Ancil“I have no time for allyuh nah. Jerod let we get out of this water before these Americans bomb we up. You know they famous for that,” the woman said before leading her son back to the shore.
“That was weird,” I said.
“What did we ever do to her?” Kate asked, staring at the woman as she throttled back.
“Don’t study she eh,” a tall dark man with a body that looked chiseled by Michelangelo came up to us and said. His dark skin had a kind of shiny glow in the sunlight and his jawline was so sharp that I think it cut me just from staring. “She just has it hard you know, being a single mother without a job.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
“She used to be up in my house all the time. My mother running a shelter up Laventille for abandoned and abused children.”
“She was abandoned?” Kate asked.
“Abused,” the man said. “Both she and her son. He used to beat them almost every day and they wanted to leave but you know, they had nowhere else to go. It was either they take abuse or live on the street. But my mother opened her house to she and her little son along with a bunch of other children who needed refuge at the time.”
“How old is she?” Kate asked.
“She’s 20.”
“And her son?” I asked.
“Her son is 7.”
“So she was pregnant at 12?” I asked, surprised.
“Yeah. She had a hard life especially since her parents kicked her out the house after the baby was born.”
“I think I could understand why she’s so angry,” Kate said. “If I had known, I probably wouldn’t have been so mean.” Kate scanned the shore to see if she could find the woman but I didn’t think that the woman was there anymore.
“Allyuh go be here often?” The man asked.
“Yeah, it’s pretty chill here,” I answered after noticing how oblivious Kate was to the question.
“Well, I have to go but hopefully we could meet again.”
“Yeah, hopefully,” I said.
The man then dived under the water and swam to shore.
I then turned to Kate who was still scanning the shore and said, “Ten minutes is up.”
“Maybe we were too hard on her,” Kate said.
“Does it matter? She’s gone now.”
“Yes, it does matter. Remember that day back at my house on the first day we met?” Kate asked.
“Yes.”
“Do you remember what I said?”
“You said a lot of things.”
“I said that you must never judge a book by its cover.”
“Oh yeah, I remember that,” I said.
“Well, we just judged her by her cover.”
“No, we judged her by her attitude. She was really rude if you ask me.”
“Yes, but the reason she acted like that was because of all the things she’s been through. It’s not as if she asked for a messed-up life. She didn’t ask to be abused and abandoned as a child. It’s just the cards that she was dealt and the least we could have done was be nice to her.”
“But you’ve been through a similar situation and you’re not as rude and disrespectful as she is.”
“You can’t compare our situations. I don’t have a kid, I was never left on the street to find a way all by myself. If I was in her situation I’d probably be angry too. We should say sorry.”
I really didn’t want to have to see that lady and that little boy again so I said, “I’m sure that they are already gone.”
“Or not,” Kate said before grabbing me by hand and pulling me towards the shore. She had a hell of a grip unfortunately and her pruned hands felt weird on my skin.
When we got to the shore, Kate scoured the area looking for the woman just to say sorry but she was gone. Her son’s sand castles were still there but that was basically it. Kate looked a bit disappointed at the prospect that they were gone and she just sat on the sandy floor next to the sand castles with her head down and her romper soaking wet. The number of people drastically decreased as lunchtime neared and I was guessing that everyone got hungry or just went back to work or something.
“Maybe they’ll be back tomorrow,” I said.
“Urgh!” Kate groaned. “I feel so awful.”
I sat next to her and patted her back as a way to comfort her. There was now a moment of silence but within that moment of silence, I felt weird. I felt as though something was missing. I couldn’t figure out what it was but I had hoped that it would have revealed itself somewhere within the clouds.
Kate’s head rose almost too abruptly with her lips pursed seemingly trying to find some answer within the clouds as well. “Something doesn’t feel right,” she said.
Without revealing that I was feeling the same way I said, “What do you think it is?”
“I don’t know — something,” Kate said. She then began looking around after about four seconds, her head span quicker and she moved about frantically, clearly panicking.
“What?” I asked.
“My bag! It’s gone!”
