The Canadian Civil War: Volume 4 - Mississippi Beast

Chapter 36 –

  Time to go

  Late that afternoon I got a call from Elise. She and Gustav were going to pick me up. The Jouberts had invited us over for a quick visit. I can't say I was looking forward to this, and I had just seen them a few nights earlier, but it made sense to have one more meeting before we left town. We were never going to be friends, but I understood the need to at least reduce the number of enemies the government had.

  As it turned out, I was totally unprepared for how the meeting went. For one thing, it was not really a meeting as much as it was a conversation and demonstration. Gustav picked me up and then we drove to a strip mall on the outskirts of town. It was pretty clear which had been the Joubert shoe store; it was the hole in the mall. Stores on each side of it had suffered smoke and water damage, but at least still looked like stores. The shoe store was just a blackened area. Whatever accelerant the FLA had used, it was pretty effective. Nothing remained inside the two side walls.

  The more interesting view though, was what was in front of the store. There, with a car parked up on the sidewalk, were the two Jouberts, some shelving, and a big sign that said "SideWalk Sale." And it looked like the sale was doing pretty well. At least a dozen people stood around, looking at the shelves or talking to the Jouberts. Philippe had one of the car doors open, and he was pulling shoes from inside while his wife helped a lady try on a pair of shoes while leaning back against the side of the car. It looked like an approach that shouldn't have any chance of working, but somehow, people were willing to put up with the inconvenience and odd presentation of inventory.

  Once Gustav was parked, Elise and I walked over and stood at the fringe of the customers. That didn't last long. As soon as Marguerite was finished with her customer, she called us both over.

  "Thank you for coming. We have been hoping you would stop by. We have a gift for each of you." She stepped over to the back of the car and pulled a gift wrapped box out of the trunk for each of us. "We know you have to get back to Green Bay, and we wanted you to have these as a way of remembering us."

  I thought Elise was going to break down and cry. "You don't have to do anything for us. We should be helping you. You have lost so much."

  "We are just fine. Insurance will cover most of what we lost. In the meantime, we can go back to how we started. This is I how I met Philippe. He was selling athletic shoes out of his trunk at a college track meet. I was a hurdler, believe it or not. And he was this handsome young man who stood and talked to me forever. I bought a pair of shoes from him at every meet. By the end of the season we were dating. Before track season started the next year, we were married. We sold shoes out of his car for three years before we opened our first store. This time I expect us to have another store before the weather turns. But go ahead and open your presents." We did. I thought maybe running shoes, or boots. But both were patent leather and beautiful.

  "I heard you were to be married soon, and I thought you might wear these when you dance that night." Now Elise did cry, and she and Marguerite had a long hug.

  "These are so beautiful. But you didn't need to do this."

  "Yes, we did. Remember us when you wear them. Remember you have friends here. And we will remember to be careful who we judge. We trusted a man because he said he shared our religion. We were wrong. We should have trusted you." She said that to me. I hug about one person per decade, but I hugged her.

  "Thank you. We will remember you every time we dance." At that point we started backing away, letting the two of them get back to their customers. And I have to say, as they stood out on that sidewalk, they looked happy. It is an image I will never forget.

  Our next stop was the hilltop park. We weren't really sure it was there any more, but we wanted to look anyway. Gustav found a route over there. I can't say it was a very pleasant drive. The last few blocks were especially blighted by the flood. There were still a few houses that had cars turned upside down on their lawn, and trees collapsed on rooftops. But there were people about. Repairs were underway. Mounds of ruined furniture had been brought out to the curb for disposal, and while the piles of couches and tables made the scene look even worse, it was part of the clean up process -- a sign of renewal.

  As for our park, there was not much left. Gustav drove completely around it looking for any pathway up. It turned out there was part of a street left and a broken path on the northeast corner. We left Gustav and the car at the bottom of the hill, and Elise and I climbed up the best we could. It turned out we weren't the first ones to climb up, and in fact we weren't alone when we got up there. The park was probably one quarter the size it had been before the flood, but what remained looked in pretty good shape. There were maybe two dozen people up there getting a view of the area. And, believe it or not, while every other structure had fallen over in the flood, the concession stand was still there. And manning the stand was our very own Paul.

  I had to ask if he had gotten paid overtime for his night at the stand. Yes, and the manager had not even said anything about the wine that had gone missing. But the stand had been closed for most of the last two weeks, so his summer income was down. I asked what his friends thought about him spending the night up on the hill while the flood tore the hill away. Apparently they all thought it must have been lots of fun. He was lots more popular at parties now, since he had stories to tell.

  I bought two wines in plastic cups, and then Elise and I went to take a look around. We stayed away from the edges of the hilltop -- they were still not stable. But we got a good view off to the west as the sun went down. We could see where the levee had broken through. Now the entire length was covered with concrete. Huge repair barges stood at the base of the bridges that had collapsed. We were too far away to see any work, but we assumed they were there to begin repouring footings. The main channel had been cleared and boat traffic was headed in both directions. Could the big barges slide through the openings left? Probably, but we didn't see any use the river while we were up there.

  It was fun to take another look at our hilltop refuge, but we didn't stay too long. I have to admit to feeling a little nervous about being up there again, and Elise seemed very happy to leave again too. We had survived the night up there, and Elise's reports from there might even have done some good in the early hours of the flood. But what we had seen around us had not been pleasant. We stopped back at the refreshment stand to shake Paul's hand and say good by, but then we were done with the hill.

  That was pretty much our final evening. We went back to the school. We needed to pack, and Elise had her own good byes to make. We spent a couple hours in the cafeteria with a steady stream of people dropping in to talk with Elise. Some would be leaving soon too. Others would be staying through the complete rebuilding effort. They might be in Kaskaskia for another year. Efforts were underway to find more permanent -- and more comfortable -- housing for them. There were lots of hugs and lots of promises to keep in touch. Finally it all wound down and we spent our last night sleeping on cots.

  The next morning Gustav helped us with our bags. I took my knapsack back to the sergeant who had given it to me. I offered to pay for the ammunition I had used, but he said that was impossible. Since I had never had a government issued weapon, I could not possibly have expended any government issued ammunition. Fair enough. I thanked him for the water and food, and left him to do whatever sergeants do whenever they are not helping neophytes.

  Gustav seemed to be in a particularly good mood. I thought maybe he just wanted to get back to Green Bay, but it turned out he was anxious about getting us to a visit with Jean and Gabrielle and the surprise the three of them had for us. The Jolliet family had another house on the northern outskirts of Kaskaskia. At one time it must have been a farm house, but it had been surrounded by urban sprawl for decades. Jean and Gabrielle were clearly excited about living there and gave us a quick tour and history of the house. It was nearl
y two hundred years old and had been one of the main Jolliet farms back in the day. The house had been added on to half a dozen times and remodeled many times more, with changes Jean pointed out in every room.

  It did have a certain charm, but I couldn't help feel the loss of the house on the island. I don't have much of a poker face, so I am sure they knew of my disappointment, which of course made their surprise even more enjoyable. They waited until they got to the last room -- the dining room. The room reminded me of the mansion in many ways, including all the wooden paneling. I wondered if it too came off old boats. What was especially striking was one of the sideboards that looked exactly like one that had been in the mansion. And of course, that was the surprise. Somehow they had managed to squeeze this sideboard into the trunk of the car. It was the remnant of the mansion, the piece of history carried on from one century to the next, from one building to the next. Jean struggled with the old drawers of the piece, they barely fit and certainly had not been fitted to the precision of modern furniture, but once yanked open, I could see they had been filled with papers and pictures. That so much had survived was nothing short of a miracle. I hugged both of them and told them I would be back one day to study the papers they had salvaged. At that point I got my real surprise. They had already carefully taken a picture of every document, and it was stored on a memory stick they now handed me. You give a history professor copies of ancient documents, and you have made a man very happy. I was ecstatic. I hugged them all over again, me the guy who never hugs anyone.

  While I held the memory drive in my hand, and frankly felt like a little kid at Christmas, Elise took on the role of an adult, and asked them about how they were getting on, what they might need, could she help in any way. You know, she acted responsibly while I mentally danced around the room. But they were fine -- proud of themselves for what they had saved, and happy to be in yet another Jolliet home, given the responsibility to care for an important part of their nation's history.

  We took some pictures of them and of the house, and promised we would write. And then we were off, headed north. We had received no updates on our house, so we didn't even know if we had a home to go back to, but we were glad to be going back to friends and family in Green Bay. I can't say I ever want another vacation like the one we had in Kaskaskia, but it did have its moments. We had made some friends and done some good. All in all, a pretty good way to spend three weeks.