47

"Are you ready?"  Belle came out of her room all dressed in black and wearing a black mantilla on her head.  She looked like she was going to a funeral.

"Ready?"

"Mass starts at 9:00 this morning and you don't look like you're ready."  She looked at me quizzically and raised her eyebrow.  Rosie barked.  She also was wearing black.  I was outnumbered, as usual.

"Mass?"  I'd been working on my newest finch charm painting and was focused on making a lot of headway in the next few hours.  The painting wasn't yet half way finished but I thought that it had a lot of potential in the long run. 

"Come on, you sinner," Belle was brushing Rosie and obviously waiting for me to change out of my painting shorts.  I loved the mild climate of New Orleans.  But why fight the inevitable?

"Five minutes," I told them and put my cadmium yellow and titanium white laden brush into some mineral spirits.  I'd better hurry if I didn't want to get barked at.

I didn't have all black or white for whatever costume Belle was wearing so I put on a clean pair of jeans and a button shirt.  Close enough.  I suppose that she was into a spanish/mexican mixture for church, after all, marti gras was next week.