KAT'S TALL TALE

by Donna and Ev

As the evening grew later, the Fais-do-do moved indoors. Quite a few of the guys were sitting in the living room having a grand time flirting with the ladies and harassing each other. Some of them were getting just a wee bit tipsy from the jug of moonshine that was still being passed around from time to time. John Prudhomme had just finished an outrageous story about fishing in the swamps Cajun style when Sarah Jo made the comment that he should hear the one that Mamma Kats likes to tell.

Ev heard the remark about the joke and called, from Peter's lap. "Let's hear it! We can never have too many jokes." She grinned at the guys and started calling, "Joke! Joke! Joke!" The guys joined in, gleefully adding clapping and stomping to the chant."

Katherine peeled herself for off of Jimi's lap and headed to the center of the room. Someone yelled for her to wait a second and then Theron went to drag the poker players into listen to it as well. Sarah Jo leaned over to Rayden and suggested that this story get video taped, if for nothing else, the expressions on the guy's faces as they listened to it. Rayden grinned and zapped up a video camera, handing it to Sarah Jo. "I don't know how to use those. You do it." He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. Ev wriggled a little in Peter's lap and started nibbling on his ear while they waited. She could feel that he would be ready to escape to the other room soon.

Carol was draped across Lemieux, Fred, and Lou. She was grinning and managing to flirt with all three at once. Jathelle was sitting next to John Clayton, letting one hand explore under his shirt, while he looked into her eyes, smiling. As the rest of the party goers made their way in to the room, they all took positions around Katherine who was waiting patiently. "That's all of them," Theron said cheerfully.

Everyone's attention turned to Kat in anticipation. They all found places to sit and each of the women was surrounded with admirers. Once she was sure her audience had now focused on her, Katherine began to weave her tale. She started out by describing the ramshackle old fishing shack she lived in for a while on the bayou while she was doing some midwiving for a Cajun settlement deep in the heart of Louisiana back in the mid 19th century. As she painted a word picture of the moss hanging down from the trees and the sound of mosquitos humming in the night air, more than one of the audience started to absently scratch imaginary bites.

The slight Scottish burr to her voice started to change, till she was now speaking in a pure Cajun French accent, so thick that some were having a little trouble following it. Prudhomme was delighted, as well as some of the French CLims who were listening with growing interest.

Mullard was fascinated. He couldn't help looking around the room and seeing the expressions of the rest of the audience. He marveled at the way she could capture everyone so thoroughly in her stories.

"Now it be one dark night on the bayou that as ah was sittin' and a rockin' on the front stoop of my poor little shack that ah began to feel the prickle of one of my own kind coming to me. Now ah be knowing for the gospel truth that my beloved Captain had gone back to sea and ah did not know of another immortal in the area other than myself." As she spoke, several of the men raised their hands to the back of their necks as the hair there started to stand on end.

Rayden and Theron exchanged a glance. ~"I told you she's good."~ Carol was fascinated. She sat up a little straighter to see Katherine's face right side up while she talked. Lemieux slid his arm around her and held her close.

"Thinkin' to myself, ah says, this one be up to no good, that be for sure! So ah grab meself a long stick and ah wait, and ah wait, scanning the darkness as ah felt him coming nearer and nearer and nearer. But all ah be hearin' is the hoot hoot of an old screech owl up in a the cypress tree hanging over my little house. And then ah be hearing it. Splash, splash. The sound of an oar dipping into the water."

Ev and Peter had their arms around each other, listening in rapt attention. Jathelle was fascinated as much with the crowd as with the way Katherine was able to weave this spell.

"Just then, another splash be catching me eye. A family of gators be swimming nearby. Ah could not help but be thinkin' that ah would not make much of a meal for them iffen this stranger was there for the sole reason of removing my head from my shoulders." With that she drew her finger across her throat and a collective shudder ran through the crowd.

Rayden found himself caught in the spell she was weaving and reacting along with the rest of the audience. He was fascinated and impressed. Michele couldn't help a moment of anxiety at even the thought of it.

"And then ah sees him. A dark figure rowing in the gloomy night. My poor heart leaps with fright and ah jumps into my boat and takes my pole and starts to push meself down the bayou as fast as ah can, but he be getting closer and closer!" Her voice raised just a little as if she was really in distress. "And then he was there! Standing up in his wobbly boat and swinging something long and shiny towards my head!"

Carol didn't realize she had such a tight grip on Lemieux until he started trying to loosen her arms. "Carol. You've got to let me breathe once in a while." He whispered in her ear and ran his hand through her hair.

"Saints and all the powers that are be praised! His boat be wobbling a little too much and he be missing what he be aiming at! So ah takes me pole and twirls it just so, and then hits him right across the side of his knee and Lord behold, he goes a tumbling into the muddy bayou!!!"

There was a soft sound as the majority of the crowd, who hadn't even realized they were holding their breath, finally started breathing again.

"But it ain't over yet folks, he comes up a kicking and gasping for air and grabs a hold of me boat, reaching for me leg!"

Carol blinked and was suddenly lost in a memory of a very frightening night that happened twenty years ago. Lemieux felt the slight trembling and held her tighter. Ev looked over with concern at her friend. It seemed that she was in good hands, so she turned her attention back to the story.

"Land a' mercy, ah ain't never seen such an angry look on a man's face in all my born days. As his hand clasps me ankle like an iron shackle, he sudden lets out a yelp like an old hound dog that has done met up with a porcupine in the woods! As ah look down, ah see sister alligator has done grabbed him by his scrawny ankle and be chomping away!"

The crowd relaxed again, smiling, wondering how this would turn out. There was a warm feeling in the room as they all shared in the emotional ups and downs in the story.

"Then he hollers again, this time even louder as brother alligator takes his other leg into his big ole toothy mouth clear up to his knee! He be thrashing about so, he is about to dumps me into the bayou to join him so ah swats his wrist with the pole and he lets go and is pulled into the black water. Ah almost feel sorry for him at that point, 'specially when mamma gator done grabs him by an arm and starts to tug away.

More than one person in the crowd started to grimace, thinking how awful that would feel. While some seemed almost to be on the alligators side.

"Ah even cross myself and start to say a prayer for the poor man's doomed soul as papa gator grabs his other arm. And all fours gators are a tugging him this way and that." She demonstrated how spread-eagled the man was and some low laughter started to go through the crowd as a couple of them were starting to realize they had been had, and had good. "But his hollerin' and yellin' ain't nothing to the blood curdling scream he be letting out when little baby alligator swims up and takes a wee nip of something else that be sticking out."

At this, the laughter increased in volume. Lou booed and threw a handful of popcorn. It didn't get very far and landed on Vincent and Jimi, who chuckled and threw some of theirs. Of course, some of it hit Sal, who was next to Lou and he gleefully tossed a handful of chips.

"It was then ah was beginnin' to be thinkin' that ah might be gettin my first quickening when ah glimpses great grandpappy gator comin' his way with his mouth open way wide and fixing to bite the poor man's head clean off. But he sees him too, and done levitates clear out of the water, leaving bits of him behind for the gators to snack on. Last ah sees of him, he be running for his life down river towards New Orleans. And this story be the truth. All of it!"

Carol rolled her eyes and gave Lemeiux a very affectionate hug and teased Lou with her feet, distracting him from the food fight. Ev chuckled and wrapped herself around Peter, definitely warmed up for him. Michele looked up at Katherine from his spot on the floor with undisguised admiration. Rayden and Theron exchanged glances again, some silent communication passing between them, as they grinned at each other. The laughter and shouted comments took quite a while to die down.

A smug, satisfied look on her face, Katherine walked across the room and snuggled between Jeremy and Michele who were almost choking they were laughing so hard. Connor came up behind her and chuckled in her ear, "My dear, that little tale gets taller and taller every time I hear it!"