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eleven dollars. I took out a notebook that I usually   I’ve got 62 tabs in the book now. From zero
              5
                     keep near the register and started a little tab.  to 62 in less than a month. It’s page after page of
                        That notebook kept coming back out. Next   customers on credit. I’m out almost $3,000 so
                     it was Ms. Richmond. She did housekeeping at a   far. I know that might not sound like much, but
                     hotel and lost that. Her tab was $48. Then it was   at a store like this it’s my electric bill, my water
              Narrative
                     a lady who shucks oysters downtown. She’s got a   bill, the mortgage on my house. I never missed
                     big family to take care of, so she’s at $155. Then   a mortgage payment in my life until April 1st
                     there’s another guy who I deliver to, since he’s   came and went, and now this virus has me call-
                     bedridden, and I showed up with two bags and   ing around and asking for forgiveness, too. I’m
                     he had nothing to give me. So he’s at $54.80.  paying one of my employees with free breakfast.
                        This has gone from a grocery store to a    10  I’m maxed on bills. I’m doing my best to keep
                     food pantry. That’s how I’m feeling.      this place open. Everybody here is waiting on
                        And what am I supposed to say? I don’t blame   unemployment checks and stimulus payments
                     any of these people. I like them. Some of these   to keep us going, but let’s be real. Some of these
                     customers, I love. I truly do. They’re getting by   losses aren’t coming back. I know how this goes.
                     however they can. It’s not their fault. It’s not like   I lived in a FEMA trailer for three years after
                     they’re asking me for handouts on gin or beer.   Katrina. I went from having 48 neighbors on my
                     I don’t sell alcohol. I won’t give loans on ciga-  block to having three. They can talk all they want
                     rettes. What they need is milk, cheese, canned   about how we’ll bounce back and this will all be
                     goods, bread, toilet paper, bleach, baby wipes.   behind us before we know it, but not everybody
                     It’s basics — the basic essentials. One elderly guy   bounces back. Some people are already stand-
                     tried to start a tab for three dollars of snacks for his   ing in quicksand. There might be a recovery on
                     grandchildren, so I gave him the snacks. Another   Bourbon Street, but when will it show up here?
                     lady said she lost her job at a nightclub downtown,     Recovering can take forever.
                     and she tried to proposition me for $20 even   Sorry. I try to be optimistic. I try not to
                     though my wife was standing right there working   be angry. There’s no use in it, and it’s not my
                     at the register. I gave her the $20 and she left.  personality.










                                                              Steve Pyke/Getty Images                   Jim West/Alamy







                       These are photographs of the two neighborhoods that Cotlon describes in his piece, the tourist area of
                       Bourbon Street (left) and the Lower Ninth Ward, where his market is located.
                       What differences do you notice between these images? How does Cotlon’s description of these two
                       neighborhoods compare with their representation in these images?


             174
                                          Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample.
                                          Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
                                         Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
                                           For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.

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