ps: This is not his house, it is his view, and it’s for sale 🐊

First off, he is alive and well and in his domicile. I know this because I took another drive up the Keys to check on him, worried his son had dragged him and his trailer to Connecticut.

I could not locate his domain last time so before taking off on the perilous route I made more precise plans.

The road was always a thing of beauty, now a mouldering toxin-leaching waste of shredded trailers still line the road. Plastic bags fly like flags in the mangroves.

The drive was always glorious and now is sad and even angry. There have been head-on collisions nearly daily. Half my local friends have been struck off their bicycles. This was never the case before Hurricane Irma. Her damage persists. 

A head-on collision on the drive up the Keys can add several hours to an otherwise short distance. There are no alternative routes. 

On your behalf and mine I made another try to find Mr Fournier. And like I said this time I was militaristic and focused. I found him. Not him exactly, his door was closed. But evidence of active life were everywhere. I placed a large box of books on the chair of his trike. 

You can be sure he’s smiling knowing we’re thinking of him.

With thanks to Suz of Key West Island Bookstore and Laurie Gero for the contributions! You made him smile, for sure.