***
Vines and lianas
spread across the slightly rusty wire fence that separated the yard from the forest
beyond. A massive immortelle tree spread its canopy over the far end of the
fence, casting shade into Mangohead's yard as the cashew trees on either side
of the 'mortelle tree linked boughs with it, making one complete, uninterrupted
shade encroaching into Mangohead’s yard. It was near to this shaded corner that
he found Julie pointing with a shaking hand and screaming bloody murder.
"What wrong
with you?" Mangohead asked. "The whole village probably think somebody
beating you or something."
"Watch!"
she screamed as she grabbed Mangohead around the shoulders and pointed.
"Look!"
Entwined in the
chain-link sections was the biggest coral snake Mangohead had ever seen in is
life. The red, yellow and black bands that ran around the snake's body
glistened in the oily, serpentine way that snakes were wont to do. Lazily it
slithered along the fence, its tongue flicking out of its mouth at intervals,
not minding the silly human that was bawling and pointing at it.
Mangohead had seen
big snakes before (in Trinidad, the gambling game Play Whe even had a number
dedicated to big snakes), but this one was simply...massive. The girth of the
animal was about three of Mangohead's fingers across. It had this intelligent
air about it - as though it knew it belonged here and that Mangohead was a
trespasser in his own yard.
"Doh just stand
there, yuh pie," Julie said, as she smacked Mangohead's arm. "Do
something!"
"What you want
me do eh?" Mangohead asked.
"Pet it and
give it food," Julie said sarcasticaly. "Kill the blimmin'
thing!"
"Alright,"
Mangohead said. "Go get me something to kill it with.”
Glancing behind her,
Julie ran off, and Mangohead cogitated on his situation. This would not be the
first time he would have to do battle of a denizen of the forest, since during
the rainy season caimans from the nearby river would invade their lawn,
sometimes passing through one of the huge holes at the bottom of the fence. The
caiman’s bite was only liable to take a finger or the occasional limb whereas this
snake’s bite could kill him. He would have to end this reptile's life before it
could end his.
With a crash, Julie
burst out the back door and ran down teh stairs carrying a can of bug-spray in
her hand.
"You cannot be
serious..." Mangohead shouted.
"Look, is all I
could find," Julie said as she thrust the bug spray at him.
Mangohead thought
for a moment. "Go find me a box of match from by the stove," he
informed her. "Maybe I could actually use this."
Sighing she ran back
into the house to get the matches as Mangohead reassessed the situation. He
could possibly construct a rudimentary flamethrower out of the bug spray and
the matches, but there was always the possibility that the flame would creep
into the can and cause it to explode, possibly taking his hand with it. He was
pretty sure that he'd set the snake on fire, then it’d writhe and twist until it
expired.
Another bang heralded
Julie's return, this time with the box of matches. "Careful ehh," she
warned Mangohead as she handed over the matches. "If you burn yourself up
I gonna pretend I was somewhere else."
"But what
the..." Mangohead said incredulously as he frowned at her. "Half the
blimmin' village hear you screaming, you cyah say you was somewhere else."
"Look, just doh
burn yourself down and we go be fine," she said and smiled encouragingly.
Sucking his teeth in
mild annoyance, Mangohead struck a match and watched it struggle, gutter and
finally catch to life. Carefully, he fixed the spray's nozzle on the snake's
head.
"Aye!" a
man's voice shouted. "Stop! Yute-man! Stop! Staahhhhp!"
Mangohead jerked his
head up and saw a man running into his backyard waving his arms frantically. He
was dressed in an expensive-looking suit with shiny shoes. He looked like one of
those important people you'd see on the television, like some sort of lawyer or
politician. The effect of seeing him flail around like that was comical and
Mangohead almost burst out laughing.
"What you doing
to my snake there yute?" the newcomer asked.
"YOUR
snake?" Mangohead asked.
"Yes, Stinky
there is my pet, yute, what it is to you?" the man replied as he put his
hand out to the snake. Mangohead felt a tense moment as the snake watched the
man’s hand cautiously before slithering off the fence and up the man's arm,
coming to rest safely around the man’s shoulders.
"You should
keep a better eye on your pet mister, you scare my sister half to death,"
Mangohead chided.
"I suppose I
should," the man said wistfully as he stroked Stinky's head. "My
name's Tony by the way."
Mangohead did a
double take. What were the odds? "Nice to meet you Mister Tony,"
Mangohead said as he held his hand out. "I was just thinking bout coming
to meet you today, I hear good things bout you."
"Not as much as
the good things I've heard bout you," Tony said as he clasped Mangohead's
hand in his. "You're Mangohead aren't you?"
The young man
grinned. "Yes, that's what everybody in the village does call me. How you
hear bout me though Mister Tony?"
Tony smiled. "I
didn't get the way I am by not knowing what was happening round me, yute. What
you wanted to see me about?"
"Ma Procop leave
me in charge of she zaboca tree, and she tell me to sell the zaboca,"
Mangohead explained. "I hear you doing a business thing that you does sell
in the market and thing. I could ask you to sell it for me?"
"Well that
depends yute," Tony said, giving him a sly smile, "how much in it for
me?"
"I could only
offer you free zaboca, Mister Tony," Mangohead said. "I don't know if
that is nuff."
"I hear real
plenty good things bout Ma Procop Zaboca y'know," Tony said as he looked
away from Mangohead, seemingly lost in thought. "I go have to think about
it. I does usually deal in cash, but you look like a yute I could trust. I go
check you back a little later, let me take Stinky home before he run away
again."
Mangohead watched
Tony leave through the front gate, his new business deal a distinct
possibility.
"Mangohead,"
Julie said from the left of him. "You sure you know what you doing
trusting that man?"
"Come on
Jules," Mangohead coaxed, "it could make Ma Procop a lot of money,
she would be so glad when she come back."
"True, but only
if he do what he say he doing," Julie reminded him. "I hear some not
so nice things about him."
"From
who?" Mangohead wondered.
"I does talk to
people," Julie sniffed. "You feel I doesn't go nowhere and know
nobody or what?"
"Who you does
talk to so?" Mangohead asked pointedly.
"People
nah!" Julie deflected. "Just know that plenty people ain't have good
things to say bout him inno."
"Plenty people
don't have good thing to say bout the Kurma Man either," Mangohead pointed
out. "It doh mean he is a bad man.”
As if on cue, the
Kurma Man's voice floated from the roadside and both Mangohead and Julie turned
to look at the shopkeeper. "Allyuh okay? I hear real plenty screaming and
thing."
"Is okay, doh
worry," Mangohead said with a smirk. "Julie just see a snake and she
just had to let the whole village know."
"Ohho,
good." The Kurma Man turned a wary eye to Mangohead. "I pass Tony on
my way in here, you was talking to him?"
"Yeah, it was
he snake self!" Mangohead said.
A worried look passed
over the Kurma Man's face. "Come here, let we talk boy," he beckoned.
"Yes?"
Mangohead said as he walked close to the gate.
"Be careful
boy, that man is bad news," Kurma Man said. "He look like he have
trouble write all over him."
Mangohead shrugged.
"He seem okay to me."
The Kurma Man
sighed. "I not asking you, I telling you. The man is not a nice man. I
know."
"How you
know?" Mangohead asked with a raised eyebrow.
"You doh study
how I know nah, just know I know," the Kurma Man said, getting slightly agitated.
"Too besides, you ain't go believe me if I tell you."
"Try me
nah?" Mangohead challenged.
The Kurma Man shook
his head. "I cyah tell you, it not worth what go happen to you and me. I
just warning you. Heed my warning eh chile."
"I go remember
you tell me," Mangohead said.
The Kurma Man nodded
and shuffled into the road, starting his long, weary walk back to his old shop,
the setting sun bleeding its orange-red rays all over the asphalt. As Mangohead
watched him go, he pondered on Tony, and what the Kurma Man knew about him. And
HOW the Kurma Man knew what he knew about him.
"That Tony
feller have a snake," Julie said from Mangohead's elbow, almost giving him
a heart attack.
"Woman!"
Mangohead yelled, "you have to stop sneaking up on me!"
"Who sneaking
up?" Julie asked. "I was here a long time!"
"You hear
everything Adrian say?" Mangohead queried.
Julie nodded.
"I think he right."
Together they both
watched as the Kurma Man took a cloth out of his pocket and mopped his sweating
brow. As he opened it out to fold it back, Mangohead realized that the scrap of
cloth the Kurma Man was holding was missing a triangular corner piece.
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