Page 10 of The Cajun Doctor

And it might just push me over the edge.

Aaron summed up the situation very well. “Time to do what comes natural. Let’s go get blitzed.”

Who knew they had a “Daddy Dearest?” . . .

“Your roots are in Louisiana. Cajun country,” Aunt Mel told them the next morning. For the third time. Daniel and Aaron were having trouble understanding the news.

“Oh, my God! We’re rednecks,” Daniel finally exclaimed to Aaron.

Aaron just grimaced with fake horror at Aunt Mel’s announcement.

Aunt Mel put down a tray of coffees, then smacked them on their respective shoulders before sitting down behind the desk in her small home office. Daniel and Aaron sat in chairs before the desk, their long legs extended and crossed at the ankles. Like twins, for crying out loud! Daniel cringed at his use of the expression “for crying out loud,” even in his head; it had been a favorite of his mother’s.

“Idjits!” Aunt Mel had just told them about their mother’s last wishes, that they know their family history. Like they cared at this late date!

“Just ’cause you have Cajun blood doesn’t make you rednecks,” Aunt Mel explained patiently, like they were little boys who didn’t know any better.

The two brothers hadn’t returned to their mother and Aunt Mel’s house until this morning, having exceeded their goal of getting blitzed last night. They’d both ended up knee-walking drunk. My head feels the size of a basketball. Which isn’t helped by the fact that good ol’ Barry is belting out “Mandy” for about the thousandth time. Don’t CDs ever wear out?

Their mother’s death was hitting them hard today. This house, without her in it, felt empty and sad. Any minute now he expected her to come into the room and ruffle his hair or kiss his cheek.

I miss her, too, he heard in his head, and it wasn’t him thinking those words. Glancing over to Aaron, he realized that it was his brother whose word-thoughts he’d read. Twins did that a lot. He could feel Aaron’s silent pain, literally. They nodded at each other with understanding.

Aunt Mel, fulfilling their mother’s wishes, was telling them about their father, Valcour LeDeux. A father whose surname their mother had given them, and nothing else over the years. And about their mother’s family, the Doucets. There were apparently a lot of Doucets in Louisiana. This was a rogue branch of the Bayou Black Doucets. Like he gave a damn about any family branches!

“I thought our father was dead,” Daniel said, scanning once again the documents and newspaper clippings spread across the desk.

“I thought Mom was from France.” Aaron’s brow furrowed with puzzlement. “Hell, that’s how she always explained her accent. I should have known better. It was the strangest French I’ve ever heard. I mean, what born and bred French woman says, ‘Holy crawfish!’?”

“Like you know French!” Daniel remarked.

“Hey, I dated that French model.”

“For what? A week?”

“What’s your point?”

“The point,” Aunt Mel interrupted them, “is that your mother was pure one hundred proof Cajun, same as your father, which makes you two morons Cajun, too.”

Cajun? I don’t even know what that means.

Picking up on his mind cue, Aaron teased Aunt Mel, “Cajun . . . does that mean I have to chew tobacco and wrestle alligators?”

“Don’t you dare!”

“Or talk like Dennis Quaid in that old movie, The Big Easy?” Daniel added.

Aaron glanced at him with surprise.

“Hey, I have a sense of humor when I want one.”

Aunt Mel sighed. “I like Dennis Quaid. He can put his slippers under my bed any ol’ time.”

Which was ridiculous, and they all knew it. Aunt Mel was as gay as . . . well, their mother. The two women had been together longer than many married heterosexual couples.

“I don’t understand why Mom wanted us to know about this now. Why, after all these years of keeping us in the dark?” Aaron asked.

“She wanted you to know that, even though she’s gone, you still have family.”