"I always remember his stories," Elodie continued. "I loved his stories about France and going to see his father's family. I want to go there someday." She broke one of her bread pieces in half.
"I think you will. If you keep going with your music, you'll get there. You'll play all the football stadiums and theaters."
"That's my goal."
"Well, you’ll definitely get there with the amount of time you’ve spent playing your guitar lately. I don't think I've seen you but a few times a day for the last few days. Are you busy writing some new songs?"
“Actually yes,” she responded as she took another bite of her bread. "As to why you haven’t seen much of me, well, think of it this way. You have your cooking. I have my music. We all deal with it differently. Speaking of which, I started working on a new song today that’s not about boys or love.”
Elodie continued. “Anyway, I started..... writing something about Papa. It’s only a really rough draft, but I dunno. It really feels..... it makes me feel relieved to write something about him. It’s not to say I didn’t enjoy writing songs about love but, well, let’s face it. Most songs out there are all about that already. What new thing can I really even say about it? And writing about Papa..... it feels different. In a really good way. It feels so much more meaningful. Not just because it was him who showed me some chords to start with when I first got my guitar a few years ago and encouraged me to play.”
“Well, even if it’s a work in progress, would you mind playing your song for me later? I’d really like to hear it.”
Elodie looked a little wary of her sister’s request, but finally her face brightened and she said, “Sure. I’ll warn you that the melody is not quite there, but I really like the words at least.” She looked off into space for a moment before continuing. “Writing has really given me such a great creative outlet and more than ever, I’m eager to share it with people. I was so caught up in trying to be Miss Popular and I didn’t want people to think I was a brain, so I kept it to myself. In my world, you can’t be really smart and pretty. It has to be one or the other.”
“Look at me, Elodie. I’m both pretty and smart. I know I wouldn’t have said that a while ago, but there you go..... And I even have someone who loves that I’m smart and can do math problems in circles around him with my eyes closed.”
Elodie smiled. “It’s wonderful to hear you with so much more confidence. And yes, every time Kyle comes to visit, I can just tell that he really loves you, Heloise. And... you deserve that.”
Heloise’s face immediately flushed at the mention of Kyle. She broke off a piece of bread, taking a break from her stew for a few moments of contemplation. Her mother was almost finished as was her sister, despite all the talking they’d done.
“I’m serious, Heloise. I’m going to try and not get all mushy here, but you know something I’ve always admired about you? How dedicated you are to the things you love like cooking and reading and how you can practically roll out of bed and not do anything to your hair or face and you still look pretty.”
“All right since we’re on the subject, you have no idea how much I’d like to be more extroverted like you sometimes. I mean, I’m getting there, but I still have a long way to go. I can’t do it. I can’t just go up to random people and start talking to them like I’ve known them for ages like you seem to do. That’s why I don’t have many friends and why I keep to myself so often and why I devote so much of my time to reading and studying. I’m just... not a people kind of person. And I wish I was. It can get lonely at times.”
For a few minutes, the two girls looked at each other, taking in their conversation. Heloise had never told anyone except Kyle just how jealous she was of her sister sometimes, and she had no idea that her sister even felt any jealousy towards her either. She’d had this mostly perfect image of her sister as being bubbly and popular, if a pain in the ass at times when Elodie was selfish and wanted all the attention on her.
“I guess we’re more alike than we thought,” Elodie said at last, her words hanging like a curtain in front of them. “We both want something the other wants.”
Heloise pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows knowingly. Both of them had finished their ratatouille and were now sitting quietly at the table, occasionally looking at each other.
“We haven’t been like this with each other for a very long time,” Heloise finally said. “I think the last deep conversation we ever had was just before middle school, to be honest.”
Elodie nodded. “Before I became boy-crazy and wanted to be popular.”
“Pretty much.”
Elodie shook her head in disbelief. “Sometimes I wonder how you, Mom, and Papa ever put up with me.”
“We’ve all been through it, sweetie,” Shannon replied from the other end of the table. She got up from her chair and started taking the empty bowls into the kitchen. “Papa grew up with a sister himself, remember, so he understood everything.” At the mention of their father, her voice went soft, but she quickly turned away and walked to the kitchen. She looked like she was ready to say something else but couldn’t bring herself to do it.
The sisters glanced at each other before getting up from the table themselves. Elodie gestured for her sister to follow her, and so Heloise went with her sister to the study room.
Elodie picked up her guitar and threw the strap around her neck before sitting down in her desk chair. Heloise pulled up a chair until she was sitting about three feet away from her sister. She watched her sister pull out a capo from a desk drawer and place it on the third fret of her guitar, then Elodie began tuning her guitar strings.
“You really seem to like playing music. I could hear you through the walls when you practiced.”
Elodie nodded and smiled. “Remember what Papa said about finding what makes you happy? I really really hope that you take that to heart, what he said about your cooking. You’re so focused and happy when you’re in the kitchen.”
Heloise’s eyes fell to her feet as her sister opened a notebook and began to strum. “Well, I have been giving something a lot of thought..... since that night. I haven’t told Mom yet, but I’m going to make it through this first semester and drop out to go to a cooking school. I’ve started filling out an application for Le Cordon Bleu in Paris in fact. Just yesterday. I’ve never been to France and I know it’s what Papa would have wanted and really.... cooking is what makes me happiest in life. You’re right. Kyle was right and most of all, Papa was right. I have to do this and follow my happiness. I can’t live a life of regret because I was too scared to try something I really wanted.”
“Oh Heloise that’s wonderful!” Elodie set her guitar down on the floor and proceeded to throw her arms around Heloise. “Beautiful Paris.... You’ll be making it to France before me, you know.”
Heloise chuckled. “Hey, you and Duncan can always come and visit, you know. Just don’t tell Mom yet.”
“Your secret is safe with me.”
With that said, Heloise sat back in her chair and watched her sister intently, waiting for the song.
“So here’s my song. It’s called Eternal Smile,” Elodie stated very simply, “and I hope you like it.”
She immediately went into an arpeggiated waltz rhythm, her fingers squeaking across the fretboards as she formed the necessary chords. Heloise tapped her foot lightly on the floor as her sister opened her mouth to sing.
Rings around my rosey
Pockets full of sadness
And all these memories of you
Have almost driven me to madness
I see it in the clouds
And I see it in the sky
The way that happiness
Would light up your eyes
In an eternal smile
Loving life and all its gifts
An eternal smile
Always on your lips
You may be gone from this earth
But that smile still lives in my heart
Then suddenly the song s
topped. The last chord rang out in the room and Elodie cleared her throat. “That’s all I have so far. But it’s a start.”
“I think Papa would be proud. Keep going with it.”
Heloise immediately reached out to her sister and gave her a huge hug. In each other’s arms, both sisters cried and blubbered. No words, just crying.
Friends again.
About the Author
Born in Maryland and raised in Virginia, Cecilee Linke knew she wanted to be an author from an early age. She would fill her computer hard drives and notebooks with stories and poems that she hoped other people besides her parents and friends would get to read some day. In middle school, she chose to begin learning French and so began a passion that continues to this day. She studied at Old Dominion University and spent three months in early 2006 studying abroad in France. When she’s not concocting stories, she likes to sing and write music under her first name and give private French lessons. She currently lives in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia with her loving husband and two cats Mardi and Dom Dom.
Her official website for her writings and music is www.cecilee.net
Elodie and Heloise Page 19