The following Wednesday Marco saw the idol dissolving in and out of his dream, the one where he usually sat on the kitchen counter waiting for everybody else to get back from the party. It was a blue box with a white-and-silver logo. Below that it said ROBUST in all capital letters. As his roommates —Margo, Hedda, and Colin—came in the door he started handing them cans that had the same logo. After they came in the New Orleans Saints’ D-line went marching by, and he handed each of the burly footballers two cans. Then the rest of New Orleans walked into their apartment, on the second floor of a triple-decker, and everybody (except one pregnant woman) was drinking. When evacuees started returning from Houston he worried about whether the
30-rack would run out, but it never did. At the end a zydeco brass band made everybody dance, except the brass instruments were made out of recycled aluminum.
