BAYOU

by

D.L. Witherspoon

(Posted: 08-14-98)

The bayou is a dark place where the Mississippi River begins its winding crawl across the width of the United States. In one sense, bayou is a word meaning little river or stream. The water is usually slow-moving or stagnant, slime and algae covering its surface. Not very appealing. However, in another sense it is the entire area in southern Louisiana around and south of New Orleans, settled by the French and Spanish where the Arcadians booted out of Canada came to settle and the great pirates of yesteryear hid their treasures. It is the land of the alligator and the water moccasin. It is dark. It is wild. It is the bayou.

First, before you get bored with all these notes, this story is rated TV-M. Think HBO Special, okay? Adult language and situations abound. As a responsible writer, I think I should warn you that this story deals with sexual abuse and murder of children.

Okay, for those who ignore notes, scroll on to the bottom of the page and you'll find the links to the story. It's a long one, over 200K, so it's broken into four somewhat even parts. That's for those whose computers can only handle so much material in one loading and also for the convenience of those who work in offices. Just because the boss interrupts your reading, expecting you to actually work, doesn't mean you have to scroll through the whole story trying to find your place after he's gone. This will also help if you're printing out on company time and using company resources. Print out a section a day and no one will know what you are doing. :-)

For those of you staying, thank you. I hope you'll find the following information useful in achieving enjoyment of this story:

*Thanks to Sarah for her quick French lessons. If anything is incorrect, blame me. I took Spanish.

*There is no intended defamation of the New Orleans Police Department.

*The supernatural occurrences in the story are the direct fabrications of my deranged brain. No other's brain cells were damaged in the process.

*Information about Voodoo can be found at The Voodoo Information Pages.

*Vague references to The Sentinel episodes Blindman's Bluff, Warriors, and Finkelman's Folly. There are also references to my own stories, The Haunting, Speaking For The Dead, Dinner with Dad, and Alone. If I've done the story well, then you will not be lost if you haven't seen or read the above. I've only referenced them in case you say, "I'd like to read that."

*Clarification: Just because my story Errand Of Mercy bore a supernatural (S) designation, that doesn't mean that all Family (F) stories are (S) and that all (S) stories are (F). In other words, this is NOT a Family story.

*All disclaimers apply including those for Good Morning, Vietnam (Touchstone Pictures), The Lion King (Disney Studios), and Simba's Pride (Disney Studios).

*Finally, a Special Thanks to all of you for attempting to sludge through this unusually long piece. Those of you who have written and received short, strange replies and especially those who have written and have not received replies at all, this story is to blame. It has totally consumed me for the past month. I shall now retreat and recover.

PART I: Chapters 1 - 5

PART II: Chapters 6 - 10

PART III: Chapters 11 - 15

PART IV: Chapters 16 - 20/Epilogue

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