sure got myself knee-deep in a mess, no doubt.
By the time the night falls over New Orleans again and the party-people have come out of their dwellings, Andrew has me crossing the Mississippi by ferry and walking to a place called Old Point Bar. I’m glad I decided to wear my black flip-flops again, rather than the new heels. Andrew sort of insisted, especially since we would be walking.
“I never leave New Orleans until I’ve come here first,” he says, walking alongside me with my hand clasped within his.
“What, so you’re a regular?”
“Yeah, I guess you can say that; a once or twice a year regular, anyway. I’ve played there a couple of times.”
“The guitar?” I assume, looking over at him curiously.
A group of four people walk past from the opposite direction and I move closer to Andrew to give them space on the sidewalk.
He moves his hand from mine and slips it around my waist from behind.
“I’ve been playing the guitar since I was six.” He smiles over at me. “I wasn’t very good at six, but you have to start somewhere—didn’t play anything worth listening to until I was about ten.”
I let out an impressed spat of air. “Young enough to be musically talented, I’d say.”
“I guess so; I was the ‘music boy’ when we were growing up and Aidan was the ‘architect boy’,” he glances at me, “because he used to build things—built a massive tree house in the woods once. And Asher, he was the ‘hockey boy’. My dad loved hockey, almost more than he did boxing,” he glances at me again, “but only almost. Asher gave up hockey after the first year—he was only thirteen,” he laughs lightly; “Dad wanted it more than Asher did. All Asher ever really wanted to do was mess with electronics—tried to communicate with aliens on a contraption he built out of random stuff lying around the house after he saw the movie Contact.”
We laugh gently together.
“What about your brother?” he asks. “I know you told me he’s in prison, but what was your relationship like with him before that?”
My face sours delicately.
“Cole was an awesome big brother until he went into eighth grade and started hanging out with the neighborhood trash—Braxton Hixley; I always hated that guy. Anyway, Cole and Braxton started doing drugs and all kinds of crazy stuff. My dad tried putting him away in a home for troubled youths to get him some help, but Cole ran away and just got into even more trouble. It got worse from there.” I look back out ahead as more people come shuffling toward us along the sidewalk. “And now he’s where he deserves to be.”
“Maybe he’ll be more like the big brother you remember once he gets out.”
“Maybe.” I shrug, highly doubting it.
We make our way to the end of the sidewalk and onto the corner where Patterson runs into Olivier and there’s Old Point Bar that from the outside looks more like a historic two-story house with an add-on apartment on the side. We pass under the elongated old sign where next to the building there are a couple of plastic tables and chairs with several people smoking and talking really loud.
I can hear a band playing inside.
Andrew holds the door open after a couple comes out and he takes my hand. It’s not a huge place, but it’s cozy. I look up at the tall ceilings, noticing the many photographs and license plates and beer lights and colored banners and old signs hanging around on every inch of space. Several ceiling fans hang low from the wooden ceiling. And to my right is the bar that, like just about any bar, has a TV on the back wall. Even through a mild throng of people a woman working behind the bar raises her hand and it appears she’s waving at Andrew.
Andrew smiles at her and waves back with two fingers as if to say ‘talk to you in a few’.
It looks like all of the tables are taken and there are people dancing on the floor. The band playing along the back wall is really good; some kind of blues rock, or something. I like it. There’s a black man strumming a silver guitar sitting on a stool and a white man singing with an acoustic secured to his front by the guitar strap. A heavyset man is on drums and there’s a keyboard on the stage, though it’s unoccupied.
I do a double-take when my gaze skims the floor and I see a scruffy black dog looking up at me and wagging its tail. I reach over and scratch it behind the ears. Satisfied, it waddles over next to its owner sitting at the table next to me and lies at his feet.
After waiting a few minutes, Andrew notices three people get up from a table not far from where the band is playing and, pulling me along, he walks me over and gets it.
I still feel off from the hangover and my head isn’t completely free of pain, but surprisingly enough, as loud as it is in here, it’s not making my headache worse.
“She’s not drinking,” Andrew points at me and says kindly to the woman who had been standing behind the bar.
She had weaved her way through the people and over to our table by the time I sat down.
The woman, with soft brown hair pulled behind her ears, looks to be in her early forties and she’s smiling so hugely as she takes Andrew into a bear hug that I’m starting to wonder if she’s his aunt or a cousin.
“It’s been ten months, Parrish,” she says, patting his back with both hands. “Where the hell have you been?”
She smiles down at me.
“And who is this?” She looks at Andrew playfully, but I detect something else in her smile: assumption, perhaps.
Andrew takes my hand and I stand up to be properly introduced. “This is Camryn,” he says. “Camryn, this is Carla; she’s been working here for at least six of my atrocious performances.”
Carla pushes him on the chest, laughing, and she looks back at me. “Don’t let him lie to you,” she points at him and raises both brows, “this boy can sing.” She winks at me and then shakes my hand. “Good to meet you.”
I smile at her likewise.
Sing? I thought he played guitar here; I didn’t know he sang, too. I guess it doesn’t surprise me. He already sort of proved to me that he can sing back in Birmingham when he hit that ‘alibis’ note in Hotel California. And every now and then while we were riding in the car he would forget I was there—or not care—and let his vocals loose on any number of classic rock songs funneling from the speakers.
But I never expected that he has actually performed somewhere. Too bad he didn’t bring his guitar; I’d love to see him perform tonight.
“Well, it’s good to see you again,” Carla says and then points to the black man on the stage. “Eddie will be glad to know you’re here.”
Andrew nods and smiles as Carla makes her way back through the small crowd and to the bar.
“Do you want a soda or anything?”
I wave my hand at him. “No, I’m good.”
He remains standing
