I pulled into a place just outside Waco. Billys was the name hanging from the old sign post. Parking lot was empty except for some ancient pickups and a yellow beetle.

The Bartender was a bit scrawny. He wore a white cowboy hat and a gold chain hinging round his neck. wearing a Eagle jersey with the number 92, White stitched on the back.

“You Billy?

“Bob Gibbons, son of Billy. Dad has been dead going on twenty years. Friends call me Billy Bob. Name has followed me around since grade school.”

“That your yellow bug out front?”

“I wouldn’t be seen driving one of those little foreign cars. That yeller one would be Liz’s. Don’t be getting close. She more than likely take your head off. Mean like a rattlesnake.”

“Don’t they hang Eagles fans in Texas?’

“You’d be surprised how many Cowboys fans show up here to watch Sunday football. I’ve been called every name in the book but all in all they are my friends. Had to add on an extra room and the grill became a kitchen. Lucky man to have met Donna Lu. She can cook up a storm. Ain’t no waste in her kitchen.”

“How long you owned the joint?”

“Well like I said Pa died twenty years ago. We struggled taking over. Pa didn't care about the condition of the building and his aging customers were slowly dying away. I noticed Cowboy fans seemed to like a bit of banter when I wore my Eagles gear. You didn’t notice the Eagles flag flying over my roof?”

“No sir, No sir.”

“I went to work nights, loading and unloading trucks for Stan Literski. Hell of a nice guy. Paid well, worked hard. Put the money into the bar.” He handed me my drink.

I walked over to the jukebox. It was filled with old country music. Sad songs about life gone wrong. Pushed some song called Ebdas Lament. Let your hair down girl could be heard coming out of the speakers.

I sat a couple seats down from her, nodded my head. “Texas, sure is hot.”

“You ain’t hitting on me son are you? Last man I had to shoot. Self defense. I had warned him and Billy Bob and all the regulars vouched for me.”

I heard Billy Bob from the other end of the bar, “Be honest Lizzy. You had threatened us all with a hex from your prison cell. I sure wasn’t going to stand up to your wrath.”

I chuckled.

“The demons in that whiskey drinking will get you? Pretty soon you’ll start seeing things that ain’t there,” she said.

“How’d you know?”

“A gift from the great spirit.” Her nose was long, her hair scraggly and she had a big wart at the tip. “I got a bit of the Haitian blood in me. The spirits, Ti bon ange wander this earth. Certainly you feel them. You gotta prepare for the journey to the dead or your spirit will stay.”

I wasn’t sure about Billy Bob and her being mean. I was thinking crazy, flat out crazy.

“Not everybody can practice the Vodoo. It comes from the inside.”

“How’d you find your way to Nowhere, Texas?

“It was the 60’s. Free love and acid and marijuana but it was hot and miserable in New Orleans. Headed to California. Only got this far before I ran out of money. Bobby Bills dad Billy hired me to clean up, serve customers, tend bar. I think I became the daughter he never had. Sweet, sweet man.”

“He had a little bit of land out there near the river. He sold me part of it and I started raising chickens and snakes. Chickens gave me sustenance and those Southern preachers bought my snakes.”

’How come Billy Bob says you are mean?”

“Me and Billy Bob are more like Brother and Sister. We took a liking to each other and argue like cats and dogs. We are only a few years apart in age so it was natural. So happy he came across Donna Lu. Other wise he’s be just like those other two drunks at the end of the bar.”

He started laughing. “Mean as a rattlesnake, I told you. You certainly don’t think you are going to change her now do you?”

“No, no. She is as she is. I best hit the road got miles to go before the sun sets.”

“It was nice meeting you,’ extending her hand. “Liz Rourke. By the way, if you run into McAndrew again tell him I say hello.”

“Sure enough, sure enough. Billy Bob, you got yourself a nice bar. We’ll be seeing you.”

Those were some of the nicest people in Texas that I’d met. I pulled out of the parking lot and looked for the first road west.