Daring and pure guts takes Tee from a life of drudergy into the arms of one of Shreveport's most distinguished gentlemen. And a tender miracle unfolds...they begin to believe in each other.
Chapter Two
July 17, 1967 – Shreveport, LA.
It was two and a half weeks after Tee had performed at the annual barbeque. Two weeks of history repeating itself. A history that followed so closely Cat wasn’t at all surprised when the Judge had shown up immediately after sending the last gift—expensive presents that had been sources of pain and irritation to Cat. Any half-way observant person would have noted the pain in Cat’s eyes when Harrison Cadieux came in that evening and walked up to the House Madam. The Judge didn’t greet Cat in any special way, he simply asked her if it was too late to reserve Tee for the entire evening. “How dare Harrison come into my establishment looking for another woman!” thought Cat.
He visited Cat’s Place infrequently before this, and then only stayed long enough to have a drink and look at the girls. Thinking that perhaps he really came just to see her, Cat hadn’t minded his visits. But now he wanted to see one of the girls—not her—and it was more than Cat could stand. “So, my little Tee got you going. Ain’t that right, Your Honor?” taunted Cat.
Cat’s unnecessarily “catty” comment forced the Judge to actually look at her. He could see the hurt on her face and it surprised him. Possessing a lightening quick intelligence, a mind that processed situations and circumstances at the speed of light, he instantly reached the conclusion that it was ludicrous that a prostitute would allow herself to have feelings of possessiveness about a paying customer. “Aw-w, come on now, Catherine,” he drawled. “You mean to tell me that after all this time you can’t think of what we had as simply a good time.”
“You see,” replied Cat, “I never knew that was all it was.” She felt very much like being confrontational. No, she didn’t lower her voice. And, her facial expression strongly suggested she was pissed off. “I thought for two years that we were involved in a love affair, at least that’s what you called it then. You called it that until your Daddy decided it was time for you to go off to that fancy law school.”
The Judge lowered his voice so that no one could overhear and then he looked straight into Cat’s eyes and softly said, “I never thought I needed to say this, but I will. I’m sorry if I hurt you. I didn’t know it meant that much to you. A man tends to think that if a woman lives here the things that past between them are all part of the theatrics of what takes place here. Its all fantasy, is it not?” After a short pause, and with intentional kindness, he added, “You were lovely and I wanted you so much. I guess I forgot how young and very naďve you were.”
Bitterly Cat responded. “And it’s the same situation now. It’s a different girl and you’re a lot older, but the girl involved is the same naive. Tee hasn’t ever been with one of the customers. She’s twenty years old. She won’t be twenty-one for a couple mo’ months. She’s straight off the farm and trying to be a performer. We not talking about one of my regular working girls.”
Again the Judge was surprised. He had assumed by the enticing way the girl danced that she was like all the others who worked for Cat. It didn’t matter, however, that she wasn’t a pro. Cadieux was intrigued by the girl and he wanted to get to know her. He didn’t feel it was any of Cat’s business to know that there was something about Tee that was “calling him,” that it was more than physical. “Well, then,” the Judge summarized, “if she doesn’t want my attentions I’ll leave, but let’s ask her first, shall we.”
Cat saw Tee as a young country girl who was after something she never had before--some fun. She didn’t believe Tee had it in her to be a working girl. Cat saw Tee as a person with too many morals to degrade herself in that way. She believed the Judge was wasting his time pursuing Tee. It was with a smirk on her face that Cat turned around to call Tee downstairs to talk with the self-serving S-O-B. It puzzled and stunned Cat when Tee agreed to visit with the Judge upstairs in one of the private bedrooms. Cat felt that in a way she had let Tee down because she had never exactly explained what happened in those private visitations. But then Cat decided, “What the hell is it to me? She’s no virgin. The girl claims she’s been married and we all can see she’s got a child.”
It did matter to Cat. It mattered very much. It bothered her that the Judge visited with Tee for a very long time that evening. When Cat went into the room to announce that the Judge’s time was up, it puzzled her that the bed was still made up. She found the two of them standing next to the window looking out at the view. Later Cat heard Tee telling the other girls that nothing happened between them, that they had simply talked.
October 20, 1967 – Shreveport, LA.
The Judge visited weekly after that. He came every Thursday night and all he ever said to Cat was, “I’d like to spend a couple of hours.” In his arrogance, he never specifically asked for Tee by name, and there was always something in his look that dared Cat to ask which girl he wanted. He paid extra, so there wasn’t anything Cat could complain about. Everyone seemed to accept the fact that Tee did not perform on Thursdays.
The relationship was somewhat of a private affair for several months. Cat didn’t talk to Tee about it and neither did she attempt to intervene in it. The girls, on the other hand, teased Tee about her “white gentleman” caller and sometimes they pressed her for details about her visits with the Judge. For a long time, Tee would answer them –in innocence—by saying, “Nuthing happened. We just talked, honestly.”
Talk was all they did—in the beginning.
At first their “discussions” were simply a source of entertainment for him. As a Judge, he found evidence to admire her logic and her skill at reasoning. She didn’t miss any details, explored the consequences of every action, and endeared herself to him because she had no idea how special she was. He quickly learned that she was an extremely gifted individual despite the fact that she was uneducated. And it didn’t hurt matters any that he found great pleasure in watching the play of emotions that crossed her beautiful face as she asked him questions about all kinds of subjects. For reasons he would not have been able to explain to anyone, he enjoyed being the one to enlarge the world that heretofore limited her.
As a man, just a ordinary man, he especially liked the light that appeared in her eyes whenever she first saw him. The look in her eyes, he knew, was a look that money hadn’t paid for. And to him—it was so very pleasurable.
A couple of the girls, Audra and Pearlie, believed Tee when she said all she and the Judge did was talk. They felt having a man admire your words and not your tiddies was terribly romantic. The older and more seasoned girls felt Tee was talking trash. Willie Sue felt the story was so unbelievable she got mad. “Fine wit me if you don’t want us to know what that man’s got you doing. But just say so, say that’s how it is. Don’t be making up that fairy tale stuff. We’s all grow women,” scolded Willie Sue, before she sashayed out of the room, vowing to never talk to Tee again about the matter. “The ‘hole thing is just too damn silly.”
While Tee enjoyed and instinctively knew how to excite a crowd with her homemade song and dance routines, she hadn’t yet discovered what took place between a man and a woman when a man was paying for sexual favors. It was the fact that the Judge had been in no hurry to show her that puzzled Cat the most. She could understand why the Judge was interested in Tee, but she didn’t understand why he hadn’t bedded her yet. Cat decided he lost his ability to perform, and thinking so gave her a small feeling of satisfaction. When Cat let that possibility slip to the other girls, it had a healing effect on attitudes like Willie Sue’s. Even a mean and cynical personality like Willie Sue could understand why, “a man would want some eye candy even if he wasn’t capable of chewing and especially if the only other candy around was taffy. Taffy is too tough.” The girls had a good laugh over that.
Harrison actually convinced himself that his weekly sessions talking with Tee were for her, he was providing her an education of sorts, and that the time he spent with her was like time spent on any ‘hobby.” In truth, he found her to be what all southern gentlemen whispered women like her were…a little Southern delight. She became the secret smile on his lips while at work, his private joy. But, after he took her in his arms—to show her the proper way to two-step—he knew she was more than that. In fact, he had to admit to himself that she was more than he ever anticipated.
While Harrison Cadieux didn’t and never had loved his wife, he had never cheated on her and probably wouldn’t have if two things hadn’t happened. The first was that he made the mistake of holding Tee in his arms, and it felt so good he held her there a long, long time. The second thing happened a few days after that--looking for his wife, who was always working in her garden, Harrison stumbled upon his yardman holding his wife in much the same way he had held Tee. Tightly, tenderly and for a long time. The Judge knew that if what his wife and the immigrant yardman had together was half of what he was feeling for Tee—well, he didn’t want to disturb it. Harrison decided to let his wife have what ever happiness she had taken for herself. They had never professed to love each other. And, as for him, he happily decided—with all things being fair—his wife’s infidelity gave him permission to have Tee.
The next day, right after he closed the file on the last case on the docket, Judge Cadieux got into his car and drove as fast as he could out to Cat’s Place. He arrived there shortly after five o’clock, before most folks had eaten their dinner, before the place was fully ready for business. He didn’t care. He decided tonight he’d use charm and every gentleman’s trick he’d ever heard of to get what he wanted. Tonight was the night! “On second thought,” Harrison said to himself, as he parked the car and took note that the sun was still hanging in the sky, “This evening is the evening. I’m not waiting until tonight.”
While Harrison Cadieux didn’t have to exert much effort to obtain the thing he had longed for over the past three months, he did have to wait a little longer for it than he wanted to. It seemed a young man from Alexandria was celebrating his eighteenth birthday at Cat’s Place, and he and his group of friends stopped the Judge to invite him to the party Cat was setting up in the backyard. Of course, Harrison politely refused. It wouldn’t do for a person of the Judge’s status to participate in what was no doubt going to end up being quite a wild night. The Judge had noticed Sheriff Hasselman’s car in the lot when he drove in and so it was convenient to use “meeting the Sheriff for a little drink” to cover his presence in the brothel. While Harrison normally enjoyed the tall tales of duty Barry Hasselman was always able to provide, he found himself pinning a half smile on his face and pretending to listen to his old friend talk. After his third drink, the Judge suddenly stood up, excused himself and said, “Ya gotta excuse me, Barry. The men’s room calling.”
When the Judge reached the second floor landing he found Pearlie standing there. She wore a little half-smile, affection gleaming in her eyes. She sincerely loved the thought of the Judge and Tee being together. “Tee’s in the third room,” Pearlie said simply.
A startling white smile swept across Harrison’s tanned face when he heard the words Pearlie spoke, but he didn’t acknowledge her. He smiled because he loved the third room, it was “their” favorite room, the perfect place for their first time. The smile on his face widened as the door to the bedroom swung open. She stood there waiting for him—in front of the French doors that lead to the balcony where they stood and watched the stars on many evenings.
The muslin gown she wore was so sheer it allowed him to see the ample curves of her body, which he took pleasure in studying as he walked slowly across the room to where she stood. Once there, he placed his hands on her shoulders and studied her lovely face. He could see it there—the surrender. She wore the thin muslin to entice him. She wanted him, too. So, his arms drew her tightly against him, and he claimed her mouth in a kiss that was both rough and tender. And, to his ultimate surprise, Tee locked her body to his from toe to head, and kissed him back with all the desperation and passion he had held inside himself for weeks. Their union was not only perfection, it became that memory he called up whenever he needed to be reminded of how good life could be.
The next day—based on the crumpled bedcovers found in the room they shared—the word in the house was that the two of ‘em were now doing it. “Well, why the hell not,” thought Cat to herself, “He’s paying for it.”
It was some three months into the relationship, when Tee began to walk about the house “all dreamy-eyed” and started singing love song after love song during her performances, that Cat began to worry. Experience had proven several hundred times there was no room for love in a “professional house.” But no one could have convinced the Judge or Tee of that. He began visiting on days other than Thursdays, spending long evenings with Tee.
Cat worked hard at keeping her distance from the affair, as she was hurt by it and at the same time she was afraid for Tee. The girls already knew something serious was going on and had begun to talk about Tee’s being Judge Cadieux’s “woman.” That sort of thing happened on the colored side of town; but, on the white side of town, no colored woman would ever be given that much attention by a white man. Sure, it was known and allowable that a white man would frequent Cat’s Place. But invest his feelings, invest his time, spend money on things for a nigger woman—well, that could get her killed if the wrong people found out. And the Judge’s wife, Suzette Pardou Cadieux, was from a whole family of the wrong kind of people.
Suzette was a pretty, petite woman, with the dark hair of the French. She and her family were Canjun—but they didn’t want anybody to know it. The only part of their heritage the Pardou’s claimed was their French lineage. Every now and then, and especially when she was in the company of someone new, Suzette would develop a slight accent—a decidedly French accent. But Harrison found it hard to believe his darling little wife was truly French. She showed none of the emotion the French were famous for, none of romantic nature and enthusiasm for love that people claim are the trademark of a Frenchman.
Since Tee had gone so far as to have “relations” with the Judge and the Judge was paying for her services, Cat decided to have a talk with her and perhaps convince Tee to see other clients. In this way she wouldn’t be the Judge’s “woman,” but a regular working girl who just happened to be one the Judge favored. That way, when Suzette Cadieux found out about her, things wouldn’t look so bad for Cat. That kind of thing was allowable. But the talk never took place because then it happened. Tee became pregnant.
He needs a wife. She needs a reason to trust him. He fell for her at first sight. She, not so much.
If you’re into engaging romantic stories with heart and humor, together with complex family dynamics, you’ll love His Practically Perfect Pla
Chapter Two
July 17, 1967 – Shreveport, LA.
It was two and a half weeks after Tee had performed at the annual barbeque. Two weeks of history repeating itself. A history that followed so closely Cat wasn’t at all surprised when the Judge had shown up immediately after sending the last gift—expensive presents that had been sources of pain and irritation to Cat. Any half-way observant person would have noted the pain in Cat’s eyes when Harrison Cadieux came in that evening and walked up to the House Madam. The Judge didn’t greet Cat in any special way, he simply asked her if it was too late to reserve Tee for the entire evening. “How dare Harrison come into my establishment looking for another woman!” thought Cat.
He visited Cat’s Place infrequently before this, and then only stayed long enough to have a drink and look at the girls. Thinking that perhaps he really came just to see her, Cat hadn’t minded his visits. But now he wanted to see one of the girls—not her—and it was more than Cat could stand. “So, my little Tee got you going. Ain’t that right, Your Honor?” taunted Cat.
Cat’s unnecessarily “catty” comment forced the Judge to actually look at her. He could see the hurt on her face and it surprised him. Possessing a lightening quick intelligence, a mind that processed situations and circumstances at the speed of light, he instantly reached the conclusion that it was ludicrous that a prostitute would allow herself to have feelings of possessiveness about a paying customer. “Aw-w, come on now, Catherine,” he drawled. “You mean to tell me that after all this time you can’t think of what we had as simply a good time.”
“You see,” replied Cat, “I never knew that was all it was.” She felt very much like being confrontational. No, she didn’t lower her voice. And, her facial expression strongly suggested she was pissed off. “I thought for two years that we were involved in a love affair, at least that’s what you called it then. You called it that until your Daddy decided it was time for you to go off to that fancy law school.”
The Judge lowered his voice so that no one could overhear and then he looked straight into Cat’s eyes and softly said, “I never thought I needed to say this, but I will. I’m sorry if I hurt you. I didn’t know it meant that much to you. A man tends to think that if a woman lives here the things that past between them are all part of the theatrics of what takes place here. Its all fantasy, is it not?” After a short pause, and with intentional kindness, he added, “You were lovely and I wanted you so much. I guess I forgot how young and very naďve you were.”
Bitterly Cat responded. “And it’s the same situation now. It’s a different girl and you’re a lot older, but the girl involved is the same naive. Tee hasn’t ever been with one of the customers. She’s twenty years old. She won’t be twenty-one for a couple mo’ months. She’s straight off the farm and trying to be a performer. We not talking about one of my regular working girls.”
Again the Judge was surprised. He had assumed by the enticing way the girl danced that she was like all the others who worked for Cat. It didn’t matter, however, that she wasn’t a pro. Cadieux was intrigued by the girl and he wanted to get to know her. He didn’t feel it was any of Cat’s business to know that there was something about Tee that was “calling him,” that it was more than physical. “Well, then,” the Judge summarized, “if she doesn’t want my attentions I’ll leave, but let’s ask her first, shall we.”
Cat saw Tee as a young country girl who was after something she never had before--some fun. She didn’t believe Tee had it in her to be a working girl. Cat saw Tee as a person with too many morals to degrade herself in that way. She believed the Judge was wasting his time pursuing Tee. It was with a smirk on her face that Cat turned around to call Tee downstairs to talk with the self-serving S-O-B. It puzzled and stunned Cat when Tee agreed to visit with the Judge upstairs in one of the private bedrooms. Cat felt that in a way she had let Tee down because she had never exactly explained what happened in those private visitations. But then Cat decided, “What the hell is it to me? She’s no virgin. The girl claims she’s been married and we all can see she’s got a child.”
It did matter to Cat. It mattered very much. It bothered her that the Judge visited with Tee for a very long time that evening. When Cat went into the room to announce that the Judge’s time was up, it puzzled her that the bed was still made up. She found the two of them standing next to the window looking out at the view. Later Cat heard Tee telling the other girls that nothing happened between them, that they had simply talked.
October 20, 1967 – Shreveport, LA.
The Judge visited weekly after that. He came every Thursday night and all he ever said to Cat was, “I’d like to spend a couple of hours.” In his arrogance, he never specifically asked for Tee by name, and there was always something in his look that dared Cat to ask which girl he wanted. He paid extra, so there wasn’t anything Cat could complain about. Everyone seemed to accept the fact that Tee did not perform on Thursdays.
The relationship was somewhat of a private affair for several months. Cat didn’t talk to Tee about it and neither did she attempt to intervene in it. The girls, on the other hand, teased Tee about her “white gentleman” caller and sometimes they pressed her for details about her visits with the Judge. For a long time, Tee would answer them –in innocence—by saying, “Nuthing happened. We just talked, honestly.”
Talk was all they did—in the beginning.
At first their “discussions” were simply a source of entertainment for him. As a Judge, he found evidence to admire her logic and her skill at reasoning. She didn’t miss any details, explored the consequences of every action, and endeared herself to him because she had no idea how special she was. He quickly learned that she was an extremely gifted individual despite the fact that she was uneducated. And it didn’t hurt matters any that he found great pleasure in watching the play of emotions that crossed her beautiful face as she asked him questions about all kinds of subjects. For reasons he would not have been able to explain to anyone, he enjoyed being the one to enlarge the world that heretofore limited her.
As a man, just a ordinary man, he especially liked the light that appeared in her eyes whenever she first saw him. The look in her eyes, he knew, was a look that money hadn’t paid for. And to him—it was so very pleasurable.
A couple of the girls, Audra and Pearlie, believed Tee when she said all she and the Judge did was talk. They felt having a man admire your words and not your tiddies was terribly romantic. The older and more seasoned girls felt Tee was talking trash. Willie Sue felt the story was so unbelievable she got mad. “Fine wit me if you don’t want us to know what that man’s got you doing. But just say so, say that’s how it is. Don’t be making up that fairy tale stuff. We’s all grow women,” scolded Willie Sue, before she sashayed out of the room, vowing to never talk to Tee again about the matter. “The ‘hole thing is just too damn silly.”
While Tee enjoyed and instinctively knew how to excite a crowd with her homemade song and dance routines, she hadn’t yet discovered what took place between a man and a woman when a man was paying for sexual favors. It was the fact that the Judge had been in no hurry to show her that puzzled Cat the most. She could understand why the Judge was interested in Tee, but she didn’t understand why he hadn’t bedded her yet. Cat decided he lost his ability to perform, and thinking so gave her a small feeling of satisfaction. When Cat let that possibility slip to the other girls, it had a healing effect on attitudes like Willie Sue’s. Even a mean and cynical personality like Willie Sue could understand why, “a man would want some eye candy even if he wasn’t capable of chewing and especially if the only other candy around was taffy. Taffy is too tough.” The girls had a good laugh over that.
Harrison actually convinced himself that his weekly sessions talking with Tee were for her, he was providing her an education of sorts, and that the time he spent with her was like time spent on any ‘hobby.” In truth, he found her to be what all southern gentlemen whispered women like her were…a little Southern delight. She became the secret smile on his lips while at work, his private joy. But, after he took her in his arms—to show her the proper way to two-step—he knew she was more than that. In fact, he had to admit to himself that she was more than he ever anticipated.
While Harrison Cadieux didn’t and never had loved his wife, he had never cheated on her and probably wouldn’t have if two things hadn’t happened. The first was that he made the mistake of holding Tee in his arms, and it felt so good he held her there a long, long time. The second thing happened a few days after that--looking for his wife, who was always working in her garden, Harrison stumbled upon his yardman holding his wife in much the same way he had held Tee. Tightly, tenderly and for a long time. The Judge knew that if what his wife and the immigrant yardman had together was half of what he was feeling for Tee—well, he didn’t want to disturb it. Harrison decided to let his wife have what ever happiness she had taken for herself. They had never professed to love each other. And, as for him, he happily decided—with all things being fair—his wife’s infidelity gave him permission to have Tee.
The next day, right after he closed the file on the last case on the docket, Judge Cadieux got into his car and drove as fast as he could out to Cat’s Place. He arrived there shortly after five o’clock, before most folks had eaten their dinner, before the place was fully ready for business. He didn’t care. He decided tonight he’d use charm and every gentleman’s trick he’d ever heard of to get what he wanted. Tonight was the night! “On second thought,” Harrison said to himself, as he parked the car and took note that the sun was still hanging in the sky, “This evening is the evening. I’m not waiting until tonight.”
While Harrison Cadieux didn’t have to exert much effort to obtain the thing he had longed for over the past three months, he did have to wait a little longer for it than he wanted to. It seemed a young man from Alexandria was celebrating his eighteenth birthday at Cat’s Place, and he and his group of friends stopped the Judge to invite him to the party Cat was setting up in the backyard. Of course, Harrison politely refused. It wouldn’t do for a person of the Judge’s status to participate in what was no doubt going to end up being quite a wild night. The Judge had noticed Sheriff Hasselman’s car in the lot when he drove in and so it was convenient to use “meeting the Sheriff for a little drink” to cover his presence in the brothel. While Harrison normally enjoyed the tall tales of duty Barry Hasselman was always able to provide, he found himself pinning a half smile on his face and pretending to listen to his old friend talk. After his third drink, the Judge suddenly stood up, excused himself and said, “Ya gotta excuse me, Barry. The men’s room calling.”
When the Judge reached the second floor landing he found Pearlie standing there. She wore a little half-smile, affection gleaming in her eyes. She sincerely loved the thought of the Judge and Tee being together. “Tee’s in the third room,” Pearlie said simply.
A startling white smile swept across Harrison’s tanned face when he heard the words Pearlie spoke, but he didn’t acknowledge her. He smiled because he loved the third room, it was “their” favorite room, the perfect place for their first time. The smile on his face widened as the door to the bedroom swung open. She stood there waiting for him—in front of the French doors that lead to the balcony where they stood and watched the stars on many evenings.
The muslin gown she wore was so sheer it allowed him to see the ample curves of her body, which he took pleasure in studying as he walked slowly across the room to where she stood. Once there, he placed his hands on her shoulders and studied her lovely face. He could see it there—the surrender. She wore the thin muslin to entice him. She wanted him, too. So, his arms drew her tightly against him, and he claimed her mouth in a kiss that was both rough and tender. And, to his ultimate surprise, Tee locked her body to his from toe to head, and kissed him back with all the desperation and passion he had held inside himself for weeks. Their union was not only perfection, it became that memory he called up whenever he needed to be reminded of how good life could be.
The next day—based on the crumpled bedcovers found in the room they shared—the word in the house was that the two of ‘em were now doing it. “Well, why the hell not,” thought Cat to herself, “He’s paying for it.”
It was some three months into the relationship, when Tee began to walk about the house “all dreamy-eyed” and started singing love song after love song during her performances, that Cat began to worry. Experience had proven several hundred times there was no room for love in a “professional house.” But no one could have convinced the Judge or Tee of that. He began visiting on days other than Thursdays, spending long evenings with Tee.
Cat worked hard at keeping her distance from the affair, as she was hurt by it and at the same time she was afraid for Tee. The girls already knew something serious was going on and had begun to talk about Tee’s being Judge Cadieux’s “woman.” That sort of thing happened on the colored side of town; but, on the white side of town, no colored woman would ever be given that much attention by a white man. Sure, it was known and allowable that a white man would frequent Cat’s Place. But invest his feelings, invest his time, spend money on things for a nigger woman—well, that could get her killed if the wrong people found out. And the Judge’s wife, Suzette Pardou Cadieux, was from a whole family of the wrong kind of people.
Suzette was a pretty, petite woman, with the dark hair of the French. She and her family were Canjun—but they didn’t want anybody to know it. The only part of their heritage the Pardou’s claimed was their French lineage. Every now and then, and especially when she was in the company of someone new, Suzette would develop a slight accent—a decidedly French accent. But Harrison found it hard to believe his darling little wife was truly French. She showed none of the emotion the French were famous for, none of romantic nature and enthusiasm for love that people claim are the trademark of a Frenchman.
Since Tee had gone so far as to have “relations” with the Judge and the Judge was paying for her services, Cat decided to have a talk with her and perhaps convince Tee to see other clients. In this way she wouldn’t be the Judge’s “woman,” but a regular working girl who just happened to be one the Judge favored. That way, when Suzette Cadieux found out about her, things wouldn’t look so bad for Cat. That kind of thing was allowable. But the talk never took place because then it happened. Tee became pregnant.
