Who Is Beau?
Is Bayou Beau your real name?
No. My real name is in the parish records with everyone
else's, and you have seen what gets done with names around here. See: Episode 22. See: 1610 AM.
Are you a man or a woman?
Yes. That is also what I told the census.
Where do you live?
The basin. The camp moves. The tower doesn't, and you're welcome
to keep looking for the tower.
Why do you do this?
Because a long time ago somebody kept a porch light on for me on
a night when, by every natural explanation, there was no reason to. The full story is Episode 1
and I'm not typing it. Some things you have to hear said out loud to believe, which is rather
the whole point of this operation.
Do you believe everything people send you?
I believe the people. The stories
I check. Most strange things are a heron, a neighbor, or the light doing what light does on water.
I publish the ones that are left over. Now and then I publish one and the phone goes quiet for a
week, and those are the ones I reread.
Why do you sign everything “In Truth and Terror”?
Because out here you do
not get one without the other, cher. Anybody selling you the truth without the terror is selling
you something else.
In Truth and Terror.
— Beau
