Hush Yuh Mout’!
A cool breeze stirred the coconut trees, and the shuffling sound they made, followed by the morning call of the neighbor’s fowl, woke me up. The sun lay low on the horizon, barely rising out of its bed, and yet the air was hot. Standing on the veranda of my house, I took my time watching it. I stared it down for as long as my eyes would allow, but after a few moments I had to look away. This was my daily routine; wake up to the breeze and the crowing, pray over myself, get ready for the day, and then challenge the sun as it rose. I didn’t know anyone else who challenged the sun, and that made me feel special, in a good way that is. The other thing that made me unique didn’t haunt me, but it haunted others.
I shouted goodbye at my parents as I walked down the front steps and out of the dusty, cracked yard that was fenced in by a chipping, rusted gate. The only beautiful thing about the yard was the garden, nurtured carefully by my mother and father. Together they had grown many crops; sugar cane, potatoes and the like, even a mango tree and a flamboyant tree for decoration. The red, orange, and yellow of the leaves made the sun jealous. That’s why he made it so hot some days. The flamboyant tree, however, would not wither. Oya saw to that.
As I shut the gate to the front yard, my mind wandered to the day I had seen her. No one…
