Fast Lane - Kristen Ashley Page 0,43

thing in a long, thin cigarette holder like the old movie stars used to use.

[Hoots]

That woman was a stitch.

She could not cook to save her life, and the macaroni and cheese she made a production of laying out that night proved it.

Audie could mix a mean dip, though. From scratch. No dumping some packet into sour cream for him. Damn, that shit was tasty. I ate so many potato chips that night, swear to Christ, I didn’t eat another one for years seein’ as I nearly got sick on ’em.

My mom. Lyla’s grandparents. Dave’s folks sneakin’ outside to grab some tokes every now and then. And the rest of us. Chips and dip. Shrimp cocktail. Cheap champagne. Sonia and Lyla fighting over whether to put on “Cold-Hearted Snake” or “When I Think of You.” Tim tryin’ to push “I Hate Myself for Loving You.” Lynie making us listen to “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” four times in a row until, thank fuck, Audie took control of the turntable.

Then all of us standing around and watching Audie cut a rug with Lynie to “In the Mood.”

And serious as shit, those two could dance.

Lost art, the swing dance.

Mom smiling at them, clapping and stepping foot to foot, wanting so bad to dive right in, and Preach seeing that, goin’ up to her, and he had no clue what he was doin’, but he gave Mom a whirl.

Penny laughin’ at just about everything, especially that.

That was the best party I’d ever been to in my life until that point, man.

[Smiles]

Bar none.

[Off tape]

Are you all right?

[Focuses]

Light and dark, sister.

Sorry?

Those were the good days.

Within months, Audie would no longer be able to cover up the early signs of dementia he was experiencing. In no time, he had full-blown Alzheimer’s. That next year, Lynie had a bad stroke and she was never the same.

[Shakes head]

Girls eventually had to sell that property.

Audie got so bad, no one could take care of him and he died in a nursing home. That right there gutted all three of those women. He died three times for them. When his mind went, when they had to let someone else look after him and when they finally lost him.

Coupla months after we lost him, Lynie had her third stroke and died in assisted living.

Losing them, Lyla never really recovered.

The foundation of her life, the whole of it, was swept away.

By then, they were his family too. From day one, Lynie treated him like a son, but more, Audie had started doing that before he got sick, and after he did, he forgot Preacher wasn’t his son.

Preacher had never really let anyone be a father to him.

Save Audie.

So, Preacher didn’t recover either.

Jesse:

When Preacher and Tommy fired Josh from the band, the label scrambled to get someone to fill in for him on keys while we were on the road.

No one really worked, and down the eastern seaboard and across the south, we had four of ’em.

It’s an overused joke, but it is because that’s the way bands go and straight up, we thought our keyboard player was gonna be like the drummer of Spinal Tap.

[Laughs]

Bobby tried to get rid of us nearly the entirety of that tour, but only gig we didn’t play was New Orleans because Preacher refused to do it.

He didn’t even let the bus driver drive through that state.

We had to drive around Louisiana to get to Texas.

Kid you not.

Next gig after that was Dallas, and maybe something about being close to home jogs his brain…

But Preach comes down to the band breakfast the morning after the gig and says, “I have an idea.”

There are two things I know in this world Preacher was down to have from Louisiana.

Cajun food, which he consumed with a relish that was downright frightening anytime he could get his hands on it. After which he would review it like he was a goddamn food critic, and I’ll tell you what. Unless the chef was a transplant from that state, it was never good enough.

And Preacher could call that. He could call authentic Cajun cuisine, no joke.

[Smiles slowly]

And the second thing was anyone from the Family Williams.

Including DuShawn.

Shawn could play just about anything, but he was best on horns and piano.

And DuShawn’s granddaddy taught Preacher how to play guitar.

[Off tape]

Band lore is that the Williams family virtually raised McCade.

[Stares steadily]

They were neighbors.

When Preacher’s baby brother died, DuShawn’s momma saw how that went down, and yeah. That woman went in.

But you be a black woman in the