As the crowds split, a cold hard
gust of wind came blowing in over them and over the Quarter. It gathered other
gusts to itself, swirled across the Faubourg Marigny and up Bourbon and Royal
streets like a desert dust devil. It carried with it black dust and a mélange of
beads and other Mardi Gras trash. It picked up the stench of sweat-soaked
people, the stale odors of alcohol, urine, vomit. Along with those scents it
gathered the thoughts and feelings of the revelers—their joys and rages, their
laughter and sobs, their lusts and sins.
And when the wind had all of that
in its grasp, it leaped upward toward the highest steeple of the St. Louis
Cathedral.The cross at the top of the steeple shook; a dirty shadow enveloped
it, then shrank down, took darkling form. For a moment it seemed that a long-armed
man clung to the steeple. Then the figure leaped down and down from the cathedral
and disappeared into the bushes and hedges of Jackson Square. The wind was gone
as if it had never been.
----
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21 comments:
Awesome, baby!
Nice imagery.
Charles, what Ty said. I could picture it all. Well done!
oh dang...i like...kinda got an otherworldly feel to it...all the sin & emotion/joy even becoming solid briefly pulling at the cross...cool
Wouldn't want to encounter him in a dark alley.
Exciting!
Great beginning to a horror story!
You had me at the title! This is really good.
Lana, thankee sweets
Ty, thanks, man. I kind of like the scene.
Prashant, glad you enjoyed!
Brian, appreciate it. I thought of doing it as a prose poem but then it seemed right as just prose
Alex, me either.
Patti, thankee much!
Bernard, now I just have to figure out where it goes from here.
Christina, that title will likely be popular!
Wish my dreams were that vivid...Seems there's always a piece missing.
It does remind me of an old Germanic tale.
There's more.
The horse he tied to the steeple cross, thinking it was a shrub in that great snowstorm, will soon come tumbling down. :)
Eerie, I like it.
Ivan, that would have been one serious snow storm.
David, thankee, man
Charles-I can totally picture that scene. I forget you are in the middle of all of that.
Jodi, Lana and I try to stay away but we still get brushed by it.
Vivid description with a little fantasy thrown in.
That is great descriptive writing, CG!
Fantastiastic, indeed.
Oscar, thanks. Glad you enjoyed.
Riot Kitty, twas fun.
Erik, much thanks, my friend.
A neighbor here in Oregon had a Mardi Gras flag in front of his house this week, but I had to ask what it was to know this. I told him that I lived 100 miles from New Orleans for 36 years and never went to Mardi Gras. That's what happens when you hate crowds.
Beautiful writing there, Charles.
Snowbrush, I went to Mardi Gras events when I first came to New Orleans. enjoyed them but didn't like the crowds. By now I've completely stopped going and try to avoid as much of it as possible.
David Cranmer, thanks, man!
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