Mardi Gras

He didn’t even want to go. Well, of course he wanted to go. He’d be sharing in a special event…an extended weekend with high school friends to celebrate a bachelor party.

Billy loved New Orleans. The eclectic and electric music. The food and drink. The entire party atmosphere. What’s not to love? But he had traveling a lot with Adrenaline and had admitted to me after the first few weeks of dance competition that he was just not as young as he used to be. He was excited about the event, not the date. “Oh f*ck! That’s gonna be Mardi Gras weekend!”

Billly had called Dave and me during the week to let us know that once he arrived in NOLA and met up with all of the guys he was having a great time. “Love you guys! Bye!”

Then I got the call from one of the high school friends. It was Dan. I didn’t recognize his grown-up voice as 2:20 in the morning. “Hello Mrs. Merrill. This is Dan C. I went to Franklin with Billy and I’m in New Orleans with him. There has been an accident.”

“What happened?”

“He’s alive.”