Page 5 of Bayou Knights
“I’m Luca,” another one offers.
“And I’m Tex,” the third offers.
“I’m Plum,” I offer, “and this is Gage, my son.”
“Plum?” Ziggy asks.
“When I was born, I came out purple, they didn’t think I would live.When I did, my mom named me Plum. My twin was basically cutting off my air supply and I wasn’t getting any nutrients which is why I’m so small,” and I need to shut up.
The men chuckle but say nothing at first.
“I dig your name,” Ziggy grins and the others nod.
“Food is done. Grab a plate, y’all,” Gator says as he starts plating big pieces of, I’m guessing, gator and the large shrimp looking things must be crawfish. I never had anything like this in California. He then starts dishing out bowls of some kind of soup.
“Gumbo. I promise you’ll love it,” Gator winks as I take my plate and bowl to the large table, though it looks small with four large men and my son at it.
“Do you cook like this every night?” Gage asks in between mouthfuls.
“Most nights, more when we have guests.”
“You don’t have to go out of your way for me,” I hedge, and they stop me.
“You’re more than welcome to come out and eat with us,” Luca states.
“What do your vests mean?” Gage asks and I scold him for being rude.
“It’s fine. We’re Black Bayou motorcycle club members. Really, we’re brothers through loyalty,” Ziggy offers.
“That’s cool. So, you ride bikes?” Gage asks.
“Can’t be in a club and not ride,” Tex chuckles.
“You ever been on a motorcycle?” Ziggy asks Gage and he shakes his head no.
“Maybe tomorrow, if it’s okay with your mom, we can get someone to take you for a short ride after the seafood fest.”
“What is that all about?” I chime in, ignoring what they said about being a club or whatever. I don’t judge and right now these guys seem nice.
“Not many people in town but tomorrow tourist season kicks off, so we throw a huge food festival. Some of the brothers will go out and wrangle some alligators. Others will go fishing and crawfishing.We get fresh shrimp from a man down the swamp.Others bring dishes of gumbo. We all contribute.Tourists love it. We’ll have the airboats out for gator watching tomorrow. I promise you’ll have fun,” Gator says.
“Sure, we can look into it,” I murmur. I also need to start thinking of what I’m going to do next. I do need to start divorce proceedings. That’s a for sure thing.
“Is there a school here?” Gage asks.
“You mean a high school?” Ziggy asks and Gage nods. I’m about to let my son decide where we stay, and I think he likes it here.
“There is.What do you do, Plum?” Gator asks.
“I was a librarian for a time, but then a stay-at-home mom,” I state with a wince. That makes me sound like such a fuddy-duddy.
“Where you headed?” Luca asks.
“We didn’t have a destination, we just needed to get out of town,” Gage says.
“Yeah? Running from the law?”
“No, something else,” I admit.
