Mira flinched. Boy. She fumbled over an answer to Phillip’s questions. “We were all best friends once,” Mira said in spurts of anguish, “and since he lives here and I moved away—I just thought, you know, between the two of us, she would have had more of a chance to talk to him over me, but I don’t know how close they are, if they even are friends. She may not talk to him at all anymore.”

“Well, she invited him to the wedding.”

“Right,” Mira said. She regretted mentioning Jesse, as Phillip began to ask her more questions.

“Where is Jesse now? Have you seen him?”

“No, I haven’t.”

“He works here, doesn’t he?”

Mira didn’t like where Phillip was taking the conversation or the assumptions he was beginning to make, but she didn’t know how to steer things in a different direction.

“Listen, Phillip, I think Celine will call eventually, or we’ll figure out where she is. Everyone’s out searching for her, so she’s going to turn up sooner or later. You’re right, it’s not like her. I’ll try and keep looking too. I’m sure we just need to wait a little bit longer. We have each other’s numbers, so that’s good. I’ll call you if I learn anything else.”

Mira hung up the phone before Phillip could say more. Even if they managed to find Celine, it was long past time the wedding would have started and ended. She gathered her things and left to find Jesse.

As Mira walked along the plantation grounds, she expected the environment to feel somber and quiet, but it wasn’t. With no ceremony to attend, the guests relished in their vacations. Many had already changed out of their wedding attire. Some of the guests wore outfits bought from the gift shop, having fun dressed up in their costumes while they got drunk and played pretend. Or were they visitors to the plantation? Mira couldn’t discern, but they mingled with each other. The bar was so crowded that patrons had spilled out onto the walkway in front of it, sitting in groups on the grass and drinking. Others strolled the grounds. Mira passed a cluster of couples near the slave cabins.

One of them climbed the railing to get inside a cabin. The others held back, watching and laughing, their glasses sloshing. Guests were becoming reckless and emboldened in the freedom of the day.