"Some day I'll tell you about my dog. Celeste. How he would have loved you, loved to protect you. If he were here now, he wouldn't leave you alone for a moment. I'm sure."
"Dog," she said.
"That's right, my dog. Cleo." I told her.
"Cleo," she repeated, and she let go of my hand and ran ahead of me down the hallway.
"What are you doing?" I called.
She stopped at the hallway closet and struggled to open the door. "What is it?" I asked, helping to open it.
As soon as I had. she got clown on all fours and pulled aside a carton on the floor of the closet. Behind it was Cleo's egg-shell-white bowl. She brought it out to show me and I stood there .with my mouth agape. The bowl had Cleo written on two sides of it. I remembered the clay Mama had bought it.
"How could you..." I reached down and took it from her. I held it as I would some fragile jewel. Baby Celeste looked up at me, smiling. "I'd forgotten all about this." I smiled at her. "I guess you saw it when Mama moved things around in here and she told you what it was."
It didn't surprise me Baby Celeste would remember. She had a photogenic memory. All Mama and I had to do was tell her something once and she never forgot it, no matter how slight was our reference to something.
"Maybe someday Mama will let us have a dog again," I said, stroking the bowl as lovingly as I would stroke Cleo. Then I put it back behind the carton and closed the closet door.
I made us our lunch. Mama didn't return until late in the afternoon. The rain had come in periodic downpours so there wasn't much for me to do outside anyway. I spent the time with Baby Celeste. Mama had decided she was such a precocious child it would be a waste to spend all our time with her just playing with toys.
Consequently, she had gone out and bought what she considered were appropriate educational children's books and spent hours with Baby Celeste reviewing them. To my surprise, Mama had even been able to teach her some elementary reading. Mama. Having been a teacher and haying taught both Noble and myself at home all our lives, had great patience and concentration. Noble was never a great student, but he always did well enough on the exams we had to take at the school to meet the state's requirements for homeschooling. Obviously. Mama was preparing Baby Celeste for the same life and education.
I suppose I shouldn't have been at all amazed at Baby Celeste's abilities. I was always an exceptional student and had actually achieved my high school equivalency at fourteen. I loved reading and had read practically every book we had in the house, many of them old leather-bound classic editions. Baby Celeste's learning ability was just another way in which Mama reinforced her belief that my child was a spiritual resurrection. Watching her work with my baby did bring back my own childhood memories of our schooling at home. It was truly as if I was looking back in time.
We both looked up when we heard Mama return. She stepped into the living room doorway.
"How is she?" she asked, shaking the rain out of her hair. 'Did you have lunch?" "Yes. Mama."
"She should be taking a nap."
"She isn't tired. Urn the one who's tired," I muttered. "She's full of questions."
"That's how you learn. Noble, you ask questions. but I don't mean stupid questions,' she added quickly.
Baby Celeste stood up and pointed. "Bowl."
"What?" Mama asked, turning to me.
"Oh. I mentioned I had a dog named Cleo and she showed me Cleo's bowl in the closet. I guess she saw you arranging things in there and didn't forget."
Mama smiled that soft, small smile that lifted the corners of her mouth and brightened her beautiful light brown eyes.
"She never saw me do anything in that closet, Noble. What's there to do?" "But, how would she know then, Mama?"
"She knows." Mama said. nodding. "She knows every nook and cranny in this old house. She has the gift. I've told you that many times. Maybe now you'll start believing me and stop this doubting-Thomas business you've been conducting lately."
"I haven't been conducting any doubtingThomas business. Mama."
"Sometimes, you don't see yourself as well as I do. Noble. This is the time when I need you to have more faith, not less. Come on. Celeste." she beckoned. "Time for a nap."
Obediently, Baby Celeste went to her and Mama lifted her in her arms.
"Put all this away neatly, Noble. Fm thinking about doing some redecorating in the house," she added, gazing at the living room and nodding. "We need to freshen things up a bit, perhaps get some new area rugs, do some painting, lots of polishing and whitewashing."
"But I thought it was important that we never disturb things. Mama."
"We're not disturbing them. Noble. See! This is exactly what I mean. Every time I make a suggestion lately, you come up with a stupid. contradictory remark." she snapped. "Don't you think I know what I'm doing and I have reasons for changing things when I change them? Well?"