“Didn’t think it was necessary at the time.”
He took the photograph of Snooks from my hand and studied his old friend’s face. “You want it?” he asked, handing it back.
“No, I remember him.”
I walked with him back to the Cadillac and talked to him over the long car door where he’d rested his elbows.
“What you gonna do?” he asked.
“Not far behind you,” I said, smiling. “A woman I met in Oxford invited me up to take riding lessons.”
“That what they callin’ it now?” he said and laughed. It was a JoJo laugh, deep and weathered and came from deep within him. It made me pretty damned happy as I watched the red twin taillights of the Cadillac disappear.
I stood on Conti after he left, staring back at the shell of the bar, and wondered how he’d ever packed so many people into such a tiny space. I thought about the beer and the smoke and the nights I’d played harp, sweating my ass off in the New Orleans heat, as Loretta had belted out her nasty blues. I could almost hear the cheers and yells as she’d step into the crowd, those little red and blue lights on her face in the darkened bar, making fun of JoJo or me. A sweet cold Dixie by my side, my friends floating nearby, feeling like we were immortal, our party would never end.
I knew I wouldn’t come back here for a while. I wanted to believe the bar was still there, that the next time I was ever in the Quarter I could stroll down Conti Street and hear the music from blocks away.
I flipped the photograph around in my hands and tucked it back into a pile of soot and ash. The night air was cold and punk music began to blare across the street as if the town bully was announcing he’d won the neighborhood fight.
I listened for a while and smoked a couple cigarettes. I was almost done when I saw JoJo round the curve, this time with Loretta in his front seat. She waved. Her face glowed with a mammoth smile.
“You want to get somethin’ to eat with us in Vicksburg?” she yelled to me.
I nodded, stubbed out the cigarette, and got off my ass.
I jumped into Gray Ghost, much uglier than she’d been a few weeks ago, but still running. I thought about that for a long while as we turned onto the old blues highway and headed north.