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Madame Antoine seated her fat body, broad and squat, upon a bench beside

the door She had been talking all the afternoon, and had wound herself

up to the storytelling pitch

And what stories she told them! But twice in her life she had left the

Cheniere Caminada, and then for the briefest span All her years she

had squatted and waddled there upon the island, gathering legends of the

Baratarians and the sea The night cahten

it Edna could hear the whispering voices of dead old

When she and Robert stepped into Tonie's boat, with the red lateen sail,

the reeds, and

upon the water were phanto to cover