Short Excerpt From
Jamaican
Heat
A
Novella by William DeSouza 2014
The warm Caribbean breeze streamed down the
Blue Mountain range into Kingston bringing with it the sweet odors of banana,
sugar cane and mango. The gentle winds of the tiny tropical island felt like a
warm blanket as it wrapped around me. The leaves of the mango and hibiscus trees
in the yard bristled with each gust as if in anticipation of the next encounter
between secret lovers.
I looked up toward the mountain and could see
thin white wisps of clouds flow past the peek, traveling toward the ocean and
parts unknown. I was content to sit here forever and let life unfold in front
of me, content enough that I was only a watcher, not getting involved with the
day to day turmoil that lay outside of my control.
As I sat on the veranda, friends and family
mixed and mingled around me, catching up on the latest news, and of course the
latest gossip. The women showed off their latest frocks and the men, well, they
did what men did best in social situations. They found a quiet out of the way
place to play games and drink beer.
The dominos slamming onto the wooden card
table startled me as my uncle Brian exclaimed in joyous triumph, "Beat dat
ya dog ya!" A boyish grin crossed his lips, his Jamaican accent was thick
with the patois slang of the tiny Caribbean island.
"Ya workin it ard misa Brian. Ya need
not worry bout ya winnings though," replied Trevor, an old family friend.
He slammed his double sixes down and jumped up with his hands raised in
victory.
The table reverberated with the play and
laughter boomed from everyone present.
I enjoyed watching these grown men behave and
play like boys, as if embracing their youth for the first time. They were
family, friends and strangers at the same time and I adored them all. There was
a deep sense of familiarity about their faces, their voices, and this place. At
the same time I felt as though I was an interloper as I watched with a kind of
voyeuristic pleasure.
Truth be told, I was more a stranger these
days. These hot blistering days where only the tourists ventured out in Kingston
under the blazing mid-day sun.
I may have been born on the island but I left
Jamaica soon after I married Jeffery. It’s been almost six years since I was
last here.
Right out of University and in my very first
job, I met Jeffery through a mutual friend. I used to read about love in
romance novels, but only when I was with him did I understand what love really
was. He was in the Canadian Air Force working at the embassy here; and being
from Canada, Jeffery didn’t know much about the island. But that just gave me
the excuse to spend time with him playing tour guide. It wasn’t long after that
we decided to marry. I was nineteen and full of hope.
Six years ago, and a lifetime away, we left
Kingston and the blissful tropical breeze of Jamaica to the frigid cold and
snow of Northern Ontario. Jeffery’s home was Sturgeon Falls and it was as far
from Jamaica as the sun is from the Earth.
Sturgeon is a tiny town that serviced the
paper mills and forestry industry of the area. It also served as a bedroom community
for some of the air force personnel posted in North Bay Ontario.
About
a forty five minute drive West of North Bay, it’s nestled along a winding river
and had some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen outside of my home
in Kingston. It was the wild and rugged beauty of Canada's North with vast
spaces and rich forests I'd only read about in school. I used to think Jamaica
was a green place. But for all its population, Canada was a vast open space
full of trees and green fields dotted by the occasional town along a ribbon of
railways and highways.
I smiled on the inside thinking about those
first years in my adoptive home. The way Jeffery had to hold me tight those
winter days, trying to keep the cold out. I was warm enough in the well heated
house, but I liked the warmth of his body and the strength of his arms around
me even more.
Nineteen forty seven was a wonderful year.
The war had been over for two years and life on the island was grand. The signs
of prosperity and hope were everywhere and I was marrying the man I loved
greater than life itself. It was a year of change, discovery, anticipation and
also sadness, for I was also leaving the island and would be so far from my
family.
I remember the buckets of tears from my
mother and sister - and myself of course, as I boarded the ship that would take
me to a new home and a new life. I also remember the powerful, vice like
embrace of my father as he whispered his love for me in my ear. He never said
much before, but I always knew he was proud of me. To hear him say it now was
bitter sweet as I was about to embark for the three week journey.
It wasn't as if I wouldn't see them again,
but it would be a while and it would only be for short visits. That was life in
the modern world though, and I was looking forward to it. I might even say I
craved it knowing my new life was going to be shared with the man I love.
Canada was grand. We settled in Sturgeon
Falls after buying a modest home there. It was a short drive from Jeffery’s
work at the Canadian Air Force base in North Bay where he functioned as head of
the signals and communication section. It was a quiet place away from the busy
city.
In a way, Sturgeon reminded me a bit of the
quiet life back home – well, if you take the snow and cold out of the picture,
and the French language half the town spoke.
Jeffery and I lived and loved as much as any
two people could, at least until that January in nineteen fifty two. We'd been
married for almost five years by then and Jeffery's job in the military, plus
the now ranging conflict in Korea, kept him busy during the day and me
socializing with the other military wives. He had his weekends off of course
and was home anytime between four-thirty and six o-clock every day. It was
truly a wonderful life we had.
By January the war in Korea had raged for two
years. We had heard that things were going well for the United Nation forces,
but many of us had our reservations.
Jeffery received new orders that month and my
heart sank with the weight of a thousand suns.
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