Mardi Gras Masquerade Read Free Page B

to breathe more regularly, she whispered, “Should I be afraid of you?”
    “Perhaps, but not now,” the man gravely answered.
    Maria could not decide how to interpret this cryptic response.    She huddled into herself and her breathing quickened again.   When the man did not move for some minutes, she began to relax a little.   He was not posing any particular threat outside of his formidable presence, and he gave her no indication that he intended to hurt her.
    Compared to the streets, it was very quiet here on the bank of the Mississippi .   As Maria glanced to her side, she saw a couple of lovers on the bench beside her.   They were rapt in their passion for each other.   No one else had come up from the stairs during those past few minutes.
    The man was close to her, yet distant.   In his obvious abstraction with the water, she turned her head to look at him.   His body was hidden by the black cloak that covered him, but she could see that he possessed a large, imposing build.   The dim lights along the levee picked up blue-black highlights in his dark hair.   His features were still covered by a plain, black mask.
    In a tremulous voice, Maria asked, “May I go now?”
    “If you want to,” was the man’s indifferent reply.
    By all rights, Maria knew she should have gotten up and left then, but some force beyond her reckoning held her captured in its spell.   She remained seated and looked out at the river.
    After a moment, her confidence grew and she said, “I want to thank you for what you did.”
    “I did nothin’,” the man softly replied.
    “That’s not true,” Maria corrected him.   “I don’t know what that person had in mind, but I’m sure he was up to no good.”
    This won a response from the man.   He turned to look at her.   While she could not see his eyes, she could feel the penetration of their intensity.
    He held her pinned back against his gaze for a moment, and then said, “ What are you doin’ here, all alone?”
    Maria took a deep breath and replied, “I’ve come to see Mardi Gras .”
    The man now shifted his position to face his body toward hers.   She pulled away in her mind, but Maria’s body did not move.   When man spoke again, it was in a taunting voice.
    “What does a little, red butterfly like you have to do with Mardi Gras ?”
    “I’ve always wanted to see it,” Maria responded in a small voice, suddenly feeling overwhelmed by his direct presence.
    “All alone?” he inquired.
    “I’ve never had a problem like that before.”
    “And where is the man who should be takin’ care of you?”
    This question confused the young woman.   She said, “My father is with my mother in Illinois.”
    There was a period of silence that she found to be uncomfortable.
    Then, the man asked, “How old are you, child?”
    “I’m not a child!” Maria heatedly replied.   “I’m twenty-four!”
    “And your twenty-four years led you here?”
    “I can take care of myself.”
    “That isn’t the way I saw it.”
    Maria fidgeted nervously on her seat, and then returned, “You just happened by at an unexpected moment.”
    “Life is full of unexpected dangers.”
    This interplay of words grated against Maria’s sense of independence.
    She refuted his doubts by saying, “I could have handled it.”
    The man laughed.   It was only a wisp of sound, and then it was gone.
    “What’s your name?” he asked in a more conventional voice.
    “Maria.”
    He turned to look at her more directly.
    “This can be a dangerous city, Maria,” he finally said.
    “I can see that,” the librarian asserted.   “I’ll have to be more careful about where I go.”
    “Would you like me to walk you back to your hotel?”
    “How did you know I was staying in a hotel?”
    “Where else would a little butterfly like you stay?”
    These words made Maria pause for a moment.   Finally, she relented, saying, “I would appreciate that.”
    Without asking what question she had