Location: New Orleans, Lousiana
<#bill:
All: this is based on our prior chats and a conversation I had with Kel, though I wrote it up and embellished/filled in details. Let me know if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions. Note we still have to pick a precise year for the event (we were talking 1875, but I don't know how people feel about the fact that the Comus Krewe didn't do a tableau that year. It is unclear to me if they still had a ball) and we need to pick a theme. I say we don't have to be historical about it, but can just pick a theme that we like and can think of fun costumes for....maybe something like Dante's Inferno or Grimm's Fairytales...
Every year since the first year the orphans went out to Mardi Gras, Cole has been actively trying to learn more about the members of the Mystic Krewe of Comus. It quickly becomes his goal to get tickets to the ball they throw each year after Mardi Gras. Having seen the Krewe's extravagant displays, as well as having listened to Cole's stories about how lavish, and exclusive, the parties (supposedly) are, Minnie is as excited as Cole to get some tickets to the ball. While Cole spends some time with the kids at Mardi Gras each year, he invariable wanders off looking for clues about the Krewe. Minnie sometimes joins him and sometimes does not - it seems she doesn't mind leaving most of the actual work of getting the tickets to Cole (note: Cole never turns away anyone who wants to come with him). When he gets home after Mardi Gras each year, Minnie grills Cole about anything he may have discovered and will pontificate with him for hours about what the clues could mean and where might be a good place to look for the next one. Some years there are no new clues, but usually Cole has at least small bits of information to mull over. There are also a few lucky breaks over the years - the biggest being a drunk member of the Krewe getting sick as he left the ball one year and pulling up his mask to vomit into the gutter.
By the time this year has rolled around Cole has solidly identified four members of the Krewe, as well as the printer that creates the invitations. He also has a general idea of when the invitations get printed each year and when they are delivered. One night about eight weeks before Mardi Gras Cole bursts into the bedroom at about one o'clock in the morning. He excitedly rouses Deco from a dead sleep and starts grabbing all of Deco's art supplies as the young boy struggles to wake up enough to understand what's going on. Cole pulls from his coat a white envelope. Inside, is an invitation to the Comus Ball. It is the fanciest, most beautiful thing any of the kids have ever seen. It's written in beautiful calligraphy and the writing is in several bright colors of ink. There's a thin circle of purple wax that is stamped with an insignia none of the children have ever seen before. The whole invitation seems to glitter in the light. The invitation gives the time and location of the ball as well as the theme (to be decided by us).
Cole handles it with great care and explains to Deco that he has stolen the invitation from widow Louise Calment. Mrs. Calment was unexpectedly called away from her home shortly before midnight (when the invitations were delivered) to help deliver her own grandchild. Cole wants Deco to sketch/memorize the invitation in as much detail as he can in the next few hours so that they can try to forge their own invitations. Cole plans on returning the invitation before Mrs. Calment returns home. He fears that if it is not replaced that Mrs. Calment, who he believes has attended the ball every year for a number of years, will note it's absence and possibly alert the Krewe. He is worried that Krewe may then be on alert to an uninvited guest. Deco does his best to accommodate Cole. Cole leaves to return the invitation just before sunrise and is late for chores. He is beaten.
Over the next few weeks Cole is obsessed with finding what he needs to help Deco create a few forgeries. Deco, meanwhile, works studiously to master the calligraphy. Shawn agrees to try to whittle a wooden stamp to match the one from the invitation. Though Cole manages to find colored ink and purple wax (passably the same, though not exact), the quality of the paper stock, as well as the way the invitation seems to glitter, seems beyond reach. With only five weeks to go, Cole seems on the verge of despair, but then he catches a break. With help from Cal, Cole is able scheme his way into the printer's back room one afternoon. While looking for some card stock and anything that might have been used to make the invitations glitter, Cole finds a small stack of what he thinks were probably back up invitations. He feels relatively sure that he can pilfer one without it being noticed. He and Cal return to the orphanage with the invitation. The plan from that point is to have one of the children enter the ball with the invitation and then to have that child find a side door to allow the other children in. There is much discussion about who should go - based on fast talk and swagger Cal seems like the best option, but there is concern his small statute will give away his age. Jeanne even suggests the possibility of crafting small stilts and teaching Cal to walk on them. Though the issue is undecided, the children get to work on costumes immediately.
Only a few days later, Cole returns early from his normal evening activities (at the direction of Ella, Celeste, Jeanne, and Minnie he has been out scavenging odds and ends for costumes). When he returns he has two more invitations and a fantastic story:
While Cole was working his way through the trash of H. B. Stevens and Co. on Canal Street, someone approached him from behind. Cole never even heard footsteps - but the hairs on the back of his neck rose suddenly and he sensed a dark presence behind him. He turned quickly, thinking he was going to be arrested or mugged, but when he turned he found himself nose to chin with a man dressed all in black. Cole leapt back, throwing his hands up to defend himself. In that moment he saw that the bizarre creature before him had covered his face up to the bridge of his nose with a black scarf. In an instant the strange man stepped forward and thrust a gloved hand past Cole's guard, pushing Cole back a step further and pinning him hard to the brick wall of the store. They were both in shadow and even at this close proximity it was impossible to make out any details about his extraordinary attacker. All Cole could say for sure was that it was indeed a man and that the little skin the man left exposed was white. Cole swung on his attacker, but his fist was batted away effortlessly. The man leaned in close to Cole and in a harsh whisper asked, "You want to go to the ball?" The stranger's voice was odd and resonant. His breath smelled of tobacco and mint leaves. The question took Cole off guard, and he hesitated. Before he could answer, Cole felt something being shoved something roughly into his inside jacket pocket. As suddenly as he had come forward the man released his hold on Cole and stepped back. Instinctively, Cole reached into his own pocket to pull out whatever his attacker had placed there. He looked down for only a second to register the two white envelopes he found in his hand, but when he looked up the man was gone. There were no receding footsteps, not a single sound...Cole searched the area, but could find no trace of this mysterious benefactor.
After all the excitement from Cole's story and the gain of two more tickets dies down, the children get down to business. There is a debate as to whether they should go at all if some unidentified person knows that Cole, at least, will by trying to go. [Insert debate here]. Eventually, the children decide it's too great an opportunity to pass up and they are all willing to take the risk. It is decided that Cal, Cole, and Minnie will enter with the tickets and that they will find a way to let the others in. While the girls work on costumes, the boys try to subtly scope out the address of the Ball so that they can better plan how to let people in.
There is further discussion about how they should arrive at the ball. Cole points out that he believes everyone takes coaches and while it might not be noticed if they simply walk up to the door, it very well maybe. Cal puffs out his chest and assures them all that he will make sure they have 'appropriate transportation' to the ball. #>
NeedsKelly
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