A TRIP TO PARADISE

Short Story by O’Shay Beamon: O’Shay Beamon Author: [email protected]

It was the summer of her youth approaching her senior year, 1995 a hot and humid gulf coast day. All was well with her grades enough credits to advance and graduate with her class, which meant no summer school! Aoife pronounced (ee-fa) was a petite girl with long auburn hair sprinkled with golden flecks, a slightly freckled face, and a pair of large hazel eyes. Her cheekbones set rather high seem to give away her Hispanic heritage. But then, what was up with that olive skin tone; her Gaelic lineage highlighted her outer exterior, she loved both the cultures of her family which made her uniquely Her. Life for Aoife was laid back and unpretentious; her parents divorced long ago which was the normality of her blended family, nothing weird about it to Aoife - just status quo.

She had already packed and was ready for the long plane ride. A couple of bathing suites, shorts, vans, slaps, maybe a sun dress, that about wrapped it up for Aoife, she was a bit of a tom boy so no make up for sure and her trusty Walkman, need the jams for the trip. Oh, one more important item; her rosary, she never went anywhere without it – blessed and ready to go. Destination St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, mom’s headquarters. Two and a half hours to Miami, then Three to Christiansted; maybe they will serve a small lunch on the ride she thought to herself. She would bring a package of white powdered doughnuts in her backpack, grab a coke, and be ire'. “Dad!” she hollers out, “I’m ready to go!” He walks over and hands her the tickets, “Don’t want to forget those.” He smiles gives her a hug, “Look, anything, I mean anything you need, just call me and I’ll fly right over.” He laughs. “I’ll be fine, Da’; this is not my first rodeo. I’ve been traveling to see mom for the last 3 years. Really, I’m great.” She gives him a peck on the cheek and jumps into the waiting cab….” See Ya later alligator!” “After a while crocodile!” Her Da’ beams back.

“And so, the summer begins, a couple of adventurous months with mom, on an island what kind of fun can I get into?” Aoife thinks to herself. “Well, we will just see, as she turns up the jam, Girls Just Want to Have Fun, hmmm; good Cyndi Lauper tune.”

Aoife had been in St. Croix no more than a couple of days, just coming back from a bike ride staying close to her mom’s apartment, checking out the downtown area. She bolted up the stairs to the modest dwelling, comfy and clean with lots of plants, little delightful nick-knacks mostly birds and shells. There was a huge basket of yellow marigolds in the middle of the dining room table, Aoife stops to smell the gorgeous flowers touching the peddles lightly, “delightful” she thinks to herself reminds me of Texas. “Hi mom,” I’m back! She unceremonious flops on the cushy couch. Her mom was back in her sewing room, she replies through the humming of the sewing machine. Aoife Can’t hear her clearly, but doesn’t pursue the conversation with her usual, “huh?”; still wrapped up in her day of riding around and familiarizing herself with the tropical surroundings. She thinks she may have left something in the bike basket, jumping up quickly Aoife runs down the stairs and further down to the basement where she parked the bicycle. She notices another bike which is laying on the ground tossed without care; hers was parked nicely in a corner. “Oh my God!” The seat looked like it had been almost pulled off, she pushes it back down and tightens the seat. “Crap Ola!” the basket was gone. Aoife starts looking around, studying the thrown bike on the ground, someone who doesn’t care she thought to herself, or just in a hurry? "I loved that basket", she pulls the bike around to find a good hiding spot out of sight, out of mind, around the corner in a dark and dusty recess of the basement, a couple of towel racks stood in between – “looks like a good place to park it.” “There is just no room in apartment”, she thinks to herself, “I’ll just have to talk to the front office, let them know.” She moves up the stairs slowly this time, still thinking who would’ve taken the basket, and why? She makes her way around the staircase, the wood is heavy, thick, with a distinct smell of Hibiscus much better than the basement. In fact, all the rich smells were so tantalizing to Aoife, she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, wonderful. Her slaps spank against the floorboard with every step, not carrying who heard her or not. She walks up to were a young girl behind a cluttered desk was sitting her nose stuck in a book. She sat high on a bar stool with her legs crossed balancing on the round of the stool. Aoife slaps up to the desk clears her throat. She waits for a response, the girl has short thick-fluffy reddish hair, kind of looks like she just woke up. Big thick bangs, her hair color is bright reddish-orange, wild like an uncontrolled bird’s nest. As she studied the young girl, she s-l-o-w-l-y turned her eyes up. Aoife noticed that was the pace here in this wild jungle slow and slower if they could even slower! They did a stare off, who would flinch first she looked hard at the wildflower before her, she glared, then narrowed her eyes barley to a squint. The girl looked back at her book, then gave a heavy sigh, “YYYeeess, may I help you.” Aoife won!! Ha, Ha, she was still quite an adolescent even at 16 she loved a good stare off. Aoife put her hands on the desk in front of her, a measure of telling something particularly important. But was interrupted through a small narrow window to the upper left of the gal. All she could see was a mouth, then some eyes peering in. “Could you see if I received a fax, Chandra?” The mouth said, then the huge eyes peered back in. The young girl still balancing on the stool leans over to the wall where a small machine sat, she pulls the paper out. “Yeah Mon,” she pushes the paper through the small opening, as the mouth wrestles with the paper he says, “Ah eyeful ain’ ah bellyful.” “What’s he saying?” Aoife asks. Chandra slowly says, “The day is still young, a lot could still happen.” The mouth speaking slowly shuffles off, and the girl directs her attention to Aoife. “Look, my bike had its basket stolen off it, whoever did it also was trying to take my seat off too. Did you see anyone carrying off a bike basket?” The girl had a blank look on her face, like she couldn’t even hear her. “I said my bicycle was damaged and my basket was stolen.” The girl pulls a piece of paper out from under the desk, here fill this out, she points to a cup full of old used pens and pencils. She picks up her book, slowly stepping back to her own reality. “Hay!!! Look I know its not your bike, but if it were you - you would be really mad too.” Aoife was now getting really agitated with the red headed bird nest girl. She was thinking of all kinds of insults now, Aoife leans over and pushes the book down, “I said,” Aoife squinted her eyes once again, toughened her lower lip to the side and very slowly; because it is the custom in the islands, repeated herself, “Did-You-See-Some-One; with a bike basket stroll out of he-rrr-aa’?” She throughs in some of her Texas slang; just to be menacing. The girl looked put out but finally she saw life in her eyes. “No and No”, she was going to get back to the book, but thought otherwise. I really keep to my books, so if someone passed, I really wouldn’t have noticed. Her voice became thoughtful, and her speech sounded like maybe she was from Minnesota or something, somewhere up north for sure but Aoife could not put her finger on it, not from Texas that she knew. She slides off her stool and puts her book in a drawer under the desk, locking it with a key. “Let’s go look down in the basement”, she walks around the desk and puts her hand out to Aoife, “My name is Chandra, what’s yours?” Aoife, extends her hand, “Aoife, my name is Aoife.” “Cool name, EE-Fa – I like it”, she grins showing off a big set of pearly whites. She has a freckled face, like lots of freckles, her skin tanned, fringed with pink hues. She was slightly taller than Aoife a full round face that held her hair right in place, her shoulders seemed broader then narrowed towards her arms a light build as most teenagers did going through pubescence’s, probably a swimmer or better yet a surfer. Everyone did some sort of water sport down in the islands.

As she followed Chandra down the stairs, she thought maybe we could be friends, wouldn’t that be great. She smiled to herself, thinking a friend would even be better than a bike basket. They both slapped down the stairs, Chandra pulled a light switch string and Wa-Lah, the light revealed a whole lot of stuff and there laying near the thrown bike was Aoife’s bike basket. It was kind of tucked back behind the wheel, but for not the light she couldn’t have seen it. “HAY!! My bike basket”, she smiled big, jumped up once and clapped her hands, she was physical like that in her responses. Chandra checked her out, “yeah mon! No one here goin’ ta teefe ya here.” “I guess the screws were loose? I duno, I’m sorry?” Aoife rattled on; “Really sorry, I was like my basket, and I hid my bike thinking. It’s a used bike and my mom just got it for me, so, gee whiz.” “No worries, I’m off of work now and got to get home”, she picks up the thrown bike pulling it up behind her on the stairs. “I would love to have a basket too for my bike, one of these days”, Chandra says over her shoulder. Chandra carried her bike up the stairs with ease, Aoife close behind carrying the wayward bike basket. “Chandra, thank you for helping me find the basket I feel like a real goof ball, not turning on the lights and all.” Chandra smiles back, “We can lime if you want, the St. Croix by the Sea is one of my favorite surf spots but it’s a jungle to get to.” “Anyways I have to go; my parents will be mad if I am late.” Aoife pulls out her flip phone, “Let’s exchange numbers.” Chandra leans the bike on her left leg grabs Aoife’s phone in seconds uploads her numbers. Her cell phone skills were top notch, Aoife looked in approval. “Right-On”, Aoife scales the stairs back to her mom’s apartment. “Adios Chica, I’ll call you later.” Aoife waves back to Chandra.

As Aoife closes the apartment door behind her, she still wonders how the basket came loose and the seat, something is amiss, her detective inclinations kicked in. “Mooom, Mom, I’m back, what’s for dinner?” “A couple of Pâte in the microwave, if not we can go for Chinese; up to you.” her mom calls back from the sewing room. Sounds like her mom was busy with the sewing she had going on. “Pâte is good ma’”, she loved the savory beef and potato stuffed pastry which had a rich gravy that oozed out after each bite. Aoife plopped on the couch, Pâte in one hand and a good book in the other, the summer is turning out to be full of mysteries, she rather liked that. She looked over at the basket of marigolds, hmmm I could give that basket to Chandra for her bike. She would really like that; Aoife thought to herself. "Lord Bless this Pâte, and the needs of others." she says as she takes a huge bite, the oozy gravy dripping down her chin; what a great way to start the summer.