Bayou Pétain (Currently Re-Editing)

A Real, True Friend

"What the fuck? What the hell are you doing, Donnie?"
" You a goddamned boy! Boys don't wear that shit!"
"Ha ha ha ha! Look that fag! He a punk!" "Your name is Donnie! Not Dondreka!"

Dreeky thought about all the times he got hassled for being himself. Born Donald Jameson Tolliver Jr. in Algiers, Louisiana, a young Dreeky went through a lot at a young age. He was a bright child, and very helpful to his parents. He had a twin brother, Ronald, and two sisters, Antoinette and Sheila. At a time when a child should be enjoying the mysteries of life, he was battling demons.

Dreeky knew he was different. He liked to sneak into his mother's makeup kit and try everything out...the eye shadows and blushes and foundations. Once he got caught with a faint lipstick stain on his face, and his father Donald Sr. flipped out. "Boy, what's wrong with you? You ain't no little bitch! You are a boy! Go and wash that shit off and I best not catch you with it on again!" He endured many ass whippings for his taste in clothes and makeup. One day, he decided that maybe, indeed, something wasn't right with him. He quit playing dress-up with his mother's belongings.

It was around that time that he first met Victorine, who seemed so mature for her age. Dreeky and Victorine just clicked together. She made him comfortable. She was the only person he told his
"T" to, and she didn't judge him. They confided their innermost secrets to each other. They would go shopping together in town after school. He began to feel a little better about his preferences around her, and soon started sneaking all of the fashionable clothes he bought over to her house and got dressed there.
His father was still suspicious of his son, and grumbled every time Dreeky came home." I don't like the fact that you hanging around with that Victorine. Her grandma a hoodoo woman!" Dreeky knew Big Nainan personally, and the woman had always been kind to him, even when she walked into Victorine's room and Dreeky was in a miniskirt. " We all God' s children", she said.

One day when Dreeky arrived home from school, there was a tantalizing aroma in the air. His mamma Felicia was busy in the kitchen preparing Donald Sr.'s favorite supper: steaming hot Gumbo with okra, smoke sausage, chicken, shrimp, and succulent crabs. She made a potato salad to go with it. Dreeky was ready to eat! He loved gumbo. He went to his room to do his homework.

Felicia was getting worried. Donald Sr. was beginning to come home later and later, smelling like the saloon he now frequented, Glory Mae's. His job at the slaughterhouse was aggravating him as of late. After a while, Felicia fed the kids and they went to bed. She allowed herself to enjoy the food, even drank one of his beers. Shit, she deserved it. It was a quarter to twelve when Donald Sr. arrived. He looked as if he had been scuffling with someone.

"Donald, what's happened?", she asked her husband. He said nothing and went to the refrigerator for a beer. She warmed him up a bowl of gumbo, then placed it on the table. Donald Sr. sat at the table and looked down into his bowl. Tears welled up in his eyes. " Are you going to tell me what happened or do I have to sit here and watch you cry into your bowl?" She didn't mean to come out so harsh to him, but she needed to know what was going on with her man. Dreeky woke up from his slumber to hear his mother. He went to the door to hear better.

"What' s wrong Donald? You just gonna sit there and say nothing?", she cried. He looked at her again, not saying a word. Felicia stormed out of the kitchen and went into their bedroom. Donald Sr. followed close behind and grabbed her arm. " I killed a man dammit!" Tears fell from his eyes. Felicia was stunned. Dreeky felt like his heart stopped beating. "It wasn't my fault bae! I was shooting dice with Everett, Dovric, and Dan them. Baby, I was up $250! I wanted to come home to surprise y'all. But then Everett started tripping, talking bout I wasn't leaving with his money! He pulled his knife on me Felicia! We tussled and was rolling around. He rolled onto the knife! I killed him, Felicia!", he cried. "We hid his body good where no one could find it." "What we gonna do, Donald? ", she asked. Dreeky listened on. " Don't worry, baby. Dovric and Dan know what happened, they won't say nothing.", he tried to assure her. "Aw, damn Dovric! Give that fool a halfpint and he'd spill his mamma's secrets! And that fucking Dan so no-good, you know he'll look for any chance to sell you out!", Felicia cried. " Don't worry baby. Whatever tomorrow brings, it brings. But I tell you one thing, they ain't never gonna find that body!"