-You may find yourself driving continuously, your eyes open but not seeing anything until you notice a sign that says French Quarter 5 miles. You will have drunk yourself silly with coffee and be damn near insane with talk radio but still you drive on. You say out loud, “Twenty-two hours straight,” and then you remember your mom telling you she was in labor with you for 48 hours and suddenly another mile stone loses its significance.

As soon as your feet hit the ground you start with the booze and you soon forget what it was you wanted to forget. Your sister’s boyfriend will know all the bartenders and in every bar in the Quarter and they will force free alcohol down your throat. You are a willing victim and wait for last call to save you but it never comes.

Dawn now and you will realize that nothing ever closes down here especially your brain and then you remember what is was you were trying not to remember. Her. You will stumble upon a pay phone and there will be a piss stain on the wall underneath it. You will ignore the pungent aroma and dial anyway. The phone will ring and ring and ring and finally she will answer in a sleepy voice. You will tell her how drunk you are and she will be unimpressed. So you will try not to slur your words but shit faced still sounds like thit thaced. Still you press on because you don’t know what else to do. You will say you’re sorry and that you will never do IT again but before you can say I love you she will slam down the phone. Now you can’t ignore the smell of the piss and the sinking feeling in your gut and you puke up everything just as a cop walks by.

You will wake up on the floor of your sister’s apartment to the sound of giant cockroaches clicking their nasty feet against the wood floor. You get up and go out back to the slave quarters that are abandoned and rotting. Inside one of the tiny rooms you will find an ancient steel bed frame and lie down on it. You hear things scurry across the rotting floor and you smile because you’re not alone…