New Orleans is great, better than I ever imagined. I made two friends almost instantly, Helen and Ria. We’re all new to this vibrant city of art and noise and life. The streets hum louder during tourist season, and I get swept up in the rhythm of it, laughing, dating, breaking up, laughing again. Time slides by like honey. Before I know it, three years blur past like a dream.
I finish my studies. Land a job teaching at one of the local high schools. I’m dating again. Life moves forward, fast and full.
Over the years, Elena and I keep in touch. Sometimes I call. Sometimes she does. Our conversations stretch for hours, warm and winding, like we’re still in the same room.
But I don’t make it in time for William’s birth.
I have something to wrap up, just a quick thing, I tell myself. It en
