Page 108 of The House on Prytania
I caught it, then left the room. After realizing that my pants didn’t have pockets, I stuck it in my bra. Jolene had let me borrow an evening bag, but it didn’t work with my costume, so I was making do without it.
I had just plopped down on the couch when the landline phone began to ring. I jumped up, headed down the stairs, closed the front door behind me, and sat on the steps to wait.
•••
In typical Louisiana fashion, the temperatures were back up to the high sixties and lower seventies by the night of Mimi’s cathedral fund-raiser, dubbed All Saints No Haints. Mimi admitted to having had help with the name from Sunny.
Michael arrived at the apartment first, and seeing him again after our beach weekend was just as awkward as I’d expected. We’d parted amicably, but I’d expected at least a text if we really were friends. Granted, I hadn’t texted him either, so maybe we were in the wait-and-see phase.
He wore a Franciscan habit and worn brown sandals that I recalled seeing him wear at the beach house, and a stuffed bird was perched on each of his shoulders. He kissed my cheek in greeting. “I would say that you look beautiful, but the football jersey is distracting me.”
I turned so he could read the name BREES on the back. He laughed out loud. “Ah,thatsaint. I wish I’d thought of that before Jolene suggested Saint Francis.” His smile faded as I turned back around to face him. “Are you okay? I mean, with me taking Sunny?”
I waved my hand. “Why shouldn’t I be? We’re still working on being friends, remember?”
“Yeah. I just—well, I wanted to be sure. No hurt feelings, right?”
“No hurt feelings,” I said, giving him a thumbs-up like I was on a tarmac guiding planes.
A red Ford pickup truck slid into a parking spot in front of the house and a young dark-haired man wearing another Saints uniform stepped out.
Connor Black greeted us with a wide, easy smile as I introduced myself. I saw the strong resemblance to his sister, Meghan—but without the pearls and Kate Spade. Turning around, I showed him the back of my jersey and he laughed. “Oh, man—I thought I was being so creative dressing like Drew Brees. I guess great minds think alike.”
“At this rate, we’ll probably see the entire team roster at the party,” Michael said. “It’s so much easier than coming up with an actual saint and an appropriate costume.” He shook Connor’s hand and introduced himself.
I checked the time on my phone. “I’m still waiting for my date, so why don’t y’all go on upstairs? Jolene left snacks and libations on the kitchen table, so help yourself. I’ll shoot Sunny and Jolene a text to let them know you’re coming up. They should be done by now.” I thought for a moment, recalling that I was talking about Jolene, then amended my statement. “Or within the half hour.”
As soon as they left, my phone binged with two texts, one after the other. The first was from Cooper, telling me that he was running late but he was on his way. The second was from Sarah.
Did u look at pics yet?
I hadn’t, and since Beau was clearly not interested in discussing them with me, I’d deleted them from my phone.
No why?
Three dots appeared, and then a single photo came in as a text attachment.
I was bored in science class and looked at pics instead and thought this might b important
I clicked on the picture to expand it.I see it what am I looking for?
My phone rang, and I heard Sarah’s voice. “I can’t believe that I’m saying this, but it’s easier to talk IRL than text. Look at the photo again.”
I put her on speaker so I could open my screen to the photo. “Okay, got it.”
“See the names in the second column on the stone slab?”
I used my fingers to expand the photo, zeroing in. I saw Jeanne’s name and dates, and below them the names of her father and uncle, Antoine and Frank. Her mother, Paulette, sat right beneath them. Just looking at their names carved in marble sent a shiver through me. “What are you wanting me to look at?”
She sighed in my ear, as if I had bricks instead of brains, and I wondered if I’d been that insufferable when I was twelve. “Keep looking under Jeanne’s family. You’ll see a list of three names of children who died close to or on their birth dates. See them?”
“Sadly, yeah.” Each name had the last name of Sabatier and every date was in the nineteen nineties and early two thousands. “Mrs. Sabatier said that she’d had three miscarriages, so those must be her babies.”
“Yes. And those were the last members of the family to die, right? Because every name is in chronological order, starting with the top name on the far-left column, with some old guy named Pierre Riviere Broussard who died in 1835 at the age of ninety-eight.”
Sunny, Jolene, Connor, and Michael came out of the door, looking like a ragtag band led by a Franciscan monk. I told Sarah to hang on while I stood. “You all can go on ahead. Cooper’s on his way, and I don’t want to make everyone late.”
“I really should get there as soon as possible,” Sunny said, her face lacking its usual animation, her skin drawn and pale in the porchlight, “since I’m a member of the host family. I need to be there to help Mimi greet her guests.”
