Broken Bayou

Broken Bayou, Louisiana

August 2018

Psychologist Dr. Willa Watters returns to Broken Bayou, Louisiana, the small town where she spent her childhood summers. Her aunts, who lived in Broken Bayou, died recently, and a box of her mother’s things was discovered in their attic. Willa is there to fetch it. She is also in Broken Bayou to lie low. After years of private practice, Willa began to write a newspaper column focused on helping parents of children with autism. The column turned into a radio show, and eventually Willa pivoted to podcasting. She wrote a best-selling book, also on children with autism, and it seemed as though her star was rising. A few days ago, however, she had a disastrous interview. She misheard one of the callers, and what she heard triggered a traumatic memory from her past: The woman was asking where to find Willa’s book, but Willa heard her say, “Can you help me hide it?”. She’d panicked and fled the studio, ripping her blouse off on-air while trying to remove her microphone. Because no one knew what was really going on inside her head at the moment, Willa’s actions appeared truly bizarre. The clip has been re-posted and re-tweeted thousands of times already. Willa is mortified. Unfortunately for her, several people in the grocery store at Broken Bayou recognize her immediately. They are put off by her “highfalutin” clothing, and their animosity toward Willa is palpable. She realizes that she will not be able to “hide out” in Broken Bayou after all.

Willa leaves the store and heads to her aunts’ house. Her great aunts—twin sisters—died within a few moments of each other. In their will, they donated their home to the local preservation society. Willa accepted their lawyer’s invitation to stay there for a few days but now regrets it and wishes she’d booked a nearby hotel instead. She spent summers in this little town with her mother and sister Mabry when she was young. They lived further upstate, but her mother enjoyed the bayou back country and the temporary escape it provided her from her life at home, which included a job in a school cafeteria, numerous warrants for her arrest, bad boyfriends, and alcohol addiction—though Willa admits to herself that she didn’t actually escape the alcohol here in Broken Bayou. Willa feels conflicted about being back. On the one hand, this place is the site of many fond childhood memories. On the other hand, her childhood was not particularly happy. She texts her sister (whom she ended up raising) but gets no response. The two fought recently, and Mabry hasn’t spoken to her since. She gets a call from her mother, who is in her sixties and lives in a retirement home. Her mother sounds very ill, and her memory loss is especially pronounced today. She does tell Willa that the police and the media are descending on Broken Bayou, something about a missing schoolteacher and a drought bringing up “secrets” from the swamp. As she is driving, a pickup truck tailgates her aggressively. When she finally gets the man to pass her, he looks menacing enough that she checks to make sure her doors are locked.

Willa walks through the door of Shadow Bluff, the aunts’ old home, and is instantly flooded with memories. Her aunts graciously hosted them each summer, and Willa and Mabry both loved the visits. Their mother had bipolar disorder, and the stress of keeping track of her medication and anticipating her mood swings was too much for Willa sometimes. Summers were more relaxing. The house itself seems smaller than it did when she was a girl, but Willa reflects that 20 years have passed since she was last here. She walks around, taking it all in. Her phone rings. The caller is her best friend, Amy, with whom she hosts her podcast. Amy also had a strained relationship with her mother growing up. Amy’s mother dealt with alcohol addiction, and Amy often spent the night at Willa’s. Amy wants to talk about the interview, but Willa does not. She has a glass of wine and goes to bed, deciding to tackle the box of her mother’s things the next morning.

June 2015

Destiny Smith is at a concert, but she is no longer having fun. Her buzz is wearing away, and the crowd is too boisterous. She recently moved to New Orleans and likes it so far. She is underage but has a fake ID and managed to get a dancing job on Bourbon Street. She hopes to save enough to move to California and “clean up.” As she is trying to make her way out of the throng of people, a man takes her picture quickly with a Polaroid camera. She punches him in the face, but instead of falling down, he smiles and grabs her ponytail. The last thing she remembers is a small, but sharp, poking sensation in her neck.

Willa wakes the next morning to a daddy-long-legs spider brushing up against her. She finds it somewhat disorienting to be back in her aunts’ home and feels groggy. As she is making coffee, there is a knock at the door. It is a law enforcement officer who immediately tells her that she is under arrest. She panics and explains that she has permission to be in the house and is not trespassing. The officer breaks out into a smile and introduces himself: It is Travis Arceneaux, her teenage sweetheart. Travis, like Willa, comes from a difficult family, and the two bonded over their experiences. She was a popular girl in the parish because she was an outsider who only spent summers there. All his brothers were interested in Willa, but she only had eyes for Travis. He tells her that he’s followed her career and asks her if she’d like to have dinner while she’s in town. When she says yes, he suggests breakfast instead and asks if she is hungry.

Travis and Willa drive to Nan’s, the only breakfast restaurant in town. Willa thinks back to all the rides the two took together as teens. It feels good to be sitting next to Travis again. The town itself looks tired, and Willa reflects on its struggles. Young people move out because there are so few jobs. As the years pass, Broken Bayou sinks further and further into decline. At the restaurant, the locals are all glaring at a table of reporters. Willa asks about them and Travis fills in the story that her mother began on the phone: Broken Bayou is in the news because the body of a young woman was discovered inside a barrel in the bayou. Drought decreased its water levels and exposed the barrel. This is the second time that such a grisly discovery has been made. This girl was only 15 and was a runaway last seen in New Orleans. Willa’s heart aches for the girl, who was surely trying to escape a traumatic home life and just needed help. Another woman has gone missing, a local schoolteacher. A car is visible, now only barely submerged in the bayou’s waters, and the police think it might be her. While they are talking, a group of ladies recognizes Willa and comes over to greet her. She doesn’t recognize many of them, but one of them is Ermine, a woman who had been like a second mother to her. Willa is touched to see her again after so many years.

Travis and Willa leave Nan’s. Willa is chagrined to learn that they are headed out to the bayou to watch the car getting dragged out of the water. She flashes back to a dark and difficult night, many years ago. She was in trouble and asked Travis for help. She cannot will herself to remember all the details of the crime she’d taken part in, but she realizes that the car could be her mother’s, dumped into the bayou by Willa herself. Travis, she understands, has also come to this conclusion. At the bayou, a group of law enforcement officers from the town and the state are gathered along with reporters and the missing schoolteacher’s family. Two of Travis’s brothers are there. One is pointedly rude to Willa, and the other, who doesn’t speak much, is kinder. Police dredge up the car. It is not the schoolteacher’s. With a pit in her stomach, Willa realizes that it is her mother’s.

May 2006

Teri Thompson is in New Orleans for a jazz festival with a group of girlfriends. She’s left her two children at home with their father and is having fun drinking and staying out late. As she makes her way down Bourbon Street, a man grabs her arm and tells her that it isn’t safe for her to be there alone. As she tries to explain to him that she is with friends, a camera flashes in her eyes and she feels a sharp pinprick on her neck.