And half the people were in some state of undress already.

The money came from the buildings they had seized during the uprising: banks, federal buildings, corporate offices. The gems came from the jewelry stores. The catch was, the money had no independent value there, in a community where most property was shared—or at least that was what they said the deal was. So throwing wads of cash to the mob for the new New Orleanians was just pure Dionysian play.

Bacchus liked to run up his credit card, and then walk the bill.

For Donny, however, the money was very real. And if he hustled, he might even get enough to get Thelen off his back for a while.

That’s how he found himself chasing after a twenty-five-foot-high white heron, an insanely beautiful thing that looked to have been made from real feathers. Riding up at the top of its long neck was a beautiful brown girl with storybook long hair, naked but for the golden bling that adorned her bosom and arms, smiling and tossing hundred-dollar bills a little boy in a toga was handing her from a big saddlebag that sat between the wings. Donny was convinced the heron was alive, and that if he called out the right words both it and the girl would see him and want to give him a ride. But then he stumbled in the crowd and found himself on the ground, pulling bills from the scrubby turf and stuffing them in his already-full pants pockets.

He had already drunk the Kool-Aid back at the hotel, and also devoured the fungi the front desk clerk had hooked him up with, an offer Marianne wisely declined, but one that Donny was glad he had accepted. The best remedy for failure was self-medication, and the prescriptions they had on offer here were like nothing he had ever sampled.

He got up, and saw himself in the window glass of an old storefront. Shirtless and loco, tribally colored, silk necktie repurposed as Zorro mask, insane grin on his face, money falling out of his pants.

“Show me your dick!” yelled some female-sounding voice, and Donny, being a guy, assumed they were talking to him. But when he turned he just saw some bearish-looking dude with a ring in his nose, a big beard, a lethal-looking codpiece, and even less on than Donny. The guy grabbed Donny and gave him an aggressive French kiss, and then walked on.

Kim grabbed him, and kissed him even harder.