"Go Mardi Gras, 2001!" "Anybody beside me think we missed the turnoff?" "We have a party!" "I'm king of the world!" "I'm king of the" "Whoa, whoa, stop, stop." "Stop, stop, stop!" "Declan, what are you doing?" "Where'd she go?" "What?" "Where'd she go?" "Where'd who go?" "What are you talking about?" "Declan." "There is no way in hell that thing is there." "No, no, no." "Manet Hall, very bad juju." "Nobody's lived there for years except squatters and tramps." "Some of them possibly not of the living variety." "I'm going in." "Declan." "Come on." "Come on." "No, not me, no way." "lntruders, be gone!" "Come on." "This is what I get for bringing my roommate down here for Mardi Gras." "I gotta have it, Remy." "Just tell me where to send the check and how much." "Can we please leave now?" "No, no, no." "I wanna see the ballroom." "What makes you think there's a ballroom?" "How could a haunted Southern mansion not have a ballroom?" "We are so out of here." "Declan, you get your butt over here now or you can find your own ride home to Boston!" "Here, try that." "Two more bay leaves, one more grind of pepper..." "...and a dash of cayenne." "Got it, babe." "Oh, and your grandma called." "She needs a favor out by the cabin." "On my way." "All right." "Satchmofest kicks off tonight, so order in a double of everything." "If we run short on ice again I will personally put somebody's hand in the Hurricane blender." "Love y'all." "Bye, baby." "Hey." "Come here." "Hey." "What's going on?" "How you doing?" "Good." "How you been?" "How's things in New Orleans?" "I got something cooking." "Oh, yeah, and it ain't just in the oven." "Seems somebody's bought the Hall." "Sight unseen, cash on the barrelhead." "Young lawyer out of Boston, Declan Fitzpatrick." "Oscar said there was a favor you needed." "Oh, just a neighborly thing to do would be to take the gentleman Welcome to the Bayou fresh-baked corn bread." "And my knees have been acting up something fierce." "This young lawyer wouldn't happen to be single, would he?" "And when did that become a crime?" "Grandma, why you wanna waste a perfectly good loaf of corn bread on a guy who'd be gone in minutes like everybody who buys the Hall?" "Oh, no, now this one's different." "This one's putting down roots." "Yeah, I'm bad with roots." "Roots scare me." "Lena." "I got a look at the man on his way in and if I were 20 years younger I'd be heading over there with the corn bread myself." "You wouldn't have a chance." "How do you know he doesn't belong to a club, wear loafers with no socks?" "Those boys in the Quarter may have the right footwear but none of them mean anything to you." "They all mean something to me." "What's the difference?" "Hello?" "May I help you?" "I was just looking for the owner." "Is he expecting you?" "No, it's just a corn bread courtesy call." "I figured I'd find him sitting on the veranda sipping mint juleps being fanned by servants." "Oh, you've made his acquaintance?" "Haven't had the pleasure." "So his reputation precedes him?" "No, not exactly." "Just" "The kind of person who buys a house like this, it's a type." "Northern boy who comes down here dreaming of moonlight and magnolias." "I actually hear the owner isn't too big on mint juleps." "He's more of a beer guy." "You're...?" "Declan Fitzpatrick, Northern boy." "Oh, my God." "How could you--?" "That was entrapment." "Have we met?" "Have we met?" "Guess that answers our question." "I was down here for Mardi Gras in 2001, maybe it was at a party?" "Well, I was mostly in Shreveport in '01." "Maybe in Boston?" "Never been there." "Hey, baby, let me help you with that." "You're a mover?" "Some of these guys are." "We also have a few legal students and paralegals including yours truly, Jack Tripadoe, the practical one." "While Declan's spending his trust fund providing legal services to these citizens of our lovely parish, someone's gotta keep the ship afloat." "And what'll I find on that ship?" "Legal library, housing clinic." "Daycare center for the kids." "You name it, we got it." "Lot of people in tough straits here." "Insurance companies refusing to pay claims saying they won't cover flood." "They only cover wind." "There's no end to it." "That one?" "It's right over there." "Can you handle this one?" "I'd love to stick around and help you unload the truck but I got a big night at work, so I better get back to town." "I'll see you later then." "Thank you." "The corn bread's from my grandma." "Lives in the cabin down on the bayou." "It's good with raspberry jam." "You didn't tell me your name." "Angelina Simone." "But mostly it's Lena." "So, what's the catch?" "Why does there have to be a catch?" "How can a man like that possibly be single?" "Did he like the corn bread?" "Oh, you know something." "He was engaged to a girl up in Boston." "But he broke it off." "When?" "Three weeks ago today." "When were they gonna get married?" "Well, what difference does that make?" "Grandma." "Three weeks ago, Sunday." "He walked out on his fiancee two days before the wedding?" "That would make him your type, wouldn't it?" "Mama, Hello?" "Mama, you in there?" "If you're in there, pick up," "Oh, what do you think she wants?" "Cash or bail?" "Mama, that guy in Houston, he turned out to be this total loser," "He got ahold of my credit card and he went hog-wild and I" "I can't get a cash advance or write a check," "I need" " I just" "I gotta get some cash, Mama," "Do not pick up until I'm out of here." "Come on, I know you're in there, You ain't going nowhere, pick up," "Hi, Mom." "I just wanted to make sure," ",you were down there safe and sound," "Couldn't be safer and sounder." "I got a lot of unpacking to do, so...." "I ran into Binky Davenport at the club today," "Oh, what a coincidence." "Declan," "As upset and disappointed as all parties involved are at the moment," ",I was given the unmistakable indication," ",if you were to apologize for your rashness and lack of consideration," ",the Davenports may be open to reannouncing the engagement," "Mom, Mom, Mom." "I did all parties involved a massive favor by saving a wonderful woman from marrying a man who was not in love with her." "It's all that Remy's fault getting you to quit your job," ",spending your last dime on some overpriced cabin in the swamp," "The overpriced cabin in the swamp..." "And I quit my job because if I had to file one more pre-trial motion" "Declan," "Declan, I" "Mom, let me call you back." "I gotta call the realtor." "Love you." "Fine," "How's the new homeowner?" "Actually, I was wondering about the old homeowners." "Weren't they supposed to have their stuff moved out before I got here?" "We didn't have anything to move out," "They sold the place before the furniture got there," "Nobody's been in that house for a year," "Then somebody's definitely been squatting." "There's a room full of furniture and it looks very lived-in." "Oh, my god," "I'll get a moving crew there, have the locks changed first thing in the a,m," "Thank you." "I haven't seen you jump since the first time you set foot on this property." "Hey, would you--?" "Would you mind going up there and checking it out?" "Up there for me?" "It's a little dusty for me." "The humidity down here is hell on my allergies." "Allergies." "And I thought I knew everything there was to know about you." "What do you see?" "What--?" "What's up there?" "There's nothing up here." "Just an old brass fireplace set." "Mind if we break open your housewarming gift?" "I knew there was a reason I love you more than my mother." "We are not allowed in there, you know that," "Hello?" "What do you think you're doing, Abigail?" "If she catches us in here, we're both gonna get in trouble." "I can go wherever I want to." "Abigail." "It's me." "Abigail, if you go in that front room she'll have your head." "You know the rules." "Downstairs maids strictly on the servant's stairs." "I'm not scared of her." "Lucian." "My fair brother." "He's like a Greek god, isn't he?" "Down from Mount Olympus to walk amongst the mortals." "Excuse me, Master Julian." "I've seen the way you look at him." "And the way you get him to look at you." "You've been drinking, Master Julian." "If I was born 1 5 minutes earlier, you know, I'd be the heir." "And it would be me you'd be making those eyes at." "Abigail." "Abigail." "Send the bitch back to hell," "Help!" "Somebody, please help me!" "Help me!" "Mr. Fitzpatrick." "Hi, I'm a little confused." "I think you pointed us to the wrong room." "They must have moved it all out while I was sleeping." "We better change all the locks." "Right." "You're telling me I have ghosts in my house?" "Consider the house." "Quite the history there." "The two brothers who lived there both fell in love with a maid." "The older brother, Lucian, marries the housemaid, Abigail." "To Mama's infinite dismay." "Abigail then abandons husband and new baby for some boy on the bayou." "Never to return." "A short time later, the betrayed husband kills his brother Julian in a knife brawl in the Quarter's most notorious brothel." "The incident ruled self-defense." "And soon after that Lucian drowned himself in the bayou." "Twice-abandoned child was raised in the bayou by her mama's family." "The owner of this bar and caterer of our wedding happens to be the baby's" "What is it?" "Great-great-granddaughter." "Not your type, Boston." "I cannot believe that a week from Sunday you two degenerates are gonna be old married people." "Nice to see you, Declan." "You've met." "Yesterday morning." "Effie, I got the andouille all ordered for the jambalaya but my shrimp guys let me down, wanna come back and talk plan B?" "Honey, we are in your hands." "Whatever you decide to.... plan B?" "Yes, absolutely." "You're gonna wanna mop that drool off your chin." "Why'd he jilt her?" "She just wasn't the one." "He didn't notice until they were setting chairs?" "It was a marriage of two great fortunes." "Declan is a very dutiful son." "Or was until two weeks ago." "It was the weirdest thing." "The second I saw her, it was like" "I don't know, bam, there you are." "Is dumping girls at the altar his pattern..." "...or was it a one-time thing?" "No, the altar, only once." "But there has been something of a revolving door." "Her dad took off before she was born." "Her mom walked out when she was 3." "What you don't need is a guy who's still figuring it out." "I got two friends here I don't wanna see hurt." "Don't go for this one on the rebound." "You know what, Remy?" "I'm not back in five days, drag the harbor." "Hey, let me get those for you." "I got it." "No, no, no, it's fine." "We could all use a little help." "Here." "Sorry about that." "Sorry." "Here you go." "So can I buy you a coffee, a drink?" "A car, a dog?" "I got a car and at the moment I'm sadly too busy to give a dog the love and attention" "Oh, my." "Sorry, totally my bad." "Sorry, everybody." "Think I've had all the help out of you I can handle." "No, that was my bad." "It's fine." "Why don't you leave it to the pros?" "I got it." "On your feet." "Yes, ma'am." "You wanna help me out?" "Go sit down, enjoy your beers and we'll talk." "Is that a deal?" "Deal." "I'm sorry, l" " I gotta go." "No, yeah." "Yeah." "Of course." "Oh, Master Lucian." "I'm so sorry." "I was just" "It's all right, Abigail." "Books are there to be read." "What volume were you risking your life for?" "It was poetry." "I love poetry, especially Lord Byron." "She walks in beauty like the night" "Of cloudless climes And starry skies" "Did Madame LaRue tell you to dust the front rooms?" "No, Madame Josephine." "I thought" "You thought?" "If you're such a thinker, do you think that I engage my downstairs maids for the quality of their thinking?" "Yes, Mother." "What is it?" "Why can't you pay for your whores down in the Quarter like your brother?" "I'm sure for a little extra you can get them to dress up like maids." "If that's your fancy." "I want an mri now." "This was a full-on hallucination." "This time they were reading poetry." "The housemaid getting her hooks into the heir to the estate." "You're not losing your marbles, you're tuning in." "No, no, see, you just told me the story, so of course it was on my mind." "Maybe or maybe to be sure you get somebody in to clean the place up." "See what's got a hold on you." "You know do a little grigri." "One of your neighbors does the best grigri, Madame Odette." "Cabin through those woods." "Does everyone believe in this stuff?" "No, but it's good for tourism." "Look, I'm not knocking on my neighbor's door and saying, "Hi, got voodoo?"" "I'm a little neurologically impaired, I'm not nuts." "Madame Odette is otherwise known as Odette Simone, Lena's grandma." "Lena's beloved grandma who raised her like her own child." "Grigri or not, could be the road to Lena's heart needs to pass through a little cabin on the bayou." "Welcome, neighbor." "I'm Odette Simone." "pleased to meet you, Mrs. Simone." "I'm" "Oh, I know who you are." "I like daisies." "They got a cheerful face." "That corn bread that you sent over never saw lunchtime." "I should have come by sooner to thank you." "As far north of the Mason-Dixon Line you come, think I expect manners?" "Come on in." "I got another batch crying to come out of the oven." "How do you get anything done when you can just sit here all day long and look?" "It's a good spot." "My family's been here 1 1 5 years." "You got your eye on my Lena?" "I love to see a Yankee lose his tongue." "Manger, eat." "You wanna get somewhere with Lena, take her on a date." "A proper one." "And don't waste your time asking her if she wants to because you'll just get a saucy "no."" "That girl's been hurt bad and hurt deep." "When your own mama barely takes the time to know you're alive you start to think that's what you deserve." "The other thing you came for." "I'll help you with if you'll let me." "Excuse me?" "The little trouble you're having with the former residents of the Hall." "Let me see your hands." "No, I gotta tell you I'm a pretty reality-based kind of guy." "Humor an old lady." "Tell me where one is and I'd be happy to." "Come on, now." "Let me see them." "All right." "You got a strong hand, Declan." "Strong enough that you changed your fate." "Took yourself a new road." "You have strong ties to Manet Hall." "You're not alone in there." "One force won't stop at anything to get you out." "But there's another one pushing you right back in." "Telling you a story." "But you better listen to it." "Most of all, the parts you don't wanna hear." "Because if the story doesn't change this time you all stay stuck." "Time will stand still." "Watch doesn't tick." "Watch?" "What?" "What watch?" "Everything keeps going around in a circle to the same dark end." "How could Abigail leave her baby, my grandma, behind?" "How could Lucian take his own life knowing his child needed him?" "Shine the light, Declan." "Everything you're trying to do here it will all come to dust if you don't make it right." "Make what right?" "What are you talking about?" "What game are you playing here?" "Is this how you got the other owners to run away with this nonsense?" "Why do you think you were called here, Mr. Fitzpatrick?" "To open a legal clinic." "To help people." "plenty of people need help in plenty of places." "Why are you here?" "Social Services said there's" "Hey, look at this." "From the city archives, Josephine Manet's will." "Getting to know your ectoplasmic housemates?" "Learning about my house." "Whatever you say." "This." ""Notarized December 1 st, 1 899."" "After the baby was born." "A month before Abigail disappeared." ""Let there be no mistaking my intentions to bestow my entire estate upon my youngest son, Julian." "Leaving nothing whatsoever to the eldest, Lucian."" "That would sure explain why Abigail took off." "No inheritance, no reason to stick around." "Baby, what is it?" "We got no place to get married." "They just condemned the church." "There's some storm damage they didn't catch." "We can get hitched at a bus stop for all I care." "Don't tell that to my mother." "There's six conventions in town." "I called 1 00 places." "There's nothing." "I know of a lovely antebellum mansion..." "...that happens to be free." "No, I cannot let you do this." "Did I say it was open for discussion?" "You are the most wonderful friend anybody ever had." "plus you look really hot in that suit." "Don't go all gushy on him, Effie." "He's giving us the house because he wants to make time with the caterer." "Now, what is this lunacy?" "Abandon all hope of getting away, Lena Simone." "We are going on a date." "Oh, Declan." "First stop is your house so you can change, this being a formal affair and all." "No need for that." "I'll be right back." "Yo, you three, come here." "This will do." "That is a beautiful watch." "It was my grandma's grandma's." "I only wear it because it's pretty." "Not a jeweler in the state can get it to work." "See?" "The watch doesn't tick," "The watch doesn't tick?" "Lena." "Do you believe in spirits..." "Have you been visiting my grandma?" "Are you using her to get to me?" "I paid my neighbor a friendly visit." "That works." "Sometimes." "As for what I believe well, I've never seen proof." "But it wasn't for lack of trying." "Okay." "There we go." "Let's eat." "And drink." "Open some branches of the restaurant Lower Ninth, Gentilly, you know, places where they need it the most." "Then maybe sell the whole thing and travel see what's in the next chapter." "You?" "Get the legal clinic up and running learn enough Italian to read Dante in the original." "Get a couch for this room." "Have about seven or eight kids." "Lot of bedrooms in this place." "There's a lot of sadness in this place." "My whole life, nobody ever stayed more than a few months." "I just can't believe that Abigail walked out on Lucian and the baby." "So you're acquainted with our local legend." "It's quite a story." "And it's just a coincidence she took off two weeks after the will got changed?" "She read poetry with him." "You know this because...?" "Because that's the story that he loved poetry and so did she." "Yeah, she cleared out, she took all the jewelry and disappeared." "That's the story I grew up with." "Doesn't make it the truth." "So, what's your theory?" "Mama Josephine, in the bayou, with her hands around Abigail's neck." "No, if Josephine wanted to kill her, why change the will?" "Maybe it was Lucian who did it." "He knifed his brother." "How do you know he didn't knife his bride?" "police said he killed in self-defense." "Well, the Manets own the police." "What else were they gonna say?" "Don't you believe in true love?" "You're the one who left a girl standing at the altar." "Maybe that's because I do believe in true love." "Baby was only a few weeks old." "She wouldn't have walked out on it." "Her daughter." "You think mothers don't walk out on their children?" "I'm sorry about that." "I" "I shouldn't have." "Always comes up one way or another." "Where is she now?" "How about if you never stop doing that?" "Could that be arranged?" "Do you hear that?" "You don't hear that?" "The baby crying?" "You're lucky you didn't kill yourself fainting like that." "Come on, get up." "Guys don't faint, they pass out." "I own a bar." "I know the difference between fainting and passing out." "What was that about?" "Nothing." "I don't know." "You wanna get coffee?" "Will you finish it this time?" "Yes, Mama." "You don't fool me." "Was I trying to?" "I know a glow when I see one." "Oh, no." "That's my new skin toner." "So you don't wanna know what Declan said to Remy?" "Well, it isn't so much what he said as how he said it." "Remy has never seen him like this." "Call him." "No way." "You know the rules." "As if you ever lived by the rules a second of your life." "Now, if he isn't worth an encore, that would be something else." "Oh, he is definitely worth an encore." "Lena." "Somebody's here to see you." "In the office." "Like a bad penny." "Hey, baby." "What do you want?" "I've got a yen to see you." "So I put myself on a bus." "Six over-air-conditioned hours later here I am." "Why don't you sit down and tell me everything you've been up to." "I have to work." "Well, you own the place." "You can take off all the time you want." "I told you last time was the last time you were getting money out of me." "I'm saying I'm sorry." "And I know I was bad, but I am still your mama." "A cat spends more time with its litter than you did with me." "I have to work and you have to go." "I got a plan this time." "I could work for you until I get something permanent." "That way, you could keep your eye on me so I don't screw up again." "I can stay with you until I get a place of my own." "So I can come home and find you turning tricks in my bed?" "I was sick back then." "I'm clean now." "I'll take a blood test." "I'd take one now." "You used that one up." "Here buy yourself a bus ticket to as far away as this will get you." "I messed up so bad with that guy in Houston." "He was taking care of me, and what did" " What did I do?" "I walked out on him." "I stomped on his heart like it was a bug." "Us Simone girls, I guess that's what we do, isn't it?" "If they don't walk out on us, they surely end up paying for it." "I truly feel for that beautiful young man from Boston who came by on his motorcycle the other night." "Oh, yeah." "I watch over my baby." "Get out or I swear to God I will throw you out." "You know, like it or not you are your mother's daughter." "Which is to say, if you don't leave they will." "As long as you shall live." "Hey, beautiful." "I was thinking Lake pontchartrain a rowboat, some lobster salad maybe some patsy Cline on the boom box." "Declan." "What?" "This is too fast for me." "All right, we'll go slower." "No rowboat, no patsy Cline." "We'll go as slow as you want." "Some things just aren't a good idea." "Hey." "Hey." "What are you doing?" "Was it something I did?" "Did I come on too strong?" "Oh, she likes strong." "Everything seemed so great last night." "Did something happen to her this morning?" "Many things have happened." "Just not necessarily this morning." "In fact, not recently at all." "Would you like to see my picture album?" "Yeah?" "Yeah." "All right." "Always made us feel kind of special knowing our granny was born in the big house." "Nobody in the bayou had a family album like we did." "Now that was my great-great-grandma." "A beauty, isn't she?" "Josephine." "And over here is my great grandpa's brother, Julian." "And this is my great-grandpa, Lucian and my great-grandma, Abigail." "What the hell is this?" "It's my photo album." "This is my house now." "And I'm not leaving!" "Do you hear me?" "Do you hear me?" "Do you hear me?" "Got you all the pretty ones..." "..." "I could pull out of the recycle bin." "All right." "I'm surprised there's a spirit left to scare away." "Oh, they're not for here." "Oh, look at that pretty blue one." "If these are for a neighbor of yours, have a nice time hanging bottles." "Well, don't you have wedding business up there anyway?" "I'm not interested in Declan." "Well, it seems to me, night before last somebody spent all night not being interested in Declan." "Grandma." "I know." "I know your philosophy." "Walk away so they don't walk away first." "And I know you come by it honestly." "But the end of the story isn't written until it's written, angel." "Look around you." "At what?" "Got a whole city coming back up." "Now, even where Katrina hit the worst, getting rebuilt better than before." "You seen the Ninth Ward lately?" "It's all a matter of time." "And faith." "Yeah, faith." "Otherwise known as trusting in things that have never shown themselves worthy of trust." "Another storm hasn't hit." "Just luck." "All right." "All right." "Tell me you really don't like him or tell me his cologne makes you gag or that his jokes aren't funny and I'll let you out that door." "Damn thing's a teardown." "My friend Remy wants to be married under it and married under it, my friend Remy is gonna be." "Darling, we live in the most beautiful house in Louisiana." "But it's not our house." "please, don't make me keep living here..." "...where your mother hates me." "Now, she doesn't hate you." "She's proud." "And the way that your brother's always looking at me." "Now, you know Julian doesn't mean any harm." "He's sad." "I promise you as soon as the baby's born, we'll start looking for a place in town with lots of rooms for the children we're gonna have." "Declan!" "I'm okay." "I'm okay." "Okay." "Yeah?" "Yeah?" "Well, were you seeing something, boy?" "No, l" " I wasn't seeing." "It was more like" "More like like what?" "Like...." "No, no, no." "It" " No, it" "No, it's" " It's too crazy." "If anything was too crazy for this place I never heard of it." "Like I was remembering them." "Okay?" "Like I was there." "I...." "I smelled the rose in Abigail's hand." "She was pregnant." "There was a willow tree." "Right there." "There was a willow tree." "Well, cut down 55 years ago after Hurricane Hazel split it in two." "You think we got ourselves a little reincarnation thing going here?" "No." "I'm" "I'm from Boston." "Of course I don't think that." "You know, if you're Lucian Manet, that makes you my great-grandpa." "Okay, so now, not only do I have ghosts in my house but you're telling me that I used to be one of them?" "Come on." "Really?" "Maybe that's why I thought I was home the first time I came here." "Maybe that's why we were so sure we had met." "Yes, well, but that would only be true if she was seeing things too." "Well, are you seeing things?" "Are you remembering things?" "Me?" "Remember a hundred years ago?" "I'm lucky if I know where I've put my keys this morning." "He loved her so much." "I" " I saw them reading poetry together and the look in his eyes..." "...when he gave me the rose, it was" "Excuse me?" "What did you just say?" "The look in his eyes when he gave me the rose." "Well, now." "That might just explain everything." "It was a slip of the tongue." "No, no." "Think, Declan." "What were you remembering?" "Whose eyes were you seeing it through?" "Come on." "I looked up at him." "I could feel my collar around my neck." "The rose when he put it in my hand." "Holy moly." "What?" "What?" "What does it mean?" "What is it?" "Well it means if you really were here before you weren't Lucian." "You were Abigail." "So now I'm the reincarnation of a Cajun housemaid?" "Why not?" "The soul doesn't know the difference." "Boys come back as girls, kings as paupers." "No, Odette." "I've never been a woman." "I've never had woman parts." "Then whose collar was tickling your neck?" "Now I see why they're so angry." "Why they're reaching through the veil." "You're the bayou trash that invaded their home." "Lena, I know this is not the first time that we've stood on this spot." "Abigail wasn't after Lucian's money." "She didn't want this house." "She begged him to take her away from here." "Sure, away from prying eyes." "What if somebody caught her sneaking off for a rendezvous with the boy from the bayou?" "No, Lena." "Not everyone walks out." "What poem were they reading?" "She walks in beauty" "Like the night" "Of cloudless climes And starry skies" "I gotta get set up in the house." "She took the rose." "I call that progress." "Happy New Year champagne for my two beautiful girls." "There, there now." "Don't cry, Marie Rose." "Where's your mama?" "Oh, my darling, I am so sorry." "It's a joke." "She's playing a joke." "I've been praying this wouldn't happen." "I've been praying I was wrong." "All of her jewelry, Lucian." "Your grandmother's emeralds." "There's a thief in the house." "Would a thief leave this?" "What have you been praying you were wrong about?" "Mother, tell me." "The boy that she had been seen with in the bayou." "What boy?" "My Abby would never" "Lucian." "What boy?" "A boy with red hair, Lucian." "Get your coat on, Julian." "The carriage is waiting downstairs." "Now, did Mama send you to bring bad Julian home?" "A whiskey and a woman!" "For mon frere." "Though I doubt he'd know what to do with either of them." "It's been so long since sainted Lucian has tasted of the carnal delights." "You embarrass yourself and your family, Julian." "I'm not embarrassed to pay for a whore." "Now, if I had married one, it would be a different matter." "But you beat me to that, brother, as you have so many other things." "If you say another word about Abigail" "Lucian pride of the Manets." "He pines and he weeps." "Because his bride abandoned him for another." "Saddled him with their bastard whelp." "You drove her away, what with your poetry and your roses." "I loved her for the slut that she was right down to that sweet little heart-shaped birthmark on the inside of her thigh." "Don't you love me, brother?" "Finished setting up already?" "Grandma, what's wrong?" "You're asking me?" "I saw." "Well, look at this." "Three generations together again." "You must be Declan." "What is she doing in this house?" "I have as much right to be in this house as you do." "Some of us are just more respectful of blood kin than others." "Is this coffee fresh, Mama?" "Yes, honey." "How could you take her in again?" "She's my child." "I'm your child." "You're gonna let her come back and suck you dry again?" "She has a disease." "She is a disease." "I told you I'm clean." "You know how you can tell a junkie is lying?" "Her lips are moving." "You ought to shut" "I would think again about that." "Grandmama I love you with all my heart but as long as she's in this house, I won't be." "Let me know when she's gone." "Hey, hey, hey." "Family sucks." "You know anything about it?" ""Aunt Buffy bought the wrong color tea towels."" "Come on." "I don't want you to go." "Why not?" "Three reasons." "Okay, because you're too upset to drive because I love you and because I love you." "This is all about you and me." "We were brought together for a reason." "To make it right this time." "I was Abigail and I know you were Lucian." "I thought I loved somebody once the way you do now." "We were 1 6." "Every day I woke up I'd think, "l get to see him today."" "And then one day where I saw him was up under the oaks by your house going at it like a jackrabbit with my mama." "Oh, she laughed and laughed." "She thought it was the funniest thing, me coming along right at that minute." "He laughed too." "I guess she'd gotten him pretty stoned." "I'm not that boy, Lena." "Well, you should be." "He had it right." "Enjoy what you can and move on." "Way of the world." "So save yourself, okay?" "I'm no good for anybody, and I don't wanna be." "place sure looks better than it did when I used to break in and get up to all kinds of hell in here." "What can I do for you, Miss Simone?" "Mind if I cut right to the chase?" "Actually, I'd appreciate it." "I'm in trouble." "Big trouble." "Big even for me." "I owe some money." "That's why I had to get out of Houston." "They said if I don't pay what I owe, they're gonna hurt Lena, and Mama." "What, they front you a key, and it all go up your nose?" "You'd think I'd learn by now, huh?" "Would $1 0,000 do it?" "I was a trial lawyer, Miss Simone." "You're gonna have to be a better liar around me." "Now, why don't you get out of my house before I hurt you." "Your type doesn't hurt a woman." "Don't think I don't know the difference." "You know I wonder what would happen to your little daycare commune when the authorities hear that you've been making improper advances towards your clients' kids." "Just a rumor would be enough to shut you down." "And, yeah, I think $1 0,000 would just about do it." "Okay." "You wanna make an accusation, make it." "Deputy Sheriff, St. Charles parish." "Remy's Uncle pierre." "Call him." "I can make a lot more trouble for you than you can for me." "Believe that." "Yeah, baby." "Come on." "Hey, the girls are waiting." "party, boys." "Come on." "Come on." "You all right?" "If I'd never moved here and never met Lena would that have been better?" "Get in the car." "Come on." "Not tonight." "Come on." "Come on." "Let's go." "Yeah." "Don't go, beautiful." "Stay with me." "Well, aren't you something?" "Okay." "Okay, come on." "You got it." "In my father's day you think they went to the Quarter for lap dancing?" "What?" "I hear you." "Come on, buddy." "They were men and we are mice." "Okay, come on." "Come on, I got you." "I don't feel so good, Declan." "Yeah, that would be 1 1 Sazeracs talking." "Just take a seat." "There you go." "I got just the thing for you, buddy." "Try not to throw up on my floor." "Hello, Abigail." "He wants to make a life with you." "He wants to play make-believe." "Yeah." "Oh, my God." "You all right?" "As long as I don't breathe or anything." "Doctor was here." "Not much you can do for a cracked rib." "There something you weren't saying on the phone." "About what?" "Who did this?" "It was your mom." "I didn't wanna call the cops." "Then I'll call them." "The times I could've had her put away but I always told myself, no, it will catch up with her on its own." "No, no, no." "Lena there was not a thing in the whole world you could have done to stop this." "But she's just out there." "We'll postpone the wedding." "Oh, no, no, no." "You think I wanna hear from your mom the rest of my life about all your second cousins stuck with non-refundable plane tickets?" "party's on, babe." "And though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but have not love I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal." "And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I can move mountains but have not love I am nothing." "All right." "May I have this dance?" "I've been lying to you about not seeing anything." "So you know it was us then." "We're them." "You wanna know why Lucian killed Julian?" "Because he found out Julian had been screwing his sweet beloved Abigail." "Apparently, she was a very busy bride." "Nobody killed Abigail." "She abandoned her husband and her baby." "No." "She loved Lucian." "I saw the note she left." ""Try to forgive me."" "That's it." "And she didn't take all her jewelry." "What piece of her jewelry do I have?" "The watch." "It didn't mean anything to her." "We weren't brought together to get it right." "No higher purpose in any of this." "Just trapped on a wheel that keeps coming around and around the same place." "To blood and death and lies." "I'm putting the bar up for sale." "I'll go to Florida, look for a new place." "Maybe if we get off the wheel this time it'll stop for good." "Shine the light, Declan," "Shine the light," "Don't you fuss." "Daddy's downstairs." "He's gonna be up to see us soon." "What beautiful eyes you have." "Just like your daddy." "What a party, Mother." "Yes, dear." "And such beautiful hair." "It's the color of the sun right when it sinks into the bayou." "There's Daddy now." "Where are your manners, Marie Rose?" "Say hello to your Uncle Julian." "Everybody misses you down at the party." "I need to feed the baby." "It's an absence felt most terribly." "We're short one scullery maid in the kitchen." "I don't want you to be up here when you've been drinking." "So the Cajuns are giving orders to the Creoles now?" "You're disgusting looking that way at your brother's wife." "Brother's whore." "When I tell Lucian about this, he'll send you away." "Well, he'll have to ask Mama's permission first." "My sainted brother did me a favor by marrying you." "You know, she's already written him out of her will." "You can take your mother's money and go to hell with it." "He's weak." "Saints usually are." "Underneath all that piety." "He's a man." "More man than you're ever gonna be." "I always take what's Lucian's." "Ten, nine, eight seven, six five, four..." "No!" "Help me!" "...three, two, one!" "Happy New Year!" "Happy New Year." "I hope it's a prosperous year for all." "Oh, God." "Oh, God." "Oh, God." "Make the damn thing stop crying!" "Help!" "Somebody, please, help me!" "Shut up!" "Help me!" "Somebody, please, help me!" "If you loved me this never would have happened." "This wouldn't have happened." "Julian." "She attacked me with the fire poker." "I was just defending myself." "She is dead, son." "They'll hang me." "I have to get away." "No." "They won't hang you, darling." "I will not lose another son to this" "This creature." "Everything's gonna be all right." "As long as you do exactly as Mama says." "We don't have a lot of time, so first, go and clear out Abigail's clothing and jewelry from the bedroom." "Are you listening to me, son?" "Yes, Mama." "Yes." "I'm listening." "All right." "Then you find something to wrap her in." "You take her down the back stairs and you dump her in the bayou." "Now, I'll find something to occupy Lucian downstairs." "But first, I need to" "I need see something in her handwriting." "It's a list of things the baby needs." "So now you know." "This is the way it always ends." "Send the bitch back to hell." "Where's Declan?" "I don't know." "I haven't seen him." "What happened?" "Nothing." "Everything." "Darling, where are you going?" "Don't you wanna dance the first waltz of the century with your mama?" "No." "Go ahead." "It's what you always wanted to do." "No." "That's not how it's gonna end this time." "Don't you love me, brother?" "Lena and you?" "What am I doing in here?" "Don't even try." "No." "No, no." "No." "I was going up the stairs and there was this man." "What were you doing in Declan's house?" "I don't know." "For once in your life, will you not lie to me?" "I was stealing, okay?" "But from the office, from the bedroom, not" "And then all I remember are these thoughts in my head." "And a knife in my hand and" "That knife." "Oh, God, did I hurt somebody?" "Maybe." "Oh, no." "I don't remember anything." "Oh, baby, I'm so scared." "You gotta believe me." "I'm not your baby." "I've never been your baby." "I don't have to be my mother's daughter." "Julian must have come right along here with the body over his shoulder." "He loved her in the only sick, twisted way he knew how to." "So do you wanna give this a try or not?" "I've always run away." "I've never trusted anybody." "We could change all that now." "These families that moved back after the storm what did they have that Lucian didn't?" "Faith." "That it can all be better the next time around." "Is there any chance that you can have faith this time?" "In you I can." "Hey." "Do you know how much I love you, angel?" "I love you as much as I love your papa." "And that means I love you more than the whole wide world." "But not as much as I love you." "It might take me a few more lifetimes to get it right." "And I look forward to every one of them."