Peggy Holloway - Judith McCain 01 - Blood on White Wicker Read Free Page B

in my life. But I’m glad I didn’t, ’cause look where I ended up. You happy with old Dave, you?”
    “He’s been good to me. And I’m making good money, and thanks to you helping me pick out clothes, I have a lot of nice outfits. Of course, I could never look as good as you in any of my clothes.”
    “You’ll get there, believe me, girl. Come on, how old are you really? I won’t tell Dave, I promise.”
    I hesitated and she gave me what she called her evil eye. She would lower her chin and look upwards at me and never blink.
    “Ok,” I said, “I will be sixteen on February the third.”
    “Next week? Your birthday next week and you tell no one? Girl, I aught a whump yo ass. How I’m going to plan anything at this short notice?”
    I laughed at her. She was so cute and funny.
    “I don’t need you to plan anything.”
    “I’m going to go tell Dave right now and see what he wants do. And don’t worry. I won’t tell him your age, and you going to get a party whether you need it or not.”
    I had the best birthday I had ever had. Delilah, our cook and maid, had prepared an enormous meal with all Cajun food. I was beginning to like all this food. We had crawfish bisque, jambalaya, and some of the dishes that I still didn’t know the name of. For dessert, we had her special bread pudding with whiskey sauce. We had a really good wine with our meal and chicory coffee with the pudding.
    After dinner, Dave said he’d be right back and left the table. When he came back, he was burdened down with a stack of presents, for the birthday girl. I felt almost overwhelmed. I had never had so much attention.
    Rhonda gave me a beautiful silk scarf. Marty gave me a bright green sweater, and Dave gave me a mask. It was the fanciest thing I had ever seen. It had feathers, rhinestones, and sequins. It was in all shades of green and black. No one had ever given me a mask before, and I looked over at him, wanting to ask why he had given me a mask.
    As if reading my mind, he said, “It’s for Mardi Gras, Vicky. The parades start next week.”
    I must have still looked confused, so he went on to explain. “Mardi Gras is a religious celebration. You have parades for weeks, then you have the big final day, which is called Fat Tuesday. This is the final huge bash and takes place the day before Ash Wednesday.
    “Ash Wednesday is when everyone gets the priest to put ashes on their foreheads to remind them where they came from and is also when Lent starts, when you are supposed to give something up you enjoy. Like this here wine.”
    I just sat there looking from one of them to the other trying to figure out if they were pulling my leg. Growing up in the Bible belt, I knew nothing about any other religion except the Fundamentalist. This was all very foreign to me.
    Rhonda laughed and said, “You’ll love it, Vicky. It’s just weeks of partying, and we don’t give up anything for Lent.”
    “Unless it’s something we don’t want anyway,” Dave laughed.
    “Aren’t you going to open my present?” Jesse said as she nudged me with her elbow.
    It was in a small box, wrapped in red paper with a silver bow. I tore into it and opened the box. I lost my breath. I was trying so hard to breathe, but couldn’t get any air into my lungs. There before my eyes was a silver chain with a unicorn with a curved horn.
    “Where….where…”
    Dave jumped up and ran to the kitchen and got a paper bag which he put over my head. I fought him at first. I mean, already I couldn’t breathe, and he was trying to take away my air. But he held the paper bag over my head until I was okay.
    Dave looked shaken. “What happened, Vicky?”
    Now the tears started coming, “I really don’t know, maybe too much excitement.”
    “Well, it’s getting late anyway. I’m going to bed, me.” Without another word, he headed up the stairs.
    Later I was sitting on my bed brushing out my hair when there was a knock on my door. Without waiting for my reply,