Boss City Bound

     When my family evacuated, we went to Shreveport-Bossier, Louisiana. About 7 hours North of New Orleans. I really didn’t mind being there, in fact i actually liked it. No, it wasn’t home, but at that time it hadn’t really clicked that i was never going back home anyway.. The first night there was pretty antsy. I didn’t really know what was going on. I just tried to stay out of everyone’s way. We checked into a Holiday Inn. It was under renovations, so the pool was closed.. On “Vacation” and we were already confined to a hotel room. My dad was watching the news, staying updated on the course of the Hurricane. He did that all night. Even though it was a big deal i still didn’t fully understand the severity of the situation, not yet. Day by day i slowly became quite clear on the issue.

     The next day, my mom’s job changed our hotel. So we moved into a casino called, “The Hollywood.” Which is now, “The El Dorado.” This is where i got the first kick of reality.. It was a nice elaborate casino, decorated with characters and props from older movies. There was an old school type diner inside fully equipped with a jukebox. Early that morning we were in the hotel, along with several other people, checking in. Everyone was kind of rushing around, trying to get things done.  I remember a lot of small details about this day, like wanting to go all the way to the top floor while we waited, but the doorman wouldn’t let me because we weren’t residents of the hotel just yet.  I remember the hotel being right across the street from a Hooters, too. In the midst of waiting My sister, Brandy, got a phone call from her mother, Peggy, who lived in Poplarville, Mississippi, with her husband, and my brother, Jerel. Her Mom told her that Jerel was insisting on going down the the coast for some unknown reason. That was the first time it set in how bad things were about to get. I remember how hard my stomach dropped when she told my dad what was going on. I was shaking, so terrified. I know how stubborn and closed minded my brother is.. Can’t tell him nothing. He had his mind set and that was pretty much a done deal. I was on the verge of tears, I didn’t want anything to happen to him. And i don’t know what i would have done if it had. I hated that feeling, that not knowing how things were going to turn out. It was stressful and heart breaking. I watched my dad go outside the glass Casino doors. I watched his body language. I watched how tense he was. I watched as he rubbed his head, the way he always did when he was stressed or nervous. I heard the muffled sounds of his voice coming through the doors. The call between them ended and he stood outside for a while before he came back inside. I didn’t know what to think.. No one did. He came in and told us everything would be fine. See, My was a cop back in the day so he knew all the cops in the area. He ended up telling my brother that he would personally have him arrested if he tried to go to the coast. Jerel isn’t too fond of cops, my dad knew this, so he never went.. Thank God. The area he was trying to go to was hit severely. That Close call of a situation rippled the water under the boat my family was in, but even still this wasn’t the worst part..