New Toulouse

Mayor Henri Godenot received this letter from Mr. Isadore Boudreaux and requested that it be shared with our readers.

Dear Mayor,
 
Thank you for sending my marbles. I think there was some kinda hole in my marble bag, and I would have been lost lost lost like Quebedeaux’s hoss if I had gone to Chicago for the Marbles Championship without my marbles.
 
Instead, I took me first place. Here is what happened:
 
We took the train to Chicago and rented a white mule to go from the train station to the contest. We wanted us a white mule so it would be easy to find our ride. Everyone else must have thought the same way, there must have been 20 white mules tied up behind the championship hall.
 
I GOT TO PLAY MARBLES ON THE CARPETED FLOOR OF A CASINO!
 
Anyway, after I won, and we took the pictures and stuff, we tried to leave but it was hard to remember where Thibodeaux had parked the mule. I was nervous, me, in the big city, but Thibodeaux was as solid as a rock. He started looking under the tails of all of the mules, saying, “No, not this one.”
 
I axed him, “Mais Thibodeaux, what you looking for?”
 
Thibodeaux said, “Special anatomy, Boudreaux! Didn’t you hear those guys talking when we rode up? ‘Look at them two asses on that mule!’?”
 
We finally found it, and caught the train, and made it home.
 
I brought you some sausage from Chicago.
 
—Boudreaux

The regional marbles tournament is fast approaching, but without your help, New Toulouse Parish may go unrepresented. That’s because Boudreaux, the local star “mibster,” recently misplaced his lucky marbles.
 
Apparently trusting in a bag whose structural integrity is less than ideal is a good way to scatter one’s prized possessions all over town. The heartbroken Boudreaux told us, “Maybe I’ll just give up playing marbles forever, me.”
 
But Boudreaux’s friends aren’t giving up so easily. The Boudreaux Spotters Illiance (“Yeah, we spell it with an ‘I’—what are you, the dictionary police?”) formed recently with the goal of finding every one of the missing marbles in time for the June tournament. Headed by Boudreaux’s pals Thibodeaux and Robicheaux, the BSI is calling on the public to assist in the hunt.
 
According to Thibodeaux, the good people of New Toulouse have stepped up to offer rewards for the marbles’ return. (Turn to page 7 for the current list.) Said Robicheaux, “Boudreaux, he loves them marbles. He even gave them all names, like they was people. Please help us get them back!”

Mayor Henri Godenot added, “That Boudreaux was the best marble player in the world, but he can’t be the best if he lost his marbles. We need to help him so he can go on to marble fame and glory.”

If you would like to help find the marbles, go to the New Toulouse land office to obtain a marble hunter’s kit. The Missing Marbles hunt runs through May 30.

Gigi Lapin lives in New Toulouse Bayou with her pet crawfish, Jimbo.