Ruby (35 page)

"So there you are," I heard a voice cry out, and I opened my eyes to see Beau approaching. "Edgar said he thought he saw you go out here."
"Hi, Beau. I completely forgot that I suggested you come by today," I said, sitting up.
He paused at the gazebo steps. "I've just come from Claudine's," he said. The look on his face told me he already knew more than I anticipated.
"You know what they did to me, don't you?"
"Yes. Billy told me. The girls were all still asleep, but I had a few words with Gisselle," he replied.
"I suppose everyone's laughing about it," I said. His eyes answered before he did. They were full of pity for me.
"A bunch of sharks, that's all they are," he snapped, the blue in his eyes turning steel cold. "They're jealous of you, jealous of the way everyone has taken to you at school, jealous of your
accomplishments," he said, and drew closer. I looked away, the tears welling up.
"I'm so embarrassed, I don't know how I'll go to school," I said.
"You'll go with your head high and ignore their sneers and their laughs," he proclaimed.
"I'd like to be able to say I could do that, Beau, but--" "But nothing. I'll pick you up in the morning and we'll walk in together. But before that . ."
"What?"
"I came over here to ask you to dinner," he stated with a polite formality, pulling his shoulders back to assume his young Creole gentleman image.
"Dinner?"
"Yes, a formal dinner date," he said. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him I had never been on a dinner date before, formal or informal, but I kept silent. "I have already taken the liberty of making reservations at Arnaud's," he added with some pride. I assumed from the way he spoke, this was to be a very special evening.
"I'll have to ask my parents," I said.
"Of course." He looked at his watch. "I have a few errands to run, but I'll call you about noon to confirm the time."
"All right," I said breathlessly. A dinner date, a formal date with Beau . . . everyone would hear about this, too. He wasn't just being nice to me in school or just giving me a ride home.
"Good," he said, smiling. "I'll call you." He started away. "Beau."
"Yes?"
"You're not doing this just to make me feel better after what they did, are you?" I asked.
"What?" He started to laugh and then turned serious. "Ruby, I just want to be with you and would have asked you for a date whether they pulled that stupid joke on you or not," he declared. "Stop underestimating yourself," he added, turned and walked off leaving me in a whirlpool of mixed emotions that ranged from happiness to terror that I would make an absolute fool of myself and simply add to what had already been done to make me look like I didn't belong.
.
"What?" Daphne said, looking up sharply from her cup of coffee. "Beau asked
you
to dinner?"
"Yes. He's calling at noon to see if it's all right for me to go," I said. She looked at my father, who had been sitting with her on the patio, having another cup of coffee. He shrugged.
"Why is that so surprising?" he asked.
"Why? Beau has been seeing Gisselle," she replied.
"Daphne, darling, they weren't engaged. They're just teenagers. Besides," he added, beaming a smile at me, "you hoped the time would come when people would accept Ruby as one of us. Apparently, the way you've dressed her, the advice and instruction you have given her on how to carry herself and speak to people, and the good example you set has had remarkable results. You should be proud, not surprised," he added.
Daphne's eyes narrowed as she thought.
"Where is he taking you?" she asked.
"Arnaud's," I said.
"Arnaud's!" She put her coffee cup down sharply. "That's not just any restaurant. You have to wear the proper things. Many of our friends go to that restaurant and we are friendly with the owners."
"So," my father said. "You'll advise her how to dress." Daphne wiped her lip with the napkin and considered. "It's time you went to a beautician and had something done with your hair and your nails," she decided.
"What's wrong with my hair?"
"You need your bangs trimmed and I'd like to see it conditioned. I'll make an appointment for this afternoon. They always find time for me at a moment's notice," she said confidently.
"That's very nice," my father said.
"Then you've made a full recovery from your stomach problem?" Daphne asked me pointedly.
"Yes."
"She looks fine," my father said. "I'm very proud of the way you're adjusting now, Ruby, very proud."
Daphne glared at him.
"You and I haven't been to Arnaud's in months," she remarked.
"Well, I'll make a note of that and we'll go soon. We don't want to go the same night Ruby does. It might make her uncomfortable," he added. She continued to glare.
"I'm glad you're worried about her discomfort, Pierre. Maybe you'll start thinking about mine now," she said, and he reddened.
"Go on upstairs, Ruby," she commanded. "I'll be right up to choose your clothes."
"Thank you," I said. I glanced quickly at my father who looked like a little boy who had just been reprimanded, and then I hurriedly left and went up to my room. Why was it that every nice thing that happened to me here always brought along some unpleasantness? I wondered.
Shortly afterward, Daphne came marching into my room.
"You have a two o'clock at the beauty parlor," she said, going to my closet. She threw open the sliding doors and stood back, considering. "I'm glad I thought to buy this," she said, plucking a dress from its hanger, "and the matching shoes." She turned and looked at me. "You're going to need a pair of earrings. I'll let you borrow one of mine and a necklace, too, just so you don't look underdressed."
"Thank you," I said.
"Take special care with them," she warned. She put the dress aside and focused her gaze on me with suspicion again. "Why is Beau taking you to dinner?"
"Why? I don't know. He said he wanted to take me. I didn't ask him to take me, if that's what you mean," I replied.
"No, that's not what I mean. He and Gisselle have been seeing each other for some time now. You come onto the scene and suddenly, he leaves her. What's been going on between you and Beau?" she demanded.
"Going on? I don't know what you mean, Mother."
"Young men, especially young men of Beau's age, are rather sexually driven," she explained. "Their hormones are raging so they look for girls who are more promiscuous, more obliging."
"I'm not one of those girls," I snapped.
"Whether it's true or not," she continued, "Cajun girls have reputations."
"It's not true. The truth is," I fumed, "so-called Creole girls of good breeding are more promiscuous."
"That's ridiculous and I don't want to hear you say such a thing," she replied firmly. I looked down. "I warn you," she continued, "if you did or if you do anything to embarrass me, embarrass the Dumas . . ."
I wrapped my arms around myself and turned away so she couldn't see the tears that clouded my eyes.
"Be ready at one-thirty to go to the beauty parlor," she finally said, and left me trembling with frustration and anger. Was it always going to be this way? Every time I accomplished something or something nice happened to me, she would decide it was because of some indecent reason?
It wasn't until Beau called at noon that I felt better about myself and the promise of the evening. He repeated how much he wanted to take me and was very happy to hear I could go.
"I'll pick you up at seven," he said. "What color is your dress?"
"It's red, like the red dress Gisselle wore to the Mardi Gras Ball."
"Great. See you at seven."
Why he wanted to know the color of my dress didn't occur to me until he came to the door at seven with the corsage of baby white roses. He looked dashing and handsome in his tuxedo. Daphne made a point to appear when Edgar in-formed me Beau had arrived.
"Good evening, Daphne," he said.
"Beau. You look very handsome," she said.
"Thank you." He turned to me and presented the corsage. "You look great," he said. I saw how nervous he was under Daphne's scrutinizing gaze. His fingers trembled as he opened the box and took out the corsage. "Maybe you'd better put this on her, Daphne. I don't want to stick her."
"You never have trouble doing it for Gisselle," Daphne remarked, but she moved forward and attached the corsage.
"Thank you," I said. She nodded. "Give my regards to the maitre d'," she told Beau.
"I will."
I took Beau's arm and eagerly let him lead me out the front door and to his car.
"You look great," he said after we got in.
"So do you."
"Thanks." We pulled away.
"Gisselle didn't come back from Claudine's yet," I told him.
"They're having a party," he said.
"Oh. They called to invite you?"
"Yes." He smiled. "But I told them I had more important things to do," he added, and I laughed, finally feeling as if the heavy cloud of anxiety had begun to move off. It felt good to relax a little and enjoy something for a change.
I couldn't help but be nervous again when we entered the restaurant. It was filled with many fine and distinguished looking men and women, all of whom gazed up from their plates or turned from their conversations to look us over when we entered and were shown our table. I went through the litany of things Daphne had recited to me on the way to and from the beauty parlor--how to sit up straight and hold my silverware, which fork was for what, putting the napkin on my lap, eating slowly with my mouth closed, letting Beau order our dinners,..
"And if you should drop something, a knife, a spoon, don't you pick it up. That's what the waiters and busboys are there to do," she said. She kept adding new thoughts. "Don't slurp your soup the way they eat gumbo in the bayou."
She made me feel so self-conscious, I was sure I would do something disgraceful and embarrass Beau and myself. I trembled walking through the restaurant, trembled after we were seated, and trembled when it was time to chose my silverware and begin to eat.
Beau did all he could to make me feel relaxed. He continually complimented me and tried telling jokes about other students we both knew. Whenever something was served, he explained what it was and how it had been prepared.
"The only reason I know all this," he said, "is because my mother is amusing herself by learning how to be a gourmet chef. It's driving everyone in the family crazy."
I laughed and ate, remembering Daphne's final warning: "Don't finish everything and wipe the plate clean. It's more feminine to be full faster and not look like some farmhand feeding her face."
Even though the dinner was sumptuous and it was very elegantly served, I was too nervous to really enjoy it and actually felt relieved when the check came and we rose to leave. I had gotten through this elegant dinner date without doing anything Daphne could criticize, I thought. No matter what happened, I would be a success in her eyes, and for some reason, even though she was often unpleasant to me, her admiration and approval remained important. It was as if I wanted to win the respect of royalty.
"It's early," Beau said when we left the restaurant. "Can we take a little ride?"
"Okay."
I had no idea where we were going, but before I knew it, we had left the busier part of the city behind us. Beau talked about places he had been and places he wanted very much to see. When I asked him what he wanted to do with his life, he said he was thinking very seriously of becoming a doctor.
"That would be wonderful, Beau."
"Of course," he added, smiling, "I'm just blowing air right now. Once I find out what's involved, I'll probably back out. I usually do."
"Don't talk about yourself that way, Beau. If you really want to do something, you will."
"You make it sound easy, Ruby. In fact, you have a way of making the most difficult and troubling things look like nothing. Why just look at the way you've already memorized your part in the play and made some of the other students gain confidence in themselves. . . including me, I might add . . ." He shook his head. "Gisselle is always putting things down, belittling things I like. She's so . . . negative sometimes."
"Maybe she's not as happy as she pretends to be," I wondered aloud.
"Yeah, maybe that's it. But you've got every reason to be unhappy and yet, you don't let other people feel you're unhappy."
"My grandmere Catherine taught me that," I said, smiling. "She taught me to be hopeful, to believe in tomorrow." He grimaced with confusion.
"You make her sound so good and yet she was part of the Cajun family that bought you as a stolen baby, right?" he asked.
"Yes, but . . she didn't learn about it until years later," I said, quickly covering up. "And by that time, it was too late."
"Oh."
"Where are we?" I asked, looking out the window and seeing we were on a highway now that was surrounded by marshlands.
"Just a nice place we go sometimes. There's a good view up ahead," he said, and turned down a side road that brought us to an open field, looking back at the lights of New Orleans. "Nice, huh?"
"Yes. It's beautiful." I wondered if I would ever get used to the tall buildings and sea of lights. I still felt very much like a stranger.
He turned off his engine, but left the radio playing a soft, romantic song. Although it was mostly cloudy now, stars peeked down through any break in the overcast, twinkling brightly. Beau turned to me and took my hand.
"What sort of dates did you have in the bayou?" he asked.
"I never really went on what you would call a date, I suppose. I went to town for a soda. Once, I went to a
fais dodo
with a boy: A dance," I added.
"Oh. Oh, yeah."
I couldn't see his face in the darkness and it reminded me of our time in the cabana. Just like then, my heart began to pitter-patter for seemingly no reason. I saw his head and shoulders move toward me until I felt his lips find mine. It was a short kiss, but he followed it with a deep moan and his hands clutched my shoulders and held me tightly.
"Ruby," he whispered. "You look like Gisselle, but you're so much softer, so much lovelier that it's very easy for me to tell the difference between you even with a quick glance." He kissed me again and then kissed the tip of my nose. I had my eyes closed and felt his lips slide softly over my cheeks. He kissed my closed eyes and my forehead and then pulled me closer to him to seal my lips with his in a long, demanding kiss that sent invisible fingers over my breasts and down the small of my stomach, making me tingle to my toes.
"Oh, Ruby, Ruby," he chanted. His lips were on my neck and before I knew it, he brought them to the tops of my breasts, moving quickly to the small valley between them. Whatever resistance was naturally in me, softened. I moaned and let myself sink deeper into the seat as he moved over me, his hands now finding their way over my bosom, his fingers expertly sliding the zipper down until my dress loosened enough for him to bring it lower.