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The Last Breadfruit
Our house was two miles from town and there were no other children my age within a mile. Jack and Mack, my twin brothers were 8 years old, and I was 10.
I didn’t like playing with them because Mama said that I had to let them win sometimes, which I didn’t think was fair. Furthermore, they liked to play stupid games like hide and seek, and they couldn’t hide good. When it was my turn to find them, all I had to do was say, “Ready or not, here I come!” And when I opened my eyes, there they were, hiding behind the nearest mango tree, or by the breadfruit tree. Then when it was my turn to hide, they couldn’t find me. After about a minute they would shout, “give up”, and then I had to come out of my hiding place and count again, so that they could both hide. It just wasn’t fair.
To make things worse, this was only the second week of summer holidays. On a small island in the West Indies there was not much to do in the holidays but play games and bathe in the aqua-blue sea. My tenth birthday had just passed, and Daddy had given me a bag of marbles, but it was no fun playing marbles by myself. And I didn’t want Jack and Mack touching my marbles. When they get ten years old, they will get their own bag of marbles, I thought. My bag had 18 marbles. Two of the marbles were specials. One of them was clear and blue like the Caribbean Sea, and the other was green like the mangrove trees by the edge of the swamp. The rest were just normal marbles, in different colors.
Mama had just gotten through sweeping the white sand in our yard with her thatch broom, and had taken off her straw hat, and was inside getting ready to cook. She didn’t have any breadfruits today because people had stripped the tree. It was not our house, and it was not our tree. We were just renting.
Everyday somebody from town would come and say that Mr. Jim, the owner of the place had told them that they could get a breadfruit. Now the only breadfruit that was left was way up in the top of the tree. Mama couldn’t reach it with the breadfruit stick, and she wouldn’t make me climb the tree, because last year Mr. Jim’s son fell out of the plum tree and broke his arm. She said that Daddy would pick the last breadfruit when he came home on his bicycle at six o’clock. “We will have fried breadfruit tomorrow,” she said. She sometimes made me peel the breadfruit, then she sliced it up in thin slices and put salt on it and fried it in the big frying pan with coconut oil.
Then I heard a car coming on the marl road from the direction of town. There was a cloud of dust, and it stopped right by our front gate. It was uncle Len and his two boys. Uncle Len was not really my uncle, but Mama had said that I should call him that. Len-Len was my age and was my best friend from school. Bob, his older brother was 15 and everybody called him Sister Bob. Sister Bob’s voice was soft like a girl, and he walked like a girl, and waved like a girl.
Len-Len and Sister Bob jumped out of the car. “We’ve come to play marbles said Len-Len. “For keeps” said Sister Bob softly.
“I’ll be back to pick you up at 5 o’clock,” said uncle Len. “And don’t forget to get a breadfruit, or two.” He shouted to Sister Bob just as the car was moving off.
“Break a leg!” Replied Sister Bob in a soft voice to his father. A cloud of black smoke belched from the tailpipe and hung in the air by our faces.
Len-Len and Sister Bob each had a bag of marbles, and Sister Bob drew a circle on the ground and put three marbles inside. “We’re playing for keeps. Right?” said Sister Bob.
Daddy had told me not to play for keeps, because I might lose my marbles.
“Ah. Ah.” I said, but before I could finish I saw Mama coming.
“Hi Bob. Hi Len-Len” Mama said to them.
They both said “Hi“.
“Daddy said that I should get some breadfruits,” said Sister Bob. “Mr. Jim told him it was o.k.”
“It’s his tree,” said Mama. She breathed hard and frowned slightly. I knew she felt bad because she had already made plans to use that last breadfruit for tomorrow’s dinner.
“Keep out of the sun” she said to me as she turned to go back inside. I didn’t think that the sun felt hot and I was already burnt brown anyway, from all of the times when I had to pump water in the hot Caribbean sun. The light company had recently put in electricity all of the way to the eastern districts and Daddy got one of those new electric water pumps This meant that I did not have to pump water every day anymore. But my skin still was not clearing up, even though I was not going in the sun much.
I did not feel like playing with them now, because Mama was sad that they were taking the last breadfruit. “Come I’ll show you my guinea pigs” I said, knowing that Sister Bob was afraid of them.
“Not me” said Sister Bob softly, flicking his hands like a woman whom had just got an engagement ring, and was showing it off.
“They’re in a cage” I said, walking in the direction of their cage. They followed.
I had fourteen guinea pigs. The wire cage was only two feet by four feet, and was crowded with them. In the beginning I only had two guinea pigs, and then they had four young ones, and then the young ones had young ones, and that happened several times. I gave away about thirty and I still had fourteen left. Some were black and white, and some had brown spots, and one was all black. Sister Bob stayed a good distance from the cage, but Len-Len wanted to hold one.
“Daddy won’t make me get any” he said “He’s afraid of them too”.
“They give me the creeps,” said Sister Bob, flicking his hands again.
“Daddy is afraid of frogs too” said Len-Len “And spiders too.”
“Frogs are so slimy” came Sister Bob’s soft voice from behind us again. “Let’s go play marbles”.
“Lets go,” I said. I’ll win all of their marbles I thought to myself. After about five games, I had my eighteen marbles plus ten that I won from them. Then Mama called us for lunch.
Mama could cook really good. Today she had boiled green bananas and salt fish, and it tasted so nice and salty. Although my plate was only half full, I didn’t ask for more because I knew there was not enough because Len-Len and Sister Bob were there.
Then we played more marbles and after awhile I had won almost all of Len-Len’s marbles. He only had about six left. Then Sister Bob started taunting him.
“You know Daddy said you should not play for keeps”. He said it over and over until I felt bad for winning them. Then Uncle Len came and Sister Bob ran out to meet him.
“Len-Len lost all of his marbles. I told him not to play for keeps but he would not listen” he tattled to Uncle Len. Poor Len-Len looked frightened. I decided that I should give him back the marbles that I had won from him.
“Did you get the breadfruits?” Uncle Len asked Sister Bob. I decided not to give Len-Len back his marbles, because I knew they were taking the last breadfruit.
“No. Because I was trying to stop Len-Len from losing his marbles” lied Sister Bob softly, flicking his hands like a girl again. Uncle Len looked angry and said something under his breath. Then he started swaddling towards the breadfruit tree.
Uncle Len was a tall, big belly man. His fat face and thick arms were burnt red from years of working in the sun. He weighed about 300 pounds, and he walked with a limp. The ground almost shook when he walked. We followed him towards the breadfruit tree. When we got to the tree we all looked up to find the breadfruits. I did not look in the top of the tree where I knew the last one was because I did not want them finding it.
“There are no breadfruits here,” said Uncle Len in disappointment.
“Told you,” said Sister Bob flicking his hands and waddling his bottom from side to side. Uncle Len said something under his breath and looked at Sister Bob like he was ashamed that he was his son. Then Sister Bob spied the last breadfruit.
“There is one,” announced Sister Bob proudly.
“Ok. Where is the stick?” asked Uncle Len looking at me.
“Stick?” I stuttered.
“Yes. Mr. Jim’s breadfruit stick. That you use to pick the breadfruits,” said Uncle Len looking annoyed.
“Oh. That stick” I said acting innocent. “Right here by the side of the house”. I carried it to him and he pointed it up towards the breadfruit. But even with his long outstretched arms it was three feet too short to reach the breadfruit. I felt relieved because they would not take the breadfruit after all. Then Uncle Len looked at Sister Bob.
“Climb the tree” he ordered Sister Bob.
“Who me” asked Sister Bob.
“I am a girl. And girls don't climb trees” said Sister Bob softly. Flicking his hands and moving his body delicately like the Princess of England.
“And there might be a frog up there” he said in a low voice. Uncle Len said something under his breath. I could not hear what it was but I knew it was something bad about Sister Bob. Uncle Len walked slowly towards the tree muttering something about throwing all the she-men off the island cause they‘re setting a bad example.
He reached the tree and slowly pulled himself up on a branch. The tree swayed and shook from his heavy weight as he climbed higher and higher. He got nearer to the last breadfruit. We all watched as he pushed a leaf from in front of his face and grabbed the breadfruit.
A frog that had been on the leaf suddenly jumped and landed with a flop on Uncle Len’s forehead. The wee-wee from the frog splattered all over Uncle Len’s face and shirt.
He made a loud howl and threw himself backward off the branch.
Crack.
Bang.
Thud.
As he came crashing down, breaking off the branches of the tree as he fell. He landed on his back with his legs trapped under his heavy body. The breadfruit landed a few feet away. The frog went jumping into the nearby bushes.
He just moaned once and the front of his pants became wet. His eyes were closed and his mouth open and no part of his body moved. Then suddenly Sister Bob started screaming.
“His legs are broke. His legs are broke.,” he cried. Flicking his hands to fan himself.
“Oooh Daddy. Oooh Daddy”. Tears ran down his dusty face.
Then Len-Len started crying and saying “Daddy Dead. Daddy Dead. Daddy Dead”.
I grabbed the breadfruit and ran inside through the open kitchen door to call Mama.
“Uncle Len dead. Uncle Len dead” I said dropping the breadfruit on the kitchen floor. Then I started to cry too.
Mama came running out then halfway to Uncle Len she stopped, turned around and ran back into the house. She looked really frightened. Then she came running back out with a bucket filled with water. She dashed the water on Uncle Len’s head, face and shirt.
Some went in his open mouth and some went in his ears and a puddle formed in the mud around his hair and neck. His shirt was wet and clung to his fat belly. The wetness from the bucket of water matched where he had wet his pants.
Then he started coughing. He opened his eyes and slowly lifted himself up to a sitting position. He did not say a word.
Mama kept saying, “You ok? You ok?” But he did not answer. We all helped to lift and pull his heavy wet body till he was standing on his feet. His red-sunburned face was now white as cotton as he limped to the car. Len-Len helped to steady him on one side and Sister Bob on the other side.
As we crossed where we had played marbles I picked up what they had left and put them in their pockets. Then they were gone with the car belching black smoke mixed with the dust from the marl road.
I walked towards the house with my hand in my pocket that was full of marbles. Mama seemed calmer and was sitting at the kitchen table. I picked up the breadfruit and put it in the sink.
Then I gave Mama a big hug.
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