Suite as Sugar by Camille Hernández-Ramdwar

Author:Camille Hernández-Ramdwar [Hernández-Ramdwar, Camille]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION / Short Stories (single author)
ISBN: 9781459750739
Publisher: Dundurn Press
Published: 2023-03-16T00:00:00+00:00

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Jericha had the baby after all, a baby girl. Shaniqua tried to throw her a small baby shower, but she was miserable and blue, what with Eyeball in jail and no money coming in, stuck at her mother’s house, and her mother now vex that she would “have a gran to mine.” Once Jericha’s belly had reached a certain size, she had to stop partying and drinking and dressing up in revealing outfits, because people just watched her sideways as if she wasn’t all there. Sometimes she really felt she wasn’t all there in truth. Eyeball and the others had gone to jail for murder once police had dug up the head of the man and eventually (directed by Jiggs) recovered the two crocus bags as well. Jericha knew she was truly on her own, what with this black baby, no child father, no money, and no prospects.

Sheriqua had brought the baby a blond doll as a gift. Jericha held it in her hand for a second, studying it, touching the hair, before carefully placing it in the child’s crib. She was remembering another blond doll, a blond Barbie, that an aunt had sent her in a barrel from foreign. She had been so proud of this doll and had carried it everywhere with her. The other kids, jealous of this fancy foreign gift, stole the doll from her one day, cut off all its hair, and then took a black felt marker and tried to colour all the pale pinky-beige skin in black ink. They then returned it to Jericha, letting her know that now it “look like she.” Jericha had hidden the doll for a few days after that, feeling ashamed, and eventually concealed it in a cereal box, a makeshift coffin, and threw both in the trash heap at the back of the village.

Eyeball was going to be in jail for a long time. It was now November, and in Trinidad the circuit of parties was starting up that would run through Christmastime, into the new year, and straight through Carnival. A good four to five months of fêting, wining, and trying to squeeze as much money out of every manjack she encountered for the season. She asked Sheriqua to fix her up with a new weave; she got her cousin to front her a set of acrylic nails; she begged and borrowed clothes and shoes from her girlfriends and family members. All she needed was to hook some man to carry her out. The baby — named Didi — was sometimes left with her mom (for a fee), sometimes left with her younger sister, and sometimes with her sister’s boyfriend. It didn’t take long for Jericha to be back in action: she went to a birthday party for a second cousin of hers down the road from her village, and after wining, splitting, back backing, and throwing her leg in the air a few times, she had men tracking her for her phone number. This time of year men were lavish with their spending.

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