“Then, there was coming home... I had neighbors who had managed to get out before it hit. Cops were trying, trying hard. But there was nonstop looting, not that people cared all that much about things when lives were concerned.” Jeremy paused. “Some of us had radios. Radios were the best way to communicate as satellites were not working all that great. Anyway, one night, Lou came with me to try to find my friend, Max, down in the French Quarter. Flooding was never that bad there. Guess the Frenchmen who came in to settle the place did find the highest ground. Anyway, Max had a place back then off Esplanade on Royal Street. He got through to me ’cause some weird group had cracked, and they were catching animals that were half-dead and trying to slice them up to eat. I mean, it was bad. You know your father...knew him, that is. I’m so sorry. He got food. He brought it on down there to give to the people, but there was some whacked-out guy there trying to slice up a llama—yeah, a llama. Got loose from one of the farm or stable areas up on the other side of Treme. Your dad had to force him off the llama, gave him one to the jaw to get him to stop and listen and take a sandwich. People went wild after that storm. Crazy. You couldn’t blame folks who were starving. Oh, yeah, your dad had me find some cops that night. We got the guy who wanted to slice up the llama and some others with him to get to the arena. Hope they got that fellow medical attention.”

Dan looked at Katie.

Katie looked at him.

“Jeremy, do you remember anything about this man?”

“In particular?” he asked. “During that time? Katie, I saw that man on the roof ready to die, if he could only get those kids out of that flooding house. I saw folks screaming and crying that they would rather die than leave their pets. And cops who figured just get the animals in the boats, too, and we’ll just keep moving as fast as we can. I saw people who were so heroic it could make you shiver with amazement at the human spirit. And I saw people killing animals, breaking windows, stealing anything that wasn’t nailed down. That one guy, though... I guess the storm did something to him. You know the worst of it? I think he was ticked off your dad made the others around him realize they didn’t need to go catching pathetic strays in the street to kill for food. He didn’t like it that the people around him preferred the arena and handouts to killing in the street.”

Katie looked at Dan. “I don’t know... We’re grasping at straws here, aren’t we?” she asked weakly.

“What are you talking about?” Jeremy demanded.