NEW HOME
Part Four
By Christine Demerath

The rest of the week went by pretty fast, Remy woke up early every morning so he could have breakfast with the others, and help Tantie Mattie with work, and in return she'd help him with his reading. Then he'd go outside for an hour or so, two or three days he had helped the gardeners. Remy had even gotten closer to Henri. He had another nightmare, but nothing like the first, he woke up with a scream, not remembering what it was about, only that it hurt and that he was frightened. Besides that Remy was loving almost every minute of the day. Then came the day that Tantie was going to go back home.

"Hey, what ya doing?" Remy popped his head into Tantie Mattie's room.

"Packing."

"What? Where ya going?"

"Jean didn't tell ya, chile?"

"Tell me what?"

"I gotta go back to my home. I don't live here, Remy. I just came here ta take care of Jean and den you showed up so I stayed longer. I gotta go home."

"But what about me?" He knew he was being selfish, but he didn't really care.

"Chile, ya can come over whenever ya want, a'ccord?"

"Don't nobody want me?" he asked before running from the room and to his.

"Remy!?!" She entered his room a minute later. "Remy, I'm not abandoning ya, I'm still here if ya need me."

"No ya ain't."

"Now you listen up, boy, you ain't getting me ta stay here so ain't no use fussing over it." He wasn't being insensitive, just stern. He was silent for a while, trying to push back in the few tears and thinking about it.

"I'll miss ya." He said, he wasn't trying to convince her anymore just stating the facts.

"Know ya will, Remy. Miss ya myself. Want ta help me pack?"

"Oui."

"Jean, I figure ya can take care of Remy tomorrow sense is Saturday and ya got off I think ya can handle him. If ya need ta have someone watch him the rest of the week, he can come over ta my place during the day. But I think he be okay alone."

"You're probably right, thank you for staying longer than needed."

"No need ta."

"Still." Remy and Henri enter the front hall.

"Bye, Tantie Mattie." Remy hugged he and moves back to Henri's side.

"Ya need a ride home?"

"Non, it's only a little ways, thank ya Henri." Jean opened the door for her. "I'm see ya soon."

Remy slowly made his way down the stairs on his way to the kitchen. When he got there, Henri and Jean were quickly moving about.

"Good you're awake."

"Oui?" Remy was confused.

"Remy I know I was suppose to stay with you today, but we got a few problems so I can't, a'ccord?"

"Oui," he sighed.

"I probably won't be back til after you get to bed, but Henri come back later today. Can ya take care of yourself?"

"`course."

"Good, I made a sandwich for ya and Henri make you breakfast. Gotta go." He kissed Remy on the head and was headed out the door, Henri quickly following and messing Remy's hair up as he went.

The front door closed. "Bye." Shrugging his shoulders he sat down at the table.

"Boring, boring dis is really boring," Remy sang to himself, not really able to remember where he got it from. He laid across his bed, his feet dangling in the air, his stomach to the bed, his head hanging over the side, and looked at the book laying open on the floor. Snatching the book up he rolled onto his back, with a loud sigh. "Ain't nothing ta do."

He was barefoot again, this time playing in the swamp. Maybe not the best place to be playing barefoot but he didn't really care. The gardeners were off today and he was told to stay out of the garden without someone around. So he had to find something to do. He'd been told to stay out of the swamp many times, but it was to tempting. With Henri and Jean gone for the day to who knows where and Tantie Mattie moved out he was free to roam. He knew what the swamp was and how to take care of himself, he had been playing in them sense he was about six anyway. Thought were he played wasn't the same as this, he was farther away from the city and civilization. After about an hour or two of wondering about and pretending to be a master thief like his father he came across a mansion, not much different from Jean's just a little bigger. He crawled over to and under some bushes, just beyond the swamp. As he gazed at it he lost time imagining what people lived there, and fell into dreams.

Remy felt something lightly nudging him, "Wake up!" A girl's voice addressed Remy.

"Hey, what gives?" He crawled out from the bushes and turned onto his back to see how he was talking to. She was wearing a bright yellow summer dress with no pattern, which matched her prefect blonde curls.

"Hi, my name's Belle." She smiled innocently. Boy, he's cute!

"What's yours?"

"Remy."

"What ya doing out here?"

"I was just looking around."

"You know if my pappa catches ya he'll be mad, he don't like people snooping around."

"I'm sorry, I wasn't doing nothin`."

"Don't worry he ain't home, he left early this morning."

"So what ya doing out here?"

"Looking for something to do, everyone is gone or really busy. Ya wanna do something."

"Sure," Remy smiled evilly. "You're it!" He tagged her and ran into the swamp.

"Hey, you cheated!"

"No I didn't, you just afraid ya can't catch a boy." He stopped about ten-fifteen feet way, then stuck out his tongue and ran. Belle took chase.

I don't think I've done very well on the last two chapters, but what do you think? I promise that the next one will be longer and better. So please hang in there. Thanks.
-Christine (mystiquecd@hotmail.com)