"Where's Ruby?" he asked emerging from the master bedroom.

"Oh, Daddy, didn't Aubrey say anything?" "Say anything about what?"

"She's gone. She took something from Jean's dresser, tore off his picture from the portrait of the twins in your office, and left carrying a small satchel."

"Where did she go?"

"I don't know," I moaned and sat down on a hallway bench.

"What are you saying, Pearl? What's going on?" "I didn't get a chance to tell you because you were gone by the time I went down to breakfast this morning, but Mommy left the house last night while you were asleep. She went to Nina Jackson's tomb, where she met with that voodoo lady. She had wanted me to go along with her, but I refused and got her to say she wasn't going. But she went anyway. I went looking for her and found her there,"

"All this went on last night?" he cried in disbelief. "Why didn't I—"

"I tried to wake you, Daddy," I wailed.

He stared at me a moment and then shook his head. "I'm sure you tried. I seem to be letting everyone down lately," he said.

"She made me promise not to tell you, but I was going to tell you anyway," I said and wiped away a fugitive tear. "Only I waited too long. I forgot about it when I arrived at the hospital and saw Pierre's progress and spoke with the doctor. I got so excited. I should have told you when we spoke."

"It's all right, Pearl," Daddy said, coming to me. "It's not your fault. I should have heard or seen her leave last night. I shouldn't have drunk myself to sleep. This hasn't been easy for any of us. I know she's been acting strange, those damn supernatural beliefs," he muttered. "I should be paying her more attention. Where do you think she's gone?"

I swallowed and thought. "Maybe back to Nina Jackson's sister's house. That's where it all started."

"Right. Do you remember the address?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Then we'd better go looking for her."

I nodded and took a deep breath. "What about Pierre?" I asked.

"I've already arranged for the nurse. She'll be here by five. We can pick Pierre up after we locate your mother. Let's go."

"I'll get something for Pierre to wear," I said. After I did so, we hurried down the stairs.

On the way to Nina Jackson's sister's house, I told Daddy about the ritual Mommy had performed the night before and how she kept saying she knew what she had to do now. "She claimed Nina had spoken to her through the black cat."

"These people should be arrested and shipped out of here," Daddy complained. "They cause more trouble . . . but then again, your mother was brought up believing in a lot of this—faith healers, evil spirits, protecting your home with candles and statues of saints. It's the age of interactive television, and these people are still living in the fifteenth century," he said shaking his head.

"Look at this place," he muttered when we arrived. "Who in her right mind would want to go in there: feathers dangling, bones clinking, powder on the steps to ward off evil. Are we in the twentieth century?" Daddy cried, his face crimson with anger and frustration.

I put my hand on his shoulder, and he took a deep breath and calmed down.

"Let's go get your mother and take her home," he said in a tired voice.

We went to the front door and knocked. Daddy's Rolls-Royce had drawn the attention of some neighbors who stood outside their homes watching. Daddy knocked again, more vigorously this time.

Nina Jackson's sister finally came to the door wearing a tattered robe. She was barefoot, and her hair was dripping wet. Daddy's mouth fell open.

"Hello," I said quickly. "We're sorry to bother you, but maybe you remember me. I'm—"

"You be Ruby's girl. You came here to see Nina."

"Yes," I said.

"Is my wife here?" Daddy demanded.

She shook her head.

"Are you sure?"

"No one be here. I be protecting myself against being crossed. I take a bath of garlic, sage, thyme, geranium water, dry basil, parsley, and five cents' worth of saltpeter," she explained proudly. Then she leaned toward me. "Since Nina's death, some folks think her spirit go haunting them, so they try to get even by putting a curse on my steps. But," she said, pulling her shoulders back, "I stop that."

"Have you seen my wife?" Daddy asked impatiently.

Nina's sister shook her head. "She be gone away?"

"Yes, and we're very worried about her," I said.

Nina's sister thought a moment. "If she run away, best you burn some of her clothes in gasoline with chicken droppings."

"Oh for God's sake," Daddy moaned, "let's get out of here."

"She went to the cemetery to speak with Nina last night," I said quickly. "Why would she go away today?"

"Oh. That be different. She must be carrying some kind of curse and Nina tell her how to fix it."

"But where would she go?" I said.

"Wherever she think the curse first start," Nina's sister replied. "She got to meet the devil man at the door and slam it shut in his face. That's what Nina would tell her."

"Satisfied?" Daddy said. "We're no better off than we were. Let's go, honey."

"Wait," Nina's sister said. "Don't you move your toes." She went into the house and quickly returned to press something in my hands.

"What is this?" I asked. It looked like a marble embedded in silver.

"Eye of a black cat killed at midnight. When you be lost in the dark, it will be your eye and show you the light," she said.

"A real eye?" I started to open my hand, but she closed my fingers over it again.

"Don't be 'fraid. Go on. Find your mother."

I swallowed back a throat lump and shoved the eye into my pocket. Then I thanked her, and Daddy and I returned to the car.

"Was this a wasted trip or what?" he said, pulling away.

"But where is she then, Daddy?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure she'll come home soon, and when she finds Pierre there, she'll be too busy to dwell on this stupidity," he said.

I hoped he was right, but I didn't have much faith.

We went directly to the hospital to take Pierre home. If he had any inkling he was being brought home, he didn't show it. He sat as stiff as always and stared blankly ahead. However, the nurse said he had eaten some more food and was sipping juice through a straw now.

"That's wonderful," Daddy said. He turned to Pierre. "Hey, buddy, ready to come home?"

Pierre blinked, but didn't respond. Daddy ran his hand through Pierre's hair the way he had so many times before, and then we got him dressed and transferred to a wheelchair. The nurse let me wheel him out and down to the door while Daddy signed all the papers. Daddy tried to get Pierre to stand, but his legs were like sticks of butter. He had to carry him to the car and slip him into the back seat. I sat beside Pierre and we headed for home.

"It will be good to be back in your own room, Pierre," I told him, "and eating Milly's cooking instead of hospital food."

"And you'll be able to go outside, too," Daddy added. "All of your buddies have been calling and asking about you, Pierre."

He didn't respond to any of this, but his eyes moved from side to side, and I was sure he was wondering about Mommy.

"Mommy can't wait to see you, Pierre," I said. "She's out getting things for you."

Daddy said nothing.

When we arrived at the house, Aubrey came out to help and to introduce Pierre's nurse, Mrs. Hockingheimer, a short, stout woman of about fifty with light brown hair cut so straight it looked as if it had been ironed down to her jawbone and over the back of her neck. But she had pleasant green eyes and a soft, gentle smile that immediately put me at ease. As soon as we were all introduced, the first question on my lips for Aubrey was "Did Mommy return?"

Aubrey glanced quickly at Daddy and then shook his head.

"Did she call?"

"No, mademoiselle."

"Let's just get Pierre up to his room," Daddy said angrily. "Then we'll worry about your mother."

He carried Pierre into the house and up the stairs, with Mrs. Hockingheimer following. She got Pierre dressed in his pajamas and comfortably settled in his bed. She already had provided something cold for him to drink. Pierre must have felt comfortable with her, because he let her give him a glass with a straw in it and started to drink when she asked him to. His eyes continued to shift from our faces to the doorway, anticipating Mommy's entrance. Daddy and I looked at each other, and then he signaled for us to leave.

"We told her Pierre had made some improvements," he reminded me. "Why wasn't she at the hospital today instead of gallivanting about with these voodoo women? I'd better start making phone calls to see if any of her friends or acquaintances have seen her today," he said and went to his office.

Later he came to tell me no one had seen or heard from her. "It's as if she stepped off the face of the earth," he added, now more concerned than angry. It was getting later and later, and the twilight was already turning the shadows in our gardens darker and making the streetlights come on.

"What should we do, Daddy? Should we call the police?"

"And tell them what? That my wife is out performing voodoo rituals somewhere? She's an adult, Pearl. I can't ask them to find her."

"But she's not thinking clearly, Daddy. Maybe she's wandering about confused."

He gazed out the window. Night was waving its wand of darkness over the world around us. "Maybe she'll come to her senses soon and return or at least call and tell us where she is," he said. He looked up at me with desperation and held out his arms. "I don't know what else to do, honey. We've got a little boy upstairs, who desperately needs his mother and she doesn't even know he's home from the hospital."