Sunday, October 3, 2010

Enjoy Snippet #2 from Novel: "Daughter of the Caribbean"

THE BUSHES OF TWICKENHAM

A few guests in their Sunday best milled around, talking about how Miss Edna’s daughter died in England, and how the body had to be flown back to Jamaica for burial in the family’s yard. One woman lamented how scary it was that Jamaicans were dropping dead from hard work in England and America, and their bodies were sent home and put to rest.
Our mouths flew open as a gravedigger let out an ear-piercing yell, “Oh Lord!”
          He rose from the grave with a clammy, dripping skull in hand. Miss Edna bolted toward her nearby house screaming, “Oh God, that is my son!”
          In seconds, she was racing franticly back to the grave, dragging an old white sheet. With anguish in her eyes, she grabbed the skull and what looked like some old bones, hurriedly wrapped them in the sheet, and ran back into her house screaming, “My son! They dug up my son!”
          With lightening speed and kicking up dust, we left that scene, fleeing through the woods back to Sedith’s house. Our hearts racing, jumping over bushes, ducking tree branches in our fastest ever bare-foot marathon, I grabbed the back of Clinton’s shirt to keep up with him. He shucked it off into my hands and sped ahead like a bullet. It was about to get worse. We put our brakes on to avoid crashing into Cookie who was suddenly in front of us, staring us down, wide-eyed, and armed with the big, rusty soupspoon. She yelled, “Your grandmother wants you in the house for dinner right now!”
 We gingerly approached Sedith’s dining room, trembling and breathing heavily. As we sat down around the big mahogany dining table, Sedith smiled sadistically and announced, “It’s calf’s liver, rice and peas, and fried plantains for dinner. Start licking your lips because it is delicious!”
          After what we had just witnessed in Miss Edna’s yard, we clutched our throats, gagging and coughing at the sight of liver on our plates. Like trapped animals we gobbled down the food, trying to hide our disgust, and to avoid the infamous belt. Sedith stared at us with playful curiosity, going “mmmmm!” as if to taunt us.