Fire...Redux

You read in the preceding post what the mother was going through when the bush fire seemed ready to engulf her house at the weekend. We often forget that children don't always scream when they have fear but become foetal. Read how the "Big Pickney" saw and responded to the events, in a letter she wrote last night to a friend in Jamaica. It is as it was dictated, no editing.

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Dear L,

There was a fire at my house today! We were all very scared. It started way out in the bush and it worked its way up to our garden. I think I was scared the most! Mom made us go to the neighbours house, just Eva and I. The fire truck took forever to come! Mum and Dad and everyone in the neighborhood called and called the firemen. They said that the truck was here, but turns out they were fighting the fire on the other side, in a cane field, far away. We couldn't even see it! That's how big the fire was! Meanwhile, I was holding myself, rocking back and forth and I could hear my heart beating loudly! I pushed little bits of furniture deeper into the house so that the fire could not get them. The path it left was black, black as soot. Well it is soot. Mum said that the ashes were fertilizer for the plants. I was thinking, "What plants?" I thought we were all going to die. But it turns out I was wrong. I wanted to jump into the pool but Mum said no, because the smoke would probably kill me before the fire!

Other than that I am having a great time in Barbados. I am making more new friends everyday. We went to a place called Ocean Park. We got to go there because my little sister got 18 out of 18 on her spelling test! Ocean Park has lots of neat marine animals like sharks, sting rays, star fish, little silver fish that swim in schools, horse shoe crabs, clown fish, the fish that Dory was and the great barracuda! I heard Mum ate a barracuda once, when it was poisonous of course. She thought it was a kingfish! But she was wrong and so was the lady who was selling it. The lady said " me give it to me dawg and it dropp dead! My Mum had to be taken to the hospital! Let this be a lesson to you all! Never eat kingfish or barracuda, that's what I say.

See you next time we write. Bye.

Love E

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