Chapter 5 #3
We all turned as Beau entered the kitchen, his hair and jacket dripping water onto the floor, his eyes hard as his gaze found me. Before I could say anything, Beau plunked the Madame Alexander doll on the table.
“Is that a Madame Alexander Pussycat?” Jolene seemed genuinely excited.
“You know what that is?” I asked.
“Of course. Doesn’t every little girl want a Madame Alexander doll?”
I stared at her blankly. “Actually, until yesterday I had never even seen one.”
“That’s so sad. You were more deprived than I thought. My grandmama gave me my Pussycat doll when I was five, and I treasured it—at least until I burned off all its hair when I was learning how to use a curling iron, and my little brother decided it would be the perfect size for target practice.”
I was trying to process what Jolene had just said, but Beau interrupted my thoughts. “Was this supposed to be a joke?”
Jaxson leaned back on the two rear legs of his chair, the metal protesting loudly. “Yo, bro, does your girlfriend know you still play with dolls? Seriously, where did you find that?”
There was no amusement in Beau’s eyes. “In an armoire in the house we’re flipping on Esplanade.
” Turning back to me, he said, “I went out of my way to bring this doll to Mimi to see if it might be worth anything, but when I returned to get it from my truck’s backseat, where I thought I’d put it, it wasn’t there.
So I went all the way back to Sam’s apartment, where I figured I must have left it, but it wasn’t there, either.
And when I got back into my truck to return to the house on Esplanade to look there, the doll was in the driver’s seat—in the exact spot where I’d been sitting. ”
I looked at the empty eyes, imagining something sinister in the blank stare that sent shivers tripping down my spine. Something about the corrupted innocence of childhood made it so much creepier.
I tore my gaze from the doll to look at Beau. “I have no idea how that got in your seat, but I promise you I had nothing to do with it. I have better things to do than head out in the rain to prank you. Did you ask Sam about it?”
“I did. She had nothing to do with it.”
“So you believe her and not me?”
He narrowed his eyes. “I don’t know what to think. Maybe we should be asking Cooper about it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, really. It seems he has a few secrets he’s been keeping to himself.”
I glanced at Jolene and Jaxson, who appeared not to be listening while actively doing so. “Well, then, he wouldn’t be the only one, would he?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Jolene placed a calming hand on my arm, forcing me to take a deep breath before responding.
“Look, Beau. We’re all friends here, right?
Nobody’s judging anybody. I just wanted to point out that it seems pretty clear that your mom is still hanging around because there’s unfinished business.
And until you accept that, she will remain to literally haunt you until you ask for her help in finding your dad, or whatever it is she needs to talk to you about. ”
Beau continued to glare at me, so I continued.
“We’re your friends, Beau. And we understand what kind of burden your gift—or whatever you want to call it—has been to you.
But you have to understand that it doesn’t always have to be a burden.
Maybe it can help you find the missing pieces of the puzzle of what happened to your family during Katrina. ”
I should have stopped there. I wasn’t his girlfriend.
In fact, I wasn’t even sure we had a relationship—at least not one that could easily be defined by the word “friend.” Shared experiences should have qualified us as friends, but since most of those hadn’t been the positive kind, I hesitated to call him one.
But because of a lifetime spent not knowing when to be silent, I continued.
“As soon as this rain ends, I think we should take a trip to Jackson Square for a visit to Madame Zoe. She knew your dad. She told me she could help. And I’m here and willing. ”
Beau’s silence extended to an uncomfortable length of time, but I resisted the urge to shift in my chair. I cleared my throat. “Maybe you want to discuss this with Sam first?” For some reason, her name stuck in the back of my mouth.
A loud bang sounded from the roof, but Beau didn’t acknowledge that he’d heard anything. Narrowing his eyes again, he said, “If my dad’s still alive, then he knows where to find me. I’m completely capable of living my life without interference from Madame Zoe or anyone else.”
I opened my mouth to remind him again of how his mother’s interference had saved his life, but just then my phone rang. Except it wasn’t my usual ringtone, and my phone wasn’t the only one ringing.
The four of us exchanged glances as our phones vibrated in our hands, the song “Hello” ringing out of all of them in unison. Jaxson looked from Beau to me, and then at his own phone. “It says Unknown. Should I answer it?”
Beau shook his head. “No.”
“Is that…?” I began.
“It’s Adele.” Beau hit the End button on his screen, silencing everyone’s phone. “I have to go,” he said.
He had reached the doorway when stupidity or stubbornness made me call out to him, “Let me know when you’re ready to go see Madame Zoe.
You owe me one—remember? Asking me to rekindle a relationship with the guy who’d betrayed me was a much bigger ask than my suggestion that you talk to your mother. ”
Beau turned around, his face unreadable. “It’s not that easy, Nola.”
“Nothing ever is.”
He gave me a long, lingering look before exiting the room. Jolene, Jaxson, and I sat in silence until the front door slammed, and the doll Beau had left on the table collapsed backward, her pale blue eyes staring up at the ceiling.