she dressed Adèle in a violet top and white shorts with blue sneakers, forcing her to take the time to brush her hair and teeth before skittering off. The whole time the little girl babbled about something Justin had said or done. “Justin said milk makes the bones grow strong.” “Justin’s daddy has a store that sells candy. He’s gonna get me some licorice whips.” “Justin kin sing ‘Old MacDonald’ with all the voices real good, even the horse.”
Once Louise had dressed herself in black pedal pushers and a sleeveless, stretchy pink top and white sandals, her hair pulled back into a simple ponytail, no make-up, she went out to discover Justin fixing the shrine with his little helper, the two of them chatting away like longtime pals. For some reason, she was surprised that Justin could deal so well with a child, sort of bring himself to child level. Maybe it was a skill taught in medical school. Adèle didn’t usually take to strangers so easily.
“How’s it going?” she asked, stepping onto the porch.
“Pretty good,” Justin said. “Not much damage, except for a few toes that I can glue back on later after I get some waterproof adhesive.”
The statue was about four feet tall and sat on a concrete slab. Jude wore a brown robe with a rope belt and his bare feet peeping out of the hem, minus three toes on his right foot. The blue eyes of the statue seemed to be staring at her in disapproval…for the damage or for her activity of the previous night, she wasn’t sure. She would find out soon enough.
“We have to clean off Jude’s hiney,” Adèle told her.
“What?”
Justin grinned. “The statue fell backward into the mulch. We’re going to hose it off.”
“What’re you going to do about the flowers?” There were crushed impatiens and spreading vinca vines everywhere.
“Dontcha be worryin’ none, chère,” Justin said. “Me and Adèle are gonna fix everything. Right, short stuff?”
Adèle beamed.
Oh, this is not good, Louise thought. This is just what she’d always avoided, letting her little girl get attached to some man who would eventually ride off into the sunset. It was one thing for her to settle for a short-term affair, but quite another to involve her daughter. She had obviously not thought this thing through.
But she had no time to ponder the situation now because her first client of the day had just shown up. It was Mrs. Benoit, the retired postmistress from Houma. She pulled her ancient roadster into the driveway beside the DeSoto, walked around to the back porch, and called out, as if his appearance were nothing remarkable, “Hey, Justin! How’s yer mama?”
“Doin’ poorly last night. Her feet get all swelled up when she’s standin’ in the store all day.”
“She should soak ’em in Epsom Salts,” Mrs. Benoit advised.
“That’s just what she was doing.”
“And how are you today, Adèle?”
“Jus’ fine. Me and Justin are gonna hose off St. Jude’s hiney.”
Mrs. Benoit’s jaw dropped but then she seemed to notice the tire tracks in the grass, the crushed flowers, and the tilted statue. “Looks lak someone had a little acci-dent,” she remarked with a laugh.
She took Mrs. Benoit inside where they discussed the ongoing arthritic pain in her shoulder which had been aggravated by a recent bout of labor-intensive gardening. Louise prescribed willow bark tea for her, along with a salve that helped the swelling.
No sooner had Mrs. Benoit left than Clive Delacroix showed up. “Whoa, Justin! What happened to ol’ Jude there?” Clive also didn’t seem surprised at Justin’s presence. “I might have some paint samples back at the store to touch up those flaky spots.”
Clive was the owner of a small hardware store down the bayou. You could find almost everything there for a home, from roofing tiles to turpentine.
“Thanks, Mister Delacroix. I’ll stop by tomorrow and see what you got.”
What? Justin is planning on coming back here tomorrow? To paint my statue?
After giving Clive some witch hazel salve for his hemorrhoids, she had a small break in which she prepared some lemonade for Justin and Adèle which she placed on a low porch table. They’d already set the statue straight on its concrete pedestal and removed all the damaged flowers and greenery. They were planting new ones which they’d transplanted from flower beds on the other side of the yard. It was actually looking better than it had before.
She was in the kitchen trying to decide what to make for lunch when Justin came in and went over