Page 59 of All In
“I guess so,” she said, still distracted by her own thoughts. “I’m doing okay here. I’m not drinking, I’m holding down my jobs, making friends. Building a life.”
I nodded. She was closing a door and opening a new one, like that damn Tarot card had said. Meanwhile, I was the Hanged Man. Getting a degree wouldn’t help me if it meant buying a business in Vegas that would likely fail.
If I moved to New Orleans, I could build a life here too.
“Are you finished?” Kacey asked suddenly, indicating my food. “I need to walk.”
“Let’s go.”
We left the café and walked along the French Quarter. I thought we were strolling aimlessly, enjoying the spring Saturday, but Kacey had a plan. I realized we were walking along the edge of one of those famous New Orleans cemeteries, with row after row of little house-like crypts, sagging with time. It had to be eighty degrees out, but my skin broke out in gooseflesh.
“Let’s go in,” Kacey said.
“You sure?”
She shot me a grin. “Why? Are you scared?”
“No,” I snorted. “It’s just…”Graveyards give me the fucking creeps.“…a weird place to hang out.”
“It’s historical,” Kacey said. “Suits my mood, too. Come on.”
I followed her through the open gates. The late-morning sun glinted dully on a stone plaque,St. Louis Cemetery #2chiseled into it.
We walked among the rows of crypts. Flowers, beads, and candles were strewn at their doors. Some were fenced in with spike-tipped iron, some with pristine white marble. Most were browned with age, probably erected before Las Vegas was even founded.
“Marie Leveau’s crypt is in the St. Louis #1,” Kacey said. “She’s the voodoo queen. We should go there sometime.”
I made a sound that could have been yes or no. I didn’t even want to be inthiscemetery, but it’d be a cold day in hell before I admitted that to Kacey.
We found a bench and took a seat as the sun rose higher behind the rows of crypts.
“This place has restless spirits,” Kacey said. “Can you feel them?”
Well shit, I cannow, I thought, glancing around and rubbing my arms. Thankfully, Kacey was lost in her own thoughts and didn’t notice.
“I’m restless too,” she said. “I feel like I’m always on the verge of something big. Then something big happens, like the album selling well, or the show last night. I think,Okay, that was it. That was the Big Something.But the next day, or next hour even, the feeling is back. I’m always waiting for something else, but I have no idea what. It’s unsettling.”
“I sort of feel the same way,” I said. “But for me, I think the Big Something is what happens when I graduate.”
“Then you start your own business,” she said.
“Yeah, I guess. But fuck, it’s risky. I can’t tell if it’s the wrong thing to do, or if it’s just my nerves trying to talk me out of it. Or mydadtrying to talk me out of it.”
“Don’t let him talk you out of it,” she said. “It’s your dream. Don’t let it go.”
She sounded like Jonah. Her conviction and her belief in me exactly like his: unconditional.
Kacey regarded me a moment, then glanced down at her hands, that same confusion as earlier twisting her features. “You’re my best friend,” she said. “And when I saw you at the bar with Big E last night, I felt so…happy. More than happy. Overjoyed.”
“Oh yeah?” I said, trying to keep my voice level. “I get that a lot.”
She elbowed me in the side. “I’m being serious. I haven’t felt like that in a long time.” She looked up at me. “Is that what we are? Best friends?”
“Well, I think…yeah, Kace. You’re my best friend.”
She bit her lip. “Are you seeing anyone? Someone special?”
“No,” I said slowly. “Not anyone special.”
