“What’s the message, Detra Ann? Just tell me the message.” I waved at Austin and whispered to Ashland, “Something about Henri. Would you mind handing me a pen and paper?” Ashland ungraciously tossed the paper and pen down in front of me, and I frowned at him. Why in the world did he hate Austin so much? It was really too bad. “Okay, go ahead.”
She said in a shaking voice, “Lenore said, ‘But you tell Carrie Jo—let him do what he has to do. Don’t try to stop him.’”
“That’s kind of vague. Let who do what to who? Detra Ann? Please stop crying. No, we’re on our way over there. I’m not taking no for an answer.”
When she could finally talk she explained, “You don’t have any choice, and neither do I. We have to go into protective custody. Henri got involved in some—”
“Hello? Who is this?” A man with a gruff voice was on the line now.
I stared at the phone. “This is Mrs. Carrie Jo Stuart. What is wrong with my friends, Detra Ann and Henri Devecheaux?”
“My name is Detective Gray. I’m working with Mr. Devecheaux on a project. He and his lovely wife are going to be gone for a few weeks. They are safe, but you won’t be able to reach them. If you have any questions, call the Detective Supervisor, Lieutenant Simmons, at this number….” I scribbled the number down, and it looked vaguely familiar. I prayed this guy was legit.
“Can you tell me what they’re doing? I can’t help but worry.”
“No, I can’t tell you anything else right now. Please be patient and call Lieutenant Simmons if you need to reach the Devecheauxs. Goodbye, Mrs. Stuart.”
“Bye,” I said blankly as I hung up the phone. “They can’t help us, Ash. They are working with a Detective Gray. He won’t tell me what this is about or anything. Says we are to call Lieutenant Simmons if we need to get a hold of Detra Ann and Henri, at least for the next little while. That’s the same Simmons we know…guess she got promoted,” I said with a weak smile.
Ashland turned to Austin. “Simmons? Is she related to you? Have I asked you that before?”
“You have. And no, she’s not. I’m an orphan, remember? I don’t have any siblings that I know about. I might be able to figure out what’s going on later, but I think we need to focus on the task at hand, don’t you?”
“Agreed, but I’m worried about Detra Ann,” I said. “She sounded so…so…unsure of everything. Not like her at all.” I eyed my phone and considered calling her back, but Austin patted my hand, a move Ashland didn’t miss. He bit his lip and went over to play with Baby Boy.
“You should hear this too, Ashland. Christine was in the garden a few minutes ago. When I asked her why she was here, she said, ‘The child…help the child.’ As I walked back up the rose garden path, I could hear your son singing. She’s here because of him; she protects the children, I think. That’s kind of her role in this place now.”
“There were no children in Lafonda’s time, except her and her brother, but I don’t think they’d qualify as children at their age.”
“Except Jonatan was a child…mentally, at any rate. I think she wanted to protect him from the likes of Max Davenport, but she couldn’t. But she still has a shot with your son, and keep in mind she can cross over time if she wants to. She can move along the timeline as she needs to accomplish her task.”
“Funny, I just assumed that she’d be at rest. We saw her walk into the light. Well, you didn’t, but Ashland and I did. We saw her leave with her daughter and Hoyt.”
“That doesn’t mean she can’t come back and forth. She’s not bound here anymore, that’s true, but she still thinks of herself as the lady of Seven Sisters. She is, I suppose. At any rate, she’s not here to harm anyone. But I guess you figured that out by now.”
“Yes, that was kind of clear the other day,” I said with a nervous smile. Ashland told him the story of AJ falling down and Christine hovering near him.
“Interesting! So how shall we do this? We have to go back, like you said on the phone. We need to go see what we can see.”
“Um, is…okay, I mean, is there a way we can bring Ashland with us? I think he wants to try it.”
“You dream too, Ashland?”
“No, not like y’all, anyway.”
“Then I’m afraid it won’t work. I don’t think we can carry you with us unless you are also a dream catcher. Sorry about that, but then again, somebody needs to keep an eye on home base while we’re gone. Now, AJ will be one heckuva dream catcher one day. I would be completely surprised if he’s not already dreaming in some limited way. With a dream catcher mother and a ghost whisperer father, he’s bound to have some skills.” Austin frowned. “Keep him away from the Brotherhood, you two, no matter what. Promise me.”
It was such a fierce, surprising demand that we both agreed with nods and wide-eyed stares.
“Okay, you know the drill. Find an item you like and study it. Think about it. Think of nothing else…”
All of a sudden, Baby Boy began to cry and reach for me. “Momma! Hold me, Momma!”
I rushed to his side and picked him up. “It’s all right. I’m not going to leave you. Hush now.” I kissed him and glanced at Austin. “Give me a few minutes, okay?” I took him upstairs and spent some time tidying him up and playing with him. I needed this moment, this real moment with my son. Hopefully his Daddy wasn’t being an ass downstairs.
“Hey, he’s waiting for you.”
I sighed and kept playing with Baby Boy, who was in no mood to share his red blocks with me anymore. “No, Momma. You have those.” Naturally, those were any other blocks but the red ones.
“You can’t avoid it, Carrie Jo. You have to go back.”
I put a handful of the hard, plastic blocks in the bucket and shot him an are you kidding me? look.
“I know, I know. I’m the world’s biggest ass. I can’t explain the rage. It just comes over me. It’s like I’m not even me anymore. And Carrie Jo…”
“Yeah?” I asked unsurely as I continued to pick up blocks and Baby Boy continued to dump them out.
“I saw his face. Must have been Max. I saw his face in the mirror just a few minutes ago. He’s around, he’s watching, and I know he doesn’t want us here. He’s got unfinished business. He says he knows who murdered him and he won’t leave until everyone knows.”
“Did you tell Austin?”
“Yeah. I apologized to him too. At first, I think I didn’t like him because he looked so much like David Garrett. And then the headaches came and I couldn’t think clearly. I didn’t know who was my friend and who was my enemy.”
I got up and ignored Baby Boy’s yell of displeasure. He got bored with yelling at me soon enough and went back to talking to himself and picking up the red blocks. “I am so sorry if I made you question anything,” I said softly. “I love you, Ashland. We’re going to get through all this.”
“One last thing…this is different. I’ve been talking horribly to folks. I mean, I’ve said some questionable things, and I think I need to apologize to Henri and Detra Ann when they come back around. And you. I never believed for a second you would do anything with Austin. It was just that I was so angry all the time.”
“Don’t you see? Don’t you know these ghosts well enough to know you were being influenced by one in particular? The one you saw in the mirror? It’s Max! He’s been taking advantage of the situation, but not anymore. Look, I know we agreed that I wouldn’t leave you behind again, but…”
“I know.” He hugged me with his big muscular arms and kissed my cheek. “It has to be this way. I know it. Well, I’ll be here holding down the fort. Me and Baby Boy. We’ve got this, don’t we, AJ?”
Our blond-headed son picked up a block, held it over his head and started dancing. “Got this! Got this! Got this!”
“He gets that from your side of the family,” I joked.
“Who are we kidding? He’s smarter than both of us.”
“You’re probably right. I’d better go downstairs and see if Austin is read
y to go.”
“Be careful, Carrie Jo, and promise me you’ll come back alive and well.”
For the second time in the past week, I got goose pimples. I wrapped my arms around him and whispered in his ear, “I plan on it.”
Before I could cry or change my mind, I went down the wide staircase that Calpurnia and Lafonda had traveled hundreds of times in their lives. It occurred to me suddenly that I was part of the story now, not just connected through ancestry but truly written into the fabric of Seven Sisters. And that frightened me. How would my story end? People who lived here rarely died of old age, happy and healthy, with their grandchildren around their feet.
However it would end, I would do my best to keep my promise to Ashland. I wanted more than anything to come back alive and well.
Chapter Twelve—Lafonda & Carrie Jo
“Mama, see the blue butterfly? It’s an astya…it’s a blue butterfly, Mama.” My clumsy tongue could not enunciate the Latin phrase properly. My mind felt as heavy as my tongue, but at least I could no longer feel the pain. It had been a week now, I think, but then I couldn’t be sure. A full week of…of something, I heard Mama tell Lettie, but what? I thought perhaps I would die. Maybe I was already dead.
“Where is Jonatan, Mama? I want him to see this spec…specimen. Jonatan! Bring the net!”
“Lafonda, sit down this instant! Before you fall down.” As the voice that scolded me was my father’s, I obeyed and returned to my blanket in a sunny patch in my rose garden. “Are you sure this is a good idea, Jacinta? Shouldn’t she be in bed and not out here frolicking in the garden?”
“Look at her, Nobel. She needs a healthy dose of the sun. She’s positively pale, as white as one of the columns on the front of the house. As white as…”
I thought this conversation strange, as Mama always hated the sun. And freckles. Freckles…freckles…such an amusing word.
“Enough, dear. I take your meaning, but I don’t like this. And I don’t like my daughter taking this poison all day every day.” Papa handled the tiny green bottle for a second and then tossed his hat down on the tea table, nearly upsetting Mama’s fine bone china tea set. If I had jostled Mama’s china in such a careless manner, I would have had my wrists smacked. But nobody smacked Papa’s wrists.
Freckles…I snickered until I sensed a hint of pain at the back of my head. The sensation speedily traveled down my neck, but I thought it best to keep quiet about it for now. I didn’t have a care in the world, beyond the looming threat of discomfort, although a corner of my mind told me I should worry over something extremely important. No matter; I would recall it soon enough. Falling back limply, I lay on my back and gazed at the sky above me. A gentle wind swept across the tops of the trees. How tall they were! Taller than I’d noticed before. Now here I was, lying under a sprawling crepe myrtle heavy with lilac-colored blooms. The blue sky peeked through the generous branches, and shafts of sunlight caressed my skin. If it weren’t for my absolute inability to think or speak, this would have been a perfect day.
But where is Jonatan? Then the bad thing hovered near the edge of my memory, so close I could almost snatch it and claim it, but it was not to be. And as if she heard me, Mama arrived with a spoonful of medicine.
“Sit up, my dear. Time for your medicine. There’s a good girl.”
I didn’t fuss. I quite liked my medicine now. I sat up and took it, then lay back down, my hands like two dead things at my sides as I continued to study the sky. Right before my tired eyes, the deep blue sky transformed into a swirl of color. It took my breath away, and the sensation of petals falling on my face lent the moment a magical touch. Mama and Papa continued to talk in hushed tones, but neither spoke to me except to encourage me to drink water or eat a nibble of cake. I did as they asked and then lay back down, happy to be out of the room and in my garden, my own paradise.
But where was my brother?
I peeked through slitted eyes to see Mama and Papa arguing. Both were standing now and pointing at one another. Mama was crying, and Papa was furious. Lettie had left them to handle their dispute privately, and I would leave too if they continued to fight. Yes, I would leave and go find Jonatan. Stop, Mama! Do not quarrel with Papa! They had quite forgotten about me…oh, look at that yellow butterfly—such a fine specimen with perfectly symmetrical spots. I do like that. So rare to find, although the spots are never truly equal in size or color. Just an illusion—all an illusion.
But this one I must have, even if I have to catch it with my bare hands….
***
“Carrie Jo, step back. Yes, back away from the scene. Let’s go over here where we won’t interfere with them.”
“But Lafonda might wander off. What if she gets hurt?”
“We can’t stop her if she does, remember? That’s why we are here, Carrie Jo, to make sure nothing else gets changed. Don’t frown, I’m not picking on you. You are a strong dream catcher, much stronger than I am. But that doesn’t mean you understand it all yet. You are strong but not practiced enough to know how to safely use your gift. You’ll get there. Don’t give up. Promise me you won’t give up.”
“Fine, I promise. Now what do we do?”
Things didn’t look like they normally did. There were no clear lines between light and shadow, between past and present. My stomach clutched at the sensation, knowing we weren’t where we should be. Then I noticed that Austin wasn’t dressed like Austin anymore. At some point during the “leaving,” he’d shed his blue jeans and fitted dress shirt. In his elegant blue velvet coat, white shirt with lace cuffs and black riding boots, there could be no doubt that the man I stood next to was none other than David Garrett. His hair was longer; it suited him—as it always had—and he wore it loose around his shoulders. He didn’t seem to notice, but I couldn’t stop staring at him.
“When you’re dream walking, Carrie Jo, ordinary objects sometimes have two uses. For example, the cuckoo clock in your kitchen doesn’t just tell time; it might also become a bird. Dream walking has many of the same elements as dream catching. So, if we need to turn back time, to go back to the day you made contact, we should go find a clock, preferably one that the Delarosas would be familiar with.”
“The sundial!” I said, excited to learn something about my gift. “You think it will work?”
“It’s worth a shot, isn’t it? I can’t promise you that we will end up where we need to be, but I’m willing to go on a little faith here.”
“Unless we screw up something else,” I replied, feeling mesmerized by a cluster of blue butterflies that had begun to circle me.
“They like you; that’s a good thing. Follow me. It’s just over here.”
We found the sundial easily enough. Together, we shifted the dial back a number of days…and nothing happened. We stood up and faced one another. I felt disappointed, but my mind was already racing with the possibilities. Maybe another type of clock? As I began to suggest it, the whole garden began to spin. Before I could ask a question, I was gone. Or Austin was gone. I didn’t know which.
***
I was standing in front of a door again, but it wasn’t Lafonda’s. It was Jonatan’s, and I could hear low voices inside. Without thinking it through, I opened the door slightly and peeked in. I needn’t have bothered, as a half-dressed young woman stormed out into the hallway with tears in her eyes. She blew right through me, leaving me feeling sick and queasy. Wind whipped around me and lifted my hair momentarily. I quickly entered the room and hid in a corner before Jacinta shut the door.
“You think to make a fool out of me, Max, but you will not. You have no idea what I am prepared to do to see my son take his rightful place in society.”
Max slid out of the bed, uncaring that he showed the older woman his naked body. I could see her disgust as she turned away for a moment. She obviously hoped he would dress himself, but he seemed in no hurry to do so. He lit a cigar and reached for a silk robe—Jonatan’s robe. I glanced to the other side of the room and saw the c
ot. That was obviously where Jacinta and Nobel had intended for Max to sleep; he was just the companion, after all, not an actual friend. It probably took him all of a day to have Jonatan sleeping on that cot.
“I got the boy to the meeting place. I can hardly do the deed for him, Jacinta, although I did my very best to school him in the art of love. He’s a stubborn young man, even if he is a simpleton.” And for that, he received a slap. His cigar, still smoking, lay on the carpet. His robe hung off his body, but he didn’t move beyond the initial flinch. With a clenched fist, he paused, picked up his smoke and stepped closer to his employer’s wife. Jacinta Delarosa wore a green velvet dress, very properly done up the back with black buttons. I could almost count them now, she was so close to me. Her hair was up in a loose bun, and black onyx earrings dangled from her ears.
“Get out of my house! Don’t come back to Seven Sisters! Ever again!” she whispered in a menacing voice.
To my utter surprise, he sat on the bed and patted the duvet beside him. “I like it here and have no desire to leave. In fact, I am to make Mobile my permanent home.”
“Have you lost your mind? Go now—before I call Nobel!”
“Do it! I wonder what he will say when he finds out that you and I have been…well…”
She gasped and stood up straight. “You and I have never done anything together except see that my son married. And you were well compensated for that! How dare you insinuate that there has been anything untoward between us?”
“My dear lady, don’t exercise yourself. I didn’t mean that you and I had ever done anything. Now, that daughter of yours…” Max put his arms behind his head, but at least he now had the decency to cover himself with the robe first. “She’s the true prize here. I mean, you are handsome enough, Jacinta. But Lafonda…mmm…that’s another story.”
I saw Jacinta go to the dresser but couldn’t see what she was doing. Her eyes burned with hatred for him; I could see her reflection clearly in the mirror now.
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