flash fiction friday #80
i was sooo close to being right on time today but that mosquito@11.59am needed killing, and i have no apologies for that. with no further ado, flash fiction friday #80; [inclusions] trigger: root, fruit, truth, youth, brute.
rules of engagement:
you will send in your suggestions for flash fiction friday triggers (starter sentences/phrases, closers, titles, inclusions, structural/thematic challenges, etc.) anytime during the week up to 11.09a.m. friday, trinbago time; i will post the new fff trigger by noon friday trinbago time.*
if your trigger is not chosen and you think it is too brilliant not to be chosen, you will send it in again the next week.
you will write an anecdote, short story, song or novel length prose poem using the trigger provided.
you will add comments and appropriate linkage to this/my trigger-post indicating your desire to participate and the completion of your piece (don't need a blogger/gmail account to comment here).
you may join in at any time prior to deadline.*
you will display your piece as a post on your own blog (or as a comment on this/my trigger-post or fasbook note or instastory or whaever, once we can all read it; please make sure we can all access the link to read it, not just those who are your friends online).
you will be done by monday noon trinbago time.*
[in light of collective busyness and my general mentality, i not pressed about these deadlines 'cause i'd rather have fun reading late than never, so if you want to fff past deadline, go through hard, just make sure you comment on the appropriate trigger-post so we know which it belongs to, and if is a real old trigger, comment on the most recent post as well so we know something new to back-back+read...if nobody fffs i leave the same trigger up until at least 1person other than myself writes a piece]*
write fresh!
walk good.
posted by sweet trini @ 12:01 pm
10 comments
10 Comments:
Big, red, strong and unsmiling, Uncle Ray scared small children. You coulda look at him and know dat hand heavy. I was lucky never to feel it cuz I’s not a ass. Even as a youth they say he was a brute. I believe them. He more grumbled than spoke except when them boys gave him trouble. Then you could hear him streets over.
We were not prissy girls per se, but we were never rough and tumble. We didn’t know bout running in no road. Sun always hot and the pitch wasn’t smooth. Who going tru dat? We were more “play in the yard” kinda children. Lil hide and seek, hopscotch an ting. Nobody wasn’t climbin no tree for fruit...it had pickers for that. MY favourite was when the cousins came over after school and we could act out stories. Mummy bought us these super cool story books that came with recordings on cassettes. The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids, The Emperor and the Nightingale, hot stuff.
My mother’s best friend had two boys and we moved as a posse of six. From Tobago vacations to Toco field trips and after-school beach runs, them girls’ foot was well hot. What you know bout old school Chaquacabana on a Wednesday afternoon? Sometimes the crew expanded but we were the core.
One sunny Sunday we went to check Aunty Allison. Mummy and Aunty went drivaying as they are prone and left us playing with the boys and Uncle Ray. Obviously Ray wasn’t playing. These boys were our total opposite. Always up and down outside and were obsessed with bugs and reptiles. We loved them anyway. Since we were clearly not going to play with their turtles (how does one??) we decided to go riding. They lived in a mildly stush complex with rolling hills and Kibwe had just got a fancy new bike with gears.
I LOVED riding. It was the only reason I was ever willingly in the road. Naturally, homie was flexin on his new ride, zipping up and down the hills like a champ. I didn’t know nun bout gears but I was never backward so I ask for a tush. He said cool but advised caution cuz downhill means speed. Ever cocky, I was like “I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Right before I set off he said, “Remember when you’re going downhill, don’t squeeze the breaks too hard.” Already feeling the wind in my hair, I assured him that knew how to ride a bike.
I got on and took off, speeding along the pathways toward and away from the various buildings. Determined the milk my turn, I pumped my thighs hard to make it up to the final building. I turned at the top and headed back. I began slowly, knowing these were my last moments – everybody hadda get a turn – and gazed at the pretty lawn on my left and right as the descent began. I picked up speed, grinning, feeling my plaits flying behind me. My eyes began to water as the air pummelled my face. I could barely see. My heart clutched. I was going too fast. The bike felt wobbly beneath me. It was too much. I could hear Kibwe shouting to use the breaks. I panicked, squeezing them for dear life.
The bike jerked to a halt but I didn’t stop moving. I flew through the air, did a front flip (not on purpose) and landed with a bang on the hot pitch in utter shock. She shock was chased by hot shame as the others ran over and Kibwe kept saying “I told you not to squeeze hard!” The shame fled faster still as the pain set in. My knee was open, covered in dust and tiny pebbles and oozing blood. It look me a while to sit up because the pain wouldn’t let me do anything but cry. I don’t know how long I sat there, clutching my knee to my chest as it ran red.
Something blocked out the sun, a welcome reprieve. I looked up and there was Uncle Ray. I didn’t think anything could surpass that pain but fear always makes a way. Thinking I was in for a scolding or worse, licks, I cried even harder. Wordlessly, he scooped me up and carried me down the street and inside. He sat me down, got the first aid kit then sat next to me. I didn’t dare move. He took out the cotton and Savlon. I held my breath, anticipating more pain, tears streaming down my face. He looked at me for a moment then said, “Tell me what happened.” I suspect it was more to distract me than anything else because it was pretty clear: girl.bike.hill.ground.blood. It worked. By the time I told him the full story I was clean and bandaged.
“You want to go back outside or you want to sit here with me? It’s a pretty view.” He said.
“I think I should stay here.”
“Fine by me. Want some juice?”
“Yes, please. Thank you very much.”
We sat in silence watching the sprawling lawn, swaying trees and by that time, my sister on the bike. I looked at Uncle Ray differently after that. Truth is, that may have been the most we ever said to each other. But that, the gentle way he cared for me and his quiet companionship after was the root of the love I have for him to this day.
To tell you the truth, we was proud of She at first. The big boss make She out of pure, firey ash, spin She round and round in a pot of bile and push two dose of sulfur in She eye. When the boss was done with the fruit of he labour we say ‘Well yes, they eh go know what hit them’.
When She was a youth, She had plenty opportunity. At the time the boss was looking to terrorize a little spit in the sea that they did dare to name after the Trinity – that did make the boss vex, vex, vex so he send She in a young woman for them. She body was slender and She used to walk slow, slow in the night and under She hat She used to hold she oval face up to the moonlight as though She was always looking for something in the sky. We used to watch She walk from She house to the junction, She skin as dark as the night, and She hips swaying smooth, smooth from side to side. She watching up in the sky but all them Trinity man watching how She bottom undulating, how She does walk like She dancing; dancing yes, just them and She. More than one night She pass through the junction singing a song about the forest and is more than once She song, She bottom and She walk mesmerize a man to follow She into the darkness of the bush.
That is why none ah we couldn’t understand how She eh kill no man. We tell She hide the cow foot better, She hide it. We tell She buy a bigger hat, She buy it. We tell She walk a little slower, She do it but no matter how She try, none of dem man She lead into the bush end up following She down a precipice or into a watery grave in the river. Not one man dead!
So the boss change up he strategy, he bring She downstairs to show She how the rest of we does terrorize them - how we does just show up like we harmless and before they know it, we confuse them, we frighten them and we kill them.
At the time I was a goat. Nobody know where I come from but one Friday night I just stand up in the middle of the village when some Baptists was singing hymn and ringing bell, all of them head tie up with white cloth and they dress swinging while the pastor telling the crowd “The end time is near”. I was wearing a gold chain the boss give me to put around my neck and my animal eye was staring wild and bright like two blazing fire.
I stand up right there in the middle of the village like a mason put me there. A man who was watching the Baptists say “Allyuh where dat goat with the gold chain come out from?” and then I hear somebody say “And watch how he staring” before another one pick up a stone and they start to pelt stone at me. The next day nobody remember how I show up but they remember pelting stone at me and then all the bacchanal when a Baptist woman lie down dead with her head-tie red and stone all around her but the goat with the gold chain nowhere to be seen.
The boss thought She woulda learn from that. He send She back but this time She was old and hard. She skin dry and beat like old leather suitcase. She body get short and bend but the skin on She face get long. She smile was weak but She eye had deceit. She show up in the village peaceful, just like the boss train She. She was living in a board house and She used to keep to She self – nice, we say She go cause some trouble this time. The first time She pull off She skin and take flight, it was a Miss Eunice who did see the ball of fire and bawl out in fright.
I remember how the laugh used to rise up from in the boss belly every time the ball of fire light up the night sky and all them villagers was hiding in they house, panicking and sweating.
Then the boss realise that everything eh going right – She shedding She skin and She blazing through the sky but She sucking cow, She sucking pig, She sucking sheep. “Yes” the boss tell She “I glad they vex that they livestock dead. They blaming one another and making bacchanal but I send you there for those Trinity people to dead”. After that She appear in Anne mind as a dream of fire, teeth and two big eye but Anne eh dead – they just call the midwife because the fright make Anne put down the baby before it time.
But you know time is a funny thing. Since Anne had the dream about the soucouyant and make the child in the middle of the night, Anne always feel that something out for the two of them. Anne christen the child quick and name him after a disciple but the little brute was always harden – if Anne tell him go left, he turn right; if Anne tell him jump, he sit down.
Well, the boss was so vex about everything that happen that he call She back and fling She back up without a shape because he couldn’t stand to see She and She end up landing by the root of a pepper tree. Next thing you know, She end up living in the tree because She have no body, nobody and nowhere to go.
As the years pass Anne start to get fed up with the boy. Anne fed up wring the boy ears, fed up tap him on he head, fed up pinch he harden flesh because all how Anne try, the boy wouldn’t obey.
The boy know Anne tell him over and over not to trouble the pepper tree and he was hearing it in he head, but remember the boy was harden, so one day he pick the first red pepper he coulda reach. The pepper was nice and shiny, so shiny that it nearly look like rubber; it was hanging low, almost in line with he little face. Poor he and poor Anne – none of them did know that that was She pepper tree.
The boy open he mouth wide to bite into the pepper and as he close he mouth, he mash two-three seed with he baby teeth. It take a second before he brain connect to he mouth and he went to bawl out. He try to bawl for he mother, he try to bawl for he father but he shoulda try to bawl for God. As he was trying to bawl, She release more of She fire and the boy feel like a million red ants was biting he tongue at the same time. He couldn’t try to bawl no more. The shock, the fright and the pain make the boy start to cry and as he start to cry he rub he eyes and She get in them. He eyes was burning hot now, like somebody pour boiling water in them. He fall down and start to cough but She wasn’t moving from where she was. The boy fling he hand and grab he neck but She wasn’t moving She piece of skin from in he throat at all, at all. As he face start to turn blue and as he breath get less and less, is then we realise that it was She, The Demon Pepper that was about to cause she first human death.
He was a brute. He was exactly the kind that I liked too: big and black and brooding, 6 foot 2 or 3 inches, probably 200 pounds. He spent his days working construction on the big building that was going up at the end of the block street. At least that’s where I saw him on my way to and from school every day. When I first saw him I couldn’t even look at him without hanging my head and looking down at the ground. I felt hot all over and would blush hard, hard, hard. I tell you I could have signed up to understudy Rudolph if only my skin was light enough for all that red to shine through. With each glance, my chest would tighten and my breath would quicken. At the same time, lower parts of me would feel like the sun was calling for it to show itself and my legs felt as If they could not possibly open wide enough.
A couple weeks in I saw him notice me. I would glance and glance and if I saw him see me I would look away quickly. He didn’t seem to care to tell you the truth. I was probably fourteen or just 15 and he was already 21 by then. He probably wondered why I was all up in his face. I wondered too. I couldn’t help myself. Seeing him was the highlight of my day. Not seeing him made me feel cheated, angry even sick. I told my cousin about it and she laughed at me.
“You have a crush fool!”
“How could I have a crush on someone that I’ve never met girl?”
“Fine thanks. It’s about time too, you always the slow one out of all of us.”
By the time I was 16 and getting ready for exams the building was basically up. They had all the little extra shit to do on the inside. You know the finishing that took so long it made you wonder if they’d ever actually finish? The time that had gone by was visible on us both. I’d still see him every day but it was different now. He’d be in place when I was passing and I’d be on time. His small twists were now small locks that hung just around collar length. He could put the top few up in one. I liked it like that. If he spent his day working construction his body said that he spent his nights in the gym because he was huge. I liked that too. A BBU my cousin laughed to me one day.
“BBU?”
“Big Black and ugly.”
I laughed back. He wasn’t ugly to me though. Now when I walked past I’d stare directly at him. Face blank eyes locked in and I’d keep it like that until it was time for me to turn the corner. He’d stop whatever he was doing to stare back usually smiling. Teeth white against his dark gums. I’d only ever realize that I was holding my breath once I was around the corner.
“Smile nah!”
I’d have to stop for a few seconds to compose myself.
Exams came to an end and school would soon be out. The building was almost done. They’d started to clean up the site and figure out shit like landscaping. I’m not sure when but between his smile and my cousin always in my ear, a seed had taken root inside of me and I knew I had to move before I lost him to the next construction site. I didn’t really have a reason to be at school every day but I made it my business to pass just to see him. I’d pass by going to school only to return a couple hours later on the way home. There he was as always smiling. This time just before the corner I stopped and stood face blank, eyes locked in. It took him about a minute to start to move toward me. It was a slow jog, nonchalant, backed by the calls and whistles of the other workmen who’d been observing us from day one. He was beautiful, more so up-close.
“You leaving work half-day tomorrow?”
“Leaving work?”
“Half day tomorrow all around now?”
He smiled bigger and licked his lips.
“Yes, I guess so. Yes”
“Good.”
I walked away.
Half-day the next day I didn’t see him. I searched the yard. I was confused, embarrassed. The catcalling workmen didn’t help. I turned the corner my eyes just filling with tears and walked right into him. Standing there smiling. I almost screamed. My face probably registered 6 emotions at once and then I blushed instead; hard.
“You ok? How you blushin so?”
I took a deep breath and tried to regain my composure. It was so difficult that instead I handed him my small backpack and walked ahead of him in the direction of my house.
Say what you will about youth but I knew exactly what I wanted. I was determined. After almost two years of tending I was finally going to reap some fruit.
Our eyes were locked in when he sank the first finger into me. My eyes wide, my lips parted, my nipples hard, my chest heaving with every gain he made. His eyes narrow, dark, focused. His other hand slid up my side and into position around my throat. His thumb guided my head from just behind my earlobe pulling me in for a firm kiss; my first kiss, the first of many.
oooh, allyuh real write this rounds! mines finally done+posted@ https://urbanfolktales.blogspot.com/2020/04/fff80.html
cyah wait to read allyuh!
walk good.
@anon with uncle ray: nice work building up big, bad ray and describing ride+crash, to then let ray turn; unexpectedly sweet!
@swantastico: yay! different voice; yuh wukkin! i well enjoy the story, too; fffs wukkin for you, methinks. and love this: "She have no body, nobody and nowhere to go."
@winter: i enjoy the bacchanal las' rounds and found the story intriguing; this rounds even though the story itself technically way simpler, i love the telling of it so much it pull me in more. this one beautiful.
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