Page 58 of The House on Prytania
She stared at us blankly.
Sarah stood. “Have you never heard of Winnie-the-Pooh?”
“Who?” Jolene asked, her eyebrows pressed together in question.
I looked at her closely to see if she might be joking, but she seemed serious. “How can you be the queen of all knowledge concerningThe Wizard of Ozbut not know about Winnie-the-Pooh?”
She turned to artfully arrange the pieces of cake on the plate and shrugged. “I have no idea. But whatever it is, it’s adorable. And Mardi looks so cute with that ass in his mouth.”
Jolene returned to the kitchen as Sunny, Sarah, and I exchanged looks behind her back.
Mardi ran to the door and pawed at the glass, the toy still in his mouth. “I’ll take him out,” Sarah said, grabbing his leash off the hat rack by the door. She reached down to take the toy, and he let out a low growl. “I guess he really likes it,” she said, opening the door and leading Mardi down the stairs.
I turned to Sunny. “You can ask Jolene if she wants help, but she’ll probably say no. You might as well make yourself comfortable and flip on the TV until she thinks of something you can do that won’t interfere with her prep work. I’m going to go get ready.”
“Sounds like a plan. Is there another TV I should watch so I won’t be in her way? I haven’t seen the rest of the apartment, so I’m not sure of the layout.”
“You’re welcome to walk around and take a tour, but that’s the only TV. My bedroom and Jolene’s bedroom are on either side of the bathroom. The front room is basically junk storage for now, until Jolene figures out how she’d like to transform it. It’s where we stored the old Maison Blanche door for a while before Beau threw it into the swamp. The hatboxes were here, too, until we sold most of the contents to a secondhand store. So basically, it’s where we keep our suitcases and Rubbermaid boxes full of Jolene’s hoarded seasonal decorations.”
“What about the rest of the old clothes and hatboxes? Mimi said there were other things found in the closet.”
I decided to be deliberately vague with my answer, unsure if Beau wanted Sunny to know that he hadn’t destroyed everything as he’d told Mimi he had. “I think Jolene donated the empty hatboxes and anything the vintage store didn’t want. There was a Mr. Bingle doll in pristine condition, and it’s still here. I put it in the back room because I couldn’t think of a better place.”
Sunny nodded. “When I was here before and I came in through the back door, I saw a back room with a wall full of casement windows. Is that the same room?”
“That’s sort of my office-slash–music room. It’s also big enough for a blow-up mattress. Sarah’s staying back there all week, so I guess you can also call it our guest room. I’d hoped the light from the windows would creatively inspire me with my music.”
“Has it?”
“Not yet. I’m still getting settled into my new life.”
Sunny smiled, reminding me of one of the framed photos Mimi kept in her house of a very young Beau with his parents and sister before the abduction and Hurricane Katrina. Sunny’s white-blond hair blew around her pixie-like face, her trademark smile shining out from the frame. It must have been hard for her family to forget that smile or why she’d been nicknamed Sunny.
“Don’t worry—you’ve got time. Mimi tells me that when I was little I could pick out any song on the piano, but I can’t even imagine doing that now. I guess I’ve got time, too. As soon as I settle in.”
“Well,” I said. “I guess we can settle in together.”
“Especially since we’ll be working together fixing up that house on Esplanade. I know that Beau sort of sprang that on you, and I hope it’s okay. I’m a quick study, and I’ve always been interested in old houses and how to fix them up. And I promise I won’t get in your way.”
“Thanks,” I said. “It will be a learning experience for both of us.” I headed toward the bathroom so I could shower and dress but stopped halfway. “Quick question for you, Sunny. Do you ever feel your mother’s presence? Or see any evidence that she’s been near?”
She looked at me, her face blank. “Like what?”
“Well, I’m not what anybody would call psychic, but I can sense cold spots and certain... atmospheres, depending on how strong a spirit is. I know you said that you didn’t think you’d inherited any of your family’s psychic gifts, but I was just wondering if maybe you had a more heightened sense than the rest of us normal people.”
“No. At least not that I know of.” She shrugged. “Maybe I have and I didn’t recognize it and my adoptive parents just sort of brushed it off. Because it’s not something people would expect.”
I nodded. “Have you noticed puddles where there shouldn’t be any? Or wet footprints that just appear?”
She shook her head. “Definitely not—and I hope it never happens. I’d probably be so scared, I’d faint.”
“Yeah. Me, too.”
“Why? Does that happen to Beau?”
I nodded. “We’re pretty sure it’s your mom. She’s trying to tell him something, but he doesn’t want to listen. I was wondering if she might be trying to talk to you, too.”
“Nope—nothing. Beau got all the psychic genes in the family, and I got the short body.” She grinned. “But I can’t help but wonder why our mother keeps trying to talk with him. Maybe he just needs to force her to go to the light so they both can move on, because there’s no reason anymore for her to be hanging around.”
