Do you remember the Devil’s Tree and what happened there? Someone was killed, right? Or was it more than one? Women, obviously. Strung up by their limbs onto the limbs. Satanists still hang out there and stuff, I think. I wonder if we could find it. Wasn’t it off of that one road by our old house? I’ll check right now. It’s fine, Jill. I know how to text and drive.

 

Do you remember that kid, you know, the white supremacist kid who got arrested when you were in elementary school? How we used to drive down this street trying to find his house? Yeah, we did. Promise. I don’t know why. We just did. No, not the kid who murdered that old lady by the golf course with his CD Walkman. I saw him when I was in jail that time for my DUI. The other one. He had long hair, maybe.

 

I told you I saw your old teacher right, the blonde one hostessing at a sushi restaurant? Or maybe it was your guidance counselor? I get the two of them mixed up. Both are petite but one’s blonder than the other, right?

 

Remember Crawdaddy’s? I think our waitress used to work there. I’m almost positive she used to work there.

Hey, did you used to work at Crawdaddy’s? I thought so. I was just telling my daughter and her husband you looked familiar. I never forget a face. These are damn good oysters, by the way.

 

Did I tell ya that one time after a long night at Crawdaddy’s, Duane found me unconscious under the ATM machine at the bank down the street? Kind of crazy.

 

I’m so glad you’re here, sweet pea.

 

Remember how you were worried that all your friends in the honors classes would be the nerds but they were some of the most popular ones? Hey, what was the name of that kid that reminds me of the guy wearing the overalls in Dazed and Confused? He didn’t really look like him but he had his attitude. Kind of cocky. Dammit, I’m braindead. It’s gonna drive me crazy. I’ll find it. When we get home, I’ll look up “class of ’99 yearbook” on my phone.

 

Remember that time you and your friend dressed up like, I don’t wanna say what, with the makeup and crap and I looked like your sugar daddy and we were going to see that movie, 8mm, and you didn’t tell me what it was about? And it turned out to be about snuff films and child pornography and you were teenage girls dressed like that? Jesus Christ, I looked like your pimp.

 

Remember when there was nothing here? No stores, no nothing. When US1 was a two-lane highway. A Wal-Mart, a Publix and nothing else.

 

Remember we’d go out to eat with Mom when we first moved here? Fried mushrooms and grouper at Big Al’s? That one restaurant with the fireplace that your grandma liked? The Mexican place with the good salsa?

 

Remember when I’d carry the cakes Mom made for the assemblies or whatever at your school? Huge sheet cakes transported on plywood from Home Depot. Took the sliding glass door right off its hinges so they’d fit in the trunk. She made some wild cakes, one shaped like a school bus with Oreo wheels and Twizzler wipers. Another a peppermint patty spider with black licorice for legs. Remember that? Tasted real good, too.

 

Do you want to visit her since we’re right here, Jill? We won’t walk in circles this time. I remember the way now. Wish the newer graves didn’t all look the same though. Crazy.

 

I bet we could find that Devil’s Tree if you wanted. Suri, where’s the Devil’s Tree? Devil’s. Tree. Flo-ri-da.

 

Time sure flies, huh? Looks like you’ll have plenty of time at the airport. No traffic on 95 like I’d thought at this hour. Hit up the Chili’s and have a cocktail or two for me, will ya?

 

Goodbye, my sweet pea. I miss you already.