Dishing Up Love

“Once the ladies in the New Orleans group got here, they experienced crazy culture shock. And the established colonists had quite the shock of their own. The young women, who were sometimes called ‘pelican girls’ because of the ship they arrived in, were super pale. Many of them were coughing up blood. And they carried little bags with all their belongings.” He drops his voice low, making the next part seem ominous. “The New Orleans residents couldn’t help but notice these bags looked a hell of lot like… coffins.”

The drunk guy from earlier lets out a screech, making most of the women scream then laugh. Admittedly, I jump a little, and Erin tries not to laugh at me. Her plump lip is pulled between her teeth, the tiny gap in the two front ones making my blood run hotter, but the crinkles in the corners of her eyes let me know she’s holding back laughter.

I lean down a little to whisper in her ear, “Oh, you wanna laugh at me. How ‘bout you keep me safe, my big, bad ghost huntress?” With that, I pull her in front of me, her back fitting snuggly against my front, and I wrap my free arm around her, just below her breasts, taking a drink of my Hurricane with the other. I can feel the weight of her tits resting on my forearm, and I swallow a groan.

Ronnie continues, “Thanks to these bags, the girls came to be known as fille à la cassette or ‘girl with a suitcase.’ They were also called ‘casquette girls,’ with a Q-U-E-T-T-E on the end. And since the word casquette was also spelled casket, with a K-E-T on the end, these girls have most notably been called the ‘casket girls.’

“The year before the casket girls came to NOLA, a group of nuns arrived in our fair city. These nuns established a school here that housed the fille à la cassette as they looked for husbands. When Ursuline Convent was opened up for the nuns in 1734, the girls were moved to the third floor as they continued their search. The nuns would often arrange marriages for the young women, basically a one-stop shop. ‘We’ll put you up until we find you a man and can kick you out.’”

This provoked a couple laughs around the group, everyone riveted to the story, because by his tone of voice, we all know the other shoe is about to drop.

“But NOLA peeps were suspicious of the casket girls. Unlike most of the houses in the city, the windows along the third floor were shuttered, even nailed shut. Not only that, but after their arrival, the death toll in the city doubled. Add their pale skin, coffin-shaped bags, tightly locked and nailed shutters in a city that rarely had them—to the residents of New Orleans, it was obvious these casket girls must be vampires!

“New Orleans is known as a hub for all things paranormal. It is possibly the most haunted city in the country. So, it’s no surprise legends spring up from locals’ encounters with girls who were, from their perspective… just plain weird.

“Quite a few of the girls had trouble finding husbands. That is, if they lived through the yellow fever or tuberculosis that was ravaging the area. The ones who finally married often didn’t see their hubbies for extended periods of time, since many of them were fur trappers or traders, which were jobs that required lots of travel.”

“Man, that sucks,” I murmur and squeeze Erin tight at that, realizing this would be similar to us if I were lucky enough to be in a relationship with her. Lots of travel and time away from her. I shake my head at myself. No, we’d figure it out. If she didn’t want to travel with me, then I’d come here to live in her city. Open a restaurant, maybe.

“According to the legends, the king of France grew tired of the young women he sent over here not fulfilling their duty and instead being forced into prostitution to earn their keep, so he ordered them to be brought back home. But… once the nuns got up to the third floor of this convent to get the girls—” Ronnie points up to the windows along the top floor of Ursuline Convent. “—they were gone. The nuns looked everywhere for them, but as the story goes, the windows had been sealed shut the whole time. This, ladies and gents, is when the vampire legends really kicked up a notch.

“The nails sealing the windows shut were blessed by the pope himself! So how in the world did these young women disappear?” Ronnie asks dramatically, and Erin tilts her head back to look at me and waggle her eyebrows. I grin down at her, enjoying being so close to her and loving that we have yet another similar interest. This woman was made for me. I can feel it to the depths of my soul.