Black Cat (Gemini 2)

Mama turned from me to Baby Celeste and shook her head sadly.

"Oh, yes," she said as if just remembering it all. "Poor little Celeste. How dreadful."

"What?" I asked, and held my breath.

"My second cousin on my mother's side. Lucinda Heavenstone, and her husband. Roger, killed in a car accident, and both so young with so much to live for. As you know. Lucinda's parents are both deceased," Mama continued, turning to me and reciting. "Roger's father had that bad stroke two years ago. remember? And his mother, of course, died giving birth to Roger. His stepmother wants nothing to do with caring for Roger's father or poor little Celeste, now left all alone in the world.

"Except for us. How could we not take her in?" Mama asked me. "And how she has taken to us. Such an exceptional child, don't you think?

"Anyway, what's family for if we can't do a good Christian thing like this? We can't let her go off and live with strangers, be farmed out to some foster care, now can we, Noble?"

I stared at her. Would Mr. Fletcher believe such a story ? Would anyone? On the other hand, would anyone care whether it was true or not?

Mama looked so confident, and yet the way she smiled made her face look more like a mask. She had something else to say, something else in her mind.

As if on cue, as if she knew how precisely to time everything, Mama turned toward the kitchen just as the phone rang.

"Fin expecting a call," she told me, and got up. I listened as hard as I could.

"Oh. Dave," I heard her say. "something terrible has happened. I won't be able to see you tomorrow. I have to go to Pennsylvania. A young cousin of mine and her husband were killed in a terrible car accident. They were hit head-on by one of those dreadful tractor-trailer trucks. They're both dead, but

miraculously, their child escaped serious injury.... Yes... No. I'm not going just for the funeral. I'm going to bring their baby back here. A little girl barely three years old. There's no one else.... Yes, yes, it's a horrible affair. I know you understand. I appreciate that.... No, be fine. Thanks for offering. I'll call you as soon as I return.... Thank you, I'll be fine, Dave. Please.... Yes. I know, but what does family mean if I ca

n't do this?... Me. too. I'll call you as soon as I can."

I heard her hang up.

When she returned to the dining room. both Baby Celeste and I looked up at her.

She smiled at us. "Don't look so worried, children. Everything is going just the way I was told it would."

Baby Celeste clapped her hands as if she understood every word. My eyes met Mama's and held. For the first time ever, it was she who shifted away first. She busied herself with clearing the table.

"Take the baby into the living room," she ordered. "I'll be there soon. I want to practice 'La Vie en Rose,'" she added, threw a smile my way, and went into the kitchen.

I lifted Baby Celeste out of her chair and took her into the living room. I felt so weak and frightened inside. I thought I might drop her. so I put her down quickly. Tonight she wanted to look at pictures in albums. A collection of them was on a shelf of a side table. Some of the pictures were so old they were faded nearly to the point where nothing could be clearly seen. Baby Celeste would sit with an album opened on her lap and look at the photos for hours if we let her. How she could be so interested in people she had never met or seen intrigued me. She loved to point out babies and children.

There were some photographs of Noble and me, and when she looked at them, she invariably pointed to Noble and said. "Noble.- I could never tell if she saw him or saw me in the pictures, but she did stare with greater interest at my picture.

"The first Celeste," I would whisper to her. She wouldn't speak. She would look at me and then back at the picture.

What went on in that little head of hers? I wondered. What did she think when she heard the name and looked at me? What was she really capable of knowing?

When Mama came in, she went right to the piano and began to practice the song. After a while, she began to sing it, too, sins it in French. She had a beautiful voice. Why wouldn't Mr. Fletcher fall head over heels in love with her? Why wouldn't anyone?

Before she was finished, she looked to one of the front windows and then back at me. expectantly.

"I knew the song would bring him. Noble." she said.

I stared at the window.

Bring him? Bring whom? Daddy? Her smile told me that was whom she saw.

But there was just darkness there for me. I waited anxiously for his smiling face, but the face I saw when I finally saw one take shape was not Daddy's. It was Elliot's. I turned sharply to see if Mama saw him, too, but she was singing again and quite lost in her own thoughts.

Tell her. I thought, tell her before it's too late. If she looks up quickly enough, she will see, too, and she will believe you.

I didn't cry out. I just didn't have the courage, and moments later there was only darkness in the window. When I finally went up to bed. I couldn't stop the trembling. I had a terrible case of the chills and thought I might be coming down with something, but eventually I fell asleep, and when I woke. I was fine.