Gator Aide by Jessica Speart Read Free Book Online

at the back of the house.
    “Reginald, bring out two more!”
    Resentful of the chore, the boy glared in my direction before sauntering back to the house.
    “Where you from?” Marie hoisted one leg on the woodpile, allowing me an unwanted view up her dress.
    “I’m from New York.”
    “You got drugs up there?”
    I chuckled at the thought as Reginald dropped a beer in my lap.
    But Marie didn’t wait for an answer. “Well, where the hell you think that stuff comes in from?”
    I relied on Hollywood for my information on this subject. “The south coast of Florida has always seemed the logical place to me.”
    “Shit, no. The smart ones bring it in through here. Who the hell’s gonna tramp across some swamp to find ’em? Of course Valerie was snortin’ and doin’ every other damn thing. Hell, it’s easier to get that shit back here than it is to catch gators.”
    Reginald bent down next to Marie’s foot, intent on grabbing another spider that had carelessly crossed his path. But before he could reach it, Marie grabbed the boy by the ear and pulled him toward her, slapping him hard across the face as he let out a howl. He scowled at her in silence.
    “You don’t know much now, do you, Miss Fish and Wildlife? Well, I’m gonna make you just a little bit smarter.” Finishing the second beer, she rammed the bottle down on a passing bug. “Valerie had a boyfriend, all right. You ever hear of a fella by the name of Hillard Williams?”
    Scanning my memory, I recalled seeing posters around town. His name was being touted for a hotly contested political race against the incumbent Democratic mayor, who had failed to pull the city out of its economic slump. Williams was basing his campaign on the politics of discontent, pumping up both blue-collar anger and middle-class fear by hitting on violent crime, a skyrocketing murder rate, the rocketing increase in AIDS, and an influx of illegal immigrants. Calling for antigay measures to “take back our city,” Williams was considered the worst thing to hit gays since the outbreak of AIDS.
    “He’s running for mayor of N’Awlins. That sonofabitch was also screwing my niece. But what I bet you don’t know is that Hillard used to poach gators for a living. The bastard made a fortune offa it. And you wanna know how?”
    Marie spit out a wad of thick yellow phlegm.
    “He made it big by cheatin’ everyone around here on gator deals. Had himself some rich Dago partner from up your way. They trucked those skins outta here like no tomorrow. The day I learned Valerie was letting him get his jollies off on her was the day I cut that girl off forever.”
    The idea of a stripper being hooked up with the man most likely to be New Orleans’s next mayor wasn’t all that farfetched. America’s own banana republic, the state’s political history had long been fraught with corrupt politicians, from the infamous Huey Long all the way up to the present former klansman and neo-Nazi, David Duke. Louisiana loved a good rascal, and they now had another in Hillard Williams. Following in the footsteps of those before him, Williams was gaining in the polls by creating alarm bordering on hysteria among the folks of New Orleans. It was down-home politics at its most insidious.
    “Hillard Williams a gator poacher?” I was still working on digesting the fact.
    “You bet your ass. Big-time.”
    “If he was so busy cheating all of you, why wasn’t he one of those who just disappeared?”
    “It ain’t a smart idea to go round knocking off the head of the local Nazi party. Besides, his partner was a big-time hoodlum. We don’t need that kind of trouble.”
    “Is he still a Nazi?”
    Marie’s mouth resembled a checkerboard, with black spaces and yellow teeth evenly matched, as she broke out in laughter.
    “He found God, doncha know. Sweet Lord Jesus has saved him.” She stopped laughing as she wiped the spittle from the corners of her mouth with the back of her hand. “Don’t you believe