Hey Little Songbird-A Hadestown Story

Epic I

Orpheus was playing and singing in a French Quarter park when he saw her. The girl had a regal, strong-featured face which looked like it had been carved from ebony, framed by a cloud of black curls.
She was so beautiful that he almost played a sour note on his guitar.
Gather round, you vagabonds," he sang, "pickin' fruit and hopin' frates. Anyone who's wandering, wondering why the winds change. I'll sing a song of love gone wrong, between a mighty king and queen. Gather round, I'll sing a song of Hades and Persephone, queen of flowers, queen of fields, queen of the green and the growing earth. Lady Persephone, half of the year was bound to stay down in the underworld. But the other half, she can walk in the sun, and the sun, in turn, burns twice as bright, which is where the seasons come from and with them the cycle of the seed and sickle, the lives of the people, the birds and their flight, singin' la la la la la la la"
A/N these are the lyrics to the song "Epic I" from Hadestown. Copy and paste this link into your search engine to listen to it:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2FNSIS_HGAAR3F5RmRXbjdUN00
Sorry there's no YouTube video
The girl hung on every word he sang as if she was transfixed. She walked up to him when he was finished playing.
"You play beautifully," she said.
"Thanks, Mi Bonita" Orpheus replied.
She then walked over to a little girl who was playing tag with Orpheus's little brother Sammy. The little girl and she shared a resemblance; maybe they were sisters?
"Hazel," the beautiful girl said to the little girl, "Your momma's gone to the beauty parlor. She said to meet her there when you're done playing with Sammy."
A/N I made Sammy Valdez, Hazel's first boyfriend and ancestor of Leo Valdez, Orpheus's little brother, so Orpheus's last name would be Valdez as Eurydice's last name would be Levesque.
"Who was that singing?" Hazel asked, "He sings good."
"That's Orpheus, " Sammy replied, "Mi Hermano."
Orpheus walked to them and put a hand on his little brother's shoulder.
"Entonces, hermanito," he said to Sammy "¿Quiénes son tus amigas?"
"Esto es Hazel," Sammy replied, "y su tía, Eurídice."
"Pleased to meet you, Miss," Orpheus extended his hand to the beautiful Eurydice but she had already left.

Orpheus thought about Eurydice all afternoon His eyes scanned the French Quarter, hoping to see her.
Hazel and Sammy joined a group of other children: Geneviève (whose mother, Madame Athene, owned a bookstore), Pedro (his father,  Don Poseidon ran a fishing boat on Lake Pontchartrain), Penelope (her mother, Madame Aphrodite, owned a beauty parlor), François (his father, Major Ares, lived on the nearby army base), and James (the youngest son of the late Zeus-Marie La bouffe).
They were playing "movies" with Sammy as the director and each of the other children as a different movie star: Hedy Lamar (Hazel), Carole Lombard (Genevieve), Clark Gable (Pedro), Katherine Hepburn (Penelope), Gary Cooper (James), and Cary Grant (Francois). Hedy Lamar was undoubtedly the star of the picture.
Two ladies were sitting under a large magnolia tree at a green wrought iron table and chairs. The older of the two wore a blue velvet dress and a large black hat decorated with white silk lilies.

The younger wore a bright green silk dress and a red flower in her hair. They had similar curly auburn hair and light brown skin which marked them out as mother and daughter.
The lady in the bright green dress fixed her eyes on Orpheus and stood up.
"Orpheus Valdez," she called, "You come here and give me a hug."
Orpheus walked over to her and embraced her.  She messed up his hair and kissed his forehead.
"Where you been kid?"
"Never far from you, Aunt Persephone," Orpheus replied.
The La Bouffe family was one of the richest in New Orleans. Zeus-Marie La Bouffe, the family patriarch, went through three wives over the course of his life as well as countless mistresses and in the process sired a whole bunch of children, both legitimate and illegitimate. Persephone Hades, née La Bouffe, was his daughter by his third and final wife, Demeter. Her half-brother, Apollon La Bouffe, the son of one of Zeus-Marie's many mistresses, was Orpheus's father.
"Aren't you quite the charmer? You're just like your father and every bit as handsome."
Orpheus blushed.
"You tell Calliope I said hello."
"I will."
Persephone walked back to where she was sitting with her mother. Orpheus figured that he should probably go and visit his own mother, who he hadn't seen in weeks. He had left home two years ago at age fourteen so she would have one less mouth to worry about feeding.
Orpheus now lived in a shanty town out on Bayou St. John.  Calliope Valdez would be happy to have her prodigal son stop in for a visit.

Later on in the afternoon, Orpheus spotted a strange looking old man. He had a pot belly and a beard and wore a threadbare suit sewn up with colorful scraps of fabric. His skin was brown and wrinkled and he had a wide smile filled with perfectly white teeth.
"Buenas tardes, viejo," Orpheus called over to him.
"Good afternoon, young man," the old man replied, "Got a few bits to spare? I need to catch a streetcar."
Orpheus reached into his pocket and pulled out of some of the money he had earned playing and singing in the park that afternoon. He handed the money to the old man.
"Thanks."
"No problema, what the gods give us in this world, they give us to share."
"What's your name, son?"
"Orpheus, Orpheus Valdez. And yours?"
"Mr. Hermes at your service."
Hestia's Cafe was across the street from the park. Out in front of it was a patio where some of the patrons were seated. A girl in yellow shirtwaist dress with a cloud of dark curls was taking their orders.
Orpheus recognized her as Eurydice.
"Oh, I see," Mr. Hermes said, noticing that Orpheus was staring at the girl, "Love awaits."
He signaled for Orpheus to go across the street to talk to her.