2

TO GREAT-AUNT LISETTE'S

A little boy ran outside of Great-Aunt Lisette's house, bursting through the door. A man stood in the doorway where the door hung open, and came out after the boy.

"Thaddeus!" the man cried, and hugged Papa.

"Pierre!" Papa said, smiling. "It has been a long time since I've seen you!"

"Oui," Pierre agreed. He looked at Marie-Grace. "My, how Marie-Grace has grown! I remember her as a baby."

Marie-Grace smiled shyly at the friendly man.

Then the little boy, who looked to be about seven years old, came up to Uncle Pierre and asked, "Sont-ils mon cousin, et mon oncle?"

"Oui, Marc," Uncle Pierre, said, smiling and picking up the boy in his arms. "This is your cousin, Marie-Grace, and your Uncle Thaddeus."

"Bonjour!" Marc said, grinning at Papa and Marie-Grace.

"Hello," Marie-Grace said, smiling at the little, sandy-haired boy.

Marc frowned. "Parlez-vous français?"

"Yes, I speak French," Marie-Grace laughed. "But I speak English, too."

"Oh!" Marc said, grinning again. He jumped down from his father, and grabbed Marie-Grace's hand. "Come into Aunt Lissie's house!"

Marie-Grace allowed the little boy to drag her into Great-Aunt Lisette's house. Once inside the door, she stood on a woven rug, and saw children in the room, who were playing by the fireplace, stop to look at her. Marc shut the door behind them.

Marie-Grace felt herself blush, as all the eyes in the room turned to look at her.

There were two women, who sat knitting on chairs, in the room, and the children, all sitting sprawled all over the floor. Two older boys whittled wood with knives, and girls sat on the rug by the fireplace, playing with paper dolls.

"This is Marie-Grace, my cousin!" Marc announced proudly, smiling at everyone.

"Marie-Grace?" One of the women, a blond-haired lady, dropped her knitting onto her chair and stood, coming toward Marie-Grace. "My, how much you have grown!" she said. "You were just a tiny girl when I saw you last." She hugged Marie-Grace, then added, "I am your aunt Isabelle."

"She is my maman!" Marc said proudly. He looked at Marie-Grace with large, blue eyes. "Where is your maman?"

So he would understand, Marie-Grace said slowly in French, "My mother is dead."

It was silent in the room. Isabelle sighed and told Marc carefully, "Marie-Grace's mother and little brother died of a terrible yellow fever, Marc."

The other woman stood up quickly and told Marie-Grace, "I am your aunt Odette, dear."

Marie-Grace looked around at all the children with wide eyes.

There were many girls, two older boys, and two cradles by the fireplace.

A baby began to cry, and Aunt Odette bent over a cradle, taking out a tiny girl baby, wrapped in a soft, faded pink quilt.

"This is Brigitte," Aunt Odette told Marie-Grace, rocking the baby in her arms. She nodded to the other children, and prompted them, "Why don't you tell Marie-Grace your names?"

They gave their names and ages in French.

Gilbert was the oldest boy, sixteen.

Then Édith, a dark-haired girl, said she was fifteen.

The other boy, Bruno, was thirteen, and a girl, Alice, was Marie-Grace's age, eleven, with large, blue eyes, and sandy long hair, like Marc. Marie-Grace guessed Marc was Alice's brother.

Emilie was Gilbert, Édith, and Bruno's sister, and they were all Uncle Alex and Aunt Odette's children.

Elise, who was fourteen, and André, who was nine, were Marc and Alice's sisters. Brigitte was their baby sister, who was one year old, and they were Aunt Isabelle and Uncle Pierre's children.

"Hello," Marie-Grace said shyly to them all.

"You speak English?" Alice asked, her blue eyes widening.

"Yes," Marie-Grace nodded. She suddenly realized all she had said since coming in the house was to tell Marc that her mother had died, and she had told him that in French.

Just then a tiny, gray-haired woman opened a door in the house, carrying a silver tray of chocolate chip cookies.

"Here, children," the woman said, smiling. He gray curls hung loose over her shoulders.

She stopped when she saw Marie-Grace, and a smile lighted her face. "Where is Thaddeus?" the woman demanded. She seemed to have a lot of energy for her age. She looked to be about sixty or seventy years old to Marie-Grace, and she had crinkle lines near her eyes like she smiled a lot.

The woman set the cookie tray on a table, then came to touch Marie-Grace's face, and hugged her.

"Are you my great-aunt Lisette?" Marie-Grace asked.

"Yes, but you may call me Aunt Lissie," the woman told her. "'Great-aunt' makes me feel so old."

Marie-Grace laughed, and Papa and Uncle Pierre came into the room.

As the grownups talked, Marie-Grace went to the cookie tray and asked Elise, who had long, pale-brown hair, and brown eyes, "May I have one?"

"Of course," the fourteen-year-old said, waving her hand at the silver tray. "Aunt Lissie makes cookies every day for us."

Marc snatched one up. "And they're good!"

Alice laughed, and took a cookie just as Marie-Grace did.

"Did you come all the way on a boat here?" Alice asked her, mouth full of a cookie.

"Yes," Marie-Grace said, slowly chewing her own cookie.

"Children, you may go into the kitchen for milk," Aunt Isabelle told them.

"Come on," Alice said, taking Marie-Grace's hand.

She pulled her into the kitchen and sat her at a large, wood kitchen table, on a wood chair.

The rest of the children entered the small kitchen and sat at the table while Alice took out a quart of milk, and two glass cups.

She poured Marie-Grace a cup of milk, and Marie-Grace thanked her.

"Have you ever been to Cairo, Illinois before?" André asked Marie-Grace, with large, blue eyes.

Marie-Grace realized all of Uncle Pierre and Aunt Isabelle's children had large eyes. She looked around and saw that all their eyes were also blue, except for Elise's, which were brown, and Marie-Grace couldn't remember the baby Brigitte's eye color.

"Papa told me I have been to Cairo once before, when I was little, to visit my uncles and aunts," Marie-Grace told André.

"I remember when you were here. You were very little and you visited with Uncle Thaddeus," Gilbert told Marie-Grace. He was sitting at the other side of the table, with Bruno and Marc.

"I also remember Marie-Grace, a little," Édith told her.

"And how can you speak French?" Alice demanded.

"I learned when my Papa and I moved back to New Orleans," Marie-Grace told her shyly. "My friend, Cécile, helped me learn it, too."

"Cécile?" Elise asked.

"She is my friend," Marie-Grace explained. "She's my age, a free girl of color."

"We have free people of color here, in Cairo, too," Alice piped up.

"Are there any other children here?" Marie-Grace asked.

"Oh yes," Alice continued. "There is Betsy Anna Rogers, who is just my age." She wrinkled her nose. "We play together sometimes, but she isn't very nice."

"Alice!" Elise, her older sister, scolded.

"Well, she isn't!" Alice insisted stubbornly. "And," she added, "there are a brother and sister who live here, who are free people of color. I can't remember their names, but their last name is Harris, or Harrison, I think."

"Harris," Gilbert told Alice. "And the boy's name is Albert."

"Also," Alice went on, ignoring Gilbert, as everyone else listened, "there are the Davis children. They are twelve and seven years old, a girl and a boy."

"And their great-aunt, Mrs. Davis, owns a bakery," Bruno added.

"Mrs. Davis is a widow," Édith said in a soft voice.

"The Davises used to live in a log cabin, out in the woods," Gilbert commented, glancing slyly at his sister, then at Bruno.

"And some people claim to see dead Mr. Davis's ghost in the woods, by the old abandoned cabin," Bruno added teasingly.

"Some people see lights out in the woods by the cabin," Gilbert continued.

"Stop it, you two!" Édith told her brothers. "You're frightening the children."

Marie-Grace wondered if Édith meant herself. Though she wouldn't admit it, Bruno's story did make her shiver. Marie-Grace asked, "Where is the cabin?"

"Only a half mile from our house," Bruno told her, grinning.

"Have you ever seen a light?" Marie-Grace asked in a frightened voice.

"No . . . not yet," Bruno said.

Just to prove to the other children she wasn't scared, Marie-Grace said, "Maybe you could show me the cabin sometime."

Before Bruno could answer, Alice interrupted, "Anyway, there are lots more children in town, but we don't know them all. And Mrs. Davis has a young woman, Miss Marshal, who works at her bakery. She is very nice and lets us have slices of bread sometimes."

"Then there's Mr. Gregory," André reminded.

"Yes, Mr. Gregory is a jewelry man. He owns a jewelry store, and he's also nice," Alice said.

Out of all of her cousins, Marie-Grace decided that Alice talked the most.

"Then there's old Mrs. Widow White," Alice went on. "And Sheriff Lewis, and our Mayor Aaron Potts."

"We could show you around town tomorrow," Marc offered. He poured himself a second glass of milk.

"I haven't met my Uncle Alex yet," Marie-Grace reminded them all.

"Oh, Papa is in the barn," Gilbert told her.

"You have a barn?" Marie-Grace inquired.

"Oui. We can show you tomorrow," Gilbert offered. He stretched his long arms. "Right now, I'm hungry."

"Me, too," Bruno agreed.

"Supper is cooking at our house," Édith reminded her brothers. "It's beef stew."

"Where will Papa and I be staying?" Marie-Grace asked shyly.

Alice quickly told her, "I have extra room in my bed! You can sleep with me!"

Marie-Grace was about to shyly thank her. She was thinking that it would be fun to stay with her cousin, when Aunt Odette came into the kitchen.

"Children, supper will be ready in a few minutes," she said. "Wash your hands in the bathroom. We'll all be eating at Aunt Lissie's house."