Dick and disappeared. A lone balloon floated across the floor.
22
F renchmanâs Creek was pelting and gurgling in the background as Owen and Pierre sidestepped among Owenâs trellised grapevines in sunshine in their tuxedos. Owen said, âYou see here how Iâve used the classic, double-guyot way of training the vines?â
Pierre gently touched the grape leaves and hefted the grape cluster in his palm like a lovely breast, measuring its weight. âYou have very many the grapes.â
âExcuse me?â
âToo manys they hang on one vine. She has only the few nutrients to give.â Abruptly but expertly, Pierre began snagging grape leaves away. âAnd you are letting the canopy grow too thick. You are keeping the sunlight off the grape clusters.â
âAnd thatâs why theyâre so hard and tannic?â
Pierre, agreeing, tore off more leaves. âThe shade is bad for. The grape mold he likes the humid and dark.â
Owen, joining in the harvesting, asked, âYou think we have prospects, though?â
Working ahead, Pierre said, âI donât know this . . . prospeck?â
âHope,â Owen said.
Pierre picked a pliant grape and bit into it, shutting his eyes as he tasted the tones and inflections of its juice. He was studious, doctoral, then impressed. âWe have hope.â Tearing away more grape leaves and then looming sunflowers, he finally opened up the vineyard enough that he could accidentally view across the water the saddled horses Shep and Ida as they minced their way down to Frenchmanâs Creek and drank with equine delicacy. Higher up the hillside, in the loam and shade, Dick Tupper was snapping out with great earnestness a picnic blanket that seemed as red as passion and Pierreâs erstwhile fiancée was looking on with fondness, her loose hair softly rippling like Frenchmanâs Creek on a sultry August wind.
23
I mitating prestidigitation, Dick reached deep into his picnic basket and produced two baguettes, any number of cheeses, ripe strawberries and pears, a Château Latour 1992, and Tiffany glassware and plates. âWanted you to feel right at home,â he said. Including all of nature in his widened arms, he said, âChez Richardâs.â
Natalie knelt with him on the blanket, sinking into the soft cushion of grass. âJâaime beaucoup les pique-niques .â (I like picnics very much.)
âI have somethinâ I wanted to show ya.â And from the picnic basket he pulled out a zip-locked bag. Inside it was an old journal that he opened as carefully as an Empire butter-flyâs wings before handing it across to her. With a waiterâs screw he twisted out the cork in the Château Latour as he said, âJournal that the Frenchman kept when he was trapping yonder, once upon a time. Had it handed down to me from my great-grandfather. Mrs. Christiansen read it to us in school.â
Natalie read aloud, â Je suis heureux de . . .â
âAfraid youâve got the advantage of me,â Dick said.
Natalie translated: ââI am happy to flee an old, tired world, its stomach sour with spite and corruption. In this land I feast on sunshine and wind, wide horizons I cannot reach, skies so full of stars they are on fire. With joy I feel the teeth of ice, the scourging rain, the sun that sears my skin into copper.ââ
She was touched. She turned a few pages. While Dick poured wine for her, she translated, ââMy lust was once like weatherâfleeting, insistent, little understood. In this wilderness I have density, quiet, and meaning. Here I am never alone. At night the wind tells stories. Nor do I lack for books when I can read the changing plot of the skies.ââ She paused. âItâs beautiful.â
Dick surveyed the wide countryside of his residence. âYes, it is.â
She handed the journal back to Dick but he wouldnât
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