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A/N  Two things I'm obsessed with right now are Rick Riordan's Heroes of Olympus series and the musical Hadestown, based on the concept album by Anaïs Mitchell. Judging by the jazz and blues score of the music and the details provided by the lyrics, Hadestown takes place in New Orleans in the 20s-30s. There's a character named Hazel in Heroes of Olympus who was born in 1928 and spent the first thirteen years of her life in New Orleans in the 1930s and 40s, so I'm going to add some details from Hazel's backstory to my story. Another story which takes in this time and place is the Disney film The Princess and the Frog. I'm also going to add some story elements from that movie as well.

The sunrise turned the sky over New Orleans to red gold and the balmy early morning air smelled of the fresh-cut magnolias and roses which were used to decorate Mardi Gras floats. Jazz bands practiced and children, weighed down by colorful beaded necklaces, laughed and chased each other.

Eurydice hopped off the streetcar which had taken her through the French Quarter and made her way towards Hestia's Cafe. Three old women sitting in wrought iron balcony glared down contemptuously at the people down below them. They were indistinguishable in appearance and were dressed almost the same: old velvet and lace dresses in shades of black and grey and elaborately braided hair.

One of them held balls of yarn. Another was knitting a pair of yellow socks. The third held a large pair of scissors. They were also sitting in the balcony whenever Eurydice passed by that building, always working on a pair of yellow socks.

A strange looking character approached Eurydice. He was old and pot-bellied with a thick graying beard and brown, wrinkled skin like the shell of a nut. His threadbare suit was patched up with pieces of colorful fabric and he wore a daisy in his buttonhole. Judging by his appearance, he was a hobo who had come into town looking for work.

"Excuse me, Mademoiselle," he said, "D'you know anyone who's looking for help today?"
"I'm on my way to Hestia's Cafe," Eurydice replied, "I think Miss Hestia could use some help in the kitchen."
"Thank you, Ma Belle."
He handed her the daisy from his buttonhole. Eurydice put the flower in the band of her green cloche hat which matched the coat she wore.

The old hobo looked around the French Quarter which was beginning to bustle with the noise and color of Mardi Gras.
"No place like New Orleans, ain't there?"
"No there ain't."
"And I've seen plenty of the world."
"Where have you seen?"
"Anywhere you can think of, I've been there. The trains will take you anywhere you wanna go."
"What's your name, mister?"
"Mr. Hermes, Ma Belle."
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Hermes, I'm Eurydice."
Mr. Hermes to her hand and kissed it.
"Enchanté, Mademoiselle Eurydice."

Hestia's Cafe felt like home for everyone in the French Quarter. Folks from all walks of life came from miles around to enjoy Miss Hestia's cooking. The smell of her famous beignets wafted out into the street.

The cafe was busy this morning. There was chatter about the Mardi Gras celebrations. Eurydice brought the customers their breakfast: eggs, toast, flapjacks, grits, bacon, hash browns, sausages, and, of course, the famous beignets.
She was bringing a plate of flapjacks to Major Ares, an army officer from the nearby base when her sister Marie walked in with her daughter Hazel.
A/N In this au, Eurydice is the younger sister of Marie Levesque, mother of Hazel Levesque from Heroes of Olympus.
Marie looked like she was doing well. She was wearing a fashionable peach colored blouse and baby blue skirt with a smart white beret and Hazel had a pretty new frock and ribbons in her lush mane of curls.

Hazel looked up from her pad of paper which she was drawing on with crayons when Eurydice walked over to their table.
"Aunt Eurydice," she shouted.
"Good morning darlin'," Eurydice responded, "What can I get for you today?"
"Orange juice and beignets!"
"Champagne for me," Marie joined in.
Hazel had inherited Marie's beauty: a striking combination of golden brown hair and eyes with dark skin, the color of roasted coffee beans. The daughter was a dead ringer for the mother at age seven.
Marie's strong-featured, regal face was lined with years of stress and frustration, though she was only twenty-six.  Being ten years older than Eurydice, Marie had practically raised her younger sister since their father had hardly ever been around and their mother had died when Eurydice was four. She had always been angry that she had been born poor and had to work like a mule to support herself when other people were born rich and never had to work a day in their lives.
Marie never said who Hazel's father was, only that he was fantastically wealthy and had won her with promises of all the riches of the earth. She claimed that Hazel had the gift of being able to draw jewels and precious metals from the ground after the little girl had found a diamond while playing outside. Eurydice figured that this diamond was the reason behind their nice new clothes and the splurges on champagne and crayons.
The table that Marie and Hazel were sitting at was by the window. A little Mexican boy with a mop of curly hair and pointed ears like an elf stopped by the window and waved to Hazel.
"Momma," Hazel said, "Can I go play with Sammy?"
"Yes, Mon Trésor," Marie answered.
Hazel chugged down the rest of her orange juice and grabbed a beignet before running outside to play with the little curly haired elf named Sammy. The bell hanging from the front door rung as it closed and then opened it again. A lady wearing a gaudy green silk dress stepped inside the cafe. She was tall and slim with light brown skin and wore a red flower in her curly auburn hair.

"You're late this year," Miss Hestia called to the lady.
"Cut me some slack!" the lady replied, "I have to twist my man's arm every year to get him to let me go. How's Momma, by the way?"
"She'll be anxious to see you."
"Where is she?"
"She should be in the park across the street, sitting by that huge magnolia tree."
"Put me down for some of your beignets and a bottle of your best champagne."
"Coming right up, Miss Persephone!"
Eurydice remembered that Miss Persephone was the daughter of Demeter La bouffe, the third wife and widow of the sugar baron, Zeus-Marie La Bouffe. Persephone was said to have run off years ago with a mysterious man and came back every year at Mardi Gras to stay until the autumn.
"Tonight's the first night of Mardi Gras," Marie said to Eurydice, "Do you have any plans?"
"Working," Eurydice answered, "They'll be busy here tonight and they'll need all the help they can get. And I can use the money."
"Honey, you're sixteen. You're too young to be this serious. I was serious at your age and look how I turned out."
"You're the one who taught me that the world never gives you anything for free and that I need to work hard to get what I want. I need to save all the money I get if we're ever going to buy that house we always dream of living in: the yellow one with the huge magnolia near Lake Pontchartrain."
Their mother had cleaned house for Miss Rhea, the old woman who once owned it. Some of Eurydice's oldest memories were of climbing the magnolia tree to pick its flowers and drinking the lemonade Miss Rhea gave her. Miss Rhea had been dead for years and her house had been abandoned just as long.
"I have an appointment at the beauty parlor," Marie said, "Would you go and tell Hazel to meet me back at home when she's done playing."
"I will," Eurydice responded.
She smoothed her apron and the skirt of her yellow shirt-waist dress before going outside.

Hazel and Sammy were playing tag under the magnolia tree in the park across the street. In a nearby veranda, some jazz musicians were practicing. A boy sat on the steps of the veranda, strumming a guitar. He was about Eurydice's age and was the most beautiful boy she had ever seen, with his swarthy complexion, wide, toothy grin, and dark curls which fell in his eyes.
The crowd in the park stopped to listen to him play. Even the branches of the trees and the pigeons pecking at breadcrumbs thrown on the pavement went to hear him.
"Gather round, you vagabonds," he sang, "pickin' fruit and hopin' frates. Anyone who's wandering, wondering why the winds change. I'll sing a song of love gone wrong, between a mighty king and queen. Gather round, I'll sing a song of Hades and Persephone, queen of flowers, queen of fields, queen of the green and the growing earth. Lady Persephone, half of the year was bound to stay down in the underworld. But the other half, she can walk in the sun, and the sun, in turn, burns twice as bright, which is where the seasons come from and with them the cycle of the seed and sickle, the lives of the people, the birds and their flight, singin' la la la la la la la"
A/N These are the lyrics to the song Epic 1 from the Hadestown original cast album.
The crowd joined in singing "la la la la la la la"
The boy's singing was the loveliest sound that Eurydice had ever heard.