How To Get To The House Bo-Bo Lives In
Here is a short non-fiction story I wrote reflecting on one of the fix-it projects that are part of the work the People of Praise in Allendale, Louisiana.
By TJ Ryan
If you follow I-49 at night, you will wind around the bright lights provided by the riverboat casinos, which makes up most of Shreveport Louisiana. But as you continue, the lights abruptly end. As the side streets begin, you see the neighborhood commonly known as Allendale. You see small hair salons with names like, “Sassy Sistaz,” small B-B-Que joints with great deals on forties, or the local check cashing banks.
Then turning on Yale St. you’ll see small houses all built next to each other stretching back into the darkness. They call them shotguns because you could shot a gun through the front door and the bullet would go out the back without hitting anything but a couple doors. Some will be boarded up, some occupied, which will be apparent by the car sitting outside the house most likely worth more than the shaky box behind it. You’ll see tagless dogs are fighting over the chicken bones in plastic garbage cans.
After you pass Gary St., pull over on the side of the crumbled asphalt and you’ll have reached the house Bo-Bo lives in. Look for the broken bike that almost becomes one with the earth and a car that once worked. You’ll see a few scattered Keystone Ice 24 oz. cans along the grown over walkway. As you reach the broken screen door, you’ll see an extension cord coming under it slithering across the road to the neighboring house, and a broken stereo sitting on a folding chair. Knock on the side of the house or just yell in. There is no screen doorknob or door behind it for that matter, so peek your head in and then walk in. Bo-Bo will notice you’ve arrived sooner or later. (Read the article)
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