As Angel Not pulled the car into the driveway, I realized the house no longer looked beautiful to me. Old-fashioned and strange, it now filled me with tension. My nerves were shot, like a dried twig ready to snap. I was on a mission to find the truth. I owed it to my family. I had to get through it.
I made sure to give Aunt Delphine a big kiss and hug and even complimented her dress. It was blue denim with a big-buckled red leather belt with matching western boots. “Aunt Delphine, you look really pretty today.”
“Well, thank you. Ah feel pretty today.” She picked up the hem of her dress and twirled around.
Nestor’s eyes opened wide. I was afraid he might make a dumb comment, so I shook hands with Uncle Antoine extra hard and gave him a pat on his shoulder for good measure. “You’re looking good, Uncle Antoine.” He smiled from ear to ear.
Nestor took his cue from me. “Now I know Phil gets his good looks from this side of the family.”
Did Nestor really come up with that on his own?
I guess we were laying it on a little thick, but everyone was smiling. Except Angel Not. For a split second, I thought about saying something nice to him but quickly pulled myself out of that moment of temporary insanity.
“Well, Ah’m almost sad you boys are going home so soon, now that you’ve finally learned your manners.” Aunt Delphine fluttered her eyelashes.
“Don’t get any ideas. They’re leaving tonight.” Uncle Antoine meant business.
“We’ll eat dinner then Angel can drive us to the station.”
“Ah wasn’t planning on doing any cooking tonight. We thought y’all were leaving right away.”
I knew I needed time. My mind started working, and my brain kicked in. “I can cook dinner. I’ll look around and see what I find. We’ll even clean up the kitchen so you won’t have to do anything except sit down and enjoy.”
“Well, aren’t you sweet,” Aunt Delphine said.
“OK, by me, but don’t make anything weird.” I guess Uncle Antoine was the fussy type.
I looked at Angel Not. Silence.
This got me thinking. Maybe my great-aunt and -uncle didn’t know what Angel Not was doing. Maybe they needed protection from him. Then again, I shouldn’t assume. Keep my mind open and take in more facts. And think.
“You go and sit down, and I’ll call you when dinner’s ready.” I walked with them into the living room and waited for Uncle Antoine to put the country-western music on, and for the three of them to make themselves comfortable.
I pushed Nestor back into the kitchen and whispered, “While I’m looking for food, try to find keys for the doors.”
“Where should I look? How will I know if they’re the right ones?”
“Look in the drawers. Take whatever you find, especially if it looks big and old like for the front door. Do it quietly and keep a lookout in case anyone walks in.”
While Nestor looked for keys, I checked out the cabinets and the pantry. I found a couple of boxes of spaghetti and cans of tomato sauce. I filled up a big pot to boil water.
I found lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, onions, and garlic in the refrigerator. I washed the lettuce and the salad vegetables and set them in the colander to drain. I chopped the garlic, added it to the oil in the frying pan, and, as soon as it browned, added two large cans of tomato sauce, salt, pepper, and oregano. I set the flame on low, found a pot cover for the sauce, sliced up the salad vegetables and added them to the lettuce, and put the bowl in the refrigerator to crisp.
“Hey, what smells so good in there?” Uncle Antoine yelled from the living room.
I raced in and told them it was a surprise, so please don’t ruin it by coming in before it’s ready. I have to say, they were shocked that I could cook.
“I’m still working on a surprise dessert, so please stay in here until it’s all ready.”
Nestor was still checking the drawers. He had found five keys at this point. I couldn’t say they would open the front door, but it was a start. “Keep looking.”
I checked the freezer for dessert. Perfect. There was a bag of giant chocolate-chip cookies and a carton of vanilla ice cream. I laid out the cookies on a platter and helped them defrost faster by putting them on the counter next to the stove where everything was hot and steamy. I let the ice cream soften on the counter. Set the table. Then made ice cream sandwiches. One cookie on top. One on the bottom. Ice cream in the middle. Covered them with aluminum foil, put them back in the freezer. Threw the spaghetti in the pot, stirred it so it wouldn’t stick and then checked on Nestor’s progress.
Nestor had ten keys. All different sizes. Some brass toned. Some silver toned.
Some with lots of cut edges. Some with key tags where the writing was no longer legible.
This house had lots of windows, most of which didn’t open. Two doors—one in the front and the kitchen door in the back. One of these keys had to work.
I did a final check of the drawers and cabinets and found some flashlights and batteries that hadn’t expired yet. “Nestor, we’ll have to check these after we eat to see if they work. We’ll need them.”
I drained the spaghetti, put it in a bowl, covered it with my special-recipe tomato sauce, placed it on the table, took the salad from the refrigerator, found some bottled dressing, and placed serving forks and spoons in the bowls.
“But I already have a flashlight.”
“We can’t turn lights on in Colette’s grandparents’ house. We’ll be riding our bikes in the dark. How will we see where we’re going and what we’re doing?”
“You’re right.”
“I’m just thinking things through, that’s all.”
“When I think things through, it doesn’t sound as smart.”
The three dinner guests marched into the kitchen. “Isn’t that food ready yet?” Aunt Delphine asked. She looked at the steaming bowl of spaghetti and the colorful salad. “Mah goodness, mah goodness, mah goodness. You did something real special.”
I pulled out the chair so Aunt Delphine could sit at the table. She gave me a big smile. Nestor looked at me as if he didn’t know me at all.
“It’s hotter’n a hog on a BBQ spit in here,” Uncle Antoine laughed. “And it smells just as good.”
Angel Not just looked.
We all ate in silence. After dinner was over, Nestor and I cleaned up as promised.
Nestor took it on himself to put the batteries in the flashlights to see if they worked. He kept the ones that were in working order. He even tested the extra batteries to see if they worked and stuffed the good ones into his pockets. “Baggy jeans and hoodies come in handy at a time like this.”
“Hey, Nestor, thanks for taking care of the batteries and the flashlights. That’s no small thing.”
“I guess I have my moments.” he flashed me one of his goofy grins.
We went upstairs, got our suitcases, and checked for any forgotten items. We went downstairs and said our goodbyes in the living room.
Aunt Delphine pretended to cry. “Ah’ll miss you boys so much.”
“We’ll miss you, too,” I lied.
“Thanks for inviting me. I had a good time,” Nestor said.
Nestor catches on fast.
“Ah hope you boys will tell the folks back home how well we treated you. Just tell them we’re tired out and don’t want any more company until next year. Don’t bother to call, ‘cause Ah’m taking my wife on another vacation. Tomorrow morning. For a few months.”
Uncle Antoine handed us our phones.
Force of habit, I checked my phone for messages. Nestor did the same. Black screens. Dead batteries. No service.
Angel Not dropped us at the train station. He hung around, waiting for us to get on the train. I walked into the station and pretended to talk with the ticket agent. I walked back to the car and lied to Angel Not, “Bad news. The train is delayed. Something about switched train tracks. It’ll be a while.”
“How come no one else is waiting here?” Angel Not was suspicious.
“Well…” I couldn’t think of anything.
“They probably got text messages on their phones.” Quick save by Nestor. “And our phones have battery problems. Remember?”
“Yeah, that’s right. Forgot about that.”
I sighed with relief when Angel Not drove away. We waited a few minutes to make sure he didn’t come back.
“Phil, now what?”
“Now we ask the ticket agent to call us a cab.”
Car service came within five minutes. I almost gave the correct address to the driver but then stopped myself. I asked him to take us a block away from Colette’s grandparents’ house. How would it look if two strange kids tried to walk into a dark house? We couldn’t take any chances of being seen by the neighbors. Or, even worse, by Colette’s dad. The large front yards were dense with shrubbery and trees providing camouflage as we made our way to the front door. Thankfully, the moon was a hook in the sky, not offering the tiniest bit of glow to spotlight us in the quiet neighborhood or enough light for us to pinpoint the doorknob.
We held our breath as the door swung open—both of us expecting something to jump out at us. But nothing. Just silence. And darkness. We tiptoed in and closed the oak door behind us. We sat on the floor. Waiting.
I must have fallen asleep.
A furry-faced creature licked my face. A dream? No, this was real. I tried to get up, but I was pushed back by the weight of a panting animal.
I heard Nestor yell, “Get off me!”
“What the …!” I yelled into the darkness.