Unbroken (28 page)
The clock struck eight, and Rebecca let out a breath. There were more speeches, and handshakes, then a storm of camera flashes. Raf stood looking nervous, but proud. He held the black velvet cushion on which the locket lay, posing for what felt, to an impatient Rebecca, like forever. Then Mr. Musson, who was wearing a tie as blue as Frank’s eyes, took the cushion and its precious cargo into his hands. Applause erupted, echoing through the marble hall of the lobby, and some boys — Junior? Brando? Phil? — started whooping. Rebecca was clapping, too, but she couldn’t watch anymore. She was blinking back tears, thinking of Frank. This was the moment he’d been waiting for. This was the moment he’d be free.
Later, when they drove back along Rampart Street, Frank wouldn’t be there. She knew that, and she was happy for him. But part of her was sad, too. Last year Lisette left her. This year, Frank. She wouldn’t see either of them again — not in this lifetime, at least.
Anton slipped his hand into hers and squeezed. Rebecca didn’t trust herself to look at him, but she was happy to know he was there. Tomorrow she and her father, and Ling and her family, had to leave New Orleans and get back to New York. But she knew she and Anton would talk almost every day, as they had ever since she returned from New Orleans in April. There were no more awkward pauses between them now; everything was out in the open. Anton was coming to visit her in New York in a few weeks, and joining Rebecca and her dad and Ling for a vacation on Cape Cod.
Rebecca wasn’t sure when she’d be back in New Orleans. But at least now she knew for certain, in her heart, that she
would
return. A piece of her would always be a part of this city. A piece of her would always belong here, and never want to leave.
O
n St. Philip Street in Tremé, no physical traces remained of the row of three derelict houses. Rain fell onto the muddy earth, pounded into waves and plateaus by a giant bulldozer. In a few days construction would begin on the schoolyard extension and a new auditorium.
A solitary ghost wandered the site, his footsteps making no impression on the soft earth. He scowled at the ground, dark eyes scanning the ridges of dirt, as though he was looking for something that might be buried there in the mud. The gloom of his expression, however, suggested that he knew the truth.
Other ghosts, passing by on their way toward Rampart Street and the river, or to the cemetery and up to the bayou, knew what he was looking for. They shook their heads, and made sure they walked on the other side of the street. They knew that the ghost sifting through the dirt on St. Philip Street would never find what he was looking for, because it was gone forever — just like the boy with blue eyes, who nobody had seen for months, or the girl on her gallery on Rampart Street,
no longer illuminating the night with her silvery swirl of moonlight.
That was the way it was in New Orleans, and in every old haunted city across the world. Ghosts vanished, and new ghosts arrived to take their place. Things changed. Things stayed the same.
T
he locket in this novel is fictional, but much of its historical context is not. The Impressionist painter Edgar Degas left Paris in October 1872 to spend the winter in New Orleans, where he had close family connections.
Degas’ mother, Marie Célestine Musson, was born in New Orleans. In 1873 her brother, Michel Musson, was living there with his three adult daughters: Estelle, Desirée, and Mathilde. Degas had already met Estelle and Desirée in France. Estelle, a Civil War widow, married one of his younger brothers, René.
Times were difficult after the Civil War, and Michel Musson had to sell his home and move the whole family to a rented house on Esplanade Avenue. René — who spelled his last name De Gas — had joined the family firm, though he wasn’t a good businessman and ran up huge debts. He was soon joined in New Orleans by the third brother, Achille. New Orleans was the hub of the huge international cotton trade, and they were both hoping to make a lot of money.
In 1872, during a trip back to Paris, René persuaded Edgar Degas to return with him to New Orleans. They made the
ten-day voyage from Liverpool to New York, and then the four-day train journey to New Orleans.
By this time Degas was already establishing a name for himself as a painter. He was also experiencing severe problems with his eyesight, so he found the bright New Orleans light painful. These were difficult and violent days in Louisiana — corrupt state elections, coup attempts, economic uncertainty, rampant crime, a return of the dreaded Yellow Fever. Degas missed Paris, and spent much of his time that winter in the house on Esplanade Avenue, drawing and painting his cousins and their children. Estelle, who was going blind, was one of his favorite models. Degas was also very fond of his cousin Desirée, who — like Degas — never married.
He painted one major work while he was there,
A Cotton Office in New Orleans
, featuring portraits of his uncle and two brothers. Degas stayed longer than he intended, until March 1873, so he could finish the painting. By then his uncle’s cotton office was out of business.
Five years after Edgar Degas left New Orleans, his brother René caused a huge family scandal. He abandoned Estelle and their children, and eloped with the married woman who lived next door, making his way back to France and starting a second family. Edgar was furious with his brother and refused to speak to him for years.
His uncle, Michel Musson, legally adopted Estelle’s children, changing their name from De Gas to Musson. When
René died in 1921, the two surviving children had to file a lawsuit in France to claim their share of his estate. His children in France had no idea that this New Orleans family even existed.
While he was in New Orleans, Degas seemed entranced by what he called the “black world.” In a letter he declared that “I have not the time to explore it” — but he wouldn’t have had to look too far. Although Degas’ uncle Michel and brother René were both members of the White League, bitter opponents of Reconstruction and black suffrage, their family had an Afro-Creole side. The internationally renowned inventor Norbert Rillieux was the son of Degas’ great-uncle and a free woman of color. Descendants of the Musson/Degas and the Rillieux families still live in New Orleans today; both have family tombs in St. Louis Cemetery One. Edgar Degas and Norbert Rillieux are buried in Paris.
After the scandal of René’s abandonment of Estelle, Degas stopped all communication with the New Orleans branch of the family. He would never see or write to Estelle, Desirée, or Mathilde again. But when he died in 1917, many of the pictures from his five-month stay in New Orleans — including pictures of his beloved cousins — were found in his studio.
M
any thanks to my insightful and patient editor, Aimee Friedman, the team at Point/Scholastic, and Richard Abate at 3Arts. Tom Moody, as ever, served as sounding board, research support, and first reader.
Thanks also to our New Orleans insiders — especially Rebecca Lewis, Russell Desmond, Sarah Doerries and Jay Holland, Nicola Wolf, and Trina Beck and Chris Noyes — and the Marksville/Jazz Fest crew: Paige and Rodney Rabalais, and Tiffany and John Ed Laborde.
I’m indebted to the New Orleans African American Museum (
www.noaam.org
) in Tremé, and I learned so much from the excellent and informative tour led by Milton Carr. And I would have known much less about the finer points of high school dances without the expert advice of Sara Tobin, and Ashland Hines and her class at Sacred Heart.
While all the restaurants mentioned in the novel are real (and highly recommended), the three schools — Basin Street High, St. Simeon’s, and Temple Mead Academy — are all fictional.
Readers keen to learn more about New Orleans should explore the wonderful books in the Neighborhood Story Project (
www.neighborhoodstoryproject.org
). For insights into Degas’ time in the city, see
Degas and New Orleans: A French Impressionist in America
, edited by Gail Feigenbaum, and
Degas in New Orleans: Encounters in the World of Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable
by Christopher Benfey.
ALSO BY PAULA MORRIS
Ruined: A Novel
Dark Souls
Copyright © 2013 by Paula Morris
All rights reserved. Published by Point, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.,
Publishers since 1920.
SCHOLASTIC, POINT, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Morris, Paula.
Unbroken: a Ruined novel / Paula Morris. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: Returning to New Orleans for spring break, sixteen-year-old Rebecca finds herself embroiled in another murder mystery from more than a century ago, when she meets the ghost of a troubled boy.
e-ISBN: 978-0-545-50907-7
[1. New Orleans (La.) — Fiction. 2. Ghosts — Fiction. 3. Haunted places — Fiction. 4. Mystery and detective stories.] I. Title.
PZ7.M82845Un 2013
[Fic] — dc23
2012013461
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.
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