the question.
That evening, Marie-Claire and her son outdid themselves with a spectacular dinner that was both simple, in the way that Marianne and Luke preferred, but fancy enough to suit the sophisticated palates of Christiane and Georges. The families ate and talked and laughed as though they had known each other forever. At one point during the meal Christiane, Georges and Luke all looked at one another and laughed.
Christiane leaned across the table and, in a stage whisper, said to her father, "How's about you put on your thinking cap and come up with a way to dis-invite Paul. I like Marianne's family better than ours."
Luke reached across the table and tweeked her nose, "I'm glad you like them because I absolutely love them," he looked at Marianne, "-- some more than others. But, dis-inviting Paul will not help matters. Maybe if we surround him with such nice people, all this joy and happiness and love will rub off."
Christiane made a face and Georges muttered, "Yes, and someday pigs might fly."
Christiane and Luke glared at him for a minute and then they laughed. Christiane said to the others, "You need to understand, my brother is, how shall I say it.....?"
Luke said, "He's a son of a bitch. Literally."
"Papa, mother is dead. Give it a rest."
He sighed, "Yeah, I know. I should not speak ill of the dead and all that. Besides, I acknowledge that I contributed as much to our problems as she did, maybe more. But you know the thing about her that always infuriated me the most: She lived with Randy for more than 20 years and never married him in order to continue collecting four million dollars a year in alimony from me. He never made another movie after he hooked up with her. I essentially supported the both of them, and he was a bigger star than I was when she met him...."
He raised his hands, "I know. I know. It's water over the dam or under the bridge or wherever it went. I should let it go. I promise to try." He looked from Marianne to Christa to Madeleine and said, "I promise you, my son will mind his manners."
Marianne grinned and winked, "Who knows, perhaps we will win him over with our charms."
Luke laughed and said, "Lord knows they worked on me."
Marianne leaned over to Christiane and said, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think perhaps your father has little resistance to feminine charms."
Christiane laughed, "My father doesn't even particularly require charm from a woman in order to be attracted to her. Usually a woman who is actually breathing is sufficient to get his attention," Luke glared at her and started to puff up in anger, but she hastened to add, "but, it takes one hell of a woman to make him fall in love." She looked at her dad and stuck out her tongue. He instantly relaxed and smiled.
Every one at the table was quiet for a moment.
Luke, Christiane and Georges planned to hang around the house on Christmas Eve. Christiane explained to Marianne that "hanging around the house" for all of them translated into working all day.
Richard planned to stay in the inn and work as well. When Marie-Claire found out what he was working on she cleaned up her sewing room and made it available to him so he could spread out his scores. She said with all the guests they had, she wouldn't have time to sew anyway. Richard was in heaven. Marianne muttered something about being surrounded by a bunch of derned workaholics, but she was secretly thrilled to have the opportunity to spend the day alone with Christa and Madeleine.
On the drive to St. Saturnin-les-Apts, they talked about the history and geography of the place. Madeleine had done a lot of reading about the area and was a regular font of information. As they drew closer to St. Saturnin-les-Apts they talked about Marianne's family. Marianne told Madeleine some of her mother's story. Christa filled them in on current information Marcelline had given her.
Marianne's Aunt Marcelline had died many years before and the majority of the younger members of the family had scattered, mostly moving closer to the coast. There were still a few cousins and distant relatives who lived in St. Saturnin-les-Apts. One of Aunt Marcelline's grandchildren lived in the family home and would be expecting them.
When they arrived in the village the driver asked for directions. Christa started to pull MapQuest directions out of her purse. Marianne piped up and rattled off the directions from her thirty-year old memory. Her recollection was perfect. A few minutes later they pulled up in front of the Villeneuve home. It looked much better than it had the last time. Christa explained that the granddaughter who lived there ran the caf? and wine shop that had belonged to Philippe. St. Saturnin-les-Apts had been subject to some of the same gentrification as Gordes, although its remote location kept it small. Nevertheless, it was a vastly more prosperous place than it had been when Marianne last visited. As they got out of the car, the front door of the house flew open, and about a dozen of Marianne's relatives spilled out onto the sidewalk.
There was hugging and double-cheek-kissing and simultaneous babbling. Christa and Madeleine could follow little of it partly because of the rapid French but also because everyone was talking at once. Marianne's comprehension skills had come back quickly, and she babbled right along with the rest of the family.
The women were led into the house where a light lunch was laid out for them. They had wine and soup, fabulous bread, dried fruit and locally grown olives. After much chatter, eating and then a round of taking photos, Aunt Marcelline's granddaughter suggested that perhaps Marianne, Christa and Madeleine might want to visit Marianne's mother's grave while the rest of them cleaned up from lunch. Marianne kissed the girl's cheek and thanked her.
The three women walked side-by-side up the hill toward Marianne's mother's grave. The family didn't have cows any more so the grass was high and clumped. The ground was uneven and walking was difficult. Christa took her mother's arm on one side and Madeleine put her arm around Marianne's waist from the other side. The lilac bush was not in bloom during that season, but it was still there, hanging over the small gravestone. Someone had cleared the grave and put a poinsettia by the grave marker. Probably the same someone had washed the bench as well.
Marianne stood by her mother's grave for a moment, holding her daughter on her right and her granddaughter on her left. She thought she might cry, but then realized she was far to happy to cry, and she knew her mother (who was the happiest person she had ever known) would want it that way. They sat on the bench and Marianne pointed out the sights, based on the stories her mother had told her when she was a child. They sat and talked for a while, until the sun went behind a cloud bank and it became too chilly to linger.
They walked slowly back to the house where they chatted briefly with Aunt Marcelline's granddaughter before thanking her for her hospitality and bidding her farewell.
Before they left, Christa fetched a package from the backseat of the car. It was a bottle of fine cognac which she offered as a Christmas gift from her family to theirs. Her cousin thanked her and promised to drink a toast to their American relatives during the family's supper following Midnight Mass.
Christa asked her mother if she wanted to walk around the town. Marianne said she was ready to go home unless Christa and Madeleine wanted to explore. Christa and Madeleine exchanged smiles when they heard Marianne refer to Luke's house as "home". Madeleine said, "No, Maw Maw, I'm ready to get back. I have some presents to wrap and I promised Mom I'd make sure Daddy doesn't work every minute of the whole weekend."
The women talked little on the drive back to Gordes. Because Madeleine asked the driver to stop a number of times so she could take pictures, the trip took longer than it should have, but they were in no particular hurry. As they drew near Gordes, Marianne became agitated. Christa asked her if she was nervous about meeting Luke's son. She made a face and shrugged, "No. I'm not afraid of Paul." She laughed, and put her hands in front of her face, saying, "You'll think I'm silly."
"What is it, Mom?"
"This is the longest I've been away from Luke since we reunited, and I guess I'm just excited to see him."
Madeleine chuckl
ed and poked her grandmother with her elbow, "He's a hunk alright. Let me ask you something: have you seen all of his movies?"
Her grandmother replied in a quiet, thoughtful voice, "No, as a matter of fact I have only seen a couple of his movies, and don't you dare tell him that. I saw a few of his really early stuff before I met him. After I married Henry, I never dared to suggest we see a Luke Payne movie. They were often so controversial and most of them were R-rated. Henry would never go to a movie that was rated more than PG. That was just as well, because I'm not sure how I would have reacted to a Luke Payne movie at that point. I'm guessing I would have laughed and or cried at inappropriate places. After you gave us that VCR player, I rented When the Bombs Came Down and watched it one day when Henry was at work. I don't think I've seen any of his movies since then."
Madeleine grinned, "You might want to keep it that way, Maw Maw."
"Why?"
"Well, um. I guess you could say that people who've seen all of his movies have probably at one time or another seen about, um, all of him. I told you in the class I'm taking we have seen most of his movies. One of the ones we watched just before you sprung him on me was the movie he made right after When the Bombs Came Down. It was really steamy."
Marianne laughed. "I see."
Madeleine