Why Roux? Gators are pretty tasty and everything is better with gravy. Just kidding. Sort of. Gator does pop up on local menus and I’m working on a short story now where a local fisherman ponders eating a gator, but that’s not the full reason. Roux is my imaginary security guard and if you hop into my backyard, you will rue the day…. (cliche alert)

Growing up in southern Alabama, along the bayous of the Mobile Delta, gators are a fact of life. They’re the ghosts we hear stories about at night, the thieves that lurk in the shadows. They are not always visible but they watch, hiding beneath the reeds waiting on a tasty morsel to snatch.

Yes, I am a card carrying member of the Gator Appreciation Club. Not the Steve Erwin variety that wants to give them warm hugs. I want to see them in the wild, sunning themselves in their prehistoric glory. I have enough sense to know that I am nothing more than food, and keep my distance. I’ve seen them in zoos. But there is nothing more exciting than seeing one in the wild.
What is your imaginary security guard?

*Roux- the base for gravy and gumbo.