"I'll go next time even if I have to break a date."
Le Claire glanced at his watch. He stood up from the table and went to the sink. Turning on the faucet he rinsed his cup and watched the water run down the drain, to lose itself in the chrome hole. A part of him was slipping away, like water down the dark hole, and he wondered how he could regain it. Looking at Gaylord, he said, "Remember, we're going to New Orleans this week-end so don't make any plans."
"I won't, Dad … I'm looking forward to it. I don't remember too much about it but I do remember it sure is full of interesting buildings … I just love New Orleans."
"I had a big time there when I was about your age … Me and a fellow stayed there over night … We sure had a time …" He grinned remembering … "Wonder what ever happened to Travis."
"Dad!"
"Yeah?"
"Can I take a friend along?"
"A friend? Why … er …"
Had he said something he shouldn't? Had another magic circle been broken? Why did his father look at him like that? He had to go on … "I just thought I'd ask Bob Blake to go with us." He didn't want to go to New Orleans alone, didn't his father realize that … Didn't he know he could have so much more fun with Blake than he could tagging along with his parents? They didn't like what he liked … Just like going to the oil field, why his father was in paradise on a rig floor … Gaylord was in hell … He knew, he had been there before. Sitting for hours in a hot car, waiting, walking through slush and mud that surrounded every oil derrick. It had been thrilling for him that first two or three times; thrilling to watch all that went on around the skeleton tower of steel; the men in their dirty overalls, their large muscles under the mud scarred flesh; the whistling of the steam as it was released through the main valves that held it captive; and the singing as it whirled itself up to the sky for freedom; the loud clanging of the endless swinging iron pipes that were clustered in a corner of the steel encasement. It had been thrilling.
He had thought of Egyptian slaves with chains around their legs
