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"Yes, Beau. She died before I got there."

"I'm sorry," he said. "She was quite a character, Nina. I remember how well she dealt with Gisselle. She was the only one who could get her to do as she was told. I think Gisselle was a little afraid of Nina, even though she mocked her and her voodoo."

"Her sister said that Nina had something important to tell me, Beau."

Daddy looked at her. "Something about what?" "Something she learned in the other world," Mommy blurted.

At first Daddy just stared. Then his mouth dropped. "You don't mean to tell me you believe Nina came back from the dead to tell you something?" Mommy nodded. "Mon Dieu, Ruby. A woman with your intelligence and--"

"It has nothing to do with intelligence, Beau."

Daddy clamped his lips shut. He and Mommy had had arguments about this before, and he knew how firmly she held on to her old beliefs.

"I'm tired," he said. "I'm going up to bed. Oh," he added turning at the stairway, "Bertrand from the gallery said seventy percent of your work has been sold--a record for an opening. Congratulations." He started up the stairs.

Mommy sighed. "What a night. I should be happy, but long ago I learned that for every ray of sunshine, there's a shadow lurking. We've just got to balance ourselves between them, I suppose." She smiled at me. "Thanks for being at my side and being my comfort"

We hugged.

"I better go up and see how the boys are doing. I might have to use one of Grandmere Catherine's herbal recipes," she said.

When the boys set eyes on her, they're begging for attention. "It's no use bawling them out tonight," Mommy said, coming out of their room. "They're both too green to hear a word."

Mommy went down to prepare the old tried and true remedy, and I went to bed. However, as soon as I closed my eyes, I saw the hundred candles and heard the dreary drumbeat. Later I had a horrible nightmare in which Nina sat up on her deathbed and turned to me. She opened her eyes, and they were yellow. Instead of tears, hot wax streamed from under her eyelids and hardened on her cheeks. When she opened her mouth to speak, all I heard was Mommy's voice screaming "N0000!" I woke with a start. I was about to get up for a drink of water when I heard footsteps and sobbing in the hallway. I waited and then peered out. Mommy was descending the stairway. I saw her go out a patio door. She appeared to be sleepwalking.

I put on my robe and followed. At first I didn't see her. Then I caught her silhouette in the garden shadows. "Mommy," I whispered, "why are you out here?"

She didn't hear me, so I drew closer and asked again.

"Oh, Pearl," she replied in a voice drawn from a well of sadness. "I was hoping Nina would speak to me in the darkness. Don't tell Daddy I came out here," she pleaded. I took her hand. Her skin felt clammy and cold.

"You better go back to bed, Mommy, and stop this worrying."

"I can't. Something's going to happen because of some bad luck my past actions have brought into our home. Nina wanted to warn me, I'm sure."

"That's silly, Mommy, and you know it is. Things happen for logical, natural reasons only."

She sighed deeply. "I don't know," she muttered. "I don't know."

"Well, I do," I said firmly. "Now come back in and go to bed or I will tell Daddy."

She started back to the house with me and then stopped and seized my hand in a desperate grip. "Did you hear that?" she asked, softly.

I listened, but heard nothing unusual. "Hear what, Mommy?"

"The sound of someone sobbing. I heard it before, too," she said.

"Wasn't that you?" I asked.

Her eyes widened. "Then you heard it too!" she said quickly.

"Stop it, Mommy. You're scaring m

e."

We both listened a moment longer.

"I don't hear anything," I declared.