Page 15 of Lulu’s Recipe for Cajun Sass

Chapter 3

Just one more chance to make a good impression…

Louise calmed Adèle down, but her daughter still hugged her tightly, with arms wrapped around her neck and her legs locked around her hips, as they both watched Justin. He was kneeling on the ground where he worked on the semi-conscious child, lying flat on her back. It was Anna Belle Gaudet, a friend of Adèle’s.

Father Mark had offered to call for an ambulance, but since there were no full-time emergency teams nearby, it was deemed more expedient to get the child stabilized and take her to a medical facility themselves. In the meantime, Anna Belle’s mother, Marie, arrived in a panic. “Mon Dieu! I just went inside to tinkle. I was only gone a minute. What happened?”

Marie hadn’t been addressing anyone in particular, but it was Adèle who answered in a wail, “We was runnin’, me ’n’ Anna Belle, real fast, ’n’ then she jist stopped and fell over, dead.”

“Shh! She’s not dead. She’s just winded.” Louise hoped.

Marie made a tsking sound before dropping down to her knees on the other side of her daughter and asked Justin, “Are you a doctor?”

He nodded, not bothering with the “almost a doctor” explanation.

“Anna Belle has the asthma. She isn’t supposed to exert herself at all, ’specially not on a hot day like today.”

Justin had been giving the little girl artificial respiration, alternating between breaths into her mouth and pumping his locked hands against her chest. Then, he put his ear to Anna Belle’s chest and checked her pulse with fingertips to her neck, things he’d already done several times. “Her heart rate and pulse are steady now, but her breathing is still thready. Does she have a aerohalor? Or any medication she takes?”

“She has the inhaler. At home. No medicine. Jist herbs that Miz Rivard…Louise’s mother…gave me a long time ago, to make a steam tent.” Her voice was teary and guilt-ridden. “She was gettin’ better this past year. I thought—”

“She’s gonna be fine, Mrs. Gaudet,” Justin told her. “Look, she’s already starting to wake up.”

Anna Belle’s eyelids were fluttering. But she was wheezing, her chest moving visibly with each breath. Which even Louise knew was not normal and not a good sign. It didn’t help that she was starting to sob, understandably frightened.

“Do you have a family doctor?”

“Well, Doctor Clovis, I s’pose.”

Doctor Clovis LeDeux was eighty if he was a day, and a closet alcoholic, but still doing house calls when needed to his patients along the bayou. His office was located in the front library of his Greek Revival mansion on the outskirts of Houma.

Justin exchanged a look with Louise, which pretty much said what he thought of medical care in his home region.

“But we haven’t seen Doc Clovis fer a long time,” Marie continued. “Like I said, Anna Belle’s been so much better, and my family doctors ourselves, mostly.”

Again, another meaningful look from Justin to Louise.

What? Is he blaming me for medical care in these remote regions? And there’s nothin’ wrong with home doctoring, for the most part. It’s worked for a couple hundred years here on the bayou.

Louise set Adèle on her feet and asked Justin, “Is there anything I can do?”

He indicated with a movement of his eyes that she should get Marie out of the way so that he could pick up the child. “Can you go find my brother and tell him to bring his car up closer? Someone can call ahead to Dr. Clovis.”

“We can use Lillian, my car. She’s a jalopy, a 1940 Chevy Cabriolet, but the old girl runs,” Louise said.

He nodded and she took Adèle’s hand in hers. The two of them, along with Marie, ran toward the parking lot. Lots of people were standing around, watching, and some of them called out questions to her, but she just waved at them and said, “Later.”

Adèle was asking lots of questions, too, but Louise assured her that this wasn’t her fault and Anna Belle was going to be all right, but that, at the moment, the two of them had to be heroes to the rescue.

“Like my daddy?”

Louise had told Adèle that her father was a soldier who died to rescue a lot of people. She hadn’t mentioned which soldier she meant, her fiancé or her brother, and thus far, Adèle hadn’t wanted any more details. “Yes, sweetie.”

“Good.” Adèle beamed up at her.

Louise’s heart clutched and tears misted her eyes. If only Phillipe had known his daughter, or had ever been aware of her existence, if only in the womb. He would have been so proud!

Somehow they managed to fit everyone in her car, Louise driving with Adèle in the passenger seat, and Justin and Marie in the back seat with a gasping Anna Belle lying across their laps. Justin had to give her artificial respiration again, two more times.