La Petite Mardi Gras: Part Two
The Crowning of Lily and Jamie Potter

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As I walked across the crowded ballroom, I noticed how polished the wooden floor looked. I could tell somebody had poured out a mint to have the floor waxed and polished. I mean you could comb your hair in the reflection. All eyes turned toward me as I strolled across the floor toward the refreshment table. The Benton orchestra had paused in their playing for a moment. I collected my thoughts as my eyes fell on Ben who was drumming his fingers on a crystal cup of punch.

La Petite Mardi Gras: Part One
Pleasure Dies At the Stroke of Midnight

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The antebellum south was steeped in tradition, some of those traditions vanished after the Civil War, some endured through the turbulent years that followed and are still carried on to this day. Among those traditions that started in antebellum Benton was the annual Carnival Ball that's hosted each Carnival by the aristocratic families of Benton. Chief among those are the Potter Family who were among the earliest settlers of the town.

Dinner was amazing. Fresh fried rice, grilled shrimp, grilled scallops, and even a grilled lobster tail. Both Lily and I love our seafood. And so we both ordered the house special, The Geisha Seafood Special. A huge meal that included fried rice, soup, salad, grilled shrimp, grilled scallops and a grilled lobster tail. I ordered double fried rice, because I just love the fried rice from here. And double soup. Lily ordered a double salad because according to her, she was watching her weight. I really think it's just because she is part rabbit.

Gakkou no Kaiden

To Curse Someone Visit the Shrine at the Hour of the Ox

Not too long ago there were two friends, their names were Ichika Nakamura and Sakura Suzuki both attended Satoyama High School. Now Ichika Nakamura and Sakura Sakura Suzuki had been friends since childhood. By all accounts the two should have been very close, almost best friends. Because the Nakamura family lived right across the road from the Suzuki Family and both families had served Oda Nobunaga when he had taken control of Mino Province during the Sengoku period.

Not all the stories my friend's tell are set in Benton. Some are urban legends from other small towns. The following story is one that was told to us by our friend Taylor Croft. Taylor was not born in Benton, but her mother was and her family is of old Benton stock. Taylor was born in Madison and raised in Yazoo City until a few months ago when her mom suffering from a bad divorce moved her and her daughter back to her hometown. Anyway it's with her permission that I'm posting her story here for others to read and enjoy.

Gakkou no Kaiden:
The Yurie of the Well

Our next story dates back to the Taisho Period. Satoyama was first awarded the statues of a self-governing township in the Taisho Period. And the current school was built in the Taisho Period. Now when the school was first opened to the public the governor of Gifu Prefecture bestowed upon the new headmaster ten porcelain plates that were valued at a hundred yen a piece. The Headmaster then entrusted these ten porcelain plates to the newly elected president of the student council for safe keeping.

Gakkou no Kaiden:
The Frosty Kiss of the Yuki-Onna

Satoyama is a rural village located in the mountains. The mountains that surround Satoyama are heavily forested. And since the Edo period logging has been one of the oldest businesses of the village. Generations of young men have followed in their fathers footsteps and gone into the mountains to harvest the trees that grow there. Merchants from Tokyo pay a high dollar for the wood harvested from the mountainside.

What happened next? Well before Clay and I could go on our date, I needed to change out of my bathing suit. I mean I could have wrapped a towel around my waist, slipped on a pair of flip-flops and called it all good and ready to go. But that looks only suitable for the beach and not a end of the summer carnival. And going home and getting changed was kind of out of the question. Heck mom and dad had already headed off to find a secluded place of their own. I honestly think mom and dad were trying to rekindle the love of their marriage or something.

he first one to step up to the line was a teenage boy around my age, and man was he gorgeous, he was tall, and God had blessed him with a head full of long, silky smooth jet black hair that reached down to the collar of his shirt. He was also tanned and one could see nothing but lean muscles. Just looking at him made me shiver. I soon found myself starting to blush. And much to my embarrassment their was no way I could hide my blush.

My first summer as Lauren was about to come to a close. School was only a few days away. It was really hard to believe that for three solid months I'd lived each day as a girl. And now it seems I'll be going to school as a girl. Mom had already registered me for classes and my class schedule had already been handed to me. So that was that, I had also been informed that I could attend school as Lauren and use the staff bathroom to both handle my personal business and change for P.E. And nobody would be any wiser.

aturday morning dark, cloudy, damp, and windy with a gray overcast  sky. My Radio/Alarm clock started to buzz at six, without thinking I hit the snooze button. Six minutes later it was buzzing again. My eyes shot open and for a brief moment I thought about reaching over, snatching the alarm clock from my night stand and tossing it halfway across the room. That thought vanished a few seconds later, the alarm clock had cost me ten dollars. Repairing the window, if I tossed it through the window would cost the better part of sixty dollars. Two weeks' allowance gone down the drain. For what?

A few days before I was scheduled to play Dotty, my mother had decided to spring a surprise trip to Jackson on me. It seemed daddy had been given an unexpected bonus for the company he works for, Yazoo Chemical Corporation. And since it had been a few years since we've had a proper family vacation daddy had decided to rent a condominium down on the  Alabama gulf coast for a whopping ten days. With that in mind, mommy had decided that my wardrobe needed an upgrade. Since it was clear I was not going back. To be a boy.

When you live in a town as small as Benton, your choices of entertainment are very limited, the more popular choices include the skating rink, the local movie theater, or if you were sixteen or older you could attend a popular teenage dance club that had just opened last spring in the countryside called “The Mill”. Most of those only opened once the sun had set. And most of those catered to the popular kids, or kids who had could get a ride or owned their own set of wheels.

Does the vengeful wraith of a girl who killed herself because she failed to win the homecoming queen nomination haunt the girls locker room? Many former cheerleaders believe so. Many cheerleaders claim to have been pushed down by an unseen force, others report getting scratched, still others report coming in to find their personal items scattered about. Often the items are found torn and ripped.

Halloween was only a week away. The month of October it seemed had flown by. It was hard to believe that almost twenty one days had passed since me and my fellow doughnut club members had gathered together down at that little doughnut shop on main. With my favorite holiday being only a few days away, I decided one bright, sunny afternoon to put to rest something I've been meaning to do for a while. I decided to finally go down to Spirit's and buy a costume.

he gymnasium was crammed full of people. It was the second week of October and Halloween was just around the corner. With Halloween being so close, our student council on a whim had decided to hold something of a Harvest Celebration. You could tell it had been a last minute decision, because everything seemed thrown together. But all in all, things seemed to be turning out alright. Like I said, the gymnasium was crammed full of people, both students and teachers alike seemed to be enjoying themselves.

The story I'm going to tell you is true. It was told to me by my grandfather, Sherman William Potter. My grandfather has passed on, to either heaven or hell. I can not really say. He was different from the rest of the Potter Clan, and according to some there was a bit of malice living in his heart that he would feed from time to time. This story was told to me when I was a young girl, and when I first heard it, I was sitting around a roaring bonfire deep in the woods, much like we are tonight.

The long shadow of the Klan (1920 – 1924) 

The rise of the Klan did not go unchallenged. All across the Delta leading families of the old planter class united together to defeat the Klan or at the very least hold them at bay. And in the end, only the rising of the Mississippi River in the spring of nineteen twenty seven secured victory for the anti-Klan Forces, as the breaking of a dozen or so levees once more forced this fragmented region to pull itself together again. And face with trembling knees the wrath of nature.

The minute I uttered the word “Halloween” a sudden hush fell. Now, besides having a love for ghost stories, and gathering out in the woods to roast hot dogs, and make s'mores that decadent summer time treat that a heavenly blend of crunchy and sweet and gooey. Yes, beside having a love for ghost stories and good camp food, we've also had our fair share of real life paranormal encounters. I for example have been visited by the ghost of my late mother. Jamie is supposed to have been hunted by a demon, and Daisy's supposed to have the gift to see spirits.

The rest of the meal was spent in silence. Though once the last hot dog had been eaten and the last handful of corn chips consumed, Kayla kind of decided it was time to spill the beans. I will never forget the look that came across her face. It was one of pure sadness.

My bedroom is small, half the size of my old bedroom. Then again the whole house is really small. The house, or cottage I should say has three bedrooms, a master bedroom, my bedroom, and a guest bedroom. All three of those bedrooms are located toward the back of the house, the main bathroom is located in the back of the house too. If you were to leave my bedroom, you would enter into a narrow hallway. There's an old linen closet located at the end of the hallway. My room is across from the master bedroom and beside the guest bedroom.

Introduction by the Author: This is the third chapter of “Genesis: Homecoming” this will conclude the main story and as promised a short epilogue will follow. As I've pondered these reflection. I've discovered memories that are as rich as the coffee grind colored soil of my native home. I'm sure other “Genesis” works beside the three I promise would soon follow. I personally would like to thank each and every one of you who has stuck it out with me as I probe these hidden conclaves of the human soul.

For a small southern town, Benton puts on an amazing number of seasonal celebrations. One of those is the “The Fireman's Summer Fair”. The purpose of the fair is to raise money for our local volunteer fire departments. Benton has three I believe. Our town is really too small to have standing fire fighting force so we depend on local volunteers. In order to raise money, a number of local programs are put on, local youth's display talent shows, each of the three fire stations take turns selling hot plates, anything from smoked chicken to fresh fried fish, even tacos and tamales.

Introduction by the Author: This story is the genesis of what makes me a writer and why I write the way I do. I was inspired by Lanterns on the Levee, and North Toward Home. Both were written by local authors, both wrote of a world in transit. This story is true, I know because I lived it. Pulling this tales from the dark recesses of my mind took courage, and several bottles of spirits. I hope this would the first story in a trilogy of three genesis works. I hope you will find this story enjoyable.