There were pics of him with the mayor, students, puppies and lots of little old gray- haired—or blue-haired depending on how the light hit them—women doing everything from hugging, cutting ribbons to just looking plain old cute. Smiles, smiles, and more smiles. Enough teeth to bankrupt the tooth fairy.

He was also king of the Rex Mardi Gras Parade the following year. Bayou Oil celebrated by contributing $50,000 to Katrina cleanup efforts. Cleanup. I light went on and I said to myself, that was it. Bayou has always been first in line to clean up for New Orleans. I began to like this angle.

My cell phone rang, and the newly familiar voice of Captain Richard Moore said, “Alexandra, this is Captain Moore, with the Coast Guard. The spill is contained. Bayou Oil’s crews have gotten the majority of the leakage safely out of the water and into a second barge. My preliminary investigation reveals that the accident was caused by a steering malfunction in the tugboat pushing the barge. The city’s water is safe, and the bridge did not sustain any appreciable damage. I am putting all these findings in my report.”

Wow! Great news! Bayou doesn’t own the tug! They hired the company to push the barge up river. The spill isn’t really their fault. We’ve got to get this out. I hung up the phone and immediately called Jess at the newspaper. She had already spoken to the captain and was typing her follow-up story. She’d collected all of the details and was about to lay the spill at the feet of the tug company. I asked if they sent any photographers to get photos of the cleanup, knowing full well they did.

She was way ahead of me and offered, “Would you like to look through them, dear?” I felt her smiling at me through the phone.

I could barely contain myself enough to act nonchalant. “That would be wonderful,” I said.

Jess is a Caribbean American woman, slight of build and close cropped hair, born and raised in New Orleans. She is widely respected at the newspaper and everywhere else. She has used her 51 years in journalism well. She started at the paper with a paper route, confident that she would someday be writing the articles in the papers she rolled and tossed in front yards. Jess maintained perfect grades all through high school and went on to attend the University of New Orleans where she graduated summa cum laude. The New Orleans Times snapped her up before she could market her talents to other newspapers. She loved the paper and the city. She knew everybody who was anybody and where all the bodies were buried. I knew she thought well of me.