flash fiction friday #85 trigger: write [of/in/from] an alternate reality. 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.
Ants eh tell nobody nothing, he eh give no warning, just so he stop marching and lie down right where he was halfway up the wall with the crack, in the corner by the stove.
"Wha de hell going on with you breds?" Cockroach ask him, honestly bewildered, and it does take plenty to confuse Cockroach.
''Like you eh hear? De Prime Minister say how de place on lockdown boy. Nobody is to leave dey home, only essential persons is allowed outside at this time.''
"So you just going and pose up on de people dem wall? You eh fraid dey come and spray yuh ass down?''
''Dey cyah do dat. Police go come fuh dem.''
''Which police? Man police?''
''Man police self! Is only essential work allowed. Dat is what the PM say. Killing one ants essential?''
This now make Cockroach sit deep in thought. Probably you didn't realize it at the time, but we is all come across cockroaches in this position. You know like when you walk into a room and you see one in the middle of the floor, not scurrying, not hidden by anything, just kinda in plain sight, like if it believe it all of a sudden turn invincible or invisible. Well that is when Cockroach stick in thought. Sometimes, if the thought deep enough you could walk right up to Cockroach and squash him and he eh even know nothing. Most times though, they will pick up on you just in time and manage to get away before you whole foot swallow them up and flatten them flat.
What Ants now tell Cockroach really make him sit, this was one of them deep ones, so that he eh even see when Man come walking in the kitchen with he belly in he hand. Man see de roach but he so hungry and he mind on all kinda other thing that he pass Cockroach straight, and is only on the way back out the kitchen that Cockroach clock what went on, with him being deep in thought and ting.
''Well shit, Ants. Like yuh was right? I going and tell everybody. This news is essential!''
''I staying right here pardnah,'' come Ants reply. ''Not me and no man police and you best mind yuhself running around out there playing town crier.''
The first man cockroach bounce up is Kisskidee. Well Kisskidee study he luck must be change. He on a branch and watching how cockroach walking brazen in the open. He moving with his usual stop-start, jerky pace, but he not ducking in shadows or hugging close to the wall. Is like he inviting Kisskidee to swoop in and eat him. So Kisskidee take flight and as he diving in Cockroach jump up, watching him so stern and proper that Kisskidee feel like to kill him now would be wrong, so he modify trajectory and ting, and land right next to Mr. Roach.
"And what you think you about to be doing pardnah?'' Asked Cockroach indignantly.
''How yuh mean Mr. Roach? When last you take a walk in the sun boldfaced so? Is eat I coming to eat you.''
''Is allyuh so does give we animal bad name yes. You eh hear de place on lockdown?''
''Who lockdown de place?'' Kisskidee now skeptical. He eh know if Cockroach feel he is Anansi and trying to pull a fast one.
"De PM himself, boy, bird boy. Ants now tell me inside. If you feel ah lie, flap round de corner, I sure he still park up on de wall by de stove.''
Kisskidee take two flap and ah peep and true enough, right where Cockroach say, he see Ants lie down like he dead, except he not squash or nothing, like a serge-ant shout stand at ease and never say dismiss.
"Well this is ah ting!'' Kisskidee say when he come back around the corner. He didn't come flying, mind you, but rather he was walking on the ground, lest some police or busybody spot him and he get in trouble.
Now, we all know the reasons why birds fly, and one of them reasons happen to bend the corner and come across Mr. Roach and Kisskidee in long talk. Well yuh know Puss eh waste no time.
''Watch how Pussin belly full today!'' She shout and pounce same time and when the dust settle, is because Roach under one paw and Kisskidee under the next. Puss so happy with herself, she start monologing.
"They say Dog is hunter? That dog come down from wolf and wolf is hunter? Dog is man best friend. When man go hunting, is dog he does take. He doh take hunting cat, you know why? Me say, you know why? Puss looked at them know, with bewitching eyes and was very surprised to find them most un-bewitched.
''See here now Puss,'' began Mr. Roach.
''Now, now...cyat,'' started Kisskidee and poor Pussin confused. Not only were the two of them un-bewitched, but Kisskidee know full well that she liked to be called Puss, none of this common cyat shit, she was bewildered by the sheer audacity of it all.
''You go ahead, Mr. Roach. Tell cyat what happening.'' Kisskidee looking across at Roach, not even wondering if his head about to get remove in a one bite and crunch up. The whole thing just so unprecendented, Puss really stop. She even raise paws and release the two of them, because they really didn't look like they was going anywhere.
''Puss, you eh hear what the PM say?''
''Who PM?''
''DE PM, girl! Prime Minister! The minister divisible by itself and one!''
''Aite nah. Jus tell mih what he say.''
''De place lockdown. All non-essential movement is hereby and forthwith prohibited, Puss.''
''I see. But, tell me, Mr. Roach,'' began Puss ever so sly, ''isn't eating essential?'' With this Kisskidee feel his heart flutter-flutter and he shoot Roach a nervous glance and was ready to take flight. Lockdown or not he did not come out here to be eaten. But Mr. Roach was calm.
''Now Puss, yes, eating is essential and you have owners, don't you, Puss? I seeing that collar around your neck.''
''I do not have 'owners' Mr. Roach. I have contracted a family to provide me with food and a place to sleep when I choose in return for my presence and affections. I am free to go and come as I please. Owners? I look like a fish in a bowl? A dog? I am not a pet!''
''Ah! But this is my point, Puss. They provide you with food. So yes, eating is essential, but, because you are provided with food, eating us is not essential for you.''
Well Kisskidee flutter-flutter again, but this time for a different reason.
Puss watch Kisskidee, watch Roach and watch Kisskidee again. She sit down and put her head between her two paws and calculating, watching them, first one, then the other. She continued like this for minutes, saying nothing. Both Roach and Kisskidee ready to dead, both want to make a bolt for it but even though her paws no longer on them, she close enough to kill either with one swipe, much less a pounce. Then she sit up fast, the movement looking like almost like a pounce. If bird could pee they self, that is what Kisskidee would do. Although, the sudden movement was only because she had reached the end of her calculations and she yawned a long, lazy satisfying yawn, as if she had just eaten.
''So then, she began, what you telling me is that man, woman, child, on lockdown?''
''Well de PM say everybody, Puss. So while yes, I am a roach, I have a body so I count in everybody. Same with Kisskidee here, Ants, who is the one tell me, and you. No lie, Puss, when Ants tell me I so deep in though I eh even see Man walk in the kitchen until he walk out. An' I dey in de middle ah de floor!''
''So is Ants tell you? And where Ants get it fom? Ants hear it from Man?''
''Well yes. Have to be.''
"But Roach, what Ants know about man? And house ants to boot? Marching up and down de place, making ah set ah noise. Ants doh hear nothing over de sound ah dey own foot. What you telling me bout Ants hear it from Man?''
''And ent I tell you Man walk straight past me in de kitchen? If it have one place Man coming after yuh is in dey. How you explain dat?''
''Boy! Is all kinna ting is go on with dem you know? You feel 'higher brain' is ah blessing?
Higher brain does give yuh something we doh get, Roach. Worries! And when dem have worries is de worst ting. Dey does fuhget tuh eat, fuhget tuh clean deyself and dey place. Is anything could give dem worries and ting dat dey cyah control too. From love tuh loss dey job. From children to de weather.You ever hear about cricket? De worst is one ah dem who like cricket. Worries! I know Man better dan Ants, and I say Ants eh know what he talking bout. Is one man in one house allyuh see moving ah how and all of ah sudden de whole place on lockdown?''
Well now, Kisskidee get an idea. A bird doh really have expressions to play over its face. A bird face just one way, nervous. So Kisskidee with his idea, start to hop up and down in a little circle. Not like he flying away or anything, but it obvious that he have something to say.
''Now what, is your problem?'' Puss still lazy, but everybody know a cat is a deceptive thing and you really can't trust what you see.
''Weh...weh...weh...,'' began Kisskidee, extra nervous in front of the sharp claws and teeth.
''Out with it man! Is either you contributing or you not. What all de blasted hoppin' for?''
''Weh...Well, I was nuh..nuh..now thinking it hah-have somebody we could ark-ark-ask. Suh...Suh..Somebody who know Man good, his best friend. Why we don't ark-ark-ask Rambo?''
''Rambo! So this is allyuh game?'' And Puss back down on all fours now, her eyes narrow, whiskers twitching with suspicion.
"I was to snatch allyuh de first time and done de talk. What fool ting it is I hearing here? Man's best friend? Me, Pussin, supposed to what? Roll up by the biggest dog on the street and ask advice? Me Pussin, getting advice from some fool dog. Man's best friend my front paws! Because what? He is dog he know better? I never understand that best friend ting. How dog is he best friend and he name pum-pum after me? And de two ah you, her eyes narrowing further now. De two ah you mus really take poor Pussin for a fool tuh tink dat I going to roll up by Rambo.
So you, Roach,'' and she drop a paw on him. ''And you bird, and she drop a paw on him too. I going to eat de two of you, find me some shade and have a little nap.''
As Puss saying this, the boy from the house come outside and bend the corner behind her. He walk straight past them, into the garden shed. Puss freeze, watching him. She leaning one way and ready to run the next. This boy is a terror! He always trying to grab her by the tail or do her some wickedness. Once he had caught her and put her in a bag. He tie that bag to a tree and swing her inside there for what feel like forever. Just when she feel like her heart going to burst, after she claw every direction from upside down to north by north west, the boy mother come and catch him and for him to let Pussin out. And now, this demon child, walking through the yard, mind preoccupied, being, well, normal for once. It make Pussin stop and take stock, and just as she was going to eat Mr. Roach and Kisskidee too.
She not moving. Pussin frozen, her eyes following the boy until he bend the corner where he had come from and went back in the house. Only then she relax a little bit. Only then she study it might have something to this lockdown talk in truth.
Four could have been 20. very engaging. funny and smart. easy to fall into the rhythm and get right up close with these characters. I totally enjoyed. Brilliant
my flash fiction friday #84; trigger: choose an existing archetype/stereotype/trope, and flip [a major component of] it. was a quiet village. one of them places nobody who doh live or have people living there even know exist. one of them places if you call the name nobody cyah say they know it. was. and them try and keep it so. them know from time them make out the scene, wasn’ no keeping people away once it come public knowledge, so them say them keeping that talk home. quiet. no mention to nobody not from the village. not a word. it mustbe work for awhile in the earlies, but yuhknow is only one could truly keep secret. talk does spread, surprised tongue to the next shocked ear with no regard for the desire of the discussed to remain otherwise. after time pass people start to get slack, studying their outside people stories and stop studying if home secure. them start to bump gum, mouth start to run; a trickle, no more, but growing exponentially with each person they tell, telling more, because who ever hear anything like that before? after time pass it had people not living there looking for any+every excuse to come through, trying all-how to spend the night; people who now hear this place exist calling down road trip, taking adventure-drive; people making cross-country runs on fumes+hope to find it, because the miraculous talk find them… the village had been proceeding like most, if a little quieter than most; mostly unremarkable until it wasn’t. first was ma mabel. she didn’t notice the bruise until later because the walk to the washbasin+mirror that morning was a revelation. mabel couldn’t recall the last time she walk; even though she well know different, she feel like is she whole life that hip have she hobbling, dragging+dropping, gimping she way around she tiny board-house. when she sit up the morning, slow, she notice she wasn’t as stiff as usual and get slightly hopeful about the day. she take it slower swinging she legs out from under thin sheet and off the bed, not wanting to spoil a good thing. cold foot seek out slippers, push them together in front of she, and slide in unusually mobile tarsals. excitement rising, she push up off the edge of the bed to stand with more momentum than she need this morning and almost pitch forward, but before she could even feel fully terrified she legs and them just step out, instinctively, and start to move, carrying she to the washbasin. all she do was wash face and brush teeth before she reach out in the yard with the joy of meeting a new day with a new self. she didn’t understand what the arse happen to she but she know it was good. when she eventually see the bruise she eh connect it. after ma mabel was xerxes. sagaboy laid low by a vex husband’s blow, he was never the same since the night jonesey bois cross he crown with a crack them hear in quite-o quite-o. xerxes open he eye he old self a morning, except for the bruise on he neck, and call the trade the best bargain he ever make in he sleep. mabel did know to hush she mouth and give thanks quiet quiet in she place but it had no hiding the change in he. more village people recover; nobody know why but who looking to question? bruises might be suspicious but tha’s the worst them see so every man-jack say gift-horse and hush they mouth. or was supposed to. but people is people and like other people, and villagers start whispering to who they know need healing. come+stay the night, you go feel better… wasn’t long before it was the worst kept secret and then them couldn’t keep the crowds away. next thing i know, a night i duck in a window, hovering at the throat of a sleeping stranger, consumed+consuming, i hear+feel walls constrict airflow. i pause, flickering, and a voice from the dark corner i had ignore for the smell of cancerous cells calling, tell me, “coffin locks and plexiglass. and apparently maybe we need blackout curtains…vou are a soucouyant, of some kind, yes?” “how you find me? what you know?” “more important: how do you exist? what exactly are you? a soucouyant, who somehow heals when she takes blood? how?” “i don’t know. all i know is, i is the cure…” “for what?” “everything.” walk good.
I have to say this week I sent explaining how this FFF process works to the other members of my mentoring class. I reminded you that you'd mentioned it during your presentation and that they really should participate. What I didn't do was attempt the exercise BCUZ i really couldn't even think of how to approach it. You however have done it with much finesse that not only makes me feel silly for not understanding but leaves me hanging on the edge of my seat for more of this story.
yes, tell them come een! i feeling good about this one; i feel this one and littlefrog might need to develop... so now that you see it doable, i hope you going+try this one; i's be looking forward to reading allyuh. plus, at the moment nobody but me write for this trigger, so the new one eh going up yet anyway; take the week and write fff#84, nah, dread...
steups. this shoulda go up on time because i was so fucking on top of it, i do the thing in advance and schedule the post for noon. i busy, gone about my business, assuming the thing done, only to finish errands and reach back here and see no trigger; it still sitting there as a draft with the scheduled time watching me big big like i's a ass. steups. anyway. flash fiction friday #84 trigger: choose an existing archetype/stereotype/trope, and flip [a major component of] it. 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.
I is ah super hero! Look at me! Look at me! His father's eyes never really leave the newspaper that is covering half his face. The steam from the cup of coffee in front of him seems more alive than the man. At least the steam moves unpredictably, shifts. His father just sits there doing the same things over and over. He turns pages and grunts from time to time. There is also the occasional sentence. You is a superhero? All superhero have name. Wha is your name? My name is Strong Man! All right, Mr. Strong Man. An' you eh have no cape? Batman, Superman, Thor...all dem have cape. Where your cape? Look it here! And he turned, proudly to show the towel tied under his chin. Boy, dat is ah towel! Dat eh no cape! And in truth, as his father said this, his 'cape' billowed flat, it felt heavy and uninterested as it hung from his shoulders. The general lack of inspiration in the thing became so obvious to him now. Of course it was a towel. All this was delivered by the father without ever once looking away from the newspaper.
So he spent his day looking for a cape. At first he searched inside the house. He went through his sister's room, waiting of course, for when she left home. Strong Man or not, his older sister was a vile, villainous thing, yet he knew that when supplies for adventure were needed, this was as good a room as any to start. He went through her closet when it was safe. He found many things, sequinned things, a few almost-capes, a large, strange-coloured veiny thing that looked like his penis, but no good capes. If something was the right colour, it was too heavy, or too short, or too long. He didn't want to stay in there too long, or make much of a mess. If she knew he was in her room, she would rain such a vengeance upon him.
His parent's room was more disappointing. At least he had found a stash of money in his sister's room. He left it alone, but it may come in very handy at some time, like when they lollie man was passing and she wasn't at home. He searched under his mother's bed, in her closet and her chest of drawer. He found more towels, and sheets, but no capes.
So he left the house. He imagined himself like King Arthur. Instead of a sword in a stone, he imagined a cape on a clothes-line flapping in the wind, calling to him. A cape just for Strong Man. Then he would get to join Justice League, or even his favourite, Avengers. And he started to think of his favourite heroes and he realize something. Iron Man, Hulk, Flash, Spiderman, no capes! He doesn't need a cape to be a superhero! The realization wreaks a good kind of havoc in his little mind. Oh! The possibilities! He has to get home to tell his father and he starts to run. He wills his feet to go faster and faster until they are a blur beneath him. He is happy with his news and he doesn't really know when his feet left the ground. In his mind he can't wait to tell his father that he does not need a cape, he can be a hero without one. He is not paying attention to things like where he was going or if he maintained the expected connection with the ground. It is the look on the face of another little boy that brings him to the realization. There was so much jealousy and yet amazement and joy in his face that he wondered why. Well that, and the fact that he looked this boy, somewhat in the eye, as he sped past his a second story bedroom window. Yes he had started running, but now, now he was definitely flying. He had sped over the tops of hedges and then houses, and now he was positively in the air. Not only did he not need a cape to be a hero but he didn't even need on to fly. What he has to tell Father now he can't remember, he can't remember wanting to be a super hero. What he wants very much at this moment is to get back down. He screamed over and over and as loud as he could for someone to help him.
Just because a woman my age doesn’t have children doesn’t mean that I don’t love the little gremlins; they’re people like you and me. I enjoy hearing the pitter patter of their grubby, little feet. I always give a pleasant smile as the little beasts, with their foul little mouths open showing uneven spaces between crooked teeth, tumble past me in an aisle wreaking havoc on everything and everyone they meet. But my favourite child of all is the snorting, resting piglet inhaling air and mucus while it sleeps, because a sleeping little child never tells big lies.
When the disciples didn’t want to allow some children to see Jesus, Jesus said “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14). Jesus said so Himself, and it was written in red. That’s why when Sister Mary Joseph condescended to ask me, of everyone in our church, to give Sunday School lessons to the mongoloids aged 9-12, I was more than willing to help.
It was month two of Sunday School and I knew that I was growing in my faith. “The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother” (Proverbs 29:15). Sister Mary Joseph had told me that I should look at that verse, and the Bible in general, less literally, because although I was right that the scripture still stood today, “quite logically”, Father Clarke was right to run out of the church hall and into the yard where I stood whipping Mongoloid Phillip (aged 9) with a cane because he was unable to tell me who Jesus’ least favourite disciple was, despite my comprehensive lesson on the betrayal in The Garden.
Until that point, I believed that the Word was the Word but when I went home after Church that day, I realized that Sister Mary Joseph (of Perpetual Complaints) had a point. There could be so much meaning to any of the teachings and that’s why, the next Sunday, after I gave the beautiful story of the Good Samaritan to my class and Mongoloid Sarah (aged 11) asked me to explain it “in real life” (as though the Scripture wasn’t real!) I didn’t take her outside for a good hiding. Instead, I explained it like this:
“Imagine Sarah, that you are an old woman of 69. Your stupid, runny nose has grown hard and dry, and now it is a beak. The skin all over your body is pleated and loose. Your hair that used to be long and rich is now thin and falling out in clumps. When you wake up in the morning your eyelids are always covered in gobs of thick, yellow cold and when you dig the gunk out with your gnarly claws, your eyes look sunken and weak. Because you have had a long, hard life, your limbs ache, quiver and creak. You lie in bed most of the time because you normally feel very tired and very sick. You have a bad disease and you are alone. On your good days you sit in your gallery and stare into your neighbour’s empty yard just because it’s a change from staring at your empty house or trying to think with your empty head.
Did I mention that you’re in pain, Sarah? When you were young you thought you knew pain. Sometimes you would stump your toe in the night and you would feel the shockwaves surge through your body sharply like a jolt of electricity, but the pain you’re in now is different. Pain before was a temporary feeling that would surprise you, last a moment or maybe a day and vanish. This pain in your old age, my dear, is different. Your body is unified by pain and it’s somehow the only sensation that you seem to know apart from hunger and maybe dissatisfaction. Sometimes the pain is throbbing, sometimes it is sharp, sometimes it is dull, quite often it is intense, but the pain is always there and it is everywhere.
The pain makes you cling to your faith. You pray and ask God to take the pain away but when it doesn’t leave, you ask Him to take you instead. Then one day you shuffle to your gallery and you see sparks of light from the yard across the road. You hear the noise of iron and machinery and then you notice a rough, strapping man wearing overalls and a helmet with a visor . He waves and feebly, you nod and wave back. You realise that God works in mysterious ways.
You raise enough strength to make this game of nods and waves a habit until one day you signal for him to come and he does. You offer him lime juice and cake. Do you like cake Sarah? No, you prefer sweet bread? Okay, you offer him lime juice and sweetbread. He tells you about his problems with the law and the welding work that he’s currently doing. You tell him about how you were once a little mongrel whose mother took her to church and put ribbons in her hair and how you grew up and had a husband and then you had a son but they both went away – one to another country and the other to another man. You tell him about the pain, the disease. That’s when you ask carefully, but casually, about his crimes. “Assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm? How sad” you say as you carefully remove the five, crumpled hundred dollar bills from your pocket and lay them gently on the table in front of him.
He says he can’t do it; you expected that, but after you cry, you beg, you explain that you can’t endure the pain, that God doesn’t forgive suicide, he takes the money and promises to think about it.
By now weeks have gone and welding is still happening but nothing else. You call his cell phone when you see the light in the yard. He never answers and he never calls you back. You almost lose hope but you remind yourself that God works in mysterious ways. Then, one day, you see a car parked in the road outside and a tall, Indian man talking to the welder. You clap your hands and get their attention and get the Indian man to come over. You make sure the welder sees you pointing at him and shaking your head while you’re talking to the Indian man who you learn is the new owner of the house. When the Indian man goes you send a message to the welder that says:
“I told him every5hing. He’s gone Now but he’s coming back wi5h The police”
It worked. In no time the welder is in your house and he has a desperate look in his eyes. “How could you do that to me, lady? I never wanted your money!” and he throws the same five, crumped hundred dollar bills at you. Coincidentally, you hear a siren wailing in the background. “Thank you for small mercies, dear Lord” you think and at that very moment you cock your head back and spit at the welder.
As the welder reaches for the knife that you laid on the table before he came, you feel peace in knowing that someone has finally come along to do God’s work of showing you final mercy from your pain. A good Samaritan, at last.”
Maria Conchita Paloma Juana Garcia-Benjamin-Lutchman-Benjamin-Gill-Valentine was the most beautiful woman I did ever see in mih whole, entire seven years of life. She was prettier than my own mother. And yuh know at that age it ain’t have nobody bigger, better, brighter, stronger, smarter or prettier than yuh own mother. Well she, Maria, was prettier than my own mother. My mother didn’t wear fancy clothes like her or comb up her hair and wear lipstick and eyelash and all of those things. My mother sure would never be caught with her breasts pushed up high under her chin and be wearing stockings with seams down the back and toe less, high-heeled shoes with gold buckles at the ankles either. My mother wouldn’t be caught dead outside the house with her hair flying all around her head in so many curls and coils look like she alone had hair for about 5 people. My mother surely didn’t have bright red, long nails to match her lips. My mother…well you get the picture. She was the most beautiful woman that I had ever see and I tell my mother as much when we reach home.
As we crack the corner by our house and I rest my hand on the gate I say mummy I could tell you something? I had to wait until we reach home because my mother say that when in public little children should be seen and not heard. I tell her I is not a little children anymore since I turn seven last week but she still say that I must do as she say. So as we hit the gate I tell her, I say “Mummy I could tell you something? I find Miss Maria real pretty and I want to look just so when I grow up”. Well I don’t know what was wrong with what I say but is two tap I get in the back of my head, pushing me toward the back step. Whenever I talk about Miss Maria it seem that mummy used to get vex. Not only mummy either; mih granny, mih aunts, as well as Miss Pearlie from next door. “Go eenside, go eenside with all that foolishness!” Is a good thing I have plenty hair or else all now so I done crying already. “Mummy you don’t find she pretty?” “Look, go and take of dem clothes and come help me put away these things please! Asking me shit about that…that Maria woman!” Daddy look up at me from what he was doing, eyes wide but mouth decidedly shut.
After the market put away, supper had and pot turn down, we were on the back step shelling peas that mih grandmother bring. “Mummy I could ask you something? “Sigh” “Mummy you think you could get me one of those stockings like what Miss Maria does wear?” “Look just shut up with all that talk before I get vex yuh hear?” “But mummy!” Well I see the hand on the hip, the head tilt and the chin thrust forward and I know to hush. “Yes mummy.” Two hours later my eyes start to get heavy. “Mummy my hand tired from all this peas.” “Put yuh cup next to the stove, go bathe and get ready for bed.” Washed and powdered and slight drunk on the huge cup of Chocolate tea I couldn’t help mihself. “Mummy you think granny will get them for me? The stockings?” You ever get a cut ass before bed? Steups. I in the bed too vex to cry. I don’t even know what I get lix for. Daddy…well you know the rest. By the time I was twelve or thirteen I was old enough to understand. I’d heard the rumours and whispered with my friends about the parade of men in and out of Miss Maria back door. Miss Maria Conchita Paloma Juana Garcia-Benjamin-Lutchman-Benjamin-Gill-Valentine-now-Gerard was what my grandmother called a ‘loose woman’. My aunts and dem say that she was a slut. Well as you could imagine the older I get, I learn never to talk about Miss Maria in front of my female family members. Especially as I’d seen both my aunt’s husbands at that very back door on more than one occasion. Ha! Keisha St.Bernard, or dog-face Keisha depend on who yuh talk to, say that if you want to know what going on all you have to do is cross the road and walk directly in front the house on an afternoon and you could hear Miss Maria and dem dirty men callin for Jesus! Oh geed! I didn’t even want to think about what was going on behind those doors. That is until one day I see my father walking toward Miss Maria back gate lookin nervous, nervous.
Of course it didn’t help that day before walking from school is when we hear Lionel uncle by the bar saying “Maria did make me stand up with that gift in she mouth alone.” He with he sickly hop and drop, broko- foot self. You ent see he should be shame to be letting people know he was even over there? What he doing by the bar anyway? He should be home resting he old foot and trying to be on the mend. Anyway, I walk straight home, drop my book bag and head out toward the little track behind Miss Pearlie house that lead me onto the next street where Miss Maria house was. Coast was clear and I let myself in and walk straight to the back door. Just like Keisha say is only a setta “Oh God” and “Yes Jesus” I hearing throw between daddy and Miss Maria. Hear nah I never know my stomach could churn so much. Not my good, good father. And dis Maria woman – is how much man one woman want? Some yuh could throw back man! My mind tell me to run out the yard but mih foot say “No, Onward ever! We have to see for we-self.” Somewhere in the excitement, it seems that I am now in partnership with mih foot. So me and foot walk along the back wall on the far side of the house, fighting Miss Maria flowers and vines, to where we hearing the noise comin from, until we reach a window. What I see in that window change my life forever.
“Daddy!” It jump out mih mouth before I could think. My eye open wide wide and same speed daddy look up and see me, seeing him with Miss Maria. There is my father, down on his knees, Miss Maria in front of him with a hand on his head. Well my two knee lock-up and is me and me alone because Foot is clearly off the clock - partnership done. I couldn’t even move, much less to run. I could only try to figure out what I seeing play out in front of me. There is Miss Maria standing in front of my daddy, one hand on his head and the other hand… holding a Bible? Wait wait, wait a footing minute! Is pray the two of them praying? All the Jesus and Jesus is level prayers Miss Maria putting down, my father on his knees hands up in the air with tears in his eyes, agreeing with Miss Maria for healing. I look around the room and it start to sink in that it’s a small chapel. Miss Maria have pictures of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, all the Angels and saints, even a picture of the last supper with Mary Magdalene clearly portrayed (a nod to the divine feminine I would later learn). I now, understand what good good, healthy body, strong back, strong foot Lionel uncle was saying by the bar yesterday. Dat is man. I did always like him.
Turns out ole ting, Miss Maria was something of a faith healer and when she move to the village she just stick with the men because well considering her looks and her name the village women were, well, being village women. Just like dog-face Keisha. In the end even my mother come around and would to send me with a little pone for Miss Maria for helping daddy with he bad back. This Christmas guess what I still want? Yes dat self. Seam down the back and everything!
my flash fiction friday #83; trigger: origin story. littlefrog sit up tall, craning she head, trying to make sense of new surroundings. the damp leaves even more intoxicating close, going straight to she senses as she take a moment to breathe after the exertion of reaching up on top them. they have a essence of something she never know before, something besides their leaf-ness. she still except for deep quick breaths as she scan for signs of movement. then she feel the vibrations. something big. plenty bigger than she. coming she way, fast for something so big. a second later she under the top leaf, quivering, trying to shallow breathing and still she trembling throat. whatever coming, massive. the whole world shaking as it reach right up and she can’t peep all of it because it plenty taller than where she jump up to reach the leaves. it stop right in front of she but still moving on spot, vibrating everything under she tense bamsee and the leaf hiding she. she want desperately to leap from between the leaves back down to the ground to quickly, quietly, blend in and hop away but don’t know what this creature doing and where it looking, plus scared she could get crush. fear keep she shivering under the top leaf; she feel sheself secrete and before she could even understand what happening to she little body, what tiny glands could do, the pile of leaves fly up and land in something dank+wet but not like any wet she ever know before, starting with scent. sensitive skin sense is not just water. she skin could feelsmell plenty brand new things, wet, kinna like where feel like home, but thicker, oilier. and not smooth force; slick, but gritty, somehow; things in things. and plenty different essence she never know before. like where feel like home but earthier, and more powerful, somehow, more…potent… she don’t understand but it already don’t matter. essences penetrate, permeate, pervade, infiltrate, invade, occupy, overrun… littlefrog don’t understand but it already don’t matter. littlefrog is become… suddenly sitting up in the iron pot in the sink, bamsee soaking in a floral musk, faucet jooking she centre-spine, jooking-board at she lowerback, confused…then suddenly full understanding of she own existence, what was and what is now and the shock she mustbe cause the ancient man facing she…then suddenly awareness of she now-human nakedness and what that could cause…then suddenly wondering what it was this obeahman was trying to do when a little frog fall in the mix…suddenly realising she shouldn’t stay to find out. she struggle out the sink, push past the oldman and start to run, for the 1st time ever, pelting across the yard on new limbs thinking about running faster, and about where to go, about how big+wide this world is and how she never know before and almost never even know. so many thoughts; littlefrog woulda never know. and she running and wanting to run faster fasterfaster and then suddenly she feel a kinna way she only ever feel once before, just now, moments ago in the iron pot in the sink when she become… suddenly, ocelot, speeding, into the night… walk good.
The first thing I love is the perspective. it would never occur to me to write something from the perspective of a frog. In two words "little frog" immediately you took the main character out of isolation and let the reader understand that he/she is one of a group whether a few or many. I was immediately immersed in the world you created. I could smell that muddy earth slightly decaying fallen leaves Yet at the same time, absolutely no action is given away and I'm left wanting more.
dread, now i here all blushing; thank you! i enjoyed this one, inspired by the baby frogs that evidently like the lime by my kitchen sink and always jumping up+scaring the shit outta me when i washing wares; i's be well talking to them about the dangers of liming by the sink with strangers like me and the idea just hit me...i feel i continuing this one :]
flash fiction friday #83 trigger: origin story. 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.
So whenever I think of an 'origin story' I usually think of something extraordinary, happening to someone who is or who would become extraordinary, but I wanted to challenge that idea of grandness with a story of an everyday kind of character, who would go through an everyday kind of event that would be important enough in an everyday kind of way to make him who he is or becomes at the end of the story:
“In the matter of Holm v Holm, Mr. Scott appears on behalf of the Petitioner, Eugene Holm. Mr. Arlington appears on behalf of the Respondent, Robert Holm.”
“Mr. Arlington, where is your client?”
“M’lady, I spoke to my client only a few minutes ago and having encountered a traffic exercise by the Police Force, he is most regrettably delayed. In the circumstances therefore, I wish to seek the Court’s indulgence to have this matter stood down for 30 minutes.” Mr. James Arlington, Esq. hated lying on behalf of his clients, but he had just lied, pretending that Robert Holm was on his way to Court.
Lying. Robert Holm was at home, lying in bed the first time he heard his phone ring. He was still in the same position, staring at the nothingness now, as “Mr. Arlington - Lawyer” was flashing on his phone’s screen for a second time. Robert left the phone, that was sitting on the floor beside his bed, to ring. He could have rolled over and turned the phone off but Robert didn’t care and he didn’t have the energy, so he left it.
Turning. “The world still turns without me in it. Let Eugene go and let her take whatever she wants” Robert thought. Robert believed that Eugene was right to leave, that he deserved whatever the lawyers and the judge would to do to him. Nothing they could do could be worse than his realization of who he really was. Nothing was worse than him, his existence.
Existence. Robert went back in his mind to the first time he saw Hailee. He couldn’t believe that something so beautiful, so tender, so precious could exist because of him, because of Eugene, because of love. He was supposed to be there with Eugene but it happened so fast and he got the call so late that by the time he had rushed to the hospital, Hailee had already come in all her radiance.
Rushed. Robert was always rushing. He had been rushing that sunny day too, that day when the markets crashed, when windows up, he locked the car, and tumbling over himself, he raced up the stairs to his office. It had only taken him 10 minutes to run to the office and half the time to sprint back, but by then Hailee was gone. She was there, just as he had left her, just as beautiful, just as peaceful, asleep in her chair in the backseat of the car, but she was gone.
Gone. Hailee was gone but the memories stayed. Robert still marveled at every expression, every gesture, every sound she had made in the 26 weeks, 5 hours and 10 minutes that she had stayed. How could he have destroyed what love had made? She was gone but she had left a hole in Robert, a fortress of collapsing emptiness that he was trapped inside.
Trapped. Robert felt he would never escape the trap he had set himself - his regret, his loathing, his shame had taken root and were weaving their dark vines tightly around his soul. There was only one solution that he knew, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He spat out the pills and allowed the liquor flow down his throat alone. That was the first time that Robert Holm drank until he blacked out. It would be a lifetime before he would try to stop.
There was and is only blackness before this. The mind wakes, in stages and moves in stop-start motion recalling pieces of the night before, fragments and bits and she feels like she is in pieces. There is the sense of a body, of a thing that the mind moves and is moved by. The sense of a thing in pain and she wonders where she is and how she got there.
The American walk in the bar like he own the place. Is something he learned from his time there. It is what was expected of him. Better to give people what they expect, that way they not looking at you when the unexpected happens. And true to form, the other conversations didn't stop. Nobody changed from what they was doing to stop and stare but he knew, he felt them notice him.
Is years now he here, years now he getting braver. He is not the only American on the island. This is by design, by intent. There were hundreds of them but he mostly kept to himself. He didn't befriend the other Americans. He wasn't trying to integrate, just to blend in enough to not be noticed.
It is very hard, as a white man, to go unnoticed on an island full of black people. At first he tried his usual 'don't mind me, I'm not even here' approach. Back in the States, this was what he did, He was the wallflower. That didn't work here. Here, Americans were not quiet beings, they weren't the quiet ones in the room. All the Americans here were in oil, and everyone on the island expected J.R. Ewing types. He was in fact making himself stand out, raising attention to himself while deafening everyone with his silence. He caught it early though, so he changed. He learned to do the expected, to walk in like he own the fucking place. To embrace the convention, to seize everything, to make a scene. He would be noticed, yes, but he would not be remembered. He learned that he was most anonymous when he was at his most obnoxious.
Seeing no eyes but feeling all eyes on him, he walks to the bar, pretends to ignore the people in front of him who are clearly in the middle of ordering a round of drinks and shouts his order, up and over them. This is what he has to do, to stay hidden. After he has gotten his drink, he goes to a corner, next to a group of girls in a booth.
Tonight will be the night. He has been working his way to this for so long, practiced it over and over in his head. What he wants is to make his choice and be on his way. He must, however, be careful. He must create more of a scene so that he can be forgotten. He turns his attention to the group of girls. He is charming at first, so charming they invite him to sit with them. They are all giggling during his stories. He buys them a round of drinks and brushes a hand on one's bare knee. He touches another's shoulder in mid-laugh, playing it off like a casual thing. After coming back from the bathroom later on, he definitely rubs the breast of the bare-kneed girl while squeezing back into the booth. She starts giving him puppy eyes and is touching him on the legs and chest herself. She bores him.
At the bar is a young, Indian woman drinking alone. She was there when he first walked in and has not moved for the night. She has paid no attention to him but if you asked her the following day she could tell you an American man was in the bar that night and with a group of girls. He was getting really friendly with the girl in the real short skirt, but she wouldn't be able to describe him, no. 'He was kind of obnoxious so I didn't want to stare at him too long.'
He walks the group of girls out when they are ready to go. This has worked out nicely. He had a plan for if the woman at the end of the bar made to leave before they were ready but he didn't need it. The bare-kneed girl is very tipsy and leans on him on her way out. He can tell that her friend's are not drunk enough to not be protective of her and he is happy with his choice. He makes no offer to take her home, or to follow them, he is the perfect gentleman. When they drive off, he waves while he watches them go and scans the parking lot at the same time. He sees no one, picks a dark corner, and waits.
She comes out within an hour. There has not been movement of any kind for ten minutes before she appears. He is salivating and it makes him happy. He is aware of all the sensations coursing through him. Saliva means excitement, means his heart rate up, means hearing it pound in his head which will bring the high pitched ring in his ears, means blood flowing through him, means erection. He stays in his shadowed corner, reaches his hand down and starts rubbing himself, his breath now coming in short, raspy bursts. His luck continues as she makes her way toward the part of the car park where he is also parked. He emerges from his corner of shadows. The thrill of the realization rushes through him. This is his first hunt and he wants to scream at the top of his lungs, release something primal, to see the fear in the eyes of his prey.
She grew up steeped in religion. Selassie was the way and the truth so it was bible quizzes and late-night meditations on the Word. The mother start off Catholic but followed her man in the way of the ‘Fari. As African people, it feel better when your savior black. The mother side of the family always had a lil extra sauce. Who does dream straight and call de whe-whe man, who could sense and smell their dead when they came to visit. She-self used to get lil visions: if she see or dream yuh dead, is bess yuh take front and get your affairs in order. The ‘Fari father, possibly due to childhood trauma, developed the ability to hear people’s thoughts. As their firstborn, I suppose it was no surprise she come out lil saucy sheself. Strange things always happened around her and she was always talking to God. She was particularly sensitive to African drums and spirit music. They say a time she was in de Emancipation Village after the parade. Miss Ella playing loud loud on the speaker and jess so de sistren hold on to a tent pole and despite the boulder-as-anchor, start to pick it up and drop it, rockin de whole tent. It take a while before she come back to sheself. Curious at the call to her spirit, she put on a CD with Miss Ella songs when she was home alone. Her mother came home to find her on the living room floor insensible, full-body pulsing to the heavy rhythm. After that, her mother ban her from Miss Ella and all “obeah music”. Her uncle was an Orisha drummer and warned her to avoid them. Said he’d seen too much dark and her spirit was too open. Too easy, he warned.
Some early morning she was sleeping and dreaming; it was scary and confusing. She woke up in a fire-filed room with what could only be ancient symbols on the walls and the number 33 carved into her forearm. Terrified, she ran to her father. His ever-serene demeanor shifted momentarily at her tears and the raised skin. He went immediately for his Bible, blessed some water, and poured it and fervent prayers into every room of the house. By time her mother got home from work her arm was smooth. After that, she did her best to mind her mother. Avoiding drums despite the call.
Her grandfather was her best friend but he died when she was very young. She love him so much is like she could never let him go. Daiz musse why the dead know they could come to call. She went to stay by a friend for a month and barely last a week. The house had fresh dead but spiritually inert living so is she they come by to send message. Her grandfather was one thing but stranger dead is a whole next scene. You know what it is for people ghosts to be hounding you when night come? When a heat and a odour following nobody but you? Fraid to open your eyes, feeling somebody standing over you when you know nobody there? She deliver the message and buss.
She took a vacation in Tobago. She wanted peace and quiet to recalibrate. She had leaned away from the twelve tribes of her people but God was still her north star. Her intention was to fast and cleanse, to pray and connect. She found a pretty guesthouse online in a quaint village called Les Coteaux. She had a deep love for Shadow and was only too pleased to find out he’d grown up there. What her guesthouse research did not tell her was that Les Coteaux known for the mystical.
True to her word, she fasted and prayed for her family and friends, for the world in turmoil. She always had to remind herself that she deserved her prayers too. So she asked for healing and strength, for clear purpose and determination. She knew god doh come, he does send. So she prayed, “Send me, Lord. Prepare me. This world too wicked and it cyah stay so.”
I’ve read that there are certain places on earth that are charged with special energy. God energy, I suppose. They say ancient churches and places of worship were built along these powerful lines of latitude and longitude and there, manifestation power was multiplied. If that is true, I suspect Les Coteaux is one.
The next day she took a drive to the north side of the island. She drove past the crystalline waters of Castara and Parlatuvier; her destination was Speyside. She had a friend who worked at a hotel there so she had access to the idyllic private beach. She lay on the fine white sand and absorbed the mid-afternoon sun, she could feel it energising her skin and going deeper – a delicious tingle. The sea provided cool relief. She dove deep, enjoying that quiet world then swam far out into the blue; the horizon seemed to call her. She floated there with the cool at her back and the sun on her face. It felt like balancing on the cusp of the liminal. When the sun began to dip she swam in. She stood at the water’s edge and thanked God and the ocean spirit for welcoming her and keeping her safe. She used the hotel’s outdoor shower, gathered her things, thanked her friend and headed to the car.
If you know anything about Tobagonian topography, you know the north coast roads are treacherous. Narrow, winding and plagued with overconfident local drivers who clearly long for flight. It was dark now and she could feel the exhaustion from her day in the water. The sea is like that. It gives but it takes, it fills the heart but drains the body. It was a longish drive back home but she knew sleep would be sweet.
There was a tingling in her toes, her feet. She frowned, clenched and released, wiggled her toes. She guzzled some water. It was probably just mild dehydration; she had been in the water for hours. The tingling continued and seemed to rise up her calves. Interesting. A mild numbness had set in but she could still use her feet so she increased her speed; best to get in as soon as possible. The tingling numbness continued its ascent as it crawled up her thighs. She was really worried now. Was she having a stroke? She couldn’t feel her legs but the car was still moving so they were clearly still functioning, just not under her control. Something was taking over her body. She could barely feel her arms. A car flew around a blind corner, headed straight for her. She screamed in terror and shut her eyes, fearing the end. She felt her arms jerk the wheel to the left, dodging the car, then right itself. What the actual fuck was happening to her? She felt feverish. There was something else inside her, around her, moving her.
The car pulled into the driveway. Her head was spinning, her vision was coming and going. She felt herself being lifted up and out of the car. She saw her hands turning the key in the front door, then nothing at all.
She awoke on the kitchen floor. Her body felt achy, her neck at an odd angle. She rolled gingerly to her side, slowly pushed herself up. Her limbs felt heavy and her mind was foggy. What the hell happened last night? She went to the kitchen sink, filled a glass of water, drained it then had another. She walked slowly to the bathroom and into the shower. She let the water run warm over her body then cold over her head. When she got out she felt better, clearer, more in control of herself. She walked toward the dresser, picked up the coconut oil and slowly ran her hands over her body as if reacquainting herself. Only then did she look in the mirror. She looked like herself: brown, smooth, a little less round from fasting. For the most part, felt like herself. She started to turn away then heard a voice in her head say, “You called. We have come. Let us begin.”
Well the real shit is how I end up in the middle of a cafe in Belmont in a towel tuck into a panty. "I lose mih bag I lose mih hat i lose mih clothes I lose mih keys i lose mih wallet." "yuh lose yuh bag yuh lose yuh hat yuh lose yuh clothes yuh lose yuh keys yuh lose yuh wallet? Jesso jesso? yuh wallet? jesso?" "he lose he bag he lose he hat he lose he clothes he lose he keys he lose he wallet? Jesso jesso? He wallet? jesso?" Allyuh yuh know is shit we like so by the time the third somebody repeat it you know is because they make a whole rhythm section and man wining like this ain't one of the saddest and most peculiar things they ever did see: a grown man stand-up normal normal in the middle of a stranger kitchen in a towel and a panty. Well yuh remember how the Corona come and mash up Carnival 2021, so the government decide to treat the big football match and dem like it was a small carnival nah. So say come and all the teams come in the country and is bacchanal in Port-of Spain. Girl instead of bands in costumes it was all the people in their t-shirt or volunteer team outfit for whatever job they was doing for the big event. Anybody who was anybody was in town mixing and mingling with all the nobodies. I wasn't in no section or team. It was a spur of the moment thing when I bounce up mih two good good friends Fatty and Christophe by QRC. Hear nah is wine wine wine wine all d way up until we reach right by Cadiz road there. Fastness nah because yours truly foot start to burn and the best wine turn into a small limp. By the time we reach all by Gerningham it was real pressure. "I go ketch up with allyuh just now". "I now saying you reach real far". "Yeah better you sit down here and wait, it have a Bus in d back for all the Tanty and dem day cyah make". "Why yuh doh haul yuh ass? I ever Tanty with you?" All this time I cyah even laugh good because I breathing hard. "Yeah I go wait here. The crowd not so big man, the bus soon come".
When I tell you is knock out I knock out clean. When I open my eye the place empty; No bus, no music and no evidence of any parade or festivities. "Strange". I get up and test mih foot. "You ain't tellin me". Well hear nah if I had to shit I woulda drop it right there and then. The fright that run up my back was almost as strong as the sudden grip on mih vocal chords that only allow me to let out the smallest "eep!" as I jump and turn a full 360 to see where the voice had come from. Today, today the gymnastics people couldda send me for gold. Standing quietly right next to where I was sleeping was a little old man. His purple volunteer T-shirt about 5 sizes too big and drooping all around him made even more ridiculous by his extra slim-fit jeans on his extra skinny legs. “Sorry Uncle” he look more scared than me. “I was just wondering where everybody gone”. “Me too yes boy. The last I know they was by the hospital and I was hustling tryin to meet them”.
I stop to take him in as he raised his hand and gestured in the direction of the hospital. Gold bangles caught the sun and clinked quietly as he moved. He had a strip gold sequined cloth tied loosely around his neck.
“Thanks Uncle I going to look for dem. I hadda find mih friends”. I stepped away and started down the road. About two steps in his bangles clinked quietly behind me making me stop and turn. “you comin?”
“Nah nah I go stay here” “yuh sure?” My eyes stopped on his little gold boots that matched his neck tie. He swell his chest and stamped his feet lightly, “Dese leave over from when I used to play king sailor for carnival. Yes I sure. I will stay right here man.” “Arrite Uncle well I gone.” I reach about two buildings when I hear him call out “Doh worry ‘bout me. Dey does always make sure I find mih way back home!”
I didn’t have time to study if it was the boots he was talking about because I was more worried about why the road was so quiet. The closer I get to the end of the hospital I start to hear a little music so I feel good. They must be turn and decide to go over Piccadilly side. I run een a side street that I see a couple taxis use when they trying to avoid midday traffic and reach over by the plannings quick. I say I go reach on the next side quickly to at least catch a glimpse of any stragglers or maybe the same said bus. Place just quiet. Not a straggler in sight and to be honest I beginning to think that I run up the wrong street. I turn and start back down the little street and I see a little narrow stairs running down between two break down houses yard that look like it lead back out to the main street right by the corner with the clinic. Nice. I run down in there. The passage was tight and I end up having to turn to the side to make it out on to the street. Thank God for Gravity. Mih clothes was dirty but I make it out turn left and start to walk toward the music. Wrong Street!
Well now I really don’t know where I am. Why I didn’t just keep mih fat ass on the street I know. Now I hadda go back up the stairs to the next street and follow It out back to where I come from. I wonder if I was go make because to burst out of a small spot with yuh weight pushing you is one thing. To stuff yuhself back in is something totally different. Chile I turn around to head back and there they were. They were so still that I didn’t see them at first; the three of them. No telling when they got there no telling where they come from. Did I stumble in on them or did they come looking for me? Either way I freeze dead in mih tracks. The only reason I stay quiet is because the one in the middle lock mih two eye and trap me in the gaze. As a child yuh hear about them, you remember? The spirit people they say livin under the all dem ruins in the hills of Belmont? I always throw it away as just chirren stories but I was watching them here plain as day. I watch dem and dem watch me. They looked to be covered in red clay. The small chirren couldda been boys couldda been girls. Same little white tunic that come down to their knees. They were so tiny that it couldn’t have been more than a yard of cloth between them. Same little round heads with tight curls and everybody skin clay red with white symbols look like they write in chalk. I wouldda say same face too but the eyes on each tell a very different story. The one in the middle, still holding me in that gaze get up and walk toward me. The only thing keeping me together was a big big feeling of peace I was feeling in dem eyes. It was like Peace was on a loud mic then. I makin sense? It was only about four steps but it might as well had been one hundred. I kneel down under the weight of the peace and the three of dem start to sing. Quiet quiet. It was in mih ears like it was a secret for me alone. Peace reach up and touch mih forehead mih eyes and the little hand stop to trace a symbol right where mih neck meet mih chest. Is all I could do not to cry. I get a little ease and I stand up. Peace and the other two was already walking away from me some red dust lingering behind them, obscuring dem. It was back to me in a face-off with the small stairs and a long ass journey to end up in that damn café in a towel and a panty.
@Kristoff. I was slightly confused at first but soon absolutely delighted to roll along in the entanglement of thoughts and emotions that Robert was experiencing. like being ensnared in many vines.
@adam I chuckled to myself as you described "he was most anonymous when he was at his most obnoxious." It's exactly what the rest of the world expects from Americans and the best way to hide is definitely in the open. Poor Indian girl. I really want to know what happens next. I scared tho lolz
@winter ohgadoye! i wasn' expecting peace+crew atall atall and that story had me totally enthralled; very natural-feeling, or something...yes, very natural-feeling, and the funny segueing easily into the eerie. i liking your short fiction; collection go be good.
this fff was weird for me; not because i unhappy with what i write but i unhappy with me in this challenge. i disappoint meself with plenty shite fffs before when i cyah seem to write anything i like and end up posting an fff i unhappy with but sharing still because tha's part of the exercise for me and i always learn something from making meself write+post it even when i doh think it good enough. las' fff i was unhappy with mine but know is because when tony dead, i fold up. this rounds i goodish[ish!] with what i write, but feel i didn't get far enough out my comfort zone to truly fulfill the challenge, in spite of every effort to. i start out saying i going crime fiction because i wanna be able do that well and only ever try once, but late monday night realise even though i like my idea and find it outside my usual story-type, the actual writing, the voice, wasn't; like my natural voice lend itself too easy to the different genre, so it still feel like the kinna ting i would write. and i wanted to challenge meself. so i mash brakes 1time to think on it. late tuesday i decide to switch to something further removed from what i's usually do, and go romance, and rather than try to force-fit what i had, start over from scratch; i mean, it eh like i eh accustom being late with my fff...except when i went to start over in the wee hours of wednesday, i like what i already had too much and find meself trying to write a romance-mystery instead. then, realise today my completely unromantic backside really delivering something more like very light erotica than romance, and thus still staying closer to my usual voice (not that i's be aiming for erotica; is all them diablesse i's be there with) than i wanted, but new trigger going up nex' day and i eh have time to retrain meself to successfully execute romance by then, so instead i just taking the trigger as a trigger to write...something. and i eh vex with it, just feeling like i eh truly fulfill the challenge even though i happyish[ish!] with wha' i write, and did stick to the basic rule of the relationship-as-focus, even though i break the happy ending one, a la romeo+juliet, because if shakespeare could do ting, then who's me?! and i still re/learn valuable tings through this semi-failed fffing: freedom is nothing to lose; all villains just need a hug; and the phone never rings, the baby never cries, and the rent never overdue in romances. so, flash fiction friday #82; trigger: pick a genre [afrofuturism/detective/horror/romance/noir/scifi/fantasy/speculative/etc.] and/or conceptual/structural trope [hero-journey/zombie-or-other-apocalypse/coming-of-age/etc.] that isn't your usual m.o. and make it yours. the smell was unreal. too many unwashed in too little space, layered on top the pelau+pie. she shallow she breathing and press on. no time nor place for discomfort, especially as that smell was testament to how much these services needed. she make she way past the kitchen to she office. bookkeeping time; them accounts wouldn’t make theyself up. she pull out the ledger, appreciating the beauty of running the wash like this, not having to maintain two different set of books for the government and sheself. of course, the tradeoff was every youthman assuming she soft and a easy takedown. of course, them youths was always wrong like a marble. nobody who reach far enough to become district cleaner coulda ever be soft. plus by now, this whole community was she; you would hadda come real ninja to get to she, catching she intransit your only possible opportunity. she pull she mind back to the task at hand. what play off earlyweek cost, and intake need to reflect that. she remove the dummy event glamourised creole catering and start working backwards through the numbers but find she mind keep running back, playing through a peculiar selection of memories like if it searching for something… walking into her office for the 1st time, singleminded in she purpose, no idea what she was in for. derailed, completely, by honey’s honeyed tones and later, determination. she gone in there smart but green with she big ideas and make she offer expecting to get through on sheer dollar amount, and honey’s one condition take she for surprise. “wait. i hadda wha’?” “you don’t have to; i asking if you want to because i want you to…” “or hor. then…nahhh…” “…but if you want the building…” she watch honey up+down, hard. “eh heh…so, i hadda.” “you don’t want to?” she watch honey long+hard again. “fine.” it was at dinner later she finally accept she mighta be outta she depth. and that maybe that wasn’t no bad thing. she drag she mind back to the book in front she face. and a moment later, honey snatch she back again. that dinner. she never had nobody just focus on she before. that level of attention, engagement, desire…she had never know what it was to have a person just be interested in and into she, as a person. honey sit close, touch she hand, look she in she eye, feed she exotic mouthfuls from her very fingers, the novel experience of sushi merely backdrop to honey stirring she insides in unfamiliar ways she know wasn’t about raw fish and plum wine…honey hot little hand sliding between she thighs under the table, right there in the people restaurant, 1st time she ever jump so, 1st time of many she find sheself owner of a vocabulary of sounds only honey could elicit. the books. she tear sheself from honey’s warmth and come back to the pages. which conjure more memories. standing in their building for the 1st time, she so excited she slowly spinning in a circle, taking in everything again, head full of them big plans until honey on her knees in front of she unzipping and pulling down and pushing aside, demanding access to she hidden parts, thiefing she head all over again. after, she+honey laying on the counter, honey whispering, “if tha’s wha’ you going and do, lemme help you. start by expanding your clientele…once you could service them.” honey helping she turn the unused kitchen into a large-scale operation where the community’s needy could eat, free. honey teaching she how to make up accounts to cover the washing and the free food sharing. honey’s neverending supply of rich white people looking for their fix, never knowing they contributing to keeping the community fed. honey, executor of she dreams… that could all fall apart if she don’t handle this part. accounts. but she have honey on she mind because something troubling she; something not right, and she never wrong. earlyweek, when the shit went down, why honey wasn’t shock like she? that was the maths to study right now. numbers on paper cyah block the picture of that face she love, sad but unsurprised, already ready to help she move forward from what was evidently old news to honey ears. she know what she have to do. the heart she didn’t think she had until honey, shatter. she didn’t know that could happen neither. she take five to gather sheself then get up to gather the things she need. she eh want honey to go too hard, she not trying to hurt she love, just end it. when honey reach and ask why she so quiet she hand her the glass of brown liquid, clink she own against it, and pull honey into she lap after their 1st sip, wanting to enjoy the last of this warmth. she hold onto honey tight enough she get questioned again, and answer by draining she glass and reaching for the bottle. “drink up, babes.” she pour them both again, knock back she own, put honey to sit on the desk and kneel between her thighs, pushing up her dress. she know their time short now and doh want the end to come before honey get to. love is love. when honey was bawling she name from the top of the mountain she feel the edges of the paralysis creeping in in time to watch+see the euphoria become terror in honey eyes and she tell she love with she last breaths, “couldn’t let you betray me again. and couldn’t stay without you, neither…” walk good.
loved this. was a little confused at first, but I read over and understood. I love that you're able to tell such a descriptive and detailed story but every time leaving enough to the reader to fill in. leaving us feeling smart and a part of the secret.
This line is perfection to me " honey sit close, touch she hand, look she in she eye, feed she exotic mouthfuls from her very fingers, the novel experience of sushi merely backdrop to honey stirring she insides in unfamiliar ways she know wasn’t about raw fish and plum wine…" This is so brilliant how she, in one thought, is not even gonna bother to lie to herself. it's made plain and she's not denying any of the experience.
And of course, I like the way you describe that she has honey in mind bcuz something not right. many a night I roll out of a sleep at three AM doing maths bcuz something said "tonite" nothing adding up with something said 6 years prior lolz.
thank you! a line of perfection is high praise and ting to feel proud of, oui! not surprised you had to read again, though; i think in this one i coulda/shoulda made details just a little clearer, yuhknow when you so close you cyah see the gaps for the reader? so glad you got into it+enjoyed anyway [:
flash fiction friday #82 trigger: pick a genre [afrofuturism/detective/horror/romance/noir/scifi/fantasy/speculative/etc.] and/or conceptual/structural trope [hero-journey/zombie-or-other-apocalypse/coming-of-age/etc.] that isn't your usual m.o. and make it yours. 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.
The blood on his fingers didn't bother him. Quite the opposite. It was a balm to his racing mind. Like coming home. It was warm and viscous and good. Like sucking on pennies that had been drizzled ever so slightly with honey he thought as he curled his tongue around each finger making sure to savor the taste. Each person had their own distinct flavor. Subtle but very telling. The untrained palette might miss it. No the blood on his fingers didn't bother him one bit. In his mouth, on his face, dripping down his neck. It was why he did what he did. It wasn't the killing that he craved it was the near-spiritual feel of that first spray of warm blood across his body. Every spray like electricity tearing across his skin. It always amazed him just how much blood a body held and how the heart would keep pushing it out. Torturing him. Seducing him. The first night he surrendered to that sweet call he sunk into a corner drenched and sticky. He was so charged up that he couldn't resist the urge to touch himself. He didn't have to do much either. Just peeling out of his shorts, feeling them cling to each raised hair as they reluctantly slid across his wet skin brought him close. It was all he could do not to cry out when he wrapped his bloody hand around his penis. His body bucked so wildly his head snapped back and slammed into the wall behind him. It was the hardest he'd ever cum in his life. He was stunned. He could only lay there slowly tracing the tip of his dick and tasting his fingers now covered in a mix of his life and their death; well at least until he heard sirens in the distance. The blood on his fingers didn't bother him at all. He just wished it hadn't gotten all over his new shoes. Someone would have to pay for that.
“#lightandlove #beachdaze #goodtimestanlines #__(blank)__” It had been 15 long minutes of staring at his smartphone but, still, Adam could not find the right hashtag that would truly resonate with all of his 600,000 followers. It was these anxiety induced, mental blocks that made him always hate #Mondays.
Adam studied the photo more closely- he was standing on the beach facing the shore with his back angled towards the camera at just the right angle to catch the glowing, hazy rays of the sunset bouncing off his brown, muscular, slightly flexed body. You could see the profile of his handsome, defined face - the cheekbones that were chiseled from the darkest granite; the ripe, rounded lips; his cool hazel eyes, gazing into the distance.
He had specifically asked Paula, his full-time photographer and part-time girlfriend, to take the photo at a slightly upward angle (but not so far upward that it looked intentional) so that he could appear to be about 6’3” instead of 6’1”, which he actually was. She knew that he hated being only 6’1” and he didn’t understand why she was being such a bitch about having to kneel down for the shot. She had never complained about getting on her knees before, plus, he hadn’t planned on using up all the good lighting on himself; he had intended to ask some beachgoer to take a shot of the two of them together and, if she had asked, he would have even considered posting a photo with someone else for once. Anyway, he had always allowed her to post the pictures of them together on her own profile so long as she didn’t publicly tag him on them because that might lead to rivalries with his mainly female followers. She didn’t have to work on her angles as hard as he did, she already had more likes, more follows and more endorsements than he did, which, he was sure was not in small part to her not-in-any-way-small breasts.
Adam’s train of thought was broken by Lori’s shrill voice shouting something that sounded like “Rarmour me thing!” over the chipboard wall that separated their offices. “What?” Adam shouted back. “The meeting!” Sarah responded, “I was asking if you had remembered to go to meeting! The one upstairs”.
“Shit!” Adam exclaimed as he dashed out of his office; one minute more and he would have been late. As he pushed open the heavy wooden door that led into the hallway, he realized that the elevator was stopped and waiting on his floor with its doors wide open, inviting him in with its clean, silver and glass interior.
Luckily, Adam was alone in the lift so he decided to lean into the big, square mirror on the back so that he could groom his beard just a little before the meeting. He kept his beard at just the length and thickness to give the appearance of someone who was polished yet feral, mysterious yet inviting, someone approachable yet sexy.
Slam!
As the elevator jolted to a halt somewhere in between the 15th and 16th floors, Adam smacked his head into the mirror and felt himself dropping to the ground.
Adam could hear a firmly reassuring voice in front of him. It was a man’s voice that was saying “…happy that you’re awake”. As the mist cleared from his eyes, Adam looked towards the voice and blinked so quickly and so markedly that the voice told him not to be “too alarmed” because of the “minor head trauma.” The blue V-neck shirt and the little clipboard made sense but the dark, handsome doctor, the chiseled cheekbones, the pursed lips, the hazel eyes, even the beard were eerily familiar – not just familiar to Adam, but identical to him.
As the doctor scribbled something on his clipboard, a high, thin voice came from outside the room – “Doctor, you’re needed in the Intensive Care Nursery”. The person who hurried into the room had the same face as the doctor, who had the same face as Adam – dark, handsome, chiseled bone structure, round lips , hazel eyes and full beard but this time the face was wearing, or the person wearing the face was also dressed in a skirt, a short top that covered what looked like breasts, and a white nurse’s cap.
Adam didn’t know that he was going to scream until he was actually screaming. The doctor had already left but the nurse was either trying to calm him or drown him with a full cup of water; he couldn’t tell the difference.
“My phone! Where’s my phone?” Adam panted as the nurse fussed about him. When the nurse handed it to him, he opened his profile. Nothing had changed. His profile was still littered with his selfies, selfies of him with an affected unawareness that he was even being photographed. He was still topless in all of the photos. He remembered all the poses, all the filters, all the shots it took before he could get the perfect one to post. He looked exactly the same as he recalled.
Maybe he had stayed the same online but something about him had changed now, in this moment. Adam opened the front camera on his phone and used it to look at his own reflection. He held the phone up above his head, to the left and to the right. He scrutinized every eyelash, every pore but nothing was different.
“Nurse, did I hurt my eyes when I fell? Or did I hit my head really badly or something? I don’t think I’m all right.” The nurse responded “Your bump this morning was really minor. Everything’s normal and look, your girlfriend is here to collect you. Just relax”.
“Paula?! Paula???!!!! What the fuck is happening to me?!!!” Adam exclaimed the moment he saw her. “Adam, I know you had an accident but I really don’t appreciate you talking to me like that, especially in front of other people” Paula said as she looked over at the nurse. He recognized her voice and with it, the firm chill that meant that she was one step away from anger. “Why, why do you look like that? Like meeee?!” Adam pleaded, quietly, almost like a child. Paula brushed the side of his face with her slim fingers and said reassuringly “Babe, what do you mean? I look the same. Look at this picture that we took just yesterday. Do you remember? Look, I posted it this morning”.
As Adam looked at the phone he saw two bodies in an embrace, the brawny arms and legs were his, and the other body, the slim waistline, the big breasts, the butterfly tattoo on the shoulder, were definitely Paula’s but as he looked at the faces they were both him, his face, his faces, kissing himself…
They descended on him like a horde, the buzzing of the different engines gave the bikers an insect-like quality. He felt his chest tighten, his heart race faster, as they swarmed around him and thoughts of the past over powered and penetrated the fear in his mind. Thoughts of the time before, when things was nice. When the virus first came, it changed things, yes, but everyone thought it would be for a short time. There was hope that we would soon be back to normal. Across the whole planet, pandemic, panic dem. It spread slow, but fast. In three months every country in the world housed infected. After six months hope dwindled into nothing as the realization set in. Those who didn't die the first time, without exception, became infected again. Every national health system, supply chains for food and supplies, all failed. Already strained since the start of the pandemic and not able to recover before the second wave of sick. There were no beds, no medicine, no time. The death toll spiked. Entire families erased in days, neighbourhoods in a week. Some islands, entire countries, collapsed in a month. As more people died off, more and more empty buildings and vehicles full of bodies but not life, became the norm. A few humans had immunity, but only a few. Internet, banking, air travel, oil and gas, all things we took for granted, all came to a grinding halt. There was a sign we missed. It was the americans. Not all of them, just the 'real' America. They descended on their own cities and state legislatures by the hundreds and in some places thousands, with swastikas and nooses, holding their bibles, toting their guns and reciring their constitution. The founding fathers had given them rights and they would exercise those rights and trade liberty for death. They marched and intimidated their way into the reopening of American cities and towns ignoring warnings of it being way too soon. Three days after they got their wish the first of them started getting sick. Still, they went out, refusing face masks and in some cases evven reacting violently or even intentionally coughing on people who were just trying to do their jobs. Two weeks after and maybe ten were left. Not just ten in Detroit or ten in Chicago, ten Americans. The second round of the virus was unprecedented. In a matter of months the whole world changed. Internet gone, cable television. What happened with the Americans affected the word more than material things. It showed how things like rights were fictional, at best. It challenged the sense of morality. Governments fell, no police or army. The few survivors, those with immunity, lived by their own rules. Some hoarded fuel, others weapons and ammunition and others food and clothing. Some nieghbourhoods came together and tore themselves apart. It wasn't even organized enough to be anarchy. It was primal. That is how he reach here, swarmed by the bikers studying when and how the world went bad.
@winter, definitely not your norm (at least from wha' i know) and i find it real work, dread. good+taut, and i think the connecting/overlap of different desires well written. feel like fff was a good means for this exploration...
@swantastico: yes! i think at the moment more existential horror than scifi, although, if you continue working on it you could choose to make it go either direction with the explanation and story development. i think it pretty damn decent, though; how you feel after sleeping on it?
@adam i like the setup but feel like i need more of the connection between the recent history narrator describing and the scene with the bikers. i also know time was not on your side so curious to see if you pursue the other part of this. i suspect i unintentionally fail to deliver similar connection in mine this rounds but hadda go back+see...
Definitely not my norm. nowhere near. I only had the vaguest idea of NOIR. took the challenge. scared mih damn self at how easily it poured out and how risque it became. I"m really enjoying this FFF experience. puts me on a schedule which I need. and makes me explore more of who I could be as a writer.
7 Comments:
Ants eh tell nobody nothing, he eh give no warning, just so he stop marching and lie down right where he was halfway up the wall with the crack, in the corner by the stove.
"Wha de hell going on with you breds?" Cockroach ask him, honestly bewildered, and it does take plenty to confuse Cockroach.
''Like you eh hear? De Prime Minister say how de place on lockdown boy. Nobody is to leave dey home, only essential persons is allowed outside at this time.''
"So you just going and pose up on de people dem wall? You eh fraid dey come and spray yuh ass down?''
''Dey cyah do dat. Police go come fuh dem.''
''Which police? Man police?''
''Man police self! Is only essential work allowed. Dat is what the PM say. Killing one ants essential?''
This now make Cockroach sit deep in thought. Probably you didn't realize it at the time, but we is all come across cockroaches in this position. You know like when you walk into a room and you see one in the middle of the floor, not scurrying, not hidden by anything, just kinda in plain sight, like if it believe it all of a sudden turn invincible or invisible. Well that is when Cockroach stick in thought. Sometimes, if the thought deep enough you could walk right up to Cockroach and squash him and he eh even know nothing. Most times though, they will pick up on you just in time and manage to get away before you whole foot swallow them up and flatten them flat.
What Ants now tell Cockroach really make him sit, this was one of them deep ones, so that he eh even see when Man come walking in the kitchen with he belly in he hand. Man see de roach but he so hungry and he mind on all kinda other thing that he pass Cockroach straight, and is only on the way back out the kitchen that Cockroach clock what went on, with him being deep in thought and ting.
''Well shit, Ants. Like yuh was right? I going and tell everybody. This news is essential!''
''I staying right here pardnah,'' come Ants reply. ''Not me and no man police and you best mind yuhself running around out there playing town crier.''
The first man cockroach bounce up is Kisskidee. Well Kisskidee study he luck must be change. He on a branch and watching how cockroach walking brazen in the open. He moving with his usual stop-start, jerky pace, but he not ducking in shadows or hugging close to the wall. Is like he inviting Kisskidee to swoop in and eat him. So Kisskidee take flight and as he diving in Cockroach jump up, watching him so stern and proper that Kisskidee feel like to kill him now would be wrong, so he modify trajectory and ting, and land right next to Mr. Roach.
"And what you think you about to be doing pardnah?'' Asked Cockroach indignantly.
''How yuh mean Mr. Roach? When last you take a walk in the sun boldfaced so? Is eat I coming to eat you.''
''Is allyuh so does give we animal bad name yes. You eh hear de place on lockdown?''
''Who lockdown de place?'' Kisskidee now skeptical. He eh know if Cockroach feel he is Anansi and trying to pull a fast one.
"De PM himself, boy, bird boy. Ants now tell me inside. If you feel ah lie, flap round de corner, I sure he still park up on de wall by de stove.''
Kisskidee take two flap and ah peep and true enough, right where Cockroach say, he see Ants lie down like he dead, except he not squash or nothing, like a serge-ant shout stand at ease and never say dismiss.
"Well this is ah ting!'' Kisskidee say when he come back around the corner. He didn't come flying, mind you, but rather he was walking on the ground, lest some police or busybody spot him and he get in trouble.
Now, we all know the reasons why birds fly, and one of them reasons happen to bend the corner and come across Mr. Roach and Kisskidee in long talk. Well yuh know Puss eh waste no time.
''Watch how Pussin belly full today!'' She shout and pounce same time and when the dust settle, is because Roach under one paw and Kisskidee under the next. Puss so happy with herself, she start monologing.
"They say Dog is hunter? That dog come down from wolf and wolf is hunter? Dog is man best friend. When man go hunting, is dog he does take. He doh take hunting cat, you know why? Me say, you know why? Puss looked at them know, with bewitching eyes and was very surprised to find them most un-bewitched.
''See here now Puss,'' began Mr. Roach.
''Now, now...cyat,'' started Kisskidee and poor Pussin confused. Not only were the two of them un-bewitched, but Kisskidee know full well that she liked to be called Puss, none of this common cyat shit, she was bewildered by the sheer audacity of it all.
''You go ahead, Mr. Roach. Tell cyat what happening.'' Kisskidee looking across at Roach, not even wondering if his head about to get remove in a one bite and crunch up. The whole thing just so unprecendented, Puss really stop. She even raise paws and release the two of them, because they really didn't look like they was going anywhere.
''Puss, you eh hear what the PM say?''
''Who PM?''
''DE PM, girl! Prime Minister! The minister divisible by itself and one!''
''Aite nah. Jus tell mih what he say.''
''De place lockdown. All non-essential movement is hereby and forthwith prohibited, Puss.''
''I see. But, tell me, Mr. Roach,'' began Puss ever so sly, ''isn't eating essential?'' With this Kisskidee feel his heart flutter-flutter and he shoot Roach a nervous glance and was ready to take flight. Lockdown or not he did not come out here to be eaten. But Mr. Roach was calm.
''Now Puss, yes, eating is essential and you have owners, don't you, Puss? I seeing that collar around your neck.''
''I do not have 'owners' Mr. Roach. I have contracted a family to provide me with food and a place to sleep when I choose in return for my presence and affections. I am free to go and come as I please. Owners? I look like a fish in a bowl? A dog? I am not a pet!''
''Ah! But this is my point, Puss. They provide you with food. So yes, eating is essential, but, because you are provided with food, eating us is not essential for you.''
Well Kisskidee flutter-flutter again, but this time for a different reason.
Puss watch Kisskidee, watch Roach and watch Kisskidee again. She sit down and put her head between her two paws and calculating, watching them, first one, then the other. She continued like this for minutes, saying nothing. Both Roach and Kisskidee ready to dead, both want to make a bolt for it but even though her paws no longer on them, she close enough to kill either with one swipe, much less a pounce. Then she sit up fast, the movement looking like almost like a pounce. If bird could pee they self, that is what Kisskidee would do. Although, the sudden movement was only because she had reached the end of her calculations and she yawned a long, lazy satisfying yawn, as if she had just eaten.
''So then, she began, what you telling me is that man, woman, child, on lockdown?''
''Well de PM say everybody, Puss. So while yes, I am a roach, I have a body so I count in everybody. Same with Kisskidee here, Ants, who is the one tell me, and you. No lie, Puss, when Ants tell me I so deep in though I eh even see Man walk in the kitchen until he walk out. An' I dey in de middle ah de floor!''
''So is Ants tell you? And where Ants get it fom? Ants hear it from Man?''
''Well yes. Have to be.''
"But Roach, what Ants know about man? And house ants to boot? Marching up and down de place, making ah set ah noise. Ants doh hear nothing over de sound ah dey own foot. What you telling me bout Ants hear it from Man?''
''And ent I tell you Man walk straight past me in de kitchen? If it have one place Man coming after yuh is in dey. How you explain dat?''
''Boy! Is all kinna ting is go on with dem you know? You feel 'higher brain' is ah blessing?
Higher brain does give yuh something we doh get, Roach. Worries! And when dem have worries is de worst ting. Dey does fuhget tuh eat, fuhget tuh clean deyself and dey place. Is anything could give dem worries and ting dat dey cyah control too. From love tuh loss dey job. From children to de weather.You ever hear about cricket? De worst is one ah dem who like cricket. Worries! I know Man better dan Ants, and I say Ants eh know what he talking bout. Is one man in one house allyuh see moving ah how and all of ah sudden de whole place on lockdown?''
Well now, Kisskidee get an idea. A bird doh really have expressions to play over its face. A bird face just one way, nervous. So Kisskidee with his idea, start to hop up and down in a little circle. Not like he flying away or anything, but it obvious that he have something to say.
''Now what, is your problem?'' Puss still lazy, but everybody know a cat is a deceptive thing and you really can't trust what you see.
''Weh...weh...weh...,'' began Kisskidee, extra nervous in front of the sharp claws and teeth.
''Out with it man! Is either you contributing or you not. What all de blasted hoppin' for?''
''Weh...Well, I was nuh..nuh..now thinking it hah-have somebody we could ark-ark-ask. Suh...Suh..Somebody who know Man good, his best friend. Why we don't ark-ark-ask Rambo?''
''Rambo! So this is allyuh game?'' And Puss back down on all fours now, her eyes narrow, whiskers twitching with suspicion.
"I was to snatch allyuh de first time and done de talk. What fool ting it is I hearing here? Man's best friend? Me, Pussin, supposed to what? Roll up by the biggest dog on the street and ask advice? Me Pussin, getting advice from some fool dog. Man's best friend my front paws! Because what? He is dog he know better? I never understand that best friend ting. How dog is he best friend and he name pum-pum after me? And de two ah you, her eyes narrowing further now. De two ah you mus really take poor Pussin for a fool tuh tink dat I going to roll up by Rambo.
So you, Roach,'' and she drop a paw on him. ''And you bird, and she drop a paw on him too. I going to eat de two of you, find me some shade and have a little nap.''
As Puss saying this, the boy from the house come outside and bend the corner behind her. He walk straight past them, into the garden shed. Puss freeze, watching him. She leaning one way and ready to run the next. This boy is a terror! He always trying to grab her by the tail or do her some wickedness. Once he had caught her and put her in a bag. He tie that bag to a tree and swing her inside there for what feel like forever. Just when she feel like her heart going to burst, after she claw every direction from upside down to north by north west, the boy mother come and catch him and for him to let Pussin out. And now, this demon child, walking through the yard, mind preoccupied, being, well, normal for once. It make Pussin stop and take stock, and just as she was going to eat Mr. Roach and Kisskidee too.
She not moving. Pussin frozen, her eyes following the boy until he bend the corner where he had come from and went back in the house. Only then she relax a little bit. Only then she study it might have something to this lockdown talk in truth.
wow
a four post fff
sorry for the length
my fff#85@ https://urbanfolktales.blogspot.com/2020/06/fff85.html
@adam, never apologise for length, once it good [:
walk good.
Four could have been 20. very engaging. funny and smart. easy to fall into the rhythm and get right up close with these characters. I totally enjoyed. Brilliant
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