2.
Donnelle Fern Forrester was born in Jackson, the capital of Mississippi; Charlezza Janine La Velle was from tiny Catfish Creek, Louisiana.
Donnelle was always throwing it up at Chalezza, --- that she was born in a big bustling modern city, but Charlezza came from a little hick backwater town, almost in the bayous, even though Chalezza’s grand-tante was the famous or infamous powerful New Orleans hoodoo woman Mama Narcisse. It was rumored that very tall and gorgeous Grand-Tante Narcisse was a wealthy woman, although she lived in a stylish, but a bit shabby backwood shack. --- and none of her poor relations ever, ever saw a nickel of her mythical hoarded money.
She laughed, her mouth unattractively gaping open, almost showing her tonsils, as she noticed Charlezza with her fingers in her mouth. “Will you just look at her! Look at the big silly ol’ baby! You wantin’ a suck on your mama’s tits again, Charly? You talk in your sleep. You really miss your mama Annie Lee... Ain’t that so, dumb-dumb? That why you suckin’ on your li'l' ol' fingers like that?” Donellle was a big hefty girl with a truly nasty disposition and the fighting instincts of a female weasel, but she also had magnificent breasts that Ferdinand J. La Mothe, whose professional name was “Jelly Roll” Morton, Lulu White’s famous and much sought after piano player, laughingly called “Her Majesty’s Donnie’s Juicy Melon Jugs”.
Madame Lulu came through the kitchen to get the first of her three big cups of morning coffee, made the way she liked it, New Orleans Cajun style with the addition of roasted ground chicory and warmed cream and sugar. She just sighed deeply at the squabbling girls, and shook her big head. Then, she automatically dipped her chin down a little which made her double chin into a triple. It was an odd gesture that was coquettishly charming when she was young, but Lulu was way, way past her prime and under her voluminous auburn wigs her hair was often matted, stinky and showing many gray threads.
Still, she was no creaky old lady; she was a very formidable woman with a firm step and muscular backhand and plenty of her girls and not a few men clients were afraid to anger her. Lulu White said she’d personally whip any man in the house with her pink snakeskin handled cat-o-nine-tails who wouldn’t or couldn’t pay for the female company and the wine, whiskey, beer or other treats served him. Her frequent virulent rages were practically legendary, as was her ten thousand dollars worth of jewelry, real dazzling gems and lustrous South Sea pearls, including a big diamond studded alligator brooch. One of her pairs of diamond earrings cost seven thousand five hundred dollars. She called her many diamonds her “sparkling lights”.
This morning, at outrageously early hour of eight thirty most of Mahogany House’s girls were still sleeping after a busy night of charming, dancing, singing, drinking, and, most of all, --- cavorting saucily and lustily between the brass and canopy bed's satin sheets... But, Lulu, always an early, if very grumpy, riser, had been shuffling about for almost three hours, wearing a old black hairnet and the shiny remnants of Lady Marcelline’s Restorative And Pearlizing Facial Cream. Her heavy countenance had a dull grayish look, as it usually did in the morning, before she was cheered by going over the receipts from the night before. The wide mouth without it’s plastering of shiny crimson paint seemed stiff and saggy.
Lulu had donned one of her favorite robes, the viridian green silk one that came all the way from Kyoto, Japan and had a big hand-painted black, red and yellow bug-eyed dragon on the back of it. Belinda Honey Bee said it looked like a lizard having a “mad fit”. But, naturally, everyone knew that the super-sweet and cute Belinda Honey Bee Smathers was a little mushy in her childish head, although she could sing beautifully when one of the parlors pianos was played, sounding as sweet as a warbling young canary.
Charlezza stomped her dainty foot, frowning at Donnelle. “I live and work here same as you,” she screamed. “I’m in the darn Blue Book same as you, that the gentlemen can buy at practically any bar here in New Orleans for just twenty five cents, and a short time with me costs exactly same as a short time with you!” Charlezza was light enough that she could blush and she was blushing furiously right now.
Donnelle simply stuck her tongue out at Charlezza and said, “Fuck you, idiot,” in reply. “You always give yourself airs, Miss Snooty-nose Charly. But, you’re just one of the regular ol’ candy ass whores what lives here in Storyville, little princess! You ain’t nothin’ very special! We gots the much finer Emma Sears, Estelle Russell, Clara Miller, Sadie Reed, Iona Cross and Sadie Levy. Then, we just gots Delphine La Forte an’ Georgie Cummins an’ Gladis Wallace an’ Fanny Montrose ‘cause they came over from Star Mansion on Iberville Street. Maybe they gots tired of ol' Miss Ray Owens bossin’ an’ bossin’ them around. Mahogany Hall, with our four stories an’ copper dome, with five parlors, is a much, much nicer place than Star Mansion, anyways. We even got’s steam heat in winter so’s our floors is even warm to walk on! All our bedrooms, fifteen o’ them, gots attached bathrooms with flush toilets, much fancier, fer sure. Ev’er one o’ ‘em’s got hot and cold water, French soaps from Paris an’ big, fluffy Turkish towels too... Vickie Hall here is the most beautiest, beautiest girl we got. She’s just a so, so pretty-face-an’-pretty-ass that Miss Lulu done put her picture on the ad for this here house in the Blue Book, hopin’ men would think we’re all, all thirty or forty o’ us, God damn fuckin’ beauties, and, maybe, jus’ maybe, they’d come here too ‘cause this here place is so funkin’ fancy-shmancy.”
“I know! I know! I know! And, you’re right this house is really grand! I’m glad to be here!”
“You really is? REALLY?”
“Aren’t you?”
Donnelle looked at her cherished long fingernails, thinking she needed to file the rough edges of them and then get some buffing powder and buff them till they were nice and shiny. “You is a stupid fuckin' dumb-dumb fool...”
“I’m not!” Charlezza pouted her lips.
“You is. A whore is a whore, is a whore... But, yeah, I guess I is glad to be here... Yeah... But, I woulda rather been at Josie Arlington’s. Josie’s had bester, better an’ bigger parlors even than here. She had a Vienna Parlor, a Turkish Parlor and an American Parlor... It was the bestest house in Storyville afore Josie quit the business and sold out in nineteen-o-five.”
“That was a whole seven long years ago!”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah... I think she got all spooked by that big ol’ blazin’ fire at her house. It was only two doors down from here.”
“So what? Stone doesn’t burn and the best houses in Storyville are made of stone.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, everybody knows that, ol' silly-ass... Some randy ol’ fartin’ geezer probably caused the burnin’ an’ guttin’ of Arlington House, maybe left his fat, stinky cigar restin’ on one of the canopy beds while he was screwin’ a dainty dumb little piece like you, Charly.”
“You are... I think you’re just plain horrid and common and so, --- so darned trashy, Donnie!”
“Who cares what you think, you damn goofus fool! I’m here for the lazy, easy money I kin make! I’m savin’ up for when I can leave out the front door o’ this fancy ass jailhouse for whores, go back to Jackson in mighty fine style! Cash makes you mighty damned classy to a hell o’ a lot of folks! An’, I never did pretend to put on airs, to be somethin’ I ain’t, unlike YOU!”
“You do too put on plenty of airs! You think you’re so much better than me because you come from a, --- a big city!”
“Huh-huh! Didja know, Charly, that you got the cute nickname of ‘Little Miss Fancy-Antsy-In-Her-Sweet-Li’l’-Pantsies’?”
“You stupid old tart, I never heard that!”
“O’ course, ain’t nobody says it to your dumb-dumb, stupid ass face!”
“You, you take that back!”
Donnie stuck her neck out like an arrogant and hungry mule. Her teeth were prominent, big and long like a mule’s too. “Naw... I --- AIN’T GOIN’ TO! NOBODY WOULD TELL YOU TO YOUR LI’L’ OL’ FUCKIN' BABY FACE ‘CEPTIN ME!,” she yelled.
But, Charlezza backed down. “”Well, well, well, then, --- fine, fine, fine... Uh, --- uh, it says in the Blue Book that Lulu White has entertainers that sing and dance for the pleasure of the, --- ummm, --- the customers. I’m one of those dancers! I’m a very good dancer, Donnie!”
“Sure you is! You probably think you is as good a dancer as Rita Walker at Bertha Weinthal’s. But, you dances like a stupid sick ol’ cow!”
“I don’t! I don’t!”
Donnelle ignored Charlezza’s last remark and put her chin up. “Tom Anderson, our damn good lookin’ “Lord and Master,” the so-called “Mayor of Storyville,” who thinks he’s so much better than anybody else ‘cause he’s so tall an’ he’s got all that wavy black hair an’ cute mustache. He prints them Blue Books in a li’l’ ol' room on the second floor of this house. He’s always printin’ them books for the clients. I heard tell he’ done made the Green book an’ the Red Book afore he made the Blue Book, ‘bout the good ol’ girls an’ new girls an’ our prices an’ maybe all extra special stuff we does. I seen him printin’ away fast like sixty, him an’ his girlfriend, Hilma Burt, what owns that house on Basin Street what’s almost as fancy as this here one.”
“Girlfriend? You mean his mistress?”
“Ain’t I jus’ said that,ditty-dummy?” But, I heared plenty that Lisette Smith was his mistress too. Yeah, both Hilma and Lisette owns niceity houses, so maybe there’s some real interestin’ gossip there... But, you read the Blue Book?”
“I did! At least I can read, and read real, real good, Donnie! I can read like that because I paid attention in school, unlike you who’s just plain brash, --- and darn ignorant, at that!”
Donnelle got a fierce look in her hazel-gold eyes. They narrowed like a wolf’s eyes and she threw herself on Charlezza, clawing hard and fast like her fingers were buzz saws. Charlezza put up her forearms to protect her face and Donnelle still scored one of them plenty with her long and jagged fingernails. Charlezza screamed. Lulu got between the two girls and grabbed Donnelle by her mop of black hair, jerking her head back. Donnelle yelped in shock and fear. Lulu threw her away, roughly, and Donnelle landed in a heap on the floor.
“You’re a God damn, fucking trouble maker!,” Lulu told her. Her nostrils seemed to pinch tight. “If you weren’t so fucking popular I’da tossed you out long ago, had Big Al dump you on one of my competitors doorsteps, --- maybe Willie Piazza’s, or Minnie White’s. Now, get the fucking hell outa my sight!” Donnelle scrambled away. Lulu turned to Charlezza. “You alright, baby doll?,” she asked, much softer.
“Yeah. I just, --- I just hate her so much, Miss Lulu!”
“I know. I know. Try to stay away from her.”
“I do!”
“You two were like a pair of squalling cats in a cage this morning. It hurts my ears and upsets my tender belly to have to handle fights, especially in the morning. Go get yourself patched up.” She pointed to the scratches on Charlezza’s arm and to her bleeding fingers. Charlezza nodded.
So very true... Donnellle and Charlezza were the bitterest enemies. And, it was a well known fact that, in addition to being abrasive and obnoxious, Donnelle was a also a terrible notorious man stealer. She would try to fascinate any guy, even one another girl had as a regular and had contacted for a whole night, and then there would be a big ruckus because that sort of thing was strictly an unwritten “no-no” at Mahogany House. Charlezza grabbed a worn striped cotton towel off a hook on the wall. She blotted the scratches on her arm and then wrapped the towel around her two fingers. They were still bleeding pretty bad. She might have cut one of the tiny veins.
The house’s cook Juliette Jo La Fitte came into the kitchen. It was her domain; she was reigning queen there, of course, but she’d also heard the noise. Juliette Jo was swaying a little, hurriedly, and with her usual slightly off balance, but magnificent and ponderous grace. One of Juliette Jo’s legs was a little shorter than the other which gave her a very unique walk when she wasn’t wearing her weird built up shoes, the ones Doctor Newell Blake had told her to send away for from a Boston orthopedic supply company and that hurt her feet so, so bad.
Now, Juliette Jo was wearing dirty fuzzy pink slippers on her big splayed feet. Juliettte Jo eyed Charlezza’s arm and her fingers, wrapped in the bloody towel. She pulled her very round head back a bit because she was getting quite far sighted in her old age. “Lemme see those hurts, Honey-Pie,” she said. “Hmmm... I gots a good hoodoo ointment for that, be made of rosewater, sulfur, turpentine and goose grease, made for me by Mama Lorraine, fix those little boo-boos up just fine.”
She smiled beatifically at Charlezza, who she liked very much for her sweet kind disposition, --- the way she would always help make pots of coffee in the morning and also the flaky, buttery dinner rolls, if business had been good in the house and a lot of gentlemen were expected to be coming for supper late that night. On the other hand, Juliette Jo didn’t care at all for Donnelle, calling her "Sow Hips”, even to her face.
Juliette Jo could get away with almost anything because she was one of the best cooks in Storyville. Many folks thought she was one of the best cooks in all of New Orleans, or even in all of Louisiana. Her wonderful back country style of cooking was much admired and some of the gentlemen who frequented Mahogany House came back, again and again and again, for the companionship of the girls, --- yes, of course, but also for the delicious rich treats that came from Juliette Jo’s creative imagination and her talented hands; her file gumbo and fried crab cakes, her seven layer cream and chocolate berry tortes and her praline candies were especially famous.
Lulu waved her short stubby fingers at Juliette Jo and Charlezza, --- “Yeah, yeah, yeah, you take care of her real, real good, Julie Joey. Charly is one of my favorite girls. She’s such a nice little sweetheart.,” she croaked in her gravely voice, a voice made permanently harsh from years and years of too much whiskey, absinthe, too much opium pipe and too many cherry flavored cigars and even the occasional thumbnail full of white cocaine powder. Lulu was the only one who could get away with calling Juliette Jo, --- "Julie Joey". Now, Lulu made her slow way back to her elegant downstairs bedroom, on the way scooping up her mostly black and white rat terrier, “Demon” Dennis, who was sleeping on a beautiful red and gold brocade Chinese ottoman. Dennis yawned, showing his long pink tongue and perfect pointed teeth. He kept very late hours too.
“Yeah, Miss Lulu, I sure, sure will help Miss Charly,” Juilette Jo called after her lumpy form.
“Great, great, just so fucking, fucking, fucking great,” Lulu mumbled, scratching Dennis between his large upright ears.
--- Copyright by Antoinette Beard/Sorelle Sucere, 2021.
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