Copyright ©2020 by Creole Gaudet. All rights reserved.
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FEBRUARY 2, 2020 – ELECTRIC BOUTIQUE – 7:46 p.m.
Sway went with classy dresses and super sexy two-piece outfits, all by Roma.
Along with a collection of t-backs and panties, she’d added rhinestone bracelets, necklaces, chokers, and an assortment of earrings as accessories.
There was a pair of ten-inch patent leather, shiny knee-high boots that she couldn’t live without. She also got three pairs of stilettos. Two black and one clear.
The total came to seventeen hundred sixty-three dollars and twenty-six cents.
After settling at the register, we loaded up and drove away.
“Sway, let’s get some seafood.”
“Seafood?”
“Yeah. Pappadeaux’s is right across the highway.”
“Andre, we just spent a lot of money. I can make you something at home.”
“Nah… This is going to be a special night. I want to show you something later.”
She smiled. “Okay. When you put it like that.”
PAPPADEAUX SEAFOOD KITCHEN – 8:40 p.m.
We’d both ordered the shrimp and catfish fillets. They were served with French fries. Sway had a Coke, and I had a beer that I shared with her.
“You know, Sway. I’ve been thinking. Ever since Demi met you, I haven’t heard from Holly anymore.”
“You think something’s there?”
“I’m not sure… It’s like… I just have this gut feeling.
“Like, Holly was so glad to find good quality, you know? Like, connecting with me and my coke was the final piece to her hustle.
“She’s got the girls, the customers, and now she has some good coke.”
“Maybe she found another hookup.”
“Maybe… That could be it… So, you ready for tomorrow? Are you nervous?”
“Not when I think of all the money I can make for us.”
“You are confident.”
“I was always confident… But, I’d lost it for a time until someone came along and helped me get it back.”
I grinned. “I’m assuming you’re talking about me.”
“No one else.”
“I appreciate that, but don’t forget. You regained it on your own. You’d already made up your mind and were getting out of there. I just happened to be at the right place at the right time.”
“It was seeing you and being around you that snapped me out of it, though.”
We smiled. “Okay, I’ll accept that.”
“So what do you want to show me. I can’t wait.”
“I want to bring you to a special place. At least it’s special to me… It’s no big deal. It’s just somewhere I go when I have something heavy on my mind.
“I like it because it’s quiet… It’s in a neighborhood, believe it or not, but at night, you can hear a whisper from one side to the other.”
“Side?”
“It’s a lake. It’s got a walkway around it. A little more than a mile. Of course, there are benches and lots of trees.
“I usually sit in the gazebo, looking across the water, watching the fish jump and the ducks swim by.
“Sometimes at night, I grab my blanket and go down and lie on the grass and just look up at the sky.”
“I love it, Andre. When are we going?”
“Let’s go now.”
LAGO DE CLAIRE – 9:24 p.m.
“This is beautiful. It’s just as you described. It is quiet. It’s like everyone’s in bed.”
“It’s always like this around this time. You might find a jogger or two after ten, but by twelve, there’s no one.”
“What are you doing?”
“I have an app that shows where the planets and constellations are.” I tilted and panned my phone. “Fuck, we’ll have to come back earlier…” I pointed down. “Here, look… You can see… We missed Saturn and Jupiter. They’re just below the horizon now.”
“I can see them on there, but how were you going to see them in the sky? You have a telescope?”
“You don’t need a telescope. You can just see them.”
“I’ve never seen a planet, and I look at the sky all the time.”
“You have, but you probably thought it was a star.”
“Ahhh. Why they never taught us this in school?”
“Science? In Texas?” We laughed.
“How’d you get into it?”
“I was online one evening and I saw that the International Space Station was going to be visible when…”
“The what?”
“The Space Station.”
“What is the Space Station?”
“It’s where the astronauts live… When they’re up there doing experiments.”
Sway stared, half-grin. “Why are you fucking with me, Andre?”
I chuckled. “No, I’m serious.”
“So you’re saying that you can see this space, whatever, passing over the sky at night. I’ll buy the seeing the planets, but this is pure shit. How?”
I laughed. “Actually, the same way as you see the planets. The sun shines on them. The same with the Space Station. It’s got these large solar panels that reflect off the sun. It’s like two hundred and fifty miles up in space and when it comes over from the horizon…”
Sway grinned. “Okay, okay. I got it. That makes sense.” She turned, looking up to the sky. She stared at the stars. “And you’re sharing all this with me.”
“You’re the only person I’ve ever brought here.”
“This is a special place, Andre. Thank you.”
Creole Gaudet
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