“I think maybe shewasa saint, come to think of it,” Cady said. “She saved me, anyway. ‘Saint Maxine.’ Has a nice ring to it.”
Johnny said nothing, merely fixed Cady with a cautious look, as though he was just figuring out she was totally insane.
That’s exactly what Cady had thought of Maxine when the old woman made it clear that she was going to make Cady her next project. Cady might be in Provence for only a few more days, but sometimes that was enough time to throw someone like Johnny a lifeline, to change his perspective.
It struck Cady that here she was willing to reach out and connect, whereas in Oakland she shrank from it. Olivia used to try to get her involved in the Big Sisters program or tutoring high school students, but Cady always had some excuse for not doing so, always thinking that “someday” in the future she would become a foster mother and make her mark. Or... have her own baby. Just as with Maxine, Cady realized she hadn’t thought about the miscarriage for... days?
Maybe Olivia was right—maybe there truly was such a thing as a geographical cure. For whatever reason, it felt easier to open her heart and mind and to move forward in this foreign place.
“Enough about Saint Maxine,” Cady said, realizing that Johnny had finished sweeping up the area where the carousel figures had been. “For now, let’s clean those windows so we can see better in here, and then line those panels up against that wall. Then we can clean them assembly line–style, once we have the right solvents. And let’s put any other carved figures we find in this area,” she said, gesturing to the alcove on the other side of the room. “That way we can see what we have.”
“So this thing used to be a carousel that, like, worked?”
“It was, yes. But there were many more figures than these; I’m not sure how many, but we can count the holes in the floor and figure it out.”
They worked companionably for a while; then Johnny asked, “How do you speak French so well?”
“I took classes. And I used to do the school photography for a French-American school near where I live in the States, so I met some French people there, and they helped me practice. But it all started out with a rabbit named Gus.”
He stared at her.
“Gus is a carousel figure. I used to think he might have been from this group here, but now...” She shrugged.
“I speak a little English,” he said. His accent was atrocious, so it came out more like“Ah spick a leetle Unglish.”
“That’s great!” Cady replied. “It’s much more relaxing for me to speak English. Want to practice?”
“A leetle.” Then he switched back to French. “But not now. I can’t clean and speak English at the same time.”
She chuckled. “You know, Johnny, you need to apologize to Fabrice.”
“He needs to apologize tome.”
“Okay, maybe there needs to be a generalized détente between the two of you.”
He shrugged.
“I know he’s a grumpy old man, but he’s done a lot in his life and he’s seen a lot. You could learn from him. He’s a famous author. And did you know he worked with the Résistance during World War II?”
He nodded. “Everyone says he was a hero.”
“They do?”
“Yeah. He arrested a traitor here, when he came back to Château Clement after the war. A Nazicollaborateur.”
“Really? What happened?”
“I don’t know the details. That’s just what people say.”
They worked together for another couple of hours and made some headway. The air quality was already improving, and with a little organization it was easier to see what they had to work with. Once they got everything off of the carousel floor, Cady studied the holes for thepoles and bolts and figured the carousel had originally had twenty-four animal figures, and maybe two spinning tubs as well as the carriage. They found three chickens, a horse, and another rabbit, which brought their total to twelve. If her calculations were correct, only half the original figures remained, and several of them were badly damaged. If they couldn’t find the others, was it even worth trying to save the Clement carousel?
“Enough for today,” Cady announced. “I’ll need to go to Avignon for the specialty cleaning supplies. Now that Fabrice has finally let me in here, I don’t want to screw anything up. Want to come with me, maybe visit the university?”
“Um... no, I have to go.”
“Okay. See you tomorrow?”
He grunted his assent and slouched off.
