The old man came out his back door and down the seven steep steps and then on down eight more even steeper than the first ones to the street … He was thinking of Thelma … She worked in House 47 less than a quarter mile up the Gulch from where the steps he took down from Opera came out … you know the ones … they’re all disjointed and come out onto Walsh Avenue there by the parking lot at the corner of Walsh and the Gulch …
He walked up Brewery toward the red-light district looking for familiar places … there was a parking lot where the Acme Bar should be at the base of Youngblood Hill … and then on around and up past the Mimosa Market to where he knew Thelma had her crib … only it wasn’t there … there were only steps up to … nothing …
House 47 was/should be/was right there … five small cribs each with steps up from the street and at one end Miss Josie’s two room apartment … elegant it was … and Miss Josie kept a good house …
The old man looked around and cried … Where are they? … Where am I?
She came down in the golf cart that they used to get up and down Opera Drive and picked him up and took him home.
Forever Bisbee 