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She shook her head and walked back to the house with me. We both returned to our bedrooms, but I didn't fall asleep until nearly morning.
Mommy didn't come down to breakfast the next morning before I left for work. Daddy said she had spent a restless night and was still sound asleep. In fact, despite the wonderful reception her new works had received, Mommy remained in a melancholy state for days. The twins were usually there at the door complaining when I returned from work.
"Mommy's losing her hearing," Pierre concluded. Jean, nodded worriedly. "She should go to an ear doctor."
"Maybe you can test her hearing, Pearl," Jean said. "Why do you say she's losing her hearing?" I asked with a smile.
"If we ask her a question, we have to ask her twice, maybe three times," Pierre explained.
"Sometimes we have to shout!" Jean added. "She's a bit distracted these days," I told them. "It's not her hearing. Just be patient."
They shook their heads skeptically and went back to their games. But the mood of despair that had laid itself over our home depressed them. They had no enthusiasm for their pranks. Daddy began to worry about Mommy, too. She wasn't working; she didn't visit with her friends or have any visitors, and she wasn't eating well. Finally, one night at dinner, my father thought he had a solution.
"Pearl has Monday and Tuesday off this next week and I'm due for a holiday. What say we go to the chateau, this weekend, Ruby? The change of scenery will do you good. You can get some ideas for your work, and the boys and I can go fishing."
"Yeah!" Jean cried.
"I don't know," Mommy said. Daddy looked to me for help.
"I'd love a change of scenery, Mommy, and we haven't been to the chateau for quite a while," I said. "I can get some of my college preparatory reading done, too."
She looked at me and nodded. "I suppose we could go," she said.
The boys were cheered, and the packing and planning did add some brightness to what had otherwise been a dark time. Despite her initial reluctance, Mommy dived into the preparations. No one had to wake the boys the next morning. They were already dressed and ready by the time Mommy, Daddy, and I went downstairs for breakfast. They had packed their own suitcases, but when Mommy inspected them, she discovered they had included slingshots, baseballs, shedded snakeskins, marbles, and jackknives.
"You'll have plenty with which to occupy yourselves at the chateau," Mommy told them. "No need to bring all this junk."
Daddy packed the car immediately after breakfast. I think he was even more excited than the twins about taking the holiday. As usual the twins talked a blue streak during the drive, asking questions about practically everything in sight. What were people selling on the sides of the highway? How did they make those baskets and palmetto hats? Why were the shacks built on stilts? Mommy had little time to dwell on her dark thoughts, so even though Daddy normally would have asked the twins to take a break, he simply smiled at me, winked, and let the questions go on and on.
It was a beautiful summer day. Bringing Mommy out to the rural world appeared to be the panacea Daddy and I were hoping for. The sight of her beloved Spanish moss draped from old cypress trees, the glistening goldenrod, the willows and cottonwoods, and here and there a pond covered with lilies and hyacinths filled her with pleasure and restored the glow to her eyes and cheeks. The twins loved to test her knowledge of birds, and she was more than eager to identify a grosbeak heron or a scarlet cardinal. They were fascinated by her description of a butcher bird and how it stored its food on thorns so it could eat the cured flesh during the winter. Everything about nature fascinated them. I decided they were the ones who had really inherited our grandmother's affinity for wild things.
"I hope we see snakes and alligators," Jean said as we drew closer to what had been the Dumas family's country home.
"Never mind about them," Mommy warned. "You two mustn't wander off exploring on your own. I want you close to the house except when Daddy takes you, hear?"
Reluctantly, they promised.
"There she blows," Daddy cried as we came around a turn and our country house came into view.
The building that my grandfather Dumas used to refer to as his ranch actually resembled a chateau. It had a steeply pitched hipped roof with spires, pinnacles, turrets, gables, and two oddly shaped chimneys. The metal cresting along the roof's ridges was elaborately ornamented. The windows and the doorway were arched. To the right were two small cottages for the servants and caretakers, and to the right, some thousand yards or so away, were the stables with the riding horses and a barn. The property had rambling fields with patches of wooded areas and a stream cutting across its north end.
Like some of the chateaux in the French countryside, it had beautiful gardens, and two gazebos stood on the front lawn, as did benches and chairs and stone fountains. When we arrived, the caretakers were busily trimming hedges and weeding.
"Can we go horseback riding right away, Daddy?" Jean cried.
"Let's settle in first, unpack, and get organized. Then we'll see about the recreational schedule," he said.
The twins put a cork in their overflowing bottle of excitement, but both looked as if they would burst as they feasted their eyes on our beautiful grounds, the ponds, the fields, and the stream that wove its way deep into the woods and promised adventures forever. They started to rush away as soon as Daddy stopped the car, but he hauled them back with a cry.
"You two help unload. Carry your own suitcases to your room. Come on. You're both big enough to take care of yourselves," he said.
They returned to the car and took their things, Jean proudly heaving his suitcase over his shoulder and helping Pierre unload his.
Mommy stood for a moment gazing around. Then she lifted her eyes to look at an upstairs window. Some memory brought shadows to her face. Daddy sensed her concern and moved quickly to her side.
"Let's have an enjoyable few days and let the past remain buried, Ruby. Please," he pleaded. She nodded, took a deep breath, and started for the front door.
Except for the inclusion of some of Mommy's paintings, my parents had done little to change the decor. The chateau had a short foyer decorated with drapes and large landscape paintings. The furnishings were a mixture of modern and the same French Provincial found in our New Orleans house.
