We ride through the Lower Ninth Ward early on New Year’s Eve, along the real streets portrayed in Reesie Boone’s story. Her world is based on the facts of this world, one of the many New Orleans neighborhoods swallowed up by floodwaters during Hurricane Katrina back in 2005.
As this novel ends, Reesie sees and experiences some new beginnings in her life, yet much is left unfinished.
This is the truth of the Ninth Ward even today. On my aunt’s street, some houses remain boarded up and some lots are empty because the houses were so damaged they had to be torn down. But many homes have been rebuilt. Sun bounces off new windows. Newness feels like it’s everywhere inside my aunt’s renovated house: walls, cabinets, appliances, towels, and even dishes have been replaced.
After our visit, my aunt walks us out to the front porch. Children wave to her and shout to each other as they ride the shiny new bikes they got for Christmas. As we drive away, the pavement seems rough and hard for the car to navigate, but we keep going.
I wonder if the families who made this community come alive again have had the same journey. Some, like the fictional Boone family, have returned and worked for years to rebuild their homes and their lives here. It’s been rough. It’s been hard. Their lives are not exactly the same, but they keep going.
Ten years ago, New Orleans—and the Ninth Ward—was someplace lost. Like Reesie Boone, it seems this city has discovered where its true strength lies: not in its beautiful buildings, or its great music and food, or even in its ability to come back from such a disaster, but in the people who love it.
—DLP