“JUMBIE CORNER”

Sweetheart and the Jumbie

Walking from Pinney's Beach to Cotton Ground, the darkness can't touch him, as he's happier than you and I. It doesn't matter that the moon is a slither, as his grin is wider than everything. And the stars seem to have enhanced their spangling, as the young man walks home, floating, after an evening with his beloved.

Life feels good, Sweet to be alive, Time to shine and thrive.

Then the most joyous walk a solitary man has ever taken, is interrupted; by something with a foot on one side of the road, while the other is placed the other side of the thoroughfare. The spell of dream time beauty is broken, brutally. Instead of kisses, his mouth is now full of curses; silent ones though, as he doesn't want to antagonise the one called jumbie. He takes off his clothing, putting them back on inside out, but that old counteraction, doesn't work, so he runs.

Run, run, Don't turn around, Jumbie gaining ground.

The crickets have stopped their chanting, too scared to sing; their partners in song, the frogs, have run away, gone to chant elsewhere. Owl feels redundant, as the apparition can out-hoot him easily; the lizards go scuttling, frantically in the undergrowth: and the young man runs. Runs like he's never run before and never will again. The darkness can't hide him, neither can the banana fronds. He runs; empowered by fear, with a new knowledge of speed, like the Spirt of Usain has passed through him. Running, running, as cold shivers pass over his body and sweat begins to camouflage him. And as he opens his door and flies in, he hairs the clink clink of chains, a few moments after. A little while later, when his heart had returned to its regular beat, he'd washed his face and drank a glass of water, he sat back and remembered her.

Yes, yes, She gave me a kiss, My Sweetheart of Nevis.

“A tale from Nevis. I've changed the title, location, ending – he get's home safe in the original version also - and I added a verse. In the abridged tale I've read, Willis Taylor walks from Westbury to Cox's Village.”

©Natty Mark Samuels, 2023. African School