Ancil“Soon.”
“How soon?”
“I’m not sure yet.”
“Christmas?”
“I can’t say. You see -” I was considering telling my mom that Kate and I were broke but I really didn’t want her to panic so I just said. “I’ll definitely be back for Christmas.”
“Good. I hope you’re not just saying that to shut me up.”
“No Mom, no. Why would you even think that?” I was actually saying it to keep her from panicking. There’s a difference.
“Then I’ll see you for Christmas. And when am I going to meet Kate?”
“Christmas.”
The next few weeks were relatively simple; no drama, no hassle, just peace. As was expected, Kate spent more time with Juliet doing God knows what. They definitely had a kind of sisterly connection and I knew that Kate loved it because she even asked Kyle to buy two black eye patches for her and Juliet. Kate said that she wanted to experience the world the same way Juliet did; with one eye. It was kind of weird seeing Kate and her pirate eye. She told me to ignore it but how was I supposed to ignore her and her one eye? I never admitted it but the “one-eyedness” was already creepy enough on Juliet. One night, I made the mistake of joking about the eye patch saying. “aren’t you too old to be playing pirate?” That got her pretty mad and I had to spend the rest of the night fixing my mistake. Luckily, she forgave me but I still internally held my stance that her eye patch was pretty weird. It actually looked pretty cool on Juliet but on Kate; not so much. It just looked weird and out of place on her face but I was not about to admit that. I just let it slide but the biggest issue was actually being seen in public with two girls wearing eye patches. I was actually self-conscious like that. To be honest, Kate was getting really annoying, like, in general. Don’t get me wrong, I still loved her and whatnot but that didn’t mean I couldn’t get annoyed; annoyed by the fact that she spent most of the day with Juliet; annoyed by the fact that she thought wearing an eye patch was cool; annoyed by the fact that she only talked to me when Juliet was either in school or sleeping. I enjoyed the little time that Kate and I spent together where we basically talked about everything from my book to the economy. But, when we weren’t together she and Juliet were everywhere on all kinds of adventures around the country from fishing to hiking and for some reason, I was never invited. I only heard about the adventures at night when Kate got home. The adventures were actually pretty amazing and book-worthy: The Adventures Of Kate And Juliet. Bestseller maybe.
I would have loved to join Kate and Juliet on their adventures but they just had a way of slipping out without even telling me. It was pretty annoying but I guess going on adventures alone was just their way of bonding. They were basically like sisters now. Luckily I got invited to one of their adventures which was a trip to Fort King George in Tobago. I felt honored, in a weird kind of way.
It was December 15th when Kate, Juliet, and I set off to Tobago accompanied by Kyle. Tanty Mavis insisted that Kyle came because he was basically the only adult who knew his way around the island.
Tobago looked a lot like Trinidad in terms of the buildings and whatnot but just much cleaner. The island just had more of an “er ness” about it if you know what I mean. It seemed to have more of the wonderful things that Trinidad had. The trees looked greener, strangely enough, the beaches seemed bluer and the people seemed friendlier. It may all sound like exaggerations but they’re not. Tobago was, in general, a much nicer place and it actually felt “Caribbean”.
Kate, Kyle, Juliet, and I ventured to a place called Fort King George but before heading up the stairs to the magical world overseeing the ocean we stopped and decided to play a bit in the park nearby. As you would imagine, it was Juliet and Kate’s idea.
While marveling over Tobago’s beauty and Kate and Juliet’s exuberant faces as they swung up and down on the swing Kyle pulled me aside and said, “That girl you have there is some kind of witch or something?”
“Why would you say that?” I asked.
“You know how long we trying to get that little girl to smile? Almost three years now and that girl just come out of nowhere and make she smile…BLASPHEMY!!!”
Kyle obviously didn’t mean the word “blasphemy” in the context that he said it in but I laughed anyway.
“Them two is like sisters now,” Kyle said.
“I just wish that Kate and I could spend more time together. I mean, that’s why we came to Trinidad in the first place.”
“Don’t hurt up your head too much. At Least allyuh still together. Women these days grimy. You could believe that my longtime girlfriend leave me for a psychic?”
“A psychic?”
“Yes, a blinking Obeah man. She go to him to find out if she was going to get a promotion at she job, right. The obeah man tell she that she wasn’t going to get the promotion but also slip in some information that she boyfriend was going to cheat on she nah. So when the first prediction come to past she automatically assume that the second one would come to past too.”
