Page 42 of Passion’s Song

“Yes, I do. I remember when a bunch of the kids from school tried to convince you to give them free stuff from the store. You refused.”

He shrugged as if the way he’d stood up to their classmates all those years ago was no big deal, but April remembered what peer pressure felt like. Heck, she saw it every day at A Fresh Start. The technology may be different, but the problems and pressures the kids faced today were the same as what she and Damien faced back when they were in school.

“That took a lot of guts,” April said. “A lot of kids would have caved under that pressure, but you did the right thing.”

“You were a big reason for that, you know?”

“For what?”

“For me wanting to do the right thing, to be a better person. There came a point where the thought of disappointing you made me feel worse than just about anything else.” He looked down at the half-eaten cinnamon roll, then back up at her. “But it looks as if I failed after all. I’d say you were pretty disappointed in me last night.”

April’s chest tightened.

“Try to see things from my side,” she said.

“Wait a minute.” He held up a finger. “Why don’t you try to see them from mine, first,” he said.

He pulled out his cell phone and brought up a computerized rendition of a seven-story building. The two bottom floors featured large glass windows that stretched from floor to ceiling. The remainder of the building was done in a dusty, reddish-brown brick.

“This is the building?” April asked, staring at the screen.

He nodded.

It was gorgeous, but it didn’t belong in the Lower Ninth Ward. The building would stick out like a sore thumb. She looked up at him with a sad smile.

“You don’t like it,” Damien said. He blew out a frustrated breath. “Come on, April. How can you look at this and not see how great it would be for the community?”

“Damien, I just... I mean, look around,” she said, stretching her arms out to encompass the area. “Can you really look at these houses and mom-and-pop shops and think that a building of that magnitude fits?”

“It’s a vision for the future of what this neighborhood could be.”

“And just what is that, Damien? These high-end shops that the people here can’t afford to shop in? A slew of implants moving in from all over the country, jogging down the sidewalks and along the riverbank in their high-priced exercise gear and three-hundred-dollar earbuds in their ears? How can you look at this neighborhood and think any of those things would ever fit?”

She reached across the table again and caught him by his forearm.

“Instead of trying to change it, why don’t you help make what’s already here better? There is so much good happening these days, Damien. From Musician’s Village to the Ninth Ward Community Garden—there are amazing rebuilding projects happening all over this area. And those projects could be even more amazing if more people invested in them.”

“April, I hate to break this to you, but you’re not going to get investors to put money into this neighborhood as it is right now.”

“Not outsiders,” she said. “That’s why people from the neighborhood—people like you—need to step up and do it.”

She sipped the last of her coffee and stood. “Come on. It’s time for you to see more of what’s going on.”

They meandered past colorfully painted shotgun houses, all with well-kept lawns and several with residents either sitting on the front stoops or working in flower gardens. April waved as they walked by. She didn’t know them by name, but their smiling faces were a part of what made this community home.

She and Damien arrived at the entrance to the Ninth Ward Community Gardens. The small garden was filled with people bustling along the rows of freshly tilled earth. April spotted one of the directors, Jodi Martin, standing next to a row of tomato vines.

She walked over to her.

“How’s it going, Jodi?” April called.

“Well, look who finally made it back here.” Jodi greeted her with a hug. The fiftysomething then used her teeth to pull off the dusty gardening gloves covering her hands. “Haven’t seen you around here in a couple of Saturdays.”

“That’s because we’ve kicked off the summer program at A Fresh Start,” April said.

“Oh, that’s right. How is your little garden going over there?”

“It’s still in its infancy stages, but the kids are diligent about its upkeep. Thanks again for the seedlings.” April turned to Damien. “The little garden that’s just outside the coffee shop at A Fresh Start? It was Jodi’s idea.”