Before going to the Mardi Gras dance, Eurydice and Marie walked towards St. Louis Cemetery to put a bouquet of gardenias on the grave of their mother; gardenias had been her favorite flower. To get there, they had to pass by the house with the balcony where the three old women sat knitting.
They were still working on the same pair of yellow socks. One knitted while another held the ball of yarn and another held the scissors. As they worked, they sang in tight harmony.
"In the fever of a world in flames," the one holding the knitting needles sang.
"In the season of the hurricanes," sang the one holding the ball of yarn.
"Flood will get you if the fire don't," the one holding the scissors joined in.
"Any way the wind blows," they sang together, "And there ain't a thing that you can do when the weather takes a turn on you 'cept for hurry up and hit the road. Any way the wind blows. Sister's gone, gone the gypsy route. Brother's gone..."
" gone for a job down south. "
"Ain't nobody gonna stick around "
"when the dark clouds roll. Any way the wind blows oooooh."
"In the valley of the exodus"
"In the belly of the bowl of dust."
"Crows and buzzards flyin' low. Any way the wind blows. No use talkin' of the past is past. Set out walkin' and you don't look back. Where you goin' no one knows. Any way the wind blows. Sister's gone, gone the gypsy route. Brother's gone.."
" gone for a job down south. "
"Gone the same way as the shanty town."
"And the travelin' show. Any way the wind blows. ooooh."
A/N These are the lyrics to the song "Any way the wind blows." Here is a link to an audio file since there is no YouTube.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2FNSIS_HGAAdzlXY2twelVWazQ
Their voices were dry and cracklings like the buzzing of cicadas. Eurydice found them strangely mesmerizing.
"Don't dawdle!" Marie scolded.
"I'm not," Eurydice mumbled.
Saint Louis Cemetery was one of New Orleans's "cities of the dead," called so because the above ground tombs look like buildings and their rows are given street names.
That evening, the place was crowded with mourners and a glow with the light of hundreds of candles. The heady perfume of mounds of flowers filled evening the air
Sketched on the wall of the cemetery, the sides of the tombs, and on the pavement in chalk and red brick were vévés: voodoo religious symbols representing different loa or spirits. The most common vévés were dedicated to Baron Samedi and his wife Maman Brigitte, the loa of the underworld.
Baron Samedi was the corpse of the first man who ever died. He was depicted as short black man with a skull-like face wearing black coat tails, top hat and glasses. His nostrils are plugged up with cotton so he speaks with a nasally voice. Baron Samedi guarded the cross roads of the living and the dead and monitored which souls passed through into the realm of death. He was known to enjoy rum, cigars, apples, obscenities, crass jokes, and chasing women. Local gossip claimed that Baron Samedi had been Marie's lover and Hazel's father.
Maman Brigitte was depicted as a white woman with red-gold hair and emerald green eyes. She guarded graves, provided they were marked by a cross. Like her husband, she was partial to rum and obscenities.
Their children, the Guédé, guarded cemeteries and guided souls to the afterlife. The Guédé dressed like their father in top hats and coat tails, and took after him in their love of rum, cigars, and obscenities.
Eurydice searched out a grave marked "Eudora Levesque" and placed the bouquet of gardenias in front of it. Further down the row was a large, elaborate tomb dedicated to her great grandmother, the great voodoo queen Cora Levesque. Queen Cora's tomb was marked with chalk and red brick Xs.
Marie took a piece of red colored chalk from her hand bag, drew an X, and knocked three times on the side of the tomb. She handed the chalk over to Eurydice who did the same.
The next part of the ritual was to make a wish. Looking up to the sky, Eurydice saw the first star of night.
She did not know what to wish for. Wishing on stars was not something she would usually do.
"I wish that tonight I'll find whatever it is I'm looking for."
Eurydice knelt down by Marie and prayed her rosary.
The La Bouffe Mansion, where the Mardi Gras dance was held, lit up like a Christmas tree in the distance and a jazz band began to play.
A/N Voodoo is a mixture is African pagan beliefs and Catholicism. The loa, spirits, are aligned with Catholic saints and voodoo appropriates Catholic imagery such as crosses. Marie Leveau, the most famous voodoo queen, was a devout Catholic and was said to attend mass every day.