“What the heck?!” I shouted as I flung the ugly flowery quilt off me and sat up quickly. Cold air slapped my bare skin causing me to grab the quilt and quickly get back under the cover. "Um...Where's my clothes?"

  “Whoa, whoa, der tiga’! You ah’right, you ah’right!” Tony said with his hands out waving me back down.

  “What happened? Where am I?” I asked, looking around frantically. Having my life completely flash before me in one really messed up dream? Yeah. I was freaked out.

  “I picked you up in da boat, remembah?” he responded, sounding a little concerned. “Brought you back here to da house. Your clothes were all messed up. You been true it, mon.”

  “Dad?!” I asked, eyes wide, hoping for a miracle.

  “Dat’s a good question. Where is William?” he asked with a heavy emphasis on “is”.

  “I don’t know, but we gotta go find him, T!”

  “Okay, okay. One ting atta time. He waddn’t wit you when I picked you up. Whey in da bayou you leave him?” As he was questioning me, his sons, Shaun and Joe, came in to witness the commotion giggling and bumping each other fighting for a good position in the doorway.

  I rubbed my temples trying to squeeze memories back into my brain. “I have no clue, T. I know about where I came to, so that’s a good place to start.”

  “You don’t know whey you were at wit yo’ dah?” Joe asked.

  “I was along for the ride. I wasn’t paying attention.”

  “You gotta pay tension in da bayou, son. You get lost like dat.” Shaun graciously explained with an evil grin.

  “I know that now. Thanks!” I said. “Hey, you got some gym shorts I can borrow or something?”

  “Yah, I’ll getcha a payuh,” Shaun said and walked out.

  “You been workin’ out, cha?” Joe asked me.

  “What?”

  “Dat’s not impohtan right now, boy,” Tony admonished. “Go get him some grub and watah.”

  “Yes-sah.” Joe said, and he too turned to leave.

  “Okay, okay,” Tony started. “We know Willie knows the area real goot. He can take cayuh of himself fuh sure, now, no worries deyah. But we still need to get out deyah and see if we can get him and his boat back. I already called Sheriff Crochet. He gonna help wit a search pahty.”

  “Good. Thanks, T. I know you said not to worry, but I’m still worried. He might be hurt real bad.”

  “He might be, but worryin’ ain’t gonna do him no good now.”

  “You’re right. You’re right.” I said as Shaun came back in and threw a pair of black shorts and a t-shirt at me.

  “You can’t have none my undies,” he said, then laughed.

  “Good! No tellin’ what all's livin’ in ‘em.” I smarted back. “Have y’all seen my coon?”

  Joe came in with a water bottle and a bowl of something, and Starla followed on his heels. “You mean dis little fella?”

  “Girl. Her name’s Starla. Apparently, she cares more about the food then she does about me, though,” I said as I shimmied into the shorts under the blanket. Joe handed me the bowl and water. I chugged the whole bottle and asked for another one. That first spoon full of gumbo nourished my soul. Chicken and sausage gumbo with rice and a scoop of mustard potato salad on top warmed the heart and felt like home. I was ravenous and after that first spoonful, I practically breathed in the rest of the delicious meal.

  Starla sat at my feet staring at me as I ate, and of course, I obliged.

  Tony moved closer to the bed and opened up a satellite image of our portion of the basin on his laptop.

  “I picked you up, right cheeuh,” He pointed to a small peninsula.

  “Okay, then I…” I traced my finger up the water line, “followed this for several miles. Do you know where that old bus-house-boat is that washed up?”

  “Yeah,” he pointed. “Right about cheeuh.”

  “That’s where I spent the night.”

  Joe chimed in, “Dat ting’s locked up tightuh dan a nun’s…”

  “HEY! Language!” Tony interrupted.

  “I was able to get the door open.”

  “I guess wit all dem muscles, you just supermanned da hoe.” Shaun said, and both boys laughed.

  “Aight you choo. You’ve had your fun. Get on den and gecha boat ready.” Tony started ushering them out.

  As the screen door slammed behind them on a tight spring, I heard a distant, “Hey, Sheriff!” and then a knock on the door.

  “I’ll go let Crochet in,” Tony said as he turned and walked out.

  I didn't matter if I wanted to get anyone involved or not. These men and pretty much everyone that lived in Pierre Part knew the Atchafalaya better than anyone. They fished and hunted the swamp every day. While I agreed with Tony’s encouraging words about Dad knowing the swamp, I knew how I felt when I woke up. Dad out there, alone? Hurt? I wasn't too sure.

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  Crochet came in as I was pulling my borrowed shirt on. “A little tight deyah, huh?”

  “Yeah, I guess it’s a schmedium.”

  “You wanna tell me whas goin’ on?”

  I told him everything, running through the story as fast as I could skirting the details about magic. I don’t think he would believe me, and he might even arrest me on suspension for being nuts or something. I'll take a padded cell for one, please.

  “Ok. We need to get out ‘foe night drops, see if we can track down ya dad, yeah? He ain’t come back, so if he’s still breathin’, he might be hurt bad, real bad. I’m gonna get a couple EMT’s to ride along wit some of us. I’ll round up all da radios I can too.” He pointed at the map where I showed him the bus was, “A’ight. We gon’ meet up right heeyah, yeah? Den we split off down all da slews and lil cuts, y’know. Whatcha reckon, Tony-how many boats we can mustah?”

  “I tink we can round up about six or seben maybe eight.”

  “Ok. Dats a staht. I’mma call it in and get it on da six o’clock. You got a pic of Willie?”

  “Back at his place,” I said.

  “Hop in wit me. We’ll go git it.” Crochet said as he put his hat back on. “Danks for callin’ Tony. You did real good, huh.”

  “I’ll staht callin’ da boys,” Tony said, escorting us to the front door.

  Crochet and I started walking out. Shaking Tony’s hand, I couldn’t help thinking I should have told him about how crazy the animals were acting. I needed to remember to tell them before we headed out.

  I made a quick mental checklist of things I would need for the return trip: a good gun, tons of ammo, machete, hatchet, compass, water, food, and maps. I needed to call Murray too and ask him about some of this game system thing too.

  Tony only lived a few minutes from Dad’s house, so the ride was quick.

  One of the great things about these parts; no one locked their doors. Our screen door was closed, but the inside main door was wide open. Part of me jumped with a little hope that Dad had come home, but I remembered he left it open when we left yesterday morning. This time of the year it got hot, but Dad wouldn’t turn on the AC unless it was well over 90 degrees outside.

  Crochet and I went into the house, and I quickly selected a photo off the wall.

  “Mom and Dad took this picture a few months before she passed. It’s the most current photo I got of Dad,” I said, handing the framed photo to Crochet.

  “You ok if I keep this for a few houahs?” the sheriff asked holding the frame reverently.

  “Yeah. No problem.”

  “You need me to wait for ya?”

  “Nah, I’m good. Thanks. Hey, can you make sure everybody has firepower with them? Like enough guns and ammo?”

  “Ain’t no one goin’ out deyuh witout guns, son,” he said and then he tipped his hat and turned to leave. He opened the door then turned back and placed a large warm hand on my shoulder, “We gonna find him, Bart, we gonna find him.” He nodded then left.

  This small town only had around 3000 good hard-working country folks. Even though I didn’t grow up there, every time I came to visit, the whole town would throw a big block-party-cook-out-get-together-shindig. They would fry up fish and frog legs, and if the season was right, they would boil up some crawfish.

  Dad was so old-fashioned, he actually had a phone book and a landline kitchen phone. I looked up the Murray house and gave the number a dial.

  “Yo! If you sellin’ somethin, I’mma hang up!” Murray answered the phone, not sure who it was.

  “Murray, this is Bart, don’t hang up.”

  “Sup, Bart!” he bellowed.

  “Sup. You still do that LARP thing?”

  “Bruh,” he sounded disgusted, “nah I don’t do dat, bruh! It’s tabletop RPG!” He laughed.

  “Whatever, that’s not important. You still play though, right?”

  “Hell, yeah it’s important, LARPers are weird as hell.” He laughed again. His contagious laughter always got me smiling.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend, brother. I just need some info on stats and stuff.”

  “I got you; I got you! You starting to play now?”

  “No. I mean. Not really. I started a…” I should've planned this call out before I called. He was either going to think I was making fun of him or maybe on shrooms. “…it’s a new game. Not released yet,” I said as the idea sort of popped into my head.

  “Really!? Cool! How’d you get your hands on dat?! Can I play?”

  “It’s still a…a secret. I’m sorry. I’m…uh…testing it for a friend.”

  “Why in the world did your friend choose you?”

  “Right!? That’s what I’m saying. Maybe he wanted a fresh opinion. Look, this is pretty important to me…my friend…that I get him some information on the game ASAP. Can you help me?”

  “Shoot. Whachu got?”

  “Okay. I chose my character, but I’m not sure what all the stats mean. Like, I understand strength and dexterity, but I’m not sure about the rest.”

  “Staht by telling me about da charactuh you chose.”

  “I chose a…uh…a hero. Um…from what I remember, I have…damn…I’m forgetting…what were my stats?” As if on command, my stat banner popped into my view. “Oh yeah…that’s right. I have brute strength and willpower. I have a 10% chance of recovering useful items from a kill,” I rattled off the rest of the details for him. “It looks like my weakness is constitution, but I don’t know what that is.”

  “DUDE!” he shouted at me. “You a beast, but you need to get dat constitution up!”

  “What is it?”

  “Constitution is like your health management. You have a health bah?”

  “Yeah. I have a red, green, and a blue bar I can see.”

  “Ok. Dat red is your health, the green should be your stamina, and the blue bah is your mana or your magic. Most games call da energy you need to perform magic, mana. Dat health bah will go down when you get hit, the green will go down when you fight or run, and da blue will go down when you use magic spells. That check so fah, bruh?”

  “Right on point.”

  “Ok. Constitution is how many points go into dat red bah and how fast it fills back up if you take damage. Endurance is for da stamina bah, and wisdom should be for the magic bah. Most games you staht at a base level. I’m guessing for yours it’s like prolly…ten points. So, like for strength your twice as strong as a normal person. Which is great! But! When you get hit, it takes a LOT longeh to heal! In some games, you may not even be able to heal if you below normal level.”

  “When I leveled up, I put all three points they gave me into constitution. It was at a five.”

  “Why’d you pick dat character, bro!” I could almost hear him shaking his head. “Whateveh, what else you need?”

  “What is charisma and intelligence?”

  “You really DON’T know anything,” he laughed. “Charisma is your ability to talk ta people or enemies. Like, your description says, you can convince people ta follow you. It’s a good one to level up, but CONSTITUTION first,” he laughed again. “Intelligence is how easily you learn things and get better at things you already know…usually. So, in real life, you would be a negative ten!”

  “Boy! That’s not funny!” I said, but a laughed slipped out anyway.

  “I’m just messing wit you,” he said through laughs. “I would think if you raise intelligence, you’d have a betteh chance of learning skills and learning spells. In some games, it also determines how many points you get when you level up. You said you got three right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Raising your intelligence to…say…15…might bump that number up to five or so? Maybe. Only way to know for sure is to play. You sure I can’t just play?”

  “I’m sure! Hey, I gotta go. We’re going back out this evening to see if I can find Dad.”

  I realized right before I hung the ancient phone up, I hadn’t told him my dad was missing or anything that I had actually been through so far.