Out with the old, in with the LaLa
Fairview, a mansion at the end of the block, on the same side of the bayou as me, near the corner of Dumaine, has been sitting fallow for sometime and after Katrina looked decripit but interesting. Built in the same West Indies style as the other wide veranda mansions around the bayou, Fairview sat low on its lot, almost mocking its name, and on the front porch sat an old black and white television.
The yard around the house has been overgrown and the fence has tilted inward. A separate building’s roof had caved in on itself and ivy had climbed all over and around it.
While I was gone – on my travels – the house disappeared – the lot got scraped clean – and Fairview is no longer haunting that corner of Moss and Dumaine. They (?) will erect a new house there – one that looks like a new old house, the kind that have been being built along the bayou – maybe one day we will be glad the vocabulary was preserved or maybe not – maybe the LaLa with its modern update will stand as an anomaly along the bayou – sticking out from its neighbors as intentional and different.
Again, a friend called from New York and said he has to come see me, but in particular he wants to see my house, as another friend told him – this house is definitely “Rachel” and he would realize that the moment he saw it.
I take some comfort in that – this house does feel every inch like me – today with a hint of fall in the air – albeit temps still in the upper 80s – I took a shower in the outdoor shower and washed my hair and over my speakers, my IPOD played Knocking on Heaven’s Door, and I was happy as a clam – a happy clam in this shell made for me.
