Pearl in the Mist (Landry 2)

Daphne and Bruce have announced their wedding date. Wouldn't it be wild if you showed up with your baby in your arms! I'll keep you up on all the details. I know you're just dying to know about everything that happens here, even though you're pretending you don't care.

Why don't you write me back? I'll read your letter to Daphne. I just thought of something funny: Not only am I an aunt, but she's technically a grandmother. remind her whenever she's unpleasant to me. Thanks. You finally did something I can appreciate.

Just kidding.

I wonder if we will ever see each other again.

Your darling twin sister, Gisselle

"Why did you write to her, Paul?" I asked him.

"I thought your family should know about you and . ."

"And you wanted Beau to know, didn't you?" I pursued. He shrugged. "It doesn't matter anymore," I said in a defeated voice.

"Then you're really home for good? You're going to stay?"

"Where else would I go? Would Pearl and I go?"

"Then let me make you a home here," he pleaded.

"I don't know, Paul," I said. "Let me think hard about it."

"Fine," he said, encouraged by the fact that I didn't say no immediately.

After he left me that night, I sat on the galerie and listened to the owl. Pearl was asleep inside, content and safe for now. But I had come a long way to make a full circle, and I knew that the world was not a soft place in which to cuddle forever. It was hard and cold, cruel and filled with tragic possibilities. It was good to have someone to look after you, to protect you, to keep you warm and safe. How could it be a sin to want that and have it, if not for myself, then for my baby? I thought.

Grandmere, I whispered. Give me a sign. Help me make the right choices, go down the right roads now.

The owl stopped its hooting when a marsh hawk swooped down and landed in front of the house. It strutted about for a moment and then turned toward me. In the moonlight I could see its yellow-circled eyes fixed on me. It lifted its wings as if to greet me, and then as quickly as it had come, it flew off into the darkness where, I knew, it perched itself on a branch and continued to watch the house, watch me and watch my baby.

And I knew in my heart that Grandmere Catherine was here with me, whispering in the breeze, filling me with hope. I would make the right decisions.