Baton Rouge, LA

Fiction & Visual Art by Jonathan Borthwick & Shawn Scott Smith

The Tigers are playing down the road. The radio announcer swells through the September heat. A few cars pass by waving when recognized. They are young people, some would enjoy being at the game but can’t afford it, others just live in the party, a hot summer night in Louisiana.

Josiah went to a game when he was younger. His father, a postman, had worked hard all summer to buy the tickets. He remembered the purple, majestic and fine. The sweet smell of cigars in the parking lot. His dads smile as the band played. Josiah doesn’t remember who won the game. But he recalls the grip of his fathers hand in the tailgate lots, the drunk college kids fawning in summer passion. The cotton candy.

Patrice came out to the porch.

“You gonna sit here all day hun, or come in and help me sleep?”

He looked at her then, his lady of thirty some years. She was a beauty once, the belle of Scotlandville. Now she grew old, plump, but she made a mean gumbo. She had saved Josiah more than once. From bad decisions, and angry encounters.

He stood up and went inside, to dust himself off from the sweltering Louisana parish, and let the lone ceiling fan whip him cool. He took her on a slow dance and she embraced him tightly. The smell of love only a couple like them could know. Nothing to their name, but this old shack, and a box of stale croutons in the cupboard. The radio got loud,

“Touchdown Tigers.”

He thought of his dad, long gone, and smiled. Later in the evening the celebration would roll through their street, another night in the deep south, holding onto traditions built into coliseums.

A tigers growl like a gunshot, an angry young man fighting for a step up, a step out. The land almost gone to the ocean but holding firm with concrete and resilience.

A place to be proud of, a home to sleep and die in. A small piece of heaven on earth,

Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Shawn Scott Smith is a writer of a bunch of published poems and short stories. He lives in Asheville, NC, plays pinball, and likes to meet new people. All of his adventures are documented on his website at luckycreature.com and most social media spots @luckycreature

Jonathan Borthwick is a satirical cartoonist whose works primarily focus on political and social commentary as well as straight forward illustration. He was born in Scotland but resides currently in Houston, Texas where he continues to work today.