Ruby (Landry 1)

right now. Annie Gray said so. I'll send for you when

I start singing some-where," she said, backing away. "Annie don't forget you. Don't forget Annie!"

she cried. Then she spun around once with her right

hand high, the colorful bracelets clicking together.

She threw me a wide smile as she danced her way off,

falling in with a small group of revelers who marched

out..the door and into the street.

I gazed at the street address on the tiny slip of

paper in the palm of my hand. Did she really have

some kind of prophetic power or was this incorrect, an

address that would get me even more lost than I

imagined? I looked back at the opened telephone

book, thinking maybe I should know where the

addresses for any other Pierre Dumas were, and was

shocked to discover, there was only one Pierre

Dumas. What sort of magic was required for this? I

wondered.

I laughed to myself, realizing I had paid for my

company and entertainment. But who knew how

much of what Annie had told me was true and how

much wasn't? I wasn't one to be skeptical about supernatural mysteries, not with a Traiteur for a

grandmother.

Slowly, I walked to the station entrance. For a

moment, I just stood there gaping out at the city. I

looked around and floundered, filled with trepidation.

Part of me wanted to march right back to the bus.

Maybe I'd be better off in Houma living with Mrs.

Thibodeau or Mrs. Livaudis, I thought. But the

laughter and music from another group of revelers

coming off a different bus interrupted my thoughts.