Seating Chart For General Jackson Showboat File
The Accountant turned the chart around. On the back, in fresh paint: SEAT 1: CAPTAIN BO LAGRANGE. REWARD: ONE WORKING SHOWBOAT, NO LIENS.
But Bo had a secret. He was also a debt collector for the Black Bayou Syndicate, and the seating chart was his ledger of damnation. Seat 17 (portside, near the sternwheel window) belonged to Silas “Silk” Thornton, a cardsharp who’d fled Memphis after a high-stakes game turned into a high-body-count affair. Seat 44 (center, under the blown-glass chandelier) was reserved for the Honorable Phineas Woolcott, a judge who’d hanged an innocent man and buried the evidence in a sugar crate. Seat 89 (the shadowy corner by the escape ladder) was for Mamzelle Célestine, a voodooienne who’d cursed a plantation family so thoroughly that their own hounds turned on them. seating chart for general jackson showboat
Bo screamed and dove overboard. The Mississippi swallowed him whole. But the Accountant simply shrugged, wiped the chart clean, and began reassigning seats for the next voyage. After all, a showboat without a captain is just a coffin floating downstream. The Accountant turned the chart around
And Seat 2—the captain’s own table, dead center—was for a man known only as “the Accountant.” No one knew his real name, but his specialty was settling scores with a thin wire and a smile. But Bo had a secret
The Accountant rose from Seat 2. He was unremarkable—gray suit, gray eyes, gray smile. “Correct,” he said. “But you’ve misread the fine print.” He tapped the chart. “Seat 17: $5,000 dead or alive. Seat 44: $10,000. Seat 89: $7,500. And Seat 2?” He glanced at Captain Bo, who was edging toward the paddlewheel. “Seat 2 is the buyer.”
The air along the Natchez Trace was thick with honeysuckle and the promise of trouble. In the summer of 1887, the General Jackson showboat was a floating palace of gaslight and gin, its calliope music luring planters, gamblers, and fugitives from three states. But tonight wasn’t about the burlesque or the blackjack tables. Tonight was about the seating chart.
Panic whispered through the crowd. But curiosity is a stronger drug than fear. By twilight, everyone had taken their new seats.
