Only God Can Make a Tree by Bertram Roach

Author:Bertram Roach [Roach, Bertram]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Novela, Drama, Realista
Publisher: ePubLibre
Published: 2008-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

The first stop was Montserrat, the island of Adrian’s birth. He had not seen his father or his mother since he had left. Strangely enough, he had no real longing to see them; he was tempted to stay in the cabin with a bottle until the ship sailed, but then he remembered his good friend Paul. So, at the last minute, he decided to go ashore.

The place had hardly changed. The only change he noticed was a new wing to the old police station. It had been given a new coat of paint, and not before time. Same narrow cobbled streets, same two-storey buildings. The merchants and their families lived on the top and the grocery or hardware store was underneath. The houses looked even duller; they could really do with a coat of paint. He was in no hurry to get to his parents’ home, which was about fifteen minutes’ walk from the pier. He was glad to see that their house was freshly painted and the garden well kept. His mother was always like that — always wanted to outshine her neighbours in everything. He opened the gate and walked toward the veranda. A small black-and-white dog dashed from beneath the house and started barking at him. As he was about to knock, a girl about seventeen opened the door. One of his mother’s apprentices, he assumed. When the girls leave school, there are no jobs for them to go to. The few jobs in stores and groceries are always filled. The hospital cannot take on student nurses every year, so their parents would ask a tailoress to take them in and teach them the trade. They would stay on until they may be lucky enough to get a job, or in most cases a relative in America or Canada would send for them.

Before the girl could invite him in, Adrian stepped through the door and into the living room.

‘A man here to see you, ma’am,’ she called to Adrian’s mother.

He waited a few minutes before she came. Upon hearing that a man had come calling, she had spent a few extra minutes before the mirror tidying her hair and trying to look presentable. He could not help laughing when he saw the look of surprise on her face when she saw it was him. She was looking well and as beautiful as ever.

‘Adrian, what are you doing here? Why didn’t you let me know you were coming?’ She said ‘me’, not ‘us’, as if his father didn’t exist. ‘Anyway, what a lovely surprise,’ she said as they hugged each other.

After the usual greetings and chitchat, he thought it only proper to ask for his father, as she made no attempt to mention him.

‘Where is Dad?’ he asked.

‘If he is not at the cotton market, he is in the rum shop or the Lagoon. I’ll send one of the girls to look for him.

‘Elsa,’ she called, ‘go to the Cotton house and tell Mr Murphy that someone is here to see him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.