Chapter 1
Jolie Boudreaux patted her grandmother’s back in consolation as the old woman who had raised her cried in mourning and frustration. Her grandmother, Maman Nettie, was crying because of a notice she received in the mail from the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Department. The letter simply stated that she owed $275 to them for a ticket that had been given to her husband three months ago for fish that were too small to keep. Jolie’s papa was a fisherman and trapper and he didn’t care much for the laws that stated which animals he could or couldn’t catch. He was only concerned about feeding his family and making enough money to keep them comfortable. So when he was caught by the Game Warden with the silver tub full of illegally small catfish he didn’t tell anyone. He hadn’t intended on paying the fine. The problem now was that Jolie’s papa was dead. He had died about two months ago and her maman was still mourning him. To be honest, so was Jolie. Her papa had been responsible for teaching her so much about hunting, fishing, gardening, and life in general. He had loved her and she loved him. In her eyes, he was a man to be revered. So she would defend him to the death—even though logically she knew he was wrong about the fish.
“Jolie, what we gonna do? I can’t afford no $275 fine now that your papa is gone.” Maman Nettie said through her tears.
Jolie knew the old woman couldn’t afford the fine. Nettie Boudreaux received about $800 from social security per month. She had a meager savings of a couple of thousand dollars. This was emergency money. The old woman lived alone in a small two bedroom house and watched soap operas and game shows all day. She didn’t have cable television just the basic channels that she received through the old metal antennae on top of her aluminum roof. She didn’t eat anything fancy or expensive, but her income was stretched between utilities and medicines. Jolie helped her grandmother when she could, but as a full-time college student she rarely had enough money from her weekend bartending job to give her grandmother much money. She made good tips but she had to pay her tuition and room and board at the university.
Jolie wasn’t like the other students she went to school with. She was more practical and responsible. She was twenty years-old but she lived more like a thirty-five-year-old woman. She went to class on time and paid attention. She was an excellent student, but her grades in high school had only been good enough to earn her a partial scholarship. Her assignments were done on time and often days before they were actually due. The other students did not like her because she always set the curve in class for tests. Jolie did not let that bother her, because unlike most of them she was there to learn—not to make friends. Her goal was to become a high school biology teacher. Then she could teach at her old high school and move in with her grandmother. She would have enough money for the two of them to live off of and she could repay the old lady back for raising her when her parents died. Maman Nettie and Papa George didn’t bat an eyelash when she needed a place to live. They took her in without question or complaint. She hoped she was a strong enough person to do the same for her grandmother in her old age.
Jolie also had other problems that she kept to herself. She figured she could handle her own issues, hell, she would have to because there was no way her grandmother could get rid of the young man who had been bothering her in the dorm. The boy had made unwelcomed advances toward her and he was having a hard time taking no for an answer. Jolie couldn’t carry her gun on campus so she was going to have to be alert in case the boy did not start backing down soon.
There was one thing that Jolie knew for sure. She wasn’t going to pay for this ticket. Why should she or her grandmother have to pay for her grandfather’s mistake? She just didn’t think that was fair.
“Maman, stop crying. I’m going to take care of everything.” Jolie took the letter from her grandmother’s shaking hands. She turned on Maman Nettie’s favorite game show, The Price is Right, and sat her down in front of the television with an old lace handkerchief, a can of Pop Rouge, and a lemon Hubig pie.
“What you gonna do, beb?” Maman Nettie asked, as she dried her eyes with the worn out piece of lace.
“I’m going to go to that Game Warden’s station in town and talk to Agent Thibodaux.” Jolie looked down at the letter. It included the name of the Game Warden who had given her papa the ticket. She intended on giving him a piece of her mind. What was he thinking giving an eighty year-old man a ticket? He could have at least let him go with a warning.
“Now don’t you go make more trouble, Jolie. I’m sure I can just take a little money from my savings to pay the fine.”
“No, I’m sure I can reason with him.” Jolie was not really sure if she could reason with him, she would probably end up yelling at the man, but she was going to try to be civil. She just hoped she could get him to understand that it was not fair to make her grandmother pay for her grandfather’s crime.