They Gave Me a Check at Twelfth Night, So I Took Their Mardi Gras novel · Chapter 26 of 32

Chapter 26: St. Charles

The Krewe of Thalassa rolled onto St. Charles Avenue at ten o'clock on Fat Tuesday morning.

A hundred thousand people stood along the neutral ground from Napoleon to Lee Circle.

They stood ten deep under the live oaks, hanging off ladders and balconies and the roofs of parked cars.

I walked at the head of it, in the sea-green gown.

A drum major led the way, and behind him came a band that had decided to play for me.

Gaspard walked at my right shoulder.

Nobody had told us where to stand, so we stood where we were meant to.

The first float behind us was the Captain's, the great gilt barge with the sea monsters and the Neptune.

It came out of the side street at a crawl.

A board member in a feathered mask drove the tractor, and he had plainly never driven one.

On it rode three people.

Maurice stood at the front rail in his cape with a basket of doubloons.

Hortense sat behind him on a velvet chair, in the black coat, rigid.

Auguste crouched in the shadow of the Neptune.

The crowd cheered the float.

They cheered it the way they had cheered it for a hundred and fourteen years, with the loud sweet roar of people who want beads.

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