CHAPTER 13: ANXIETY

 With the thunder and lightning the rains came pouring down we rushed for cover; but there was nowhere to hide. We tried to find our Book bags with our food. They were lost in the mad dash of humanity to nowhere. We then decided to head home soaking wet from head to toe from the rain. Halfway home we remembered Kite Man dashed back to find him, he was nowhere to be seen. The Back Dam was clear of all humans, only broken kites and mud puddles and stray dogs going through left over food. We finally got home and knocked on his door. It swung open with a creaking sound. We then crept into the room; it was bare. Kite Man had vanished. Worried struck now we ran upstairs shouting for my aunt and mother Gertis. To be met only by silence we now began a frantic search of the house fearing the worst. Maybe Kite Man had used his infamous knife ‘Baby Gal’ and sliced Aunt Sybil and mother to pieces? Then we spotted a note which apparently had been blown off the kitchen table. It read ‘Gone with your mother to the hospital where she is having a baby’.

 Once upon an Easter.

Attached illustration for Once Upon an Easter and art "Stella" now on sale for $3,000.00

CHAPTER 12: FINALITY

 Then with a running start we raised Baby Gal, straight up with her, pulling loop Kite Man made on her Baby Gal. Now there were only two kites left in the air and we battle a bad man kite named Pitt Street Bull. Twice our tail with razor blades crossed over his rope but he still was flying and dipping and crossing and coming for our kite. Pitt Street Bull’s tail crossed our rope three times. It looked like he was winning the battle. ‘So, we pretended we were hurt and started to fall flapping in the wind like a bird whose wing is broken’. Pitt Street Bull saw that and was coming in for the kill. The Kite Man shouted “Pull! Pull! Pull!” I pulled and balled the rope furiously, the rope burning my hands. I already had blisters. Our kite rose and just as Pitt was coming for the kill our tail cut his rope. We won the battle. At the same moment a big thunder and lightning flashed through the sky, Kite Man shouted “Lego! Lego! Lego the rope!” Away flew Baby Gal, into the thunder and lightning, razor blades sparking! Baby Gal was on fire! 

Once upon an Easter

Attached illustration for Once Upon an Easter. Also attached is "Solace" she is on sale for $1400.00

CHAPTER 11: KALEIDOSCOPE

 When we got to the back Dam there were thousands of kites already in the air, kites of every sort, shape and size; box kites, bird kites, boy and girl kites. A buzz of excitement engulfed us. On one end of the dam a jukebox was playing loud calypso music and on the other a steel band was warming up. Kite Man, as our instructor, said “Raise the kite with the cloth tail fus, let’s see how bad?” Ten minutes after the kite was raised bad boys, bad men, and girl’s kites started to make an attack on our kite. Our kite was the best-looking kite on the dam and therefore the envy of many a kite flier. When Kite Man saw the attack he said, “let her pitch and come do like she got cut”. That we did. Then he said, “Replace the tail with the rope tail which we bring wid we”. That tail had razor blades placed strategically on its length and also broken sharp glass. We waited for a good breeze and like a plane taking off we flew straight up in the air. The bandits quickly saw us and so much coveted our kite they wasted no time and attacked immediately. In minutes we cut down two girl kites. Then came the boy kites which we fought off and eventually won over. 31 A big kite war had broken out! Four times we got tangled up and had to bring down Baby Gal, and another two times we had to cut and join the rope and bring her down because she got into some dangerous tangles. 

Once upon an Easter.

Attached illustration for Book Once Upon an Easter and art Tiffany she is on sale for $500.00

CHAPTER 10: JOURNEY

 When we got to Kite Man’s room he was already dressed and waiting for us he had a broad smile on his face and his eyes sparkled with anticipation of the day. He wore a green suit with white shoes and said, “We go fly in style”. With breakfast over we headed to the Back Dam where all the kite flying took place. Our kite was so big we had to hitch a ride on a donkey cart and bumped our way to the Back Dam.

 Once upon an Easter

Attached are illustrations for book Once Upon an Easter. Also attached Subway which is on sale for $1000.00

CHAPTER 9: KITE FLYING DAY

 By morning (Monday morning Easter Monday) we had forgotten all about Kite Man's supposed deeds. Bright and early, we were up. The air was abuzz with kites. We headed down to the huge vat Aunt Sybil had in the yard to draw some water to bathe. (Vat water is the coldest water on earth). With the rising sun warming up the air there was no way we were going to get any hot water to mix. And the bath had to be taken outside down by the vat. So, we took one of those quick baths. A little bit of soap here and there, a saucepan full of water for the face and under the arms between the legs and a little bit on your hair to soften it so it can be combed, then we were done. We rushed upstairs to have my mother Gertis apply some oil on our bodies. Put on our very best clothes including our new yachting boots. We then headed down to breakfast, fried bakes with salt fish and hot cocoa; that filled us up for the best part of the morning. Aunt Sybil then filled our book bags with lunch for the day; some beef curry rolled up in a dhal puri; two bottles of five finger (star fruit) drink some sugar cakes and fudge. And an extra parcel for Kite Man. It was not lost on her that Kite Man was assisting us to build the kite and that he would be accompanying us to fly it.

 Once Upon an Easter

Attached illustation form Once Upon an Easter. Also attached please find painting La Noscosta {the hidden one} she is on sale for $3000.00 

CHAPTER 8: KITE MAN PART 2

 Then we then named the kite “Baby Gal”. It was the biggest kite my brother and I had ever seen and the most beautiful. Only one thing disturbed us, was the name “Baby Gal”. Next the Kite Man said, “find some razor blades and broken old glass and bottles with sharp edges' '. With all these items procured and the kite completed; he declared “I am done now. How you all gon pay me?”  Big problem for us was we had no money.  While “Kite Man '' was building our kite he kept on rambling about the different people he used “Baby Gal” to slash. By then we had figured that Aunt Sybil’s boarder was the infamous murder who sliced up his victims.  However, the police could never pin any definite murder on him. Hence, he would spend a short time in prison and then be released. He was also known as the New Amsterdam Butcher Man.   While scratching our head he blurted out “I want Rum”!  

Well Aunt Sybil had a bottle of Rum which she used for black cake and to preserve fruits. So, we raided her cupboard, poured out all her rum and replaced it with some lime swank – (lemonade made with brown sugar). We now had the best-looking kites in New Amsterdam, but feared Aunt Sybil’s border was the notorious “Kite Man” known for cutting up his victims. This knowledge lingered in our minds. That night we hardly slept a wink. Both my brother and I had constant nightmares of Kite Man creeping up and cutting us into pieces while we slept. Once upon an Easter.

Attached painting illustration for book Once Upon an Easter. Also attached art Night Lillies on sale for $150.00

CHAPTER 8: KITE MAN

The test kite was damaged from the journey, so we had no time to waste.  The next morning, we started rummaging through our aunt’s yard looking for old box boards to cut and make parts for our broken kite. We found a few pieces and with a cutlass started chopping down on the wood.

Suddenly we heard someone shouting at us. “Hey there! Hey you there!”

We looked round and there was this tall skinny man pointing at us. “Stop that racket, is what you all, think you doing?”

We replied, “We’re trying to repair our kite”.

 “Oh! I see” he said, “Come here let me help you all. I am the Kite Man. Wait here, Ah gon bring out my favorite knife Baby Gal! Boys she is the sharpest gal I ever had, when she cuts, she cuts real clean and smooth”. I use am to chop up nuff of them”. “Bring them boards, leh me help you all build a big man kite”.

His fingers were long, and his hands were steady as he chopped and planed the boards to be used for our kite. “Go get me some pace.  Pacie is a gummy sticky fruit that grew on a large tree in Aunt Sybil’s yard.  So we climbed the pacie tree and picked as many bunches of pacie as we could, as fast as possible, because red ants were biting us on all parts.  Red ants always bite you in parts unmentionable.   Red ants live in pacie trees, they love the fruit because it is so sweet.

Next we had to cut some bamboo to make the ‘bull’ of the kite.  We then asked our mother for a few dollars and ran down to Main Street to buy some kite paper to place on the kite frame.  Because the kite was so big we could not use our crochet # 0 twine, we had to buy a thicker twine more like a fine rope. Then for the tail we cut some old clothes and joined the pieces together. But the Kite Man said we had to get some rope so we found a big old rope in the yard and split it in two to make the tail. The Kite man said “I is a fight man and we gon battle any bad man kite that challenge we on the Back Dam tomorrow”. 

Attached illustration for Once upon an Easter. Also Painting Dengulae which is now on sale for $2500.00. Please feel free to inbox on any at shown on my blogs.  

CHAPTER 7: AUNT SYBIL’S

  

 

CHAPTER 7: AUNT SYBIL’S

 

We crossed the Berbice river in a ferry from Rosignol to New Amsterdam, an old town named by the Dutch.  Clarence and I trudged our way down to Saint Ann Street with our luggage and tattered kite.  We arrived at my Aunt Sybil’s house late in the evening, it was already dark and we were greeted with lots of love and kisses by my mother and Aunt.

 

Now Aunt Sybil’s house was an old time huge Dutch style house with a high roof, the ceiling space allowed breeze to flow through the house. My aunt’s house also had lots of windows and a bottom house which she rented to boarders. The house was also surrounded by a guinep tree and a mango tree and a dunks tree.   The dunks tree was so close to the house that with a reach out the window one could pick the dunks.

 

After a quick bath,  cold water mixed with hot water from a kettle and poured into an enamel bucket, followed by a quick rub down with soap from head to toe, a bowl to throw water over your body we hopped out the bath as soon as possible. Towels off, then on with the pajamas, we headed down to the kitchen for a hot dinner.

 

Aunt Sybil had a huge kitchen with a large table from which all activity revolved. We sat down to some fresh brewed hot  ground cocoa with raw cow’s milk and some Bakes with Salt Fish and two Chinese Cakes for sweetness.  I vow that Cocoa tea is the best in the world! Made with roasted fresh cocoa beans ground in a hand mill and served with hot fresh cow’s milk; just milked for the cow earlier in the morning it’s a taste to be savored for a lifetime.

Once upon an Easter

Attached to this blog illustrations for { Once Upon an Easter} also please find painting Diamond she is on sale for $2000.00.

CHAPTER 6: THE BRITISH SOLDIERS PART 2

 

What we did not know was that Mahaica was also the World Headquarters for Sand Flies and Mosquitoes. The moment the train pulled out of the Mahaica station, colonies of sand flies and mosquitoes descended on us with the most vicious insect attack of on man ever. Sand flies will attack you in swarms on every exposed part of your body. They will find their way through your hair down to your skull and the bite every exposed part unprotected by hair and leave your head full of bumps; they are bad. The mosquitoes there will bite and drink every drop of blood you own by the time you reach Rossignol, you will have no blood and become pale.

 So, there we were facing imminent death when the two English soldiers produced the most complete defense in the form of a bottle of Citronella oil. They offered to share some with us.  We graciously accepted their offer. We rubbed that oil on our body from head to toe. We literally took off our yachting boots and rubbed the oil between our toes and of course on our heads, under our shirt and pants. It just takes one sand fly to get under your shirt and pants to have you scratching and itching.

My brother and I will always be grateful to those two English soldiers. Once upon an Easter. 

Attached painting ALIVE now on sale for $800.00. You may in box me for any other art shown on previous blogs.

CHAPTER 6: THE BRITISH SOLDIERS

 

With our spirits uplifted Clarence, our Aunt Yvonne and I began preparing for the big Easter Monday kite flying day.  Only to receive a letter from my mother Gertis stating that she wanted us to spend Easter with her in New Amsterdam.

 

The next couple days were now spent preparing for the long journey to New Amsterdam. We boarded the train in Georgetown, Lamaha Street in Cummingsburg to begin the trip. 

 

To our amazement and joy as boys we were in the same compartment with two British soldiers.

 

Guyana, then “British Guiana” was a sovereign colony of England.  The British army sent soldiers to help squash the unrest and riots and return the country to a state of peace.                           

 

Between strained snips of conversation, we got to know the English soldiers. They proved to be saviors to us after the train made one of its major stops at Mahaica. At this stop we are allowed to leave the train to stretch our feet and buy food and stuff.

Attached illustrration from Once Upon an Easter. Also attached painting the  Cicketer which is on sale for $150.00.