Steven

Something else happened the weekend I drove into New Orleans, but I was not prepared to write about until now:

I decided to go back to Lucy's, the bar and restaurant where I worked for a year and a half before evacuating. Truthfully, I was going to see if someone could direct me to my final and outstanding paycheque. Once again, I found myself stepping into the past. This time, however, things were not how I had left them. The restaurant was bare and only contained a handful of customers which, for twelve noon was abnormal. I didn't recognize the three new staff members or the new manager, but when I looked in the kitchen window, I saw a familiar face.

Steven was a bus boy at Lucy's for almost the entire time that I worked there. We were on the company kick ball team together. We even had the chance to play some poker both at work and at my house. Steven left Lucy's to pursue a carpentry career a few months earlier. He's a great guy and I always looked forward to his occasional visits. I was surprised to see him in the kitchen.

I swung open the door and realized that Steven was alone in the kitchen. It turned out that he was the only kitchen employee left. He was acting as a manager, cook and dishwasher all in one. We had a great time catching up. It was nice to see someone I knew. Just the same, I felt like something wasn't right. I asked him how his house faired during the storm. He gave me a little smile and said, "So you didn't hear what happend to me".

It turned out that Steven and his girlfriend Courtney decided to ride out the storm in her house just east of New Orleans. When the waters began to rise, the two of them had to climb out onto her roof like so many others I saw on tv. They spent 8 hours on the roof before they were rescued and taken to a church nearby. The next day they were dropped off literally in the middle of an intersection with 200 other people where they had to spend the night. They were relieved to be picked up the next day and taken to shelter. Unfortunately, the "shelter" was the Convention Center. These sweet kids in their early twenties spent three days watching people starve, dehydrate, loot and fight without any way to contact friends or family. A week and a half after the storm, they were taken to the Astrodome, where Courtney's sister, who lives in Austin, came to pick them up.

Steven had been working at Lucy's from open to close for weeks without a day off because his school was closed and he wanted to keep busy.

I mention this story for three reasons:

1. It still amazes me that I knew anyone who was directly involved in that whole mess at the Convention Center while I sat in comfort in Baton Rouge and watched the horror on CNN.

2. I will now debate anyone who claims that "those people" who did not evacuate did so because of a lack of education; Steven is an intelligent guy who simply lived in New Orleans for over 20 years and didn't believe that he was in any real danger.

3. I have no intention of joining the military, nor have I ever lived in a dangerous country, so this was the only situation I have come across in my life where I saw the innocence drain out of a boy's eyes and I felt it deserved attention. I was no longer looking at a child - he had seen things I cannot imagine. I am sorry that he had that experience and I am especially sorry that there is no way to reverse the effects.