Moonlight Mile Read Free Page A

finished pieces were sitting on a long, well-worn table with a chipped marble top that stood near the French doors, awaiting transport to the local foundry, where they would be cast in bronze or other materials.
    Nina’s mother was at the table now, along with the family’s longtime maid, Delphine, a petite and energetic woman who proudly traced her ancestors back to one of the French casquette girls who had arrived in New Orleans in the 1700s. The two of them were bent over a piece on the table. It was a medium-size sculpture that Nina’s mother had been rushing to finish the past few weeks, a modernist portrayal of several women laughing and cooking together. The shapes and details were fluid and rather abstract, like most of Nina’s mother’s work, but Nina could tell that the women in the piece had been inspired by her aunts and cousins.
    At the moment, Nina’s mother and Delphine were grasping the base of the clay sculpture, clearly planning to hoist it off the table and into the large wooden crate sittingon the floor near the door. From past experience in helping her parents move similar pieces, Nina guessed that the thing had to weigh at least fifty or sixty pounds.
    â€œHang on!” Nina’s father exclaimed, striding forward. “Let me help.”
    â€œYeah,” Nina said at the same time.
    She didn’t notice that the cats had followed her to the studio. As she stepped forward, the toe of her paddock boot landed squarely on Teniers’s tail. The cat squawked loudly and shot forward—just as Nina’s mother took a step, staggering slightly under the sculpture’s weight.
    â€œNon, non!” Delphine said. “I need to—”
    She never finished the comment. Teniers crashed into Nina’s mother’s legs, tripping her just as she took another unsteady half step.
    â€œAck!” she exclaimed as the sculpture jerked out of her grasp. Delphine tried to hang on to her half, but it was no use.
    â€œCareful!” Nina’s father yelped.
    CRASH!
    The sculpture landed upside down, squashing the softclay of the top half of the piece. The intricate figures were reduced to mostly shapeless blobs.
    â€œOh! Oh!” the maid cried, her hands flying to her face. “The ladies—they are ruined!”
    Tears sprang to Nina’s eyes. All that work!
    â€œOh, Mom,” she exclaimed. “I’m so sorry! This is all my fault—if I hadn’t been late—”
    â€œMe too,” her father added, stepping forward to encircle his wife in his long arms. “I’m sorry, love.”
    â€œNo, it’s all right.” Nina’s mother sighed, then smiled slightly, leaning against her husband for a moment before pushing him away and stepping over to examine the fallen sculpture. “I mean, it’s not all right ,” she amended, poking a chunk of clay with a bare toe. “It’s pretty much trashed. I should have guessed something like this would happen. Things have been going a little too well lately, what with landing this big solo show and all. . . .”
    Nina’s father chuckled. “Uh-oh,” he said. “Don’t tell me my family is finally rubbing off on you, Eva? I thought your Yankee sensibility would never succumb to Big Easy superstition.”
    Despite what had just happened, Nina couldn’t help smiling at that. Her father’s family had lived in New Orleans pretty much forever—or at least since the time of the Louisiana Purchase. While his family and Delphine’s both considered themselves Creoles, most of Nina’s father’s ancestors had come from Africa or the West Indies rather than France or Spain, and they’d brought their own beliefs and ideas with them. For generations, the family had steeped in the great melting pot of New Orleans culture, with its mishmash of traditions, including plenty of superstition and voodoo. By now, of course, most of the