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Outdoor Birthday Party—Father’s Fortieth
- Southern Illinois University Press
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Outdoor Birthday Party—Father’s Fortieth Stars had gone to lie on the swimming pool. Tables gleamed with white linen. Eight years old, crouched on the second floor balcony, I see when Oksilya sends the food from the kitchen: Silver trays like musical notes going down the mossy lines of garden stairs: yellow brain marinades, fried plantains, patates douces, red bean sauce, Congo beans, tomatoes stuffed with tuna, white hearts of palm, coconut rice, turnips gratiné, green avocados, breadfruit, watercress salad, brown guinea-hen, beef tasso, pork griots, pigeon, turkey, ham. And Father laughed and laughed—Life looked so good! Calabash trees paraded green fruits along their brown arms the way ladies wore rows of noisy bangles. Silver glowed beneath their ears like on the underside of callimite leaves ruffled by breeze. Palm trees were coifed with a full moon. Bougainvilleas? Orange! Purple! Pink!— draping the side of the house and flung over the roof—the colors of satin and taffeta dresses. Women looked unveiled, fruit-laden. Men, all the same: serious, shaved, lustful. Desserts were brought down, all aglow with candles—pineapple cake, pain-patate pudding, coconut blanc-manger, chocolate-rum cake, gâteau comparaîte, bananas flambée—Mother, hibiscus corsage on crêpe-de-chine dress, red round lips blowing a kiss from her hand, entered the pool with an open umbrella. ...