One Bike

Mardi Gras is in full swing here in Lafayette too. We rode around town for a while trying to stay off the streets that are parade routes. The streets are littered with beads not caught. Green, gold and purple they also dangle from the tree limbs above the parade routes from this past week. Soon the streets will be cleaned of all the debris. The plastic bags blowing down the streets that once held those beads, pitched from the floats as they emptied them poses a strange sight.  Thousands, they float along as the wind catches them and pulls them off the pavement and into the air for a brief flight before they land gently only to continue their restless wait for the next puff of air.

We drove down St. Landry's and passed the memorial to Mickey Shunick. A bicycle sits on a post protruding about 4 ft. out of the ground. It faces in the direction she was riding when the man that murdered her used his truck to bash into it and knock her off it.  The ground beneath has been paved with bricks and streches for 10 feet beyond where it sits.  The bike has been painted totally white. The rims, tires, frame, seat and handlebars....solid white. From the handle bars hang Mardi Gras beads in gold, green and purple. A row of solar lights border each side of the bricks leading to a black metal park bench a few feet away. Such a sad sight for those who remember the days she was missing and the sad ending when they found her body. Her murderer locked away in Angola the day after he showed the authorities where he had hid her body, no trial was needed. He confessed to obtain a lesser charge...life instead of the death penalty.

R.I.P. Mickey