Crossroads and Unholy Water

Sunday Knife

 Sunday Knife The clock outside the church of the Sacred Heart, downtown Port-au-Prince, has shown ten of six for years. No one cares. Time cannot be read. Here people know what time is by feeling each other’s faces. Old women wearing yellowed lace mantillas, afraid to be late for Mass, show up way too soon. Tèk Rraawww . . . Tèk Rraawww . . . Tèk Rraawww . . . Jonas? Jonas? Ever been with a woman? Tèk Rraawww . . . Jonas! Can’t you see I am talking to the bird? It’s a Tako bird!, look, see its black and white tail, flashing there, in the banana leaves? Zelya had just finished cleaning the place. She sat at the bar. Her large buttocks spreading over the stool seemed like shells shielding a red nut. Sunday afternoon was time off for the whores in Carrefour. Only reckless young mulattos would show up at this time, slam the door, feel Zelya’s ass, demand salsa, bitches and booze! One of the three asked for a coke. “Such a honeycolored young fool,” Zelya thought, “doesn’t look right . . . too much moon in these eyes . . .” Only two of the girls could be found. Retired whore, old Zelya, cleaning lady, took Jonas by the hand. Zelya was getting impatient. Jonas was still immobile on top of her, in spite of all her wriggling. She was about to shove him off when he spoke: “I see . . . sex is like electronics! You just plug it in, move up and down, the juice goes out of you!?” “Yes! Yes! That’s all.” He did just that. It worked.  “You are a man now,” Zelya said, “you should have a wonderful life!” He was pleased. By the stillness, Jonas knows it is Sunday. Even his friend Sémi, the neighbor’s cat, stays home close to its family’s kitchen to wait for scraps. Jonas is invited nowhere. He circles the garden, goes up and down stairways, holding a little pocket knife in case he finds a fruit. He picks up a stone to feel the moss. Catches a tree frog, blows on its face to calm its heart. He prays out loud for the sound of a voice, speaks to a bird: “You know moose? I love moose! Saw one once. They kneel to drink water and seem to be praying: they see blue sky behind their dark reflections.” ...