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“Hmm…okay then. And call me Austin. I think we’re beyond formalities, right?”
“Maybe. But that’s not how I was brought up.”
I looked him over again. “What year do you think this is?” He looked like he could have stepped out of a fancy men’s catalog.
“I have no idea. I was buried in 1924.”
“Huh. Well, it’s a hundred years later than that, my friend.”
The smile fell from his face. I could see him thinking. “Two thousand and twenty-four?” His mouth hung open.
I headed right down the sidewalk along Canal. “Yep. We say Twenty-Twenty-four.”
He didn’t say anything else for a long time. We had a long walk back to the Quarter.
Faubourg Marigny and the Canals
Figuring out our next move wasn’t hard since I was filthy from digging and rolling around in grave dirt. So when Luc asked where we were going, the answer was easy. “Home.”
“And where is home?”
“Marigny. It’s outside the French Quarter, and you know, it’s a quirky little community. A lot of artists. And…it’s in the otherdirection.” With a huff, I reoriented. “Okay, it’s probably a two-hour walk either way. We can go down to Norman before cutting over. Come on.” As if he had a choice.
“I’m quite interested to see your home, Austin.”
“It’s a shit hole. So don’t get excited.”
We talked about other things as we walked. Not about my gambling addiction. Not about music. Those felt like topics that were too deep in the middle of the night. Instead, I told him about New Orleans and the changes he missed in the last hundred years. About cell phones and airplanes and, when a fancy sports car passed us, the automobile industry. And computers. Space travel. Luc didn’t believe half of it. What was left unsaid was whether he would actually need that information.
“Maybe…” he looked down at his shoes—cool ass shoes.
“Maybe what, Luc?”
“Do you think I could ever come back? I mean, I’ve thought about it a lot. Had plenty of time to think. I don’t know how, but I’d like a second chance, you know.”
“Not moving on? Like to the afterlife?” I had to know. Why would he want to come back as a human here in a strange world he was grasping to understand?
Luc shrugged. “I’ve thought about both, but after meeting you. You know? I think I’d like a shot at it.”
If we could find a way to bring him back, we would. Otherwise, he might be stuck in that ring forever. And likewise, the other alternative was figuring out how to get him out of the ring so he could move on to whatever the afterlife had to offer. I had to admit that last bit was distasteful to me, especially if he wasn’t ready for it, and it sounded like he wasn’t. And…I kind of wanted him to stick around. He was probably the most interesting thing to happen to me in a long time, maybe ever. “If we can figure it out, we’ll bring you back. I’ll certainly give it a shot. Okay?”
“That sounds wonderful.”
It took a little under two hours. But I was tired. Running through the Quarter, digging a grave, being beaten, and walking all the way from Charity Hospital Cemetery to Marigny all left me exhausted and aching. I hoped like hell I had Tylenol at the house.
Finally, my little row came into sight when we turned the last corner. The one I rented was painted a cute yellow with blue trim and shutters that covered the windows and door, and there was a huge hedge in front of it that someone had shaped into a little man. I didn’t love living here, but there was a certain fondness for the originality of it.
“This is me.” I rubbed my hand over the bush man before stepping up to the stoop and opening the shutters, then unlocking the door. Luc went in ahead of me and looked around. I knew what he would see. A shotgun house with rooms all in a row. The living room opened to a kitchen area, and behind that was a tiny bathroom and a bedroom behind that. I hardly needed to flip a light on since Luc was glowing up the place, but I did anyway, and his aura was dimmed by the dingy illumination. “It’s okay. All I can afford, and actually.” I scratched my head. “I can’t afford this. Anyway. I’m gonna grab a shower.”
I didn’t think about what I was doing, simply going through the motions, and ended up naked in the shower, unsure of how I got there. I climbed into the tub and turned my face up to the water. When I turned around, I nearly jumped out of my skin.
Luc stood there, watching me with a sly look. “Where you go, I go.”
“Fuck. I forgot.”
His eyebrow over one eye quirked up as he examined me. “I don’t mind.”
“Yeah?” I smirked. I wasn’t too bad looking, maybe a bit scrawny since I hardly ate, and bruises had started to form in reddish-brown.
