Prologue

Prologue
"The Day After Yesterday"

Knowing then what you know now. The chance to right wrongs before they happen has long been an alluring prospect to be sure.

Pulling hurtful words back during an argument; not passing on a job offer when the other turns out to be a flop. While you’re at it, why not ask that high school crush out on a date? Better than finding out years later that he or she actually had a crush on you.

Is fate an absolute? Could it be a predetermined template, unable to be changed? What if you had the chance to go back? What would you do with an opportunity to complete the undone or to right wrongs?

Would you make the same mistakes? Or, with intimate knowledge of the past, would one be too busy looking for fate to unfold in a familiar direction as it blindsides from another?

As they say, knowledge is power and hindsight is 20/20. Or is it?

Chris moved to New Orleans for a rebirth of sorts. Perhaps he was running from fate or the past more than anything. New Orleans was going to be his needed change; he was sure of it. As they say though, the best laid plans…

Fate has found Chris Barrow in a trying spot on this particular night. Far away from his childhood home, he felt all alone in a strange, yet wonderfully spiritual city. 
   
New Orleans is a city steeped in hundreds of years of culture with a history as rich as it is eccentrically notorious. A beautiful yet mysterious place, its people are known for embracing one another and total strangers.

An abundance of alcohol, coupled with a 24-hour nightlife, could be poison to some while its culture, architecture and history is romantically glorious to others. New Orleans is a city that does not love unconditionally though; you have to love it back.

That seems fair enough since New Orleans has shone brightly with human resilience in the face of being nearly burned to the ground twice.  They've endured crippling bouts of Cholera and Yellow Fever...the little things that tend to plague a city which is built on top of a swamp.  And, of course, the devastation of Hurricane Katrina still haunts the minds of its people years later.

They still love, they persevere, they hope and they rebuild. It’s a city that refuses to tolerate those who pass through with a chip on the shoulder. No time for nonsense and trivial worries that plague transients who come in and out of her life every day.

New Orleans, Louisiana, yes indeed. Truly one of the most unique cities in the world. A place, even before Katrina, of rebirth. You either “get it” or you get out.

copyright Pontchartrain Press 2008