that conclusion?”

“I have to go now, Rob.”

“There’s more.”

“I’ll call you.”

“You OK?”

I clicked off. I knew it was rude and ungrateful. Knew I would later send flowers or cognac. At that moment I didn’t want more talk.

The poems were all by Evangeline, and some were recent.

Down the hall, a door opened. The argument between Homer and Marge grew louder.

At least one poem was written after September 2001.

The argument concerned a trip to Vermont. Homer wanted to drive. Marge preferred flying.

I sat motionless, paralyzed by the implications of Rob’s findings.

Evangeline was alive in 2001. She had not been murdered decades ago.

Bart and Lisa joined the debate, advocating a motor-home holiday.