The ABC Affair 2019- I is for Indians

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Napoleon and Illya returned to the TruTone but sat this time they sat at a table. Not having had breakfast, their stomachs were rumbling as it was well past lunch time.

The place was quiet and as Illya had surmised, a good many people were sleeping off the previous night’s festivities.

Lucius came right over, bringing them a pair of menus.

“So how’s yo day going so far gentlemens?”

“Quiet, thank goodness,” Napoleon answered.

“Drinks?” Lucius asked, not judging what Solo had just said.

“Coffee please, black. It was a bit rough sleeping last night. What time did the band finish playing?”

“Round two maybe tree o’clock,” Lucius chuckled. ”Sho’nuff, da music can get purdy loud h’yah. Good news, there no band tonight. Jus’ Mista Cassius tickling the ivories I suppose. Unless’n some of his lady friends comes by to sing with a few o’ da boys. Never know when a jam session kicks in ‘round h’yah.”

“Lucius,”Illya chimed in.”Are you familiar with the Gautier House?”

“Lordy I sho is. It be smack dab in da middle o’ Indian territory.”

“Indian territory? As in native Americans?” Illya asked.

“No real Indians, tho some of us have Indian blood, but plenty Creole too. Das French or Spanish mixed wit da African and Indian.Yo see de be white folks Mardi Gras and colored folks Mardi Gras. We celebrates in our owns neighborhoods. Way back when runaway slaves was hepped by Indians,  We gave honor to dem who hepped us by startin’ the tribes fo Mardi Gras.

We has different tribes fo different neighborhoods and de be sort of a competition fo who can look the purdiest.  We mask up in fancy feather costumes and such. Dis also da time when diff’rences be settled, so sometimes der be a bit o’ fightin’ goin’ on between tribes.”

“So tell us about this Gautier House,” Napoleon asked.”Where exactly is it?”

“It be where my tribe paradin’ tomorrow.”

“And that is where…” Solo was beginning to feel like it was pulling teeth to get a simple answer from Lucius, still he could feel the man’s sense of pride coming through, and there was nothing wrong with that.

The agents had learned something new, as they were unaware that Mardi Gras celebrations were segregated.

“It be on Pearl Street, its a colored neighborhoods. Not long ago de be some white folks fixin’ up da house. It purdy old, back to 1880, das what I hear tell.”

Lucius disappeared to the kitchen, that gave the agents a moment to discuss things.

“The parade tomorrow might be the perfect cover, Napoleon whispered.

“As in creating a distraction?”

“That’s what I’m figuring tovarisch.”

“It would be fifty-fifty I suppose,”Illya said. “They might be expecting us today, or they will think we will use the parade tomorrow as a cover.”

“A chance we’ll have to take,” Solo nodded,

Lucius reappeared with two white ceramic mugs brimming with hot black coffee. Napoleon immediately took a sip from his cup and delighted in the flavor.

“What’s kind of coffee is this?”

“I suspect...chicory,” Illya answered after tasting it himself.

“Das right Mista Nick, it be chicory and mighty fine if I say so maself. It even better if you puts in some warm milk. We calls it au lait.”

“Eddie...you recall we had it at Café DuMonde,”Illya made a point of using his partner’s alias.

“Right, but I never got the chance to ask about it.”

Of course Illya knew all about it, which came as no surprise to his partner.

"Chicory was cultivated as early as 5000 years ago by Egyptians as a medicinal plant.”Kuryakin seemed to a walking encyclopedia at times."

“Ancient Greeks and Romans used it as a vegetable and in salads. References to it are in the writings of Horace, Virgil, Ovid, and Pliny. Galenus gave it the name ‘Friend of the Liver’ because of its supposed stimulating effect on that organ. Then of course there was the blockade by the British during your Revolutionary war that cut off supplies of regular coffee. Chicory became the substitute.”

“I never heard that a’fore. I just know’d it come to New Orleans wit da French,” Lucius added his two cents worth. “Now what you like to eat gentlemens?”

They both opted for sandwiches; Muffuletta for Napoleon.

It was served on round Italian sesame seed bread with olive salad spread and filled with ham, capicola, salami, mortadella, mozzarella, and provolone. To him it sounded more like a hero.

Illya decided on a Po' boy, a submarine type sandwich using a wide piece of French bread filled with fried shrimp and oysters. Topped off with a remoulade which was similar to tartar sauce but reddish in color due to the addition of Creole spices and curry.

After their food arrived Kuryakin pulled a map from his jacket pocket, one he'd borrowed from the field office. Looking at it, he and Napoleon located Pearl Street and right where Gautier House was.

Heading up to their room, they spent the rest of the day working out their strategies after which they contacted Mister Waverly and apprised him of their plans.

“Godspeed, “ was the only thing the Old Man said to them. Like his agents, he believed they were walking into a potential trap.

That wish unsettled Napoleon just a bit, Kuryakin as usual seemed as if he had ice in his veins.

Both men got a good night’s rest since Lucius was correct about there being no entertainment that night. The noise from the street below was less as well.

The next morning, donning their masks and tophats again, they headed out. They were able to catch a cab though it was slow going because of the crowded streets, they finally it to their destination. It took all of twenty minutes, where as going on foot would have taken them well over an hour.

They chose to be dropped off a block away, and hoofed it over to Pearl Street; it was as crowded with onlookers just as much as the French quarter but the costumes here, well...nothing could hold a candle to them.

The Indian parade was already in full swing as there were at least 30 so-called tribes participating, many of whom had their own floats. It would be an all day affair.

Members of the tribes were masked and covered costumes of bright feathers in numerous color combinations. They wore immense tail and head pieces, as will as matching aprons and moccasins.

To Napoleon it brought to mind the Mummers parade in Philadelphia, however those were highly organized and incorporated instruments like the banjo and saxophone. This parade seemed more free flowing with participants moving in a less organized fashion...still it was spectacular.

Apparently their hand sewn suits were worn just once, and were made by the respective tribes with hundreds of thousands of beads, brightly dyed ostrich plumes, sequins, velvet and rhinestones. Each costume took an entire year to create and could weigh as much as 150 pounds.

The tribes and names such as Golden Eagles, the Flaming Arrows, the Yellow Pocahontas, the Bayou Renegades, Wild Magnolias and the Wild Tchoupitoulas.

Each tribe had no king or queen as did the Krewes, they instead had a big chief, or a second and third chief, though each chief had a queen. A trail chief protected the big chief from the rear flank and a spy boy walked ahead of the tribe, searching for rival tribes. If he found a rival tribe on the streets, the spy boy tells someone called a flag boy who tells his tribe. A tribe member, called a wild man, would then clear a path for his big chief and make room for the chiefs of the two tribes to begin their performances which included the singing and dancing.

It wasn’t quiet by any means as the members of the tribes were chanting and in a sort of call and response, accompanied by hand held tambourines and other means of percussion. This played a central role in the Mardi Gras Indian spectacle.

A feathered float rolled by with women chanting out one of those call and response songs while keeping the beat with sticks.  It was for a moment, hypnotic as the tribe members danced wildly, marching down the street as they sang out.

The UNCLE agents positioned themselves near the Gautier House pretending to be onlookers, waiting for the opportunity to act, and it came within minutes. As the chanting continued a mock battle ensued between two of the tribes.

Three Thrushmen stepped out of the broken down Gautier House, its clapboard siding covered in faded and chipped white paint. It looked as though someone had started to paint the wood a pale blue, but then abandoned the effort.

The goons walked into the parade, no doubt searching for the UNCLE agents, and that gave Solo and Kuryakin the chance they were waiting for.

They quickly headed into the house with their guns drawn as they tossed aside their Mardi Gras disguises.