Page 95 of Absinthe Dreams
Gen and I had been trolling listings out this way, but nothing had struck us the way that this property had. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to ask the big man.
She’d agreed, the worst-case scenario was a “no”, but I’d been afraid of worse – that it would somehow hurt or offend our president, who was a man I greatly respected.
“It’s a good idea,” he said as we turned a cypress tree and the golden glow of light from his houseboat came into view, welcoming us in the dark.
“I was half afraid it would offend,” I told him, and he shook his head.
“No, you’re right… New beginnings require change, and change is coming swift, hard, and unrelenting. It’s a good idea. Just let me check with the family first.”
I nodded and said, “Sure thing.”
I knew that by family, he meant the rest of his family, who had all died off. About the only way to call them up was with a ouija board, or in his case, the Bayou Baroness, and I got that.
We pulled up to the houseboat’s barge, and I helped to moor us in place against it. The trip back would be easier. We could use the engine.
“You know where the guest berth is,” he said. “Mi casa and all that.”
We embraced, and he murmured, “I’m sorry she was there, too.” I nodded.
We would keep that between us, but it helped, knowing I wasn’t alone on that front. Shooting her hadn’t felt good or seemed right, but the Bayou Brethren had set forth the rules of engagement. They’d find out soon enough that they would have much rather played by our new set of rules we’d put down for ourselves, butc’est la vie…that was life in the Big Easy.
Now it was on, and as we liked to say in the Crescent City,laissez les bons temps rouler,orlet the good times roll…
The End
