4.4: Touring "The Big Easy"
Brooklyn was surprised to discover that, once she was away from her rookery sisters, Marie was actually pleasant company. It was as if, once she didn't have any other females around that she felt she had to compete with and/or dominate, she relaxed and let her fun side show.
They glided all up and down Bourbon Street in the French Quarter, seeing all the sights there, and spent a good long while sitting on a rooftop across from Pat O'Brien's, which was supposed to be one of the world's most famous bars. Marie told him that Pat O'Brien's was really five bars in one, and they listened to the music and singing wafting from the indoor piano bar, where musicians were taking customer requests, while watching the lovely 'fire-fountain' that was the centerpiece of the outdoor patio bar.
When they heard songs made for dancing to, they danced as well; Marie was an accomplished dancer, and Brooklyn was a quick learner, having been shown the Cajun Two-Step and Cajun Shuffle at last Thursday night's fais do-do. He even taught her a few of the dances that they had done at the Equinox and Solstice festivals back in the old clan in Scotland, when the songs wafting up from below had the right rhythm.
"You're a fast learner yourself," Brooklyn told Marie with a grin, after leading her through the steps of a hornpipe dance that the gargoyles of old had adapted for themselves, after watching humans dancing at a ceilidh.
"Why, thank you!" she giggled, as she spun about and flicked her tail to the beat. "I learn faster when it's fun—and this is! Whee!" as she spun again, touching her left hand and tail-tip to his along the way.
Brooklyn could have stayed there most of the night, but soon, Marie urged that they move on, as there was a great deal more of New Orleans that she wanted to show him. They eventually left the French Quarter and glided into the Garden District, following the streetcar path along St. Charles Avenue.
While Brooklyn wasn't really into architecture, he had to admit that the old and stately houses lining St. Charles were indeed full of grace and beauty. He also noticed that some of the trees lining that street had glittery things stuck here and there in their branches. Marie explained, "Those are throws, from past Mardi Gras parades! This street is on the route for nearly half of the parades during Mardi Gras, and sometime the beads and souvenirs that are thrown from the floats are thrown too high, and get stuck in the branches. If they're up too high and on branches too thin for humans to climb up and get to easily, they're just left there; it's a little colorful reminder all year round of the biggest event of the year." Then Marie gave him a mischievous smile as she added, "But since Mardi Gras isn't for months yet…"
She glided down to swoop past and snag a half-dozen bead necklaces from the upper branches of a few of the trees. She put two of them around her own neck, then glided back up to his level but a few yards away, and called out with a smile, "You're supposed to say, 'T'row me sum'ting, missy!' "
"T'row me sum'ting, missy!" Brooklyn called out with a grin, and laughed as she flung the necklaces in his direction, one after another. He swooped and grabbed and caught them all, then put all four necklaces on together. "How do I look?"
"Suitably festive! You've just got to be here for the real thing; everybody loves Mardi Gras," Marie said with a smile as she glided in close again, to hold his outstretched hand.
Lex loved the Aquarium of the Americas; it was like exploring a whole new world! He and Rebecca walked hand in hand down the empty corridors, and through clear tubes that had them surrounded by water and every variety of sea life on all sides.
After eventually leaving the aquarium, they glided over to the Audubon Zoological Gardens. Zoos in themselves were nothing new to Lexington, not after gliding over the Central Park Zoo on a regular basis (it was part of Patrol Route D back home.) He'd even seen the Queens Wildlife Center once, and had seen plenty of pictures in the local newspapers about the Prospect Park Wildlife Center in Brooklyn and the Bronx Zoo. But he had to admit that the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans had one particular animal that the other zoos didn't have…
"Whoa; albino alligators!" he said as he stared at the medium-sized alligator with a yellow-white scaly hide, snoozing on a marshy shore.
"They're not albino," Rebecca corrected him. "Albino animals have pink eyes, and are usually pretty sickly. These boys all have blue eyes, and they're healthy as can be! The paper says the proper term for them is 'leucistic'." Then she shrugged while adding, "Most folks just call 'em white."
"Like the blue-eyed white tigers that Siegfried and Roy have in Las Vegas," Lex mused.
Rebecca grinned. "Rumor has it the zoo's trying to get their hands on a pair of those, too! As well as some jaguars; there are plans for a 'Jaguar Jungle' that's supposed to recreate the South American jungles, with some ancient Mayan culture thrown in. And would you believe they're even planning on getting some komodo dragons! Those lizards are supposed to get almost as big as gators, and they're a lot more rare... Well, rarer than regular gators, but not as rare as white gators."
"Is the zoo trying to breed more of these gators?"
"They'd love to! But there's a little problem; these gators all came from one clutch of eggs found back in 1987, and they're all, every last one of 'em, male. They're the only ones of their kind, and unless we get really lucky, they'll probably stay that way."
Lex nodded solemnly. "I know how that feels."
After leaving the zoo, Rebecca led Lex to the French Quarter, judging that Marie would probably have led Brooklyn elsewhere by then.
The aquarium held schools of exotic fish, and the zoological gardens held entire herds of exotic animals, but to Lex's way of thinking, the French Quarter was the place to go for viewing exotic humans. They glided along and occasionally perched on rooftops, just looking down and listening while Lex marveled at all the sights and sounds. "Wow… this is almost like the block parties we see on holidays back home! And it's like this every night?"
"Every night," Rebecca confirmed with a smile. That's our motto down here, 'Laissez les bontemps rouler'; let the good times—uh oh."
"What is it?" Lex asked, then looked at where she was pointing and agreed, "Uh-oh." She had spotted a man loitering in an alley, with that deceptively lazy attitude about him that the gargoyles, themselves a breed of hunters, recognized instantly as predator waiting for prey.
Rebecca looked up and around, and muttered, "Martin and Cecilia must be at the other end of the street. Mind if we mix a little work with our play?"
"I was just about to suggest that," Lex said as they settled onto perches where they could observe the alley. And not five minutes later, a woman came walking alone down the street, a tourist who had clearly had a couple drinks too many; she was swaying slightly as she walked and smiling at everything and nothing. The man in the alley got up from his leaning pose against the wall, seeming to coil himself like a viper as he prepared to strike.
But Rebecca struck first, swooping in from behind to knock him off his feet just as he was about to reach out and grab the woman. Instead of being grabbed, the woman shrieked as the man fell sprawling at her feet, and a black winged shape whipped past inches from her head. The woman turned and ran unsteadily for the safety of the nearest open bar, leaving her would-be mugger or rapist unconscious on the sidewalk.
Rebecca glided back up for a bit, and Lex gave her a thumbs-up for a job well done, then watched in puzzlement as she did a fast loop to land inside the alley, behind the man she'd just knocked unconscious. Rebecca yanked the man's shoes off, tied the shoelaces together and threw them over her shoulder as she climbed back up to the roof. She explained with a wink as she set the shoes down on the roof, "Keith Bayard is the only clan member in the NOPD right now, but all the cops in this quarter have learned to keep an eye on guys who suddenly start walking around without shoes. I'll tell Keith where to find the shoes later, so he can arrange to give them back to Mr. Mugger down there once he's in jail."
"Pretty neat idea," Lex said with a grin. "We should try that back home sometime!" But he liked even more the evidence he'd just seen that Rebecca was not only a technophile like him, but a competent warrior in her own right. And cute as could be, too; what more could a guy ask for?
Brooklyn had been having a good time, and the night was far from over, so he was puzzled when Marie led him back to the safe house. "Oh, we're got more places to go yet," she assured him, "but I need to pick something up first."
She had him wait outside on a roof across the street while she dashed inside through the skylight, then emerged moments later with a black garment bag in her hands. "Next stop, Harrah's!"
And they glided over to Harrah's Casino, just outside the French Quarter. Marie led him to land in an alley nearby, then opened the garment bag and took out a long, flowing white satin gown and a satin garter, like the ones that the brides had worn for the recent weddings back in Manhattan.
Marie slipped the garter onto her left leg, but only as high as mid-calf, then wound her tail around that leg and slipped the tip through the garter. "Just a little reminder to keep it tucked in," she explained with a wink before she turned her back, took off her halter top (and dangled it invitingly at her side for a second, making Brooklyn swallow hard) and slipped the white gown on. The gown was backless to allow for her wings, but swept clear to the ground to completely cover her legs and feet. She turned around (and oh my, that gown had a low plunging neckline!) and took Brooklyn's arm with a smile. "Come on; let's go!"
"Go where?" Brooklyn asked after he managed to take his eyes off her cleavage.
"Why, inside the casino, of course!"
"What? Inside, with humans everywhere?" Even though it was past two a.m. now, the casino was clearly far from empty.
"Oh, relax," Marie chided as she patted his arm. "Yvette and I do this all the time, when our patrols are over! So long as my legs and tail are covered and I don't make my fangs or talons obvious, everyone thinks I'm wearing an angel costume, and that she's costumed as a demoness; we're paired up as representations of Heaven and Hell! Since there are always a few costume wearers around town at any time of year, we've never had any trouble."
"And Adam is okay with this?" Brooklyn asked uneasily as she tugged him towards the entrance.
"I prefer to think that what he doesn't know, won't hurt him," Marie said blithely as they stepped into the light.
Shit, someone was looking their way already! But he wasn't shouting or pointing at them; it was more of a curious and mildly interested look than anything else. Brooklyn swallowed hard, straightened his spine and let Marie lead him through the casino's open doors.
There was glitter and glitz aplenty inside the casino; enough lights and shiny things to put the New York skyline in shadow. And Marie strolled through the main lobby as casually as if she did this every night, with Brooklyn on her arm. They snagged some munchies from the free hors de'ouvres trays, and even stopped so Marie could put a few coins down at a roulette table—and nobody tried to stop them! Nobody looked at him in terror, or screamed, or anything… this was great!
Then somebody actually came up to them with a smile on his face, and told Brooklyn, "Great costume! I'd almost swear you're a devil straight from Hell itself!"
And the fun was gone, just like that. Brooklyn felt like he'd just gotten a bucket of cold water thrown onto him. He remembered all too well the first time he'd heard someone say something like that…
And the man saying it had not been smiling. Instead, he'd been scowling, and raising his staff to strike a blow…
It was one of Brooklyn's worst memories from his hatchling nights. He'd wandered away from his brothers and sisters, looking to snag some food from the humans' kitchen, for himself and his big blue-green brother who was always hungry. And the priest who had arrived at the castle after Brother Edmund had been taken away, had caught him alone in the passageway. Caught him alone, and sworn that of all the monsters that plagued the castle, this one was surely a demon sent straight from Hell to torment innocent souls! So the priest rebuked him with Scripture, and when the young brick-red hatchling had just stared at him uncomprehendingly, had followed it up with a far more physical form of rebuke.
The brick-red hatchling had dodged the first blow from the staff, while screaming for help; but as he'd turned to run away, the second blow had impacted squarely on his little tail. The pain of the bones instantly breaking had been agonizing, and he'd fallen sobbing to the ground; it would have been easy for the maddened priest to finish him off. But a rookery keeper who had been tracking her wandering charge had heard his cry and rushed in, knocking the priest off his feet before he could land another blow and rushing the hatchling to safety.
The incident had caused an immediate uproar between the clan and the humans inhabiting the castle. A human had attacked a hatchling! A gargoyle had attacked a priest! The two cohabiting species had nearly come to blows, before Prince Malcolm had forcibly restored order. After separating the would-be combatants, the prince promised the people he ruled that the gargoyle who had done the deed would be soundly punished… then quietly asked her to just stay in the rookery and out of sight for the next few moons. The prince promised the gargoyles that the priest would be punished too, but if he was, they never saw any evidence of it.
Not that the hatchling knew about any of that at the time; he only heard about it again years later, when Malcolm died and friction between the species began rising again. All he knew was that he spent the rest of that night sobbing in a corner of the rookery, while the keepers gave him their primitive analgesics to try to dull the pain, and set the bones in his tail so it would heal properly with a good day's sleep. The next night, the pain in his tail was gone… but Brooklyn still carried the scars in his heart. He wasn't like Demona, convinced that all humans were scum who should be eradicated from the face of the earth, but he still didn't fully trust strangers not to attack the moment his back was turned.
"Marie… I'm ready to go now," he muttered to her, even as the same man who'd complimented Brooklyn on his 'costume' was complimenting Marie on hers, and wondering aloud with a sly wink if she'd show him a slice of Heaven that night.
Marie demurred the man's suggestion with a smile, and after he left she gave Brooklyn's suggestion the same treatment. They hadn't been there even fifteen minutes; there was so much more inside that she wanted him to see! They had rooms lined with lovely artwork and statuary, and bars with jazz musicians playing around the clock, and etc. and etc.
But it didn't take long for Brooklyn to figure out that wasn't the real reason why she wanted to stay. Marie just liked the attention she was getting from all the humans here, who were all admiring either her beautiful white wings or her daring interpretation of an angel by wearing a wig of white feathers for hair (and most of the men seemed to be admiring her cleavage as well.) She loved it, as much as Brooklyn was growing to hate it. He tried again to suggest that they leave, but she again demurred; she just couldn't or wouldn't understand.
Brooklyn contemplated simply leaving her there and walking out the doors, but decided against it. If anything went wrong and the people here discovered she wasn't human after all, she'd probably need backup to escape. He decided to stay, to tough it out… and take it as another reminder of why, despite the fun they'd had for a few hours, Marie was not on his list of possible mates.
To be continued…
Ceilidh - 'kelI - originally an informal social gathering among neighbors, with or without singing, playing instruments, story-telling etc., spontaneously performed by some or all of those present; a visit, chat, gossip. The Concise Scots Dictionary