fiction #2- "soucouyant" part 2

(post-title-specificity may seem redundant and unnecessary now, but will become important when i move on to the second story and its multiple segments.)
for the few who may have read my "fiction #1" post in the approximately 36hours between its posting and now, i made a small edit to try and clarify that the suggestion of trying to "hear the accent" was more for those who might not know what the name of the piece means- anybody who knows what a soucouyant is would sense the narration's rhythm without a thought (assuming i can write like we talk, which i been told i do)- but for anybody who felt over-instructed (grims always says "don't tell me anything, just let me read it"), sorry.
so here's the 2nd installment of "soucouyant" (this doesn't mean new fiction daily, or each time i post. i'm just a recovering insomniac and couldn't fall back asleep this morning).

"Well, if you see how fast the 2x4 shacks went up! They didn’t bother giving the foreigners air conditioning or ceiling fans or nothing for the climate. They just slap some boards together and say they have somewhere to stay. But then, you know people woulda come regardless. They would stay in a outhouse if somebody tell them it had frogs. And trust me, these shacks wasn’t too far from outhouses at all. I mean, they throw up some planks to make the walls, and lay some galvanize across the top as roofs. The roofs wasn’t even level. They didn’t bother to make them slant down to help the rain run off or nothing. And we still don’t know how they hold the wall planking together either. You could see right between the boards to the outside. I mean the mosquitoes and sandflies was cruising right in without needing the open doorway. We didn’t even want to think about what else could squeeze through the gaps. At least the door was the only part wide open, because you know the government didn’t bother giving them windows. But then again, the science boys didn’t care. They wasn’t planning to spend too much time inside anyway. They was bringing all the equipment they needed portable.
Meanwhile, everybody and their mother fighting for guide work, and who couldn’t get it was already scamming to make some small change off the foreigners. People busy trying to figure out anything they could sell at the bottom of El Tucuche at “special” rates. And in the middle of all this, the first groups reach.
They was all over the news from the time they touch down until they reach camp up on the plateau. One of the news reporters even make the trek up there with them. I figure his boss just didn’t like him and wanted to make his life difficult. He had to drive himself to Loango to meet them because he couldn’t get on the bus taking them there, so he probably miss the best part of the trip – them foreigners trying to deal with Trini driving. Foreigners always talking about how we have traffic going both directions on what they feel should be one-lane roadway, and they never ready for the potholes either. They scared every time the driver dodge, as if they think we can’t see traffic coming.
But the scientists and two guides drive from Port-of-Spain, through St. Joseph, to Loango in Maracas Valley, and the newsman meet them there and hike with them, the whole five-plus hours up to our second highest peak – actually, I hear we have some of the gold frogs up on Cerro del Aripo too, but plenty less, so nobody ever consider them much on Cerro. Besides, sending them up El Tucuche instead let the government put in a plug for tourism too, since El Tucuche is the only place on the island anybody ever find Amerindian glyphs. They had a press release talking about how it historically sacred, to try and encourage some post-frog interest.
When you start that hike, it so thick and green with vegetation you feel you could be stealthy like the Amerindians with so much bush cushioning the sound of your steps and wrapping around you so close you feel camouflaged. At the beginning, is mostly abandoned coffee and cocoa estates but as you get higher you could see giant tree ferns, and real rainforest. It kinda nice, with all the hummingbirds hovering and the toucans up in the tall trees – and these trees get real tall, with their tops way up in the mist, and vines and moss growing all on their trunks, and the moss covering the ground too, like a carpet. They say the golden tree frogs raise their tadpoles in water trapped in tree leaves – that should tell you how big these trees are. And other animals not scared to come out since people don’t really hunt up there, so you see lizards and monkeys and some small wild animals too.
Higher up, the trees start to get shorter – still looking like full trees, but stunted, like the difference between regular people and little people. Gradually, the bush thin out and you start to be able to see the view between the leaves, and the twisty, skinny piece of not-really-cleared ground you walking on. And then in the real clearing, at the plateau, was where the government put up the three shacks – one for each research team and one for the guides – they say it was the easiest place to build something. A wide open area with some spiky grass scatter around and plenty sky, and a view of the whole north coast to make up for the scientists having to trek part of the way back down to find any frogs, then trek back up at night to sleep.
The top of El Tucuche is one of those places where you feel like the sky too big to see all at once. Like your eyes can’t take it in and you almost need to take pictures of the different parts, then join them together to make it easier to see it all.
Once they settle up mountain, we figure we would hear in a few days if anything interesting was happening. Even if the news didn’t say anything, is a small enough island…"

more later. walk good.