Tiger Ragtime Read Free

their golden manes and tails braided with red and black ribbons, pulled an open cart. A broomstick-suspended banner above the driver’s seat spelled out ‘GOLDMAN’S BAKERY: THE MIDAS TOUCH’ in shimmering gold foil letters on a black background.
    ‘As usual, our Edyth’s being over-optimistic. I’ve seen her shop’s accounts.’ Edyth’s brother, Harry Evans, slipped his arm around his wife Mary’s shoulders to protect her from the people who were jostling forward in hope of gaining a better view.
    ‘The bakery is making money, isn’t it?’ Mary asked in concern.
    ‘Edyth only bought it six months ago; it’s early days,’ Harry answered evasively. Like his parents, sisters and brother, Harry had assumed that Edyth would return to their parents’ house in Pontypridd when her husband had abandoned her in Cardiff’s Butetown after only a few weeks of married life. Instead, she had astounded them all by emptying her bank account of her childhood savings and negotiating an overdraft with a bank which had enabled her to buy the bakery in Bute Street. She had kept the name ‘Goldman’ because everyone in the area was familiar with it. And playing on the ‘Gold’ part of the name, she had taken down the canvas back and sides of her delivery cart and transformed it into a glittering tableau.
    Edyth, Moody, and Jamie were crammed side by side on the seat behind the horses. The boys were dressed in floor-length gold cloaks that matched Edyth’s frock, and all three wore foil crowns studded with wine-gum ‘jewels’ and gold make-up. Moody and Edyth were holding gold baskets and tossing paper cornets from them to the children lining the pavements.
    Behind them in the body of the cart, the Bute Street Blues Band, dressed in gold rayon suits, gold make-up, and shiny gold boaters, with the exception of Judy who was dressed in an identical frock to Edyth’s, were belting out a rousing rendition of ‘On the Sunny Side of the Street’. Judy’s voice rose, husky and true, above those of the children who marched on either side of the cart, dressed in green, their small faces framed by yellow crepe paper ‘sunflower’ petals.
    Mary’s brother David lifted Harry and Mary’s toddler daughter on to his shoulders, held her hands to steady her and stared mesmerised at Edyth.
    ‘I hope that gold paint comes off easily,’ Mary observed practically.
    ‘If it doesn’t they’ll all be looking odd for a while.’
    Harry glanced at David before waving to Edyth to attract her attention.
    ‘Isn’t that the band that played at your sister’s wedding, Harry?’ Mary asked when the float drew alongside them.
    ‘Yes, there’s Judy and Micah Holsten.’ Harry shouted a greeting, but his voice was lost in the music and the buzzing of a jazz band of young girls, led by two drum majorettes that followed the cart.
    ‘Look, Ruthie darling, Auntie Edyth’s seen you.’ Harry caught his daughter’s hand.
    ‘Sweets for the sweet.’ Edyth tossed half a dozen cornets towards her niece but all six were scooped up by young boys before either Harry or David could catch one.
    ‘I’ll keep one for you, Ruth,’ Edyth called out as the cart passed.
    Harry cupped his hands around his mouth. ‘See you in Loudoun Square, sis.’
    Edyth nodded to show him she’d understood. Micah leaned over the side of the cart and played a few bars of the saxophone just for Ruth, before the procession moved on.
    It wasn’t until the jazz band had been supplanted by another float that David realised Ruth was imitating the noise the ‘sunflowers’ had made by blowing into their paper ‘trumpets’.
    ‘Bit noisier than the farm, isn’t it, Ruthie?’ he murmured absently, staring at Edyth’s back.
    The crowd shifted, clearing a space around them. Harry handed their six-month-old son to Mary, lifted his daughter from David’s shoulders and set her on his own.
    ‘Sweeps.’ Ruth struggled to free her hands from her father’s but Harry kept a