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“This is an honor, Mom. I really appreciate it.”

“Do I need a step stool?”

“I’ll come around and push you up,” Kelly said as Beverly laughed.

“Give me your hand and pull,” she said. Just then, Steve came back.

“Mom, I’ll give you a boost,” he said.

They were laughing, helping Beverly get into the truck. It was a moment in time she wouldn’t forget. She’d start making amends to her children right away. If she could just stay sober.

Steve said goodbye again, and Kelly waited for her mother to buckle up.

“I wish I had been there for you when the rescue was in town. I don’t even remember if I ever saw it.”

“You did, and it wasn’t all that, Mom. Wait till you see what we have out at Maggie Angel’s place. It’s really great.”

She pulled away from the curb, telling Beverly about the rescue. They talked, Kelly noticing her mother’s effort and so grateful for it. It was the first day of the rest of her life.

Chapter 9

The day of the masked ball arrived with a mix of anticipation from the residents of Cypress Cove. The highs, most were excited for the official beginning of the carnival events. The parade would start at sundown, torches along Main Street lit, the streetlights shut off for the perfect, slightly spooky atmosphere. Attendees strolled the streets in costume, masked, so no one knew who they were until the unmasking later that evening.

Delicious traditional food was available from vendors who set up every season for years, so that looking for a repeat of that wonderful sausage sandwich eaten last year would be a goal to reach. The littlest kids remembered frosted cookies and ice cream treats from the year before and would hound their parents until that vendor was visited again.

Collectors looked for the artist who had created the pieces they’d bought in years past to add to their collections of artwork: paintings, handweaving, pottery and jewelry.

The lows, there were a few who dreaded the noise, mess and debauchery; a handful of out-of-towners who visited were the culprits.

But for most of the inhabitants of Cypress Cove, carnival time was looked forward to all year long. The bulk of the income of the small shops on Main Street and the artists and craftspeople who set up booths along the way were dependent upon the tourists who faithfully returned year after year.

The noise level was earsplitting, with shouts of excitement and children’s joy the first thing you’d notice as families, staking their claim, set up their encampments along the street hours earlier, waiting for the parade to begin. Then later after the parade had passed through, the evening progressed with music from bars spilling out into the streets, adult laughter and occasional drunken brawling replacing the childish racket.

The masked ball was held in an old Cajun barn built a hundred years ago or more along the creek that ran behind the Main Street shops, traveling through a culvert under the trail to Maggie’s cottage, and dumped into the bay on the other side of Gus’s dockmaster shack.

Around the barn, torches illuminated the banks of the creek, and strands of fairy lights gave the interior of the barn an enchanted glow. The magical air permeated the whole atmosphere so that revelers felt like they had just retreated to another, more raucous time in history.

Horse-drawn carriages transported visitors from the parade route to the mysterious barn location throughout the night, and the sounds of horseshoes on the cobblestones mixed in with the music and the laughter and the costumed patrons changed the entire atmosphere from a fishing village to an exotic New Orleans hamlet.

At sunset, Maggie and Justin arrived at her aunt’s house, the mansion that Val Amotte had restored. It was Maggie’s first carnival parade since childhood. Katrina was there too. She’d meet up with Alphé after he had dinner with his children at one of the vendors along the parade route, a family tradition. Standing on the balcony to watch the parade, the group had cocktails to usher in the festivities.

“We never watched the parades at night when we lived at Bayou Cottage,” Aunt Elizabeth said, her nose in the air. “We weren’t about to crowd on the curb with all the tourists after dark. We saved our trips into town to see the parades that were held during the day.”

“I wouldn’t miss this,” Maggie said. “And now that you live in town, there’s no reason for you to miss it either.”

But the night parade was amazing, with torches and fairy lights decorating every float.

“It’s a conflagration waiting to happen!” Val cried, one too many Hurricane cocktails under his belt.

At seven, they left for the stroll down Main Street, bringing up the rear of the parade, townspeople in costume with masks in place a part of the entertainment. For the walk, Justin went shirtless, his tattoos awe inspiring.

“I can’t take my eyes off your boyfriend,” Maggie’s mother, Rose, whispered.

“I think that’s the point,” Maggie said, laughing. “No one can. I wouldn’t let him do it if he wasn’t wearing a mask.”

Justin’s mask had huge outcroppings of feathers and ribbon that covered his face. The mask Maggie wore only hid the area around her eyes. But she wore a flapper hat, which covered her hair, and that was enough to make it hard to distinguish who she was.

Her dress had belonged to her great-grandmother and was made of pale pink peau de soie that clung to her, with an overlay of sheer silk chiffon covered with clear bugle beads that reflected light with each move she made. Her body positively shimmered.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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