Dionysia

2

It was late afternoon, shortly after Denny finished breakfast at the ranch. Enjoying the last savor of ma's sossidge, Denny decided to take a break from working. Still, it was a Sunday, and he didn't feel like staying inside the house all day. Besides, the afternoon breeze of September made the days not as hot as they used to be.

Maybe I'll go to Carter's house, Denny thought, dozing above the sheets of his unraveled bed.

Carter was one of Denny's close friends since elementary school, who grew up down Oak Avenue south of Denny's ranch. Sometimes he would join Denny in their high school escapades and was pretty much the only guy that Denny would trust with anything. These days, not as much, as his house had taken damage from Ida too, more so than Denny's.

But Denny remembered who else would be lounging there right now, in the oak tree clearing nearby Carter's house. It was the place where the three of them hung out the most, a getaway from the crashing tides of reality.

Harper.

A dark-skinned girl residing on Oak as well, who was now a senior at L.W. Higgins, the same high school Denny and Carter attended. Bright and talented, she took her education seriously, meeting Carter at a football game of yellow and blue, where their team the Hurricanes lost badly then. She'd caught their eyes, with a fervor presence and a knack for teaching others.

Or she's just a good talker, Denny figured, changing his sweat-ridden clothes into a fresher pair. She's a type that can say the right stuff to ya, and it makes sense when ya think about it.

Anyhow, Harper was serious about her grades, disliking Denny's influence on Carter for skipping. Even though it got under his skin, he knew she was right for leading Carter towards things he probably wouldn't do had they not become friends. Or, that was what Denny felt about the situation.

Don't matter, he thought, setting up his worn clothes on the closet locka. Despite everything that's happened, we're still cool wit' each other. Still, I miss those days when we'd do stupid shit like reenact Romeo and Juliet.

Closing the door to his room, Denny peered to see what Percy and Manuel were doing next door. The two rascals were yelling and racing Hot Wheels on tracks since they couldn't play their iPads. He soon heard shouts from Aurelia in the living room as he trekked to the stoop door. It opened to their perched garage, where his pa's favorite tugboat was stationed inside with dozens of tools and machinery.

"Off to Carter's?" Louis declared from the corner of the garage, drilling into some plywood. "Awrite, make sure to come back for dinner an' to help me with the last o' the tarp."

"You betcha, pa," said Denny, grabbing hold of the rails on his bike. "Ya think the Saints will win today? Game's at 4, I think."

"You mean the Aints?" Louis replied, laughing at the playoff failure their NFL team had experienced the past few years. "They're playin' Green Bay today, rite? I wouldn't bet on it."

Denny laughed too, agreeing with Louis who'd been a faithful New Orleans Saints fan ever since his childhood. It was now eleven years since the Saints had won the championship in 2009, and Louis believed the team was cursed ever since then. Even so, his enjoyment of football was good to keep Louis's mind off Martin & Sons and the recent hurricane. Denny waved goodbye, setting off down the ranch hill to River Road.

Gliding past little traffic, Denny took River Road across the sun-grazed prairie, where he could see remnants of tree branches and ponds from Ida around it. Aside from the destruction of property, the land had suffered from the hurricane's extreme winds too. Thousands of pole lines had been destroyed, causing many homes to have no power at all. In fact, their city parish recently declared that power wouldn't fully be reinstated until early October. It left residents to cook on the grill, bathe without clean water, and sleep in high-level heat.