Lily's Passport to Paris by Nancy Rue

Author:Nancy Rue [Rue, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-310-54619-1
Publisher: Zonderkidz
Published: 2003-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Lily was all prepared to talk to Christophe on Monday. Over lunch—petite dejeuner—on Sunday, Pastor Renee said so many things that she knew would help Christophe, she couldn’t wait to get home and write them down in her journal so she wouldn’t forget them.

It started when the pastor was teaching the Robbins kids about French table manners. Lily was watching everything Renee and Véronique did when they ate, and when they both set their pieces of bread on the table instead of on the edge of their plates, she did that too.

“Get your bread off the tablecloth, Lil,” Mom muttered to her.

Veronique put her hand on Mom’s. “I do not mean to eavesdrop,” she said in her perfect English, “but here we always put the bread on the table. Bread is such a noble thing, it seems unjust to force it to share a plate with lowlier food.”

She smiled and gave Mom’s hand a squeeze. Both Joe and Tessa knocked their bread from plate to tabletop as if they were getting away with murder.

“What else do I need to know so my children won’t embarrass me in public?” Mom said.

Veronique and Renee took turns telling them things like the gentleman always pours the wine—which children in France usually drink with their families from the time they are small—and the lady always pours the tea. Mom assured the kids that there would be no wine-drinking for them, but that she would be glad to man the teapot.

Renee and Veronique also explained why the waiter took away certain knives from the table when the kids didn’t order red meat and replaced them with other, softer-edged knives. No unnecessary or inappropriate cutlery on the table, they said. And no loud talking in public places. The French as a rule were a quieter people than the Americans.

“You think?” Mom said. “France could be a wonderful influence on my children. I’m thinking of leaving them here permanently.”

Veronique laughed her little tinkle of a laugh, but Pastor Renee grew serious, his eyebrows dipping low over his nose.

“You can be much more of an influence on France,” he said. “You have faith that expresses itself in actions to help others.”

“Yeah, but what’s true faith?”

Every head at the table turned, because it was Art who had spoken. His eyes were narrowed like slashes of blue marker, but he was leaning forward on the table as though he really wanted to know. Still, Lily saw Mom’s face tighten.

“Dude, we’re gonna get another sermon,” Joe muttered to Lily.

But Pastor Renee’s answer was simple. “Faith is all about what happens between you and God,” was all he said.

Art leaned back in his chair. “I don’t think you could define what’s going on between me and God right now as ‘faith.’” Art gave a hard-edged laugh.

“You are talking to God?”

“Yelling at him is more like it.”

“Then there is something happening between you. Do you also yell at your mother?”

Art gave a half grin. “I tried that. She didn’t go for it.”

“But you did not stop believing she was a real being when you were trying to yell at her.

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