Fortunate Sons

It Goes On: June, 1970

"Are you sure you're going to want this place?" the female realtor asked Taylor as they walked into the old, musty house.

"Look ma'am," Taylor said to her. "I've got a four year old daughter and a wife who's due in less than a week. I'll take what I can get."

Curt and cold as this woman was, Taylor was just going to have to put up with her for the time being. He followed her up the stairs and through the unlocked door. He stood in the foyer, looking up at the creaky staircase and the open living area next to it. The sun filtered in through the old windows and onto the pale, yellow walls and beat up oak floors with so many chips and cracks in the surface that no one in their right minds would have thought about taking off their shoes. The kitchen didn't look half bad either. Dark as it was with all the oak paneling, it was still pleasantly cool and homey.

"How old is this place?" Taylor asked.

"Not horribly old," the realtor replied dismissively. "Been here since the early twenties I'd say."

Everywhere she led him, Taylor could almost see with his own eyes where everything would go, where everyone would sleep or work. Even the garden out back would be perfect for the smallest children to play in.

"How much do they want for it?"

"For this dump? No less than twenty thousand."

Taylor gave it some thought. With both what he made at work and his army pension, he hoped it would be enough. After a minute, he came to his decision. "I'll take it."

The realtor had him sign off and dropped the keys into his hand. "It'll be yours in three weeks," she informed him. "I have to get a few things in order but you'll know by the thirtieth."

As she left, Taylor looked down at the keys that lay in the palm of his hand. New decade....new chapter in your lives......he thought.

Taylor walked the whole way home from St. Augustine Street all the way back to Creole Square where the house stood tall and proud above all others. He couldn't wait to tell Sue about the new place and the hope of being able to run his own coven.

The house was unusually quiet, even for a Sunday. Almost no one was around, not even the younger children who were all away at the sleepaway camp St. Charles organized every year. Tri had gone with Bill and Etta to visit Bill's mother in New Orleans, leaving Taylor and Sue as the only ones left in the house.

He found her out on the porch swing, watching as the evening was setting in and the frogs and crickets were beginning their noisy chatter. Taylor wondered if Sue had even moved at all since he had left or if she had only been there a short time.

"Watching the sunset?" he asked.

"For now," Sue replied as he helped her to her feet. "I don't know if I'm right, but I think it will be tonight."

"You think?"

"Maybe."

Taylor snaked his arm around her shoulders and let her rest her head against him. Those past few months had been absolute hell for Sue, waking up sick nearly every morning but now that it was almost at an end, the two of them were both excited and nervous.

"I've got good news," Taylor said.

"Hmm?"

"I said I've got good news."

"That you can make your kid arrive faster?"

"I wish."

"Then what is it?"