“C’est impossible," Daedalus muttered in disgust He banged his fist down on the hood of the can "C'est impossible!"
"Heyl" said Axelle. "La voiture, c'est ci moiT She carefully examined the hood of her pink Cadillac.
Daedalus folded his arms across his chest and joined Richard and Jules, who were leaning against the side of Axelles car, staring across the street, Axelle lit a cigarette.
Jules made a face.'Must you smoke even here?"
"Yes," Axelle said evenly, 'Are you going to lecture me about the health disadvantages?"
Richard chuckled, and Jules looked away.
"It's unpleasant is all," he said.
"Then stand downwind," said Axelle.
"Stop it, you two," said Daedalus. "We can't start arguing among ourselves. Now, more than ever, we have to stand together."
"Has Sophie come yet?' Axelle asked.
"I think she and Manon are coming tomorrow," said Daedalus. He let out a breath and looked across the street, still unbelieving. "This is the place?" he asked for the fifth time.
"It's the place," Jules said dispiritedly. "It has to be."
The four of them stood in a line against the car. Across the street, where they had expected to find thick woods and swamps as far as the eye could see, there was instead a huge Wal-Mart Supercenter. And a huge parking lot. And other stores in a line next to it.
"Whens the last time anyone was here?" Daedalus asked.
They thought, shrugged.
"Long time," Axelle said at last. "Obviouslv."
"Hang on." Richard leaned into the open window of the car and pulled out their old map. He took the recent map from Daedalus and spread them both out on the hood of the car. "Okay, here's New Orleans," he said, pointing to the city within the crescent bend of the river. "And this is about where we are." He traced a slender finger down a blue highway line, south-southwest of New Orleans.
"They're two completely different maps," said Axelle,
Daedalus saw what she meant. "What's the date on that first map?"
"Uh, 1843," Richard said, finding the date in one corner.
"And this is a current map," Daedalus clarified. "Clearly, the older map is wildly inaccurate-it's not a satellite-data topographical map. The same features don't even appear on both. Look, Lac Mediant, Lac Penchant. This one is called Grand Barataria, and now its called, uh, Lake Salvador, I think," He squinted at the two maps, then glanced up and saw that this afternoon's quick, heavy thunderstorm was on its way.
"Crap," Axelle said.
"But this is the map we always used," Jules said.
"But it's been a long time," Richard pointed out, "Even the actual courses of the rivers have changed. The coastline has changed a lot, With every hurricane that's hit Louisiana, some aspect of the landscape changed"
"Now what?" Jules asked, frustration in his voice, "This is a major point,"
"Yes, Jules, we know" Daedalus said, hearing himself sound testy. He tried to dampen his irritation. They needed to pull together, to work as one. He reached out and put a hand on Jules s shoulder, "I'm sorry, old friend, I'm upset. But this is only a temporary setback, I'm sure. We'll do more research. We'll look at maps from different years and compare them. It will show us how the landmarks have changed. From that we can extrapolate where we need to be looking. It will take time, but we can do it!'
"We only have a little time," Jules said.
Again Daedalus squelched his temper, "We have time enough," he said, trying to sound both certain and reassuring. "We'll get started tonight," He looked over at Richard, who'd been quiet. That handsome child's face, those old, old eyes, Richard met his gaze and nodded, Daedalus got into the cat just as the first big raindrops hit the windshield. They had to pull this off. This was their only chance. Who knew if they would ever have another?