"Lincoln Hebert, are you sure? Cause I am sure, being with you is well. I know this, I want to be, with you. But I gotta warn ya. All right you remember mom promised you four kids. Well, here's the deal. We will have those four kids she promised you, then I will give you another four which you can say are the ones I promise you. So that's eight kids, then again it could ten. Now old man, are you going to need some of them little blue pills to help you?"
"Girl. Get over here. We both needs hugs." The two of us became lost in each other's arms as once more much-needed sleep slowly washed over us, thankfully.
"Linc, how does this sound to you? We have lost all of our clothes, hell we have lost everything we had. Like you said we are starting over. We got city clothes here or can get them easy. But we need to get parish clothes, which means going to the Mart Mart store for both of us. Now, I'm kinda hungry and I don't want nuthin' fancy. On way to the store do you think we can find a Lucky Dog cart? Cause I sure could use one dem hot dogs theys gots. But I like rice on my hot dog just cause I'm a hard shell Cajun and wees eats rice on everything."
"Oh, I know you'll be talking with JP either this afternoon or tomorrow. Please find out about the puppies."
I called the garage and asked them to get my car downstairs as I would be going out. When Rainey and I went downstairs, none of the hotel employees seemed to know of Cat's passing, so the lid was still on. I saw two black Suburbans following us in the rearview mirror as I headed out. Just getting out was fantastic. Seeing the old market area made us realize that life was going on around us. Then Rainey pointed out the Lucky Dog cart, and I pulled over to the curb, which caused the cars following us a little heartache, too bad. Rainey dashed over to the cart to get us a couple of hot dogs and, most importantly, two icy cold bottles of the Barq's Root Beer. Someone from the lead car following us came up to our car and explained that they had to provide us with an escort. So, please let them know where we might be going. I smiled and nodded, then said our next stop would most likely be the Mart Mart store, but then again, the lady with me might change my mind too. So really, there was no telling. That drew a wry chuckle from him as he proceeded to go back and get in his vehicle.
After our shopping expedition, where the both of us restocked with what Rainey called 'real clothes.' We decided to just wander around the city's eastern side, not going anywhere specific. But not heading towards the parish and home. Neither one of us was ready for that yet. Along the way, I did call JP and tell him what our immediate plans were. He agreed to reach out and talk with the judge and ask him to attend the memorial. Then I asked if he knew if the two dogs were, OK? JP did know, and they were fine. Hell, they were enjoying all the attention from folks camped out on the island. That news got a big smile from Rainey. Good god, that girl's smiles always blew away the clouds. He went on to say that he had called Jack Roberts with the feds, and Jack needed to talk with us about what happened. I set that up for ten the next morning. The next call was to Jack Williams, the hotel GM. He also handled the overview of my other food and beverage operations. I told him what little I knew and that we would like Charles and his wife to attend the memorial when that was scheduled.
We drove around, not going anywhere, just looking and being outside, connecting with life. It dawned on me, shit! The old house was set up as an office. The only things in the house were my office stuff, a desk, a table that I spread papers over, a few chairs and a file cabinet. But for damm sure, the house was not set up to live in. When that realization hit my head. I told Rainey that, well, it looks like we are homeless. That got Rainey to ask if we would have to move down on Camp St. with all the winos? With that, I told Rainey that she was a serious mess. Yeah, right, was her response. She went on to tell me that I was her mess and for me to get a grip and deal with it. The only thing I could say at that moment was, Yes, Ma'am.
We found ourselves aimlessly wandering along the Lakefront. In our limitless wisdom, we decided to pull off the road and see if we could take in the submarine races the Lakefront was famous for. Sitting there and talking, we figured out that the first thing that needed to happen with my grandparents' house was to get a good set of drawings showing what was there. Then see what we wanted, which would lead to what needed to be done and the rest of the show. The next call I made was to the plant general manager.
Of course, he knew what had happened at the house, but why or anything else he didn't know. They had the feds all over the plant and production platforms looking out and watching, but no one said anything. I told him I didn't know the whats or whys of what happened. I hope to learn something tomorrow morning. As I had a meeting with the man who was the regional director of the feds security teams and I guess a lot more. I'd ask him to have someone there brief you on what's going on. I explained that since apparently, I was homeless, that comment got a chuckle, and I was going to need to remodel the old house there. That led me to ask if someone from plant engineering could go to the house, make a detailed set of drawings of the old house, and then get those drawings to the hotel. He told me that was no problem since they had detailed plans of every building associated with the plant and the old house was part of the plant. Well, all right then. After that, I went on to tell him of the passing of Cat and asked if he and his wife would attend the memorial service on Moss Island when that happened.
About that time, Rainey's phone chimed in; it was Aunt Margie. She wanted to see what was going on and what or how she could help. First, Rainey told her aunt of her sister's passing. Then she asked that she reach out to all of Mom's friends and let them know. Also, talk with someone at the community center, maybe the old man who ran the place and let them know. Please be sure to tell the close friends what the plans were and, if they could be, have them at the memorial service. Margie asked where flowers should be sent. Well, for sure, I hadn't thought about that or talked with Rainey and what she might want. Almost like a knee-jerk reaction, Rainey said no flowers. But instead of flowers, contributions should be made to the community center. The flowers would look nice for a day or two but helping the center would last a lifetime. I suppose her answer just reconfirmed to me why I knew she was it; she's the one. Then again, she's just like her mom. She's simply a younger version of her.
Eventually, we made it back to the hotel and began to get settled into our hideout, which was what we both called the suite. Camping out in the living room, Rainey stretched out on the sofa while I was plopped onto a wing-back chair with my feet on the coffee table. The both of us just stayed there; we didn't need to say a word to each other we were just enjoying being with each other. We were like two folks that had been together since, well, forever. I guess the word was comfortable. After a while, Jack Williams came by and expressed his condolences to us on the loss of Cat. He went on to tell us that the word of her passing was slowly getting out; as a result, his office, the front desk and the hotel sales department were getting a lot of calls. Many of the callers wanted to know where to send flowers. Rainey said, very firmly, no flowers, but instead of flowers to send a donation to the community center. And yes, he had reached out to Charles, who will be at the memorial service along with his wife, Miss Evelyn, the lady who makes all the wonderful pies at the restaurant, when that happens.
I told Jack some of the details of what happened on the island would be the subject of a press release from the feds in the morning. I suspected that there had to be a ton of speculation floating around to answer one question. Rainey and I were homeless now. We would be camping out here, imposing ourselves on Jack's hospitality for the near future. That earned a laugh. Since we lost all our clothes, I went on that we had just raided the Mart Mart for new wardrobes. All of the new clothes were in the back of the car. Jack, could someone get all of the stuff in the car out, sorted and washed, then brought up here? And since this new place that we were parked in didn't have a kitchen, we would need to see if we could get something or another to eat here. On those lines, miss sweet cherub piped in that when we did go to the dining room, please don't make a big deal over us. If we could get the worst two top in the restaurant, that would be great. Oh? And could we get that table in an hour or so?
As we passed through the lobby, one of the bellmen stopped us and asked what to do with the boxes that had just been delivered from the plant. That had to be the plans of the old house, I realized. Can you put them in the dining room of the suite? Thinking that's tomorrow's project. As I looked at Rainey, I saw her eyes wandering around the lobby, and as she did, a light smile surfaced. She was a people person and loved to be around people; this was her element. We got seated precisely where we wanted to be, almost hidden in the back of the restaurant. We could and did sit there with no one paying attention to us, but we could take in most of the room. It looked like a good night for the restaurant. The maître d' had just seated three couples at the center table; the party looked like two older couples and a young couple. Being curious, I asked our waiter to have the maître d' come over and speak to us. Of course, he did almost immediately; I wondered who the people were he had seated at the center table. He explained that the younger couple had just announced their engagement and the two older couples were their respective parents. Nodding, I told him that they were dining on the house tonight. The table will start with a bottle of proper champagne, then the chef will go to go to the table and provide them with options they could have that evening. Then have the sommelier speak with them and suggest wine parings to accompany their dinner.
Rainey, we gotta know all the employees here have to be talking and asking what the hell is going on. JP and Jack Roberts, the regional director with feds security services, will be here tomorrow morning. My idea is that tomorrow afternoon we will do an all-hands meeting for all the hotel employees. Where we tell them what has happened. I don't think I want to talk about us and our future plans. What do you think? She leaned back in her chair and sat still for a while. Then that smile began to warm her face; yeah, baby -- good idea. We sat there and enjoyed being with the people in the dining room as the room's mood rubbed off on us and lifted our spirits. Certainly, the three couples sitting together brought our spirits up. As we saw what looked like their joining together and new family rising.
The next morning's meeting with JP and Jack Roberts was, at best, troubling. The attackers were former special forces members of the national security groups from the Southern Collective. Which had been formed from the old countries in the southern cone following the plague. These people worked with the combined drug cartels as the hammer to ensure the will of the cartel was carried out. Since Linc had been instrumental in taking down one of the major distribution channels, the cartel had. The decision was made. Linc had to be removed, hence the raid by the cartel soldiers. The individuals apprehended and detained saw themselves as not engaged in criminal activities. Instead, as part of the ongoing war between the cartel and the repressive governments, which would not allow free trade in their products, aka drugs. The yacht they had used had on board a very sophisticated communication system. The feds had begun mining what they saw as a treasure trove of information on the cartel and their banking systems. The upshot was the detainees were being held incommunicado for the near future. The whole thing ended up getting kicked up the line and landing on the desk of the Lead Councilor for the east coast of North American Collective. He, in turn, reached out to his three counterparts in this part of the world and together, they agreed that there had to be a unified response to this threat. Since this had arisen in Jack's backyard, he was appointed the coordinator to direct the response. As he was a known figure in the area, he agreed to issue a statement about the attack on Moss Island. The news release would say little more than there was an explosion and fire on Moss Island that destroyed some buildings there.
