New Orleans in the daytime is extremely different from New Orleans at night. You tell a person this and they simply won’t believe you. In their minds, Mardi Gras happens 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Floats coming down every street, college girls flashing every male passerby looking for a set of beads or a few drinks or just a simple good time. In reality, it wasn’t like that. The daytime was tame. It was the night time you had to be careful of. Mix a college town with a large metropolitan city known for partying and well, you can only imagine what is going to happen. 

As David sits on a bench, across from a non-descript building, the moon beams down upon him. Part of him, the demon that rages the war inside, wants to desperately go to the more exciting areas of New Orleans, such as Bourbon Street. It was where he found himself on many of nights when he wasn’t competing or traveling for a gig. Tonight though, as he sat across from this building, there was a milestone in his mind that he was proud of and was determined to make sure he didn’t break.

Still, no part of him wanted to walk into that building, into that room, and do what he was about to do. A few moments passed by before he sighed and stood up. With his hands buried deep inside of his jean pockets, he knew that if he never took the first step forward, that he would sit on that bench and the cold reality would take over him; he would be down on Bourbon Street, he would be drinking and doing cocaine with who knows what. Ultimately, he would continue to be the very person he had no desire to be.

David placed one foot in front of the other and before he knew it, he was inside of the building. More accurately, he was in a long hallway with a series of wooden doors on either side of the hallway. David looks around and is amused by how quiet it was. He took a few steps before he saw the sign he was looking for and opened the door. As he did so, he was startled to find that someone was already speaking. He took a few steps in and could tell he was late.

David contemplated leaving at that very moment, but as that thought crossed his mind, the door shut behind him. The noise was more than enough for everyone to turn and look at him.

“Welcome,” said an older black man, who looked to be running the meeting. “Come on in, we won’t bite. I promise.” David took a few steps closer, wanting nothing more than to not be here. He took a deep breathe in and looked around. Within seconds, he could tell some of the people recognized him. Now that thought of fleeing grew even louder.

“Someone, get him a chair,” the same man said. “Come on, it’s okay. You’re clearly here for a reason. We’ve all got the same issues as you.” David knew in the back of the head that was true, no matter how much he wanted to make his problems bigger than everyone else. 

At the end of the day though, people were addicted to alcohol and drugs all of the time. People had found out that their father was philandrist and disappeared from their family. Those same people were certainly abandoned as a child and left in the foster care system. Certainly they had been the cause of their father’s death and ended up seeing him for months on end in their bathroom mirrors after his death, driving them crazy to the point of committing suicide. They had probably been tricked into thinking that a previous one-night-stand was having his child and ended up taking care of that child for just shy of a year before realizing he had been duped and had that child ripped away from his life.

David desperately needed help. He wanted to be normal. He was tired of living with these demons inside of him. So when they found a chair, he sat down in it. It felt weird, but he did it. He wanted to put his life back together, to win back the love of his life, and move forward. So when they asked him to speak, he didn’t hesitate. He opened his mouth and accepted who he was. A really fucked up person.

“Hi, my name is David. I’m an addict and I have been sober for one day.”

A moment in time went by. “Hi David.”

The rest was a blur.

---

An hour had gone by and as he walked out of the building, he felt somewhat better, as if the weight of the world was lifted off of his shoulders. He knew that everything wouldn’t be fixed with one AA meeting or even in 100 of those meetings. It would be something he had to deal with for the rest of his life, but he knew that he would figure it out. As he exited the building and started the walk to his apartment a few blocks away, he didn’t have a single thought about alcohol or drugs. He felt peaceful and calm. It made him smile.

“Hey stranger,” a voice interrupted his thoughts. David stopped in his tracks and looked over to see Mary-Lynn across the street, standing there with a smile on her face. She quickly bolted across the street and wrapped her arms around David.

“Hey,” he said affectionately, wrapping his arms around her.

As the embrace ended they looked at one another, seemingly different people after such rough evenings. “You look good,” she tells him and he chuckles. The two exchange some small talk before Mary-Lynn looks down at the ground.

“Thank you for last night. I needed that. I’m sorry if I--,” she began, but he stopped her in mid-sentence.

“No need to apologize,” he told her and she kept looking at the ground.

“You’re not going to leave this time, are you?” she asked him in the softest, quietest voice he had ever heard from her. The question was so on point though that he grabbed her hand and slowly tilted her head up towards him.

“No. I’m not. I’m not going anywhere.” As the words came out, they were the most sure thing he had ever said in his life. David knew he had hurt her so many times and that life had afforded him this last opportunity to do something truly special or else let her out of his life forever. He would not ruin this again; he couldn’t afford to.

As she smiled at him, he could tell that things were finally turning around for him. “Good,” she told him. “Listen, I’ll call you later? Jack is going to burn down the city if I don’t meet him for a drink.” The two share a laugh.

Mary-Lynn starts to walk away before turning around and looking at David. “Want to join?” The offer was so tempting. He wanted to tell her so much, but he knew tonight was not the time to drop this bomb on her.

“Next time?” he inquired and she smiled before nodding her head. In the cute Mary-Lynn way, she turned around and skipped out of sight. David sighed as he turned around, his pulse racing. Mary-Lynn made him feel things he never had felt before. As he walked back towards his apartment and raced up the stairs, he felt better than he had in a long time.

As he opened the door to his apartment, he was started to find someone already sitting there. The woman, beautiful and vivacious, sat on the couch he had picked up from the corner down the street. Her arms were folded across her chest and she did not have the most pleasant look on her face.

“David,” she said cooly.

Fuck, David thought. Fuck fuck fuck. “Hey Andrea.” So many happy thoughts escaped in that mere moment; the moment he laid eyes on his oldest sister.

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