M
onday, 6th September 2010, Gare du Nord Train Station, Paris, France, 4:30 p.m.
Born the year of the landmark Brown versus Board of Education
decision, Juanita Marie Constance Gaie— known to her niece as Aunt Neet— had an auspicious beginning. She was a consummate black Southern Belle who grew up on hot chow-chow, the rhythm and blues of Percy Sledge, the jazz of Lionel Hampton, and debutante balls. When her older brother, Hambright Gaie, went North for his education, she stayed South to attend the historically black Fisk University. She attended finishing school at the feet of her mother, Naida Gaie, in Mobile, Alabama.
She had married young and very well. And though widowed early, now at fifty-six, she had chosen to never again enter what she called, the gilded cage of matrimony. Instead she traveled the world, summered in New England with her mother, brother, and sister-in-law, thoroughly enjoyed the company of male suitors, and collected first edition books of literature and poetry for the renovated library in her Italianate mansion back in Mobile.
When the train pulled into Paris’s Gare du Nord station, Juanita Gaie grabbed her rolling, leather carry-on from the storage area above her first-class seat. She had left her remaining luggage in the care of the concierge at the Conrad St. James back in London. London was an antiquarian book lover’s paradise. It was there that she would return after a day with her favorite and only niece in Paris. She pulled her cellphone from the interior pocket of her Rag & Bone blazer to check her messages. She pushed a wayward strand of her light brown, naturally curly, chin-length bobbed hair behind her ear.
As soon as her navy ballerina flats touched the train’s platform, a green-eyed Adonis greeted her.
“You must be Aunt Neet.”
“How did you ever know? And I must say I like the sound of it coming from you. Do feel free to indulge me by calling me so.” She grinned as the angel gently removed her left hand from the carry-on’s handle.
He responded to her question as they walked along the platform. “I shall henceforth. Identifying you was quite easy. Beauty and style clearly run in the Gaie family.”
Juanita Gaie, also known as Aunt Neet, decided then that she thoroughly understood her niece’s infatuation. She too was going to like this rarest specimen of male yumminess, also known as Thierry Gasquet, just fine.