Chapter Four

Teddy followed Nell and his sister to Xochi’s house in his van. The tall Victorian stood on the other side of the bayou bridge. With enough fancy fretwork hanging off its eaves to give it a wedding cake appearance, the house possessed a deep wraparound porch and a long yard running down to the water. Old rambling roses rather tired in the August heat, draped the white picket fence. Formerly the home of a prominent attorney, it had a small frame building to one side that had served as his law office before he retired to Toledo Bend to do all the fishing and bird watching he ever wanted.

That structure proved to be a selling point when Xochi and Junior began house hunting. Now it held herbal medicines and her worktable for concocting them, along with space for her clients to sit when they sought her skills as a folk healer, a traiteur in the Cajun parlance. She charged no one and accepted no thanks for whatever comfort she could provide. The house also sat only a short walk across the bridge and down a block to the riverside restaurant in which Junior had purchased a share. That man always thought ahead.

They parked and entered through the front gate rigged with a small bell on its chain to sound a visitors’ alert. “Ain’t it pretty,” Ella Sue gushed as they passed along a short walk lined with clumps of dark green aspidistra.

Dressed in sunny yellow that became her tan skin and long black curls, Xochi came out to the porch to greet them. She hugged Nell and turned to Teddy as he mastered the last step on his crutches. “Not handicapped accessible,” he teased.

“Yes, we’ll have to do something about that. So good to see you, hermano. You don’t visit often enough.” Xochi wrapped him in a warm embrace.

“I see you’ve already done something about all that white paint you hated.”

“Yes, now the neighbors are calling this house the King Cake instead of the Wedding Cake. I’m not sure that’s a compliment. I guess they expected two people with Mexican blood to live in an adobe, but I love it!” She held out her arms toward the slender pillars now sporting narrow stripes of purple, green, and gold top and bottom. The fish scale shingles in each apex of the roof glowed with similar colors, one light green, the other lavender, a third a pale blue like the inside of the porch roof, very eye-catching and not so traditional in the area.

“I see we have a guest.”

“Yes, Teddy’s sister dropped by. This is Ella Sue Smalls. Do you have enough food or should we dine out, my treat? We can go to the Down by the Riverside restaurant.” Nell stared at her aura-seeing daughter as if trying to send a psychic message.

Teddy watched the exchange. Xo’s brown eyes went wide, but she didn’t hesitate to move forward and offer the girl her hands, clasped top and bottom rather than shaking.

Ella Sue said, “Nice to meet you,” and pulled from her grasp. “Warm handshake you got there.”

“So people tell me.”

Ella Sue looked her up and down before saying, “Ain’t you the sister who was chosen to be a human sacrifice? I seen your picture in the paper.” Teddy knew exactly the kind of papers she mentioned, the ever-inquisitive tabloids.

“Obviously I wasn’t sacrificed.” Xochi moved on as she had with her life. “I have plenty to eat for all of us. Junior filled the freezer with casseroles before he left for training camp, as if I’d starve without him to cook for me. I thawed out a turkey tetrazzini. There’s salad from a bag, a dozen warm rolls I got from the Riverside because theirs are the best, and cookies Corazon brought from Pommier’s Bakery when she visited this morning. Between my husband and my mother-in-law, I’m only a little over three months and already showing.” Xochi smoothed her dress over her belly to show a tiny baby bump.

“I’m pregnant, too.” Ella Sue stated the obvious.

“So I see. I bet you’d like to get off your feet. When is your baby due?” Xochi held the door open for her guests. They paraded into the cool, dim hallway.

Ella Sue peered down at her belly. “Not sure. Soon I guess.”

“Didn’t your doctor give you a date? Mine said the end of January. Before the Super Bowl, I hope.” Xo guided them into her parlor once full of large and dreary Victorian pieces, now hosting comfortable floral-covered sofas and chairs and a large TV wall-mounted over the fireplace instead of a painting displaying dead rabbits amid vegetables to make a stew. She took them through the pocket doors, always left open, to the dining room, once formal, now casual with a big, distressed oak table and mingled chairs and benches for seating. A large ceiling fan churned the air where once a crystal chandelier hung. Opening a glass-fronted cabinet, Xochi gathered two more place settings and utensils to set the table for the extra guests.

“Do you want to sit at the head, Mom?”

“Not unless you have several cushions or a telephone book for me to sit on,” her petite mother answered. “That’s Junior’s chair. He might be called Junior, but he is king-sized, Ella Sue.”

“I know. I follow the Sinners—trying to catch a look-see at Teddy in the stands sometimes. Mama did the same, always saying how well he was doing.” She turned the conversation back to herself. “To answer your question, I did have a doctor for a while, and he said end of September for me, but I feel like it might be sooner. He gave me iron pills on a kind of me being peaked, and those big vitamins full of folic acid because I told him I had a brother with spina bifida. Supposed to prevent that from happening again. But I’ve been on the road a lot since then.” Ella Sue plopped down on a bench, taking the load off.

Teddy felt obligated to sit next to her. Nell sat across by Xochi’s place. His sister went through the door to the kitchen to get the casserole and prompted them to pass the salad and rolls. She’d embellished the bag-o-salad with slices of boiled eggs, a ring of cherry tomatoes, and a pinch of fresh chopped herbs making it bright and pretty like her, Teddy thought. Returning with the main dish, Xo sat it on a trivet in the center of the table close enough for everyone to serve themselves.

Ella Sue gouged a large portion from the casserole and began shoveling it down before the rest got settled. “This is real good. Lots of cheese. I’m not too keen on sweet peas, but the sauce kind of covers them.” She mopped the plate with her roll, didn’t touch her salad though she’d taken a small amount. “You got anything besides iced tea to drink?”

“Water? Or milk for the baby?” Xo questioned.

“Pop?”

“I try not to keep much of that around unless we’re having a party, but I’ll see if I have anything left over.” Xochi left her own meal cooling to accommodate Ella Sue and returned with a glass full of ice and a canned drink. “Cream soda okay?”

“Yes, ma’am. One of my favorites.”

“Junior loves it, too—along with lots of cheese.”

“See, now that’s something I didn’t know about the Sinners. Junior Polk loves cream soda and cheese.”

Not joining in, Teddy kept his eyes on his plate. His mom and Xochi had warm hearts and wouldn’t judge Ella Sue by her grammar or her table manners, but Stacy and Jude, another of his sisters, or someone like Jessica Minvielle might. Why had Jessie come to mind when his thoughts were already confused by this sudden sister and what she’d revealed about his mother and Uncle Merv? He shook his head free of the image of the pretty face with the paralyzed body. His mother was right on him.

“Are you okay, Teddy? Not an ear ache or infection coming on?”

“No, nothing.” He made a try at conversation. “I saw Jessica Minvielle at rehab today. She’s in a wheelchair because of her accident and not adjusting well.” Why had he chosen that topic above all others?

Concern alit on Nell’s face. “I’m sure her family is taking care of that, but if not, I’d be glad to see her at the clinic.”

“I’ll tell her if I talk to her again.”

Ella Sue piped up. “She an old girlfriend or something ’cause you’re going all red.”

“No! We went to high school together is all. She was engaged to a football player who died in the same accident. What would she want with me?”

“Teddy Wilkes Billodeaux, only the shallow would judge you on your disability and not on your personality, brains, and talent. Teddy was class valedictorian,” Nell added for Ella Sue’s benefit.

“Smart, huh?” His sister gave him a sidelong look as if doing a reassessment of her brother.

“Very,” Xochi said. “I know it’s hot out, but would you like to have dessert on the back porch? It’s shady, and I’ll turn on the fans. We have such a nice view of the bayou from there. Anyone want coffee?”

“Not me. I’ll bring along the rest of my pop. How do we get out there?” Ella Sue scanned the room for an exit as if she were casing the joint. The others agreed it was too scorching for hot coffee.

“Look, this is cool.” Xochi went to one of the very tall windows letting light into the dining room. She tugged on the sash and raised it higher than her head. “You can walk right out. Refill your glasses with tea and take a seat. I’ll bring the cookies.”

Nell carried drinks for herself and Teddy while he made his way to a wicker settee with wildly colored cushions. Carrying her soft drink, Ella Sue sank into a cane-seated rocker that groaned a little under her weight. Xochi came out with the plate of cookies: peanut butter and chocolate chip with a heap of powered-sugar-coated Mexican wedding cakes in the center. Ella Sue took one of each on a paper napkin and tuckered in to eat. Teddy savored a chocolate chip already melting a little in the heat.

“It’s right nice out here,” Ella Sue declared. “Wish I had a place like this to live.”

No one said much after that. They simply watched the bayou flow by. A small flotilla of ducks, white Pekins deserted after Easter, warty-faced Muscovys, and a smattering of mallards and mixed breeds noted their presence, came ashore by the gazebo, and waddled their way up the lawn.

“Can I feed them some of the leftover rolls, Miss Xochi?”

“Just Xochi. I’m not that much older than you.”

“About ten years, I figure, but can I?”

“Certainly.”

Ella Sue ducked through the still-open window and returned with a handful of rolls. She eased down the porch steps and did her own waddle to meet the ducks halfway. They mobbed her with attention, and she gloried in it, dispensing the bread like royalty throwing coins to the peasants.

With his sister out of earshot, Teddy asked, “What do you think, Xo?”

“She’s healthy and so is her baby. I saw no signs of disease.”

“Not really what I meant.”

“She’s not evil, Ted, but she is a deceiver, smart and ambitious despite the country girl exterior. Her aura is muddled, not pure. I’d be careful what you offer her because she’ll take all she can get, and you are a white knight in a wheelchair who might try to give it to her.”

“Ahhh, normally both you and Mom would be the first to give her a place to stay considering she’s hinted pretty hard at that. She wasn’t so enthusiastic about my apartment, but I feel she’s my responsibility, not yours. I should see her through the birth and recovery, then help her find a job and her own place to live. She’ll have more opportunities in Lafayette.”

“We’re here to be your backups in case that doesn’t work out.” Nell patted his hand.

“I went sort of wild buying maternity clothes the second I found out I was pregnant and don’t really need them yet. I’m about the same height as Ella Sue even if I do have more up top and behind, but I doubt that will matter much. Let me pick out a few things to see her through to the end. I’m afraid she’ll split the seams of that dress any minute now.” Xochi rose to do the task.

“You two are the best, you know that,” Teddy said as Ella Sue, out of bread, trundled toward them trailed by the still-hopeful ducks.

She took Xochi’s empty chair and piled cookies into a napkin. “Mind if I take some of these along for an afternoon snack?”

“Take as many as you like,” Xochi said. An aggressive Muscovy fluttered up the porch steps. Xo flapped her skirt at him. “Vamanos, pato! You are not going to poop on my porch. Back to the bayou.”

Ella Sue held her stomach as she laughed. “So where are we going, brother?”

“Allons a Lafayette,” Teddy told her. “I’m taking you to my place in the city.”

“Huh? I thought we was going to the ranch.” Ella Sue’s disappointment showed.

“Before you go, I have some gifts for you.” Xochi watched the girl’s smile return.

“I like surprises!”

“Don’t we all?” Xo went inside to sort through her maternity clothes.

Maybe not everyone. Teddy certainly hadn’t enjoyed being suddenly abandoned, searching for his mother and sister, and then having Ella Sue find him out of the blue. Not quite what he’d expected.

They left a half hour later toting half the casserole, a bag of cookies, and a huge shopping bag in his van. Yes, they were on their way to Lafayette for better or worse.