Along The River
fear sets up camp
Missed this way back when. Here's Chris Goffard: After the killings, the people on the river slept with their knives closer. They leashed guard dogs outside their tents and cardboard lean-tos. They listened for strangers' footsteps above the thrum of traffic on the bridges overhead. They got used to the sight of police stepping carefully along the big white rocks of the embankment. Below, in its concrete jacket, the dirty river crawled.
Violence is common and often unreported along the 51-mile Los Angeles River, daytime haunt of the occasional jogger and bird-watcher and in many parts a lawless no-man's-land populated by hard-core addicts, the mentally ill and uncountable others, broke or hiding. But what happened last November made an already fearful place feel more perilous still.
Posted by
ben on 01/26/10 at
13:49
|
Comments (2)
|
Trackbacks (0)
Comments
Re: Along The River
What I like most about this story is its tone: neither glossy nor patronizing. Merely honest. And this paragraph:
"Methamphetamine filled him with big plans. He spoke excitedly of rigging up another layer of security. He would bury plastic bottles under the dirt so he could hear the crunch of approaching footsteps. Piles of debris spoke of a dozen projects, begun in a frenzy and then abandoned."
Posted by:
T. Lake
at January 26,2010 16:50
Re: Along The River
Interesting the juxtaposition of the last two comments on voice, and I imagine it's something we're all perpetually conscious of.
I liked what Mark liked in the Harrison story, but I winced at this line: "When it was over, he signed each page of a typed seven-page statement: a single M for "Marvin," its points like the peak of a crown."
It was, for me, a distraction, like that spinning restaurant on the Dallas skyline.
Posted by:
ben
at January 26,2010 17:04
None
Post a comment