Cleaning Up

I stopped at Zambaldi this morning  and found DS cleaning.  He had transferred beer from a fermenter to the bright tank for carbonation and so was cleaning out the fermenter.  It's so handy having a concrete floor and a hose.  All he has to do is let the tank drain out onto the floor and then hose it into the floor drain.  Wouldn't that be handy at home?

The second Christmas cactus bloom has opened.  There are two more buds but I have my doubts about whether they'll open or not.  There were three more buds but one fell off yesterday.  Just fell off.

Speaking of Christmas, I got a Christmas present today.  There was a box in the mail from The Clearing and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was since I hadn't ordered anything.  I opened it and there was a handmade pottery oatmeal bowl with a note in it from my writing pal, cda.  I called to say "thanks" and "you shouldn't have."  I was tempted to get one for myself and talked myself out of it.  Now I have one.  Thanks, cda!

01 December--Barbara Malcolm, The Seaview. 

Chapter 18

            The next Sunday night I went down to Johnno's for the jump-up.  I could hear the steel band tuning up and there were a lot more cars parked on the sides of the road through Sandy Ground. 

            Friday afternoon Silas and Edward, especially, had kept asking if I was planning to come because they wanted to dance with me.  If I was going to be a part of the community I should probably go to the weekly party, so on Sunday afternoon I showered off the sweat and dirt from my attempt to clean out the Seaview a bit, dressed in shorts and a top, tucked a $20 bill in my pocket, and went across the road to the beach bar.  By the time I got there people were standing three deep at the bar and all the tables were full.  I paused to look around and heard my name shouted from the other side of the floor. 

            Edward was standing and waving me over.  "Mrs. Rose, we here.  Come, we keep you a place." 

            I slipped between groups of people and over to where he, Silas, and two other young men sat.

            Edward shoved the taller of them off his chair, "Get up.  Let Mrs. Rose sit there." 

            Before I could protest that I didn't want to take his seat, he offered it to me, then turned and leaned against a bamboo pole holding up the thatched roof. 

            "You shouldn't have made him get up, Edward," I said, "I could have found a seat." 

            "No, Mrs. Rose.  Johnno's the best jump-up in all of Anguilla, there no seats for anyone from now on."

            I started to rise.  "I can sit outside on the sand.  Here... what's your name?" I asked the man who had given me his chair. 

            "Stanley."

             "Here, Stanley, take your seat back and I'll go outside." 

            He shook his head.  "No, ma'am, you stay right there, I'm going to be dancing all night and will not need a chair." 

            Just as he finished speaking the steel band crashed into its first song, Edward grabbed my hand, and pulled me to my feet.  "Let's dance, Mrs. Rose."  And we were off. 

            Edward was an excellent dancer, he flowed with the music, always on the beat, and he made me look good, not that anyone could see us, the place was jammed.  When the first song ended Silas came up and slipped his hand between mine and Edward's hands, pulled me close, and stepped out to the next song.  It went that way for three or four songs; next came Stanley who had given up his seat to me, Zeke the roofer, Freddy whose mother owned the Barrel Stave restaurant, then Billy the fisherman from down at the end of the bay.  When the song ended I asked Billy to take me to the bar for a drink but he took me back to the table and came back with a pineapple rum drink and a plate of food. 

            "For you, Mrs. Rose," he said, "I'll be back."  He turned away, took the hand of a familiar looking young woman, and danced her away.  I watched her delighted smile and realized that she was his oldest daughter.

            After a couple more lively songs the band shifted to a ballad and I felt a familiar jolt when a hand touched my shoulder. 

            "May I have this dance?" Iggy asked. 

            "Yes, you may." 

Today's toss was a pile of hats, gloves, and cowls.  I went through the two crates on the closet shelf and took out all of the things that I won't ever wear or that Durwood won't wear again.  It was quite a pile.

Instead of writing this afternoon I took a walk.  I need to get up off my duff and take a stroll around the block when it isn't actively raining or anything disgusting.  I'm feeling so very down in the dumps lately that I need to get outside to get the stink blowed off, as my Grandma A used to say.  Besides when it starts to snow and get icy I won't be taking walks, since there are no sidewalks on my street.  I'm too afraid of falling and breaking something.  When it snows enough I can snowshoe around a bit even if it's only in the yard.  I can wait for snow.

--Barbara