Monday, October 12, 2009

Bits N Pieces - A Disjointed Bahamian Novel - D08

(10:22 am Sat Nov 08, 2008)

Well gentle reader, another day and another slow start. I have been wasting time trying to avoid starting since probably seven this morning or so.

I really have to learn to write better if I am going to keep doing this. I especially need to learn to plot and really, truth be told, to plot in advance. I want to try and do this some year where I know where I intend to go from the break. This looking about for direction each day can be draining.

Each day I get stronger and stronger urges to just walk away from this effort this year. But I have already walked away from my script this year and I really don't want to give in to those urges and walk away from my book.

So, gentle reader, if you will stick with me, I will push on as best I can manage. Perhaps you would be so kind as to send me an email with encouragement. Positive only until the end of the month please. And if you do send any, I may choose to include them in the book, either the book proper or in the books leo file with other notes and resources et cetera.

This writing one word at a time really does work if you keep at it. Have you ever tried it for yourself gentle reader? If not, you might want to give it a go with us some year. Remember remember to write in November...

(10:38 am Sat Nov 08, 2008)

(11:14 am Sat Nov 08, 2008)

I guess you have to actually keep putting the words down though, not wandering off to do other things including vegging.

***

After she left the club, Sarah had caught a ride home, she hoped her car would survive overnight in the parking lot at the spa. She didn't feel up to driving yet for some reason.

***

She walked in the door, "Fuller? Are you here?"

"I'm just in the kitchen looking for something to eat."

I have a quiche in the freezer that I could throw in the oven if you feel like that. We could throw together a salad really quick too. How does that sound."

Fulcrum again didn't know what to say. What was quiche? "Whatever you want would be fine with me."

(11:46 am Sat Nov 08, 2008)

(3:26 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

Whoooo we gentle reader. Now that is some serious time wasting right there. OK, so I went for a walk and did a little house work in that gap, but mostly it was top notch time wasting.

***

So they ate the quiche and the salad and went to bed. Sarah picked up a small box and pressed it and a window opened up in the wall looking out to sea where two ships were engaged in a heated battle. But these were ships unlike any he had ever heard of.

He broke down and asked a question. "What sort of ships are these?"

Sarah looked at him as if the question was a very strange one and his heart fell. He had done so well in not asking questions so far, even though this was all so very strange. Now he would have to take his punishment and abuse. He didn't know if he could. When he had grown into a man, he had made up his mind never to take such abuse again and had fought back quick and hard on the few occasions he had slipped and asked questions since then. But there was no way he could hit Sarah that way.

(3:42 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

No, he did not think he could beat her down should it come to that. He would just have to suffer the abuse at her hands. The abuse he had promised himself never to take without a fight again.

But the abuse never came. She just reached out and stroked his cheek and smiled a wan smile, "Oh Fuller, what has happened to you? What has happened to us? This is a world war two documentary. We have seen this before. Those are battleships. You always had a special place in your heart for battleships.

Fulcrum waited for the abuse to follow but she just sort of slumped down on the bed and rolled away so that she looked at the wall. His heart fell again but this time from sadness and not from fear. He slumped down too and continued to watch the amazing naval battle. These ships were amazing. Look at the size of those guns!

(3:51 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

Fulcrum wondered if Sarah suspected that he was not Fuller. Is that what she had meant when she asked what had happened to him? How long could this last? He felt drained just thinking about it and soon fell asleep.

(4:21 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

***

After Jaro dropped Sarah off at her apartment, he went to a club out on Cow Pen Road near where he lived. It was not his kind of place early, but the later it got, the more his kind of people drifted in and the more he liked it. It wasn't fancy and the late night crew were not fancy either. Just honest working people who maybe had too much on their minds to get to sleep like they should. Some who needed a musical outlet in a social setting to feel some togetherness in a world that increasingly saw communities crumbling. Some people went to their churches and sang together and found some sense of community and belonging. For Jaro, it was this late night bar and the band.

(4:53 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

When he walked in, he saw Taniqua sitting at a table in the back. He smiled her way and nodded his head and tried to head towards her but got pulled this way and that on his way there by people who wanted to talk some more about the recent election in the U.S. or just to say hi and see how he was doing.

(4:57 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

***

(5:30 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

And so time keeps slipping away. Where does it go and why? What now?

***

Jaro finally made it back to where Taniqua was sitting and slid in beside her. "Hey girl, how are you doing tonight?"

"I'm doing so so, I could be better but they day went well I guess."

"That's good. I like what you did with your hair. It looks good on you."

Taniqua smiled and patted her hair, "You like it? I thought about doing it red but changed my mind at the last minute."

"Well, black is safe and it looks good on you how you have it done up but you should try red sometime. You might like it and you know what they say... 'You never know until you try.'"

Rob Me Blind came on.

"That's true. So Jaro, you wanna dance?"

Girl you know I need a woman
To come and steal my heart
So I leave it on the front porch
Each night when it gets dark

Jaro wasn't one to pass up a chance to dance with a beautiful girl, even if he was dead beat and felt like having a beer first. He stood up and reached out his hand, "Sure thing sweet thing, let's go."

Then I lay upon my pillow
And pray if God be kind
He'd let you drive down my street
You could stop and rob me blind

They danced close, she put her head on his shoulder. "So Taniqua,you want to come rob me sometime?" She scratched the back of his neck with her new nails. He would have to tell her he liked them later too.

Rob me blind I don't mind
Baby come and rob me blind
Rob me blind, rob me blind, rob me blind
Rob me blind, take your time
I'm waiting here for you
To rob me blind, rob me blind, rob me blind

Then I wake up every morning
And check outside to find
It cold and lonely on the ground
And I almost lose my mind

Got heartaches without number
And pains of every kind
But I don't want a doctor
Just want you to rob me blind

Rob me blind I don't mind
Baby come and rob me blind
Rob me blind, rob me blind, rob me blind
Rob me blind, take your time
I'm waiting here for you
To rob me blind, rob me blind, rob me blind

So come on pretty baby
Wont you be so kind
Take a drive down my street
Hit the brakes and rob me blind

Rob me blind I don't mind
Baby come and rob me blind
Rob me blind, rob me blind, rob me blind
Rob me blind, take your time
I'm waiting here for you
To rob me blind, rob me blind, rob me blind

The song ended too soon for Jaro's taste but Taniqua took his hand in hers and headed back to the table. He let her pull him along.

(5:55 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

***

(8:14 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

Well gentle reader I'm back. Five or six hundred more words and I can safely call it a night although once again it will be only about half of my preferred weekend quota. The way things are going this year though, I seriously wonder if I will do a double day at all this year.

***

"Mmmmm, you can dance with me anytime Jaro. Are you going to leave that no good band of yours and join a real band lime mine sometime?"

"Come on Taniqua, you know I don't like to do so much island music. I need to play mostly rock and country with some island mixed in."

"You sure you is an island boy Jaro? Where did you get this country thing from?"

"You don't listen too good huh? I keep telling you, my dad played country around the house when I was a boy. I guess it just sort of stuck with me."

"OK, so what about rock?"

"Fuller, we have been friends since that time. When I used to go live with my Grammy in Abaco in the summers, his cousin's house was a block away and we used to hang there. He went to stay with his cousin there in the summers. His cousins daddy had a big rock and blues collection that we jammed all the time. Plus they had a yard band which is where we got to playing together."

"OK, OK, but you know that is the wrong kind of music to make it big here in the islands. Don't you want to go somewhere with your music?"

Jaro reached out and took her hand in his and looked her right in the eyes, "Taniqua, I want that in the worst way, I can't tell you how much I want it. But I wonder if I will ever get it."

"So, join my band, you know we have the talent. You know we are going places. You are always telling me so yourself."

"You are, you are. And I wish I could but I need to play different music to be happy and that would not be right for you. Besides, we have talent gone to bed in our band too. And this is the internet age Taniqua, we can reach a world wide audience right from this little rock we live on. So we probably have a better chance of hitting it big than you do from that perspective."

"So, what's the problem then?"

"Well, Fuller and Sarah both have talent gone to bed, but I often wonder if they need it as much as I do. They never seem to want to find the time to grow beyond where we are now. Perhaps they just don't have the ambition and drive that I do."

(8:35 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

(9:58 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

"What about the other folks in the band? are they driven like you or what?"

"I think they would all like to make it but maybe Full and Sarah are holding us all back."

"So, why don't you kick them out and replace them?"

"Kick them out? The three of us are the band. And I need them. We are a good team musically."

"I don't know," said Teniqua, it seem to me like they may be an anchour for you. You really should think about what I am saying."

"Taniqua, there aren't enough of us rockers and country folks on this rock to be able to replace people that good at the drop of a hat. Goombay, Calypso, Reggae, Soca, Junkanoo, Rake N Scrape, sure, country and rock, not so easy."

"Hey, let's dance one more before I have to go," said Taniqua standing up and taking his hand.

He stood up too and they walked out to the dance floor.

I said hello, hello
Can you hear me now
I said hello, hello
Can you hear me now
I said hello, hello
Baby how low can you go
I said hello, hello
Can you hear me now
I said hello, hello
Can you hear me now

"Well, I can hear what your body is telling me tonight baby," said Jaro, "tell me some more."

I said oh yeah, oh yeah
Can you see me now
I said oh yeah, oh yeah
Can you see me now
I said oh yeah, oh yeah
I'm comin' in the clear
I said oh yeah, oh yeah
Can you see me now
I said oh yeah, oh yeah
Can you hear me now

I call you in the morning
And I call you in the evening
But you never will answer your
Phone no more

Why did you leave with no warning
When you left that morning
Why will you never answer your
Phone no more

I call you in the morning
And I call you in the evening
But you never will answer your
Phone no more

Why did you leave with no warning
When you left that morning
Why will you never answer your
Phone no more

I said uh huh, uh huh
Can you feel me now
I said uh huh, uh huh
Can you feel me now
I said uh huh, uh huh
Dance it baby uh huh
I said uh huh, uh huh
Can you feel me now
I said uh huh, uh huh
Can you hear me now

I call you in the morning
And I call you in the evening
But you never will answer your
Phone no more

Why did you leave with no warning
When you left that morning
Why will you never answer your
Phone no more

I said goodbye, goodbye
I'm leaving now
I said goodbye, goodbye
I'm leaving now
I'm leaving all I'm feeling
I don't know why I'm leaving
I said goodbye, goodbye
I'm leaving now
I said goodbye, goodbye
Can you hear me now

(10:12 pm Sat Nov 08, 2008)

Well gentle reader, I hoped you liked the music. Some of it can be found at http://zotz.kompoz.com so feel free to take a listen.

Goodnight then.

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