Fun or Food
Terrence Moore
Sitting on a balcony on a nice evening, sunny 80 degrees out with no clouds in sight. And on the nearest body on the water is an all-white sailboat. Caught a big sniff of the oceans, animals, uncut grass, and ice cream shops along the beach. It is just me and my granny sitting back talking about what to do next. How about we go down to the river and allow me to gather a few things then we all go get on the boat? I said to granny.
Moments before leaving while I’m out making TikTok's and videos because of this perfect lighting I get a whiff of Curry goat, rice, beans, and conch soup. 5 more minutes shouted from grandad which must mean food must be done and bags or whatever is needed for the day should be packed, there is no wasted movement when we are done eating so everybody ought to be ready. 15 minutes later here I am running out the door all late wait wait wait! As I see them all down the hill holding logs as sticks.
Knowing this walk is about 10 minutes we all played “I spy” nearly every round we were trying to guess an animal from an iguana to a Jamaica boa, which made the walk very adventurous. We finally made it to the river 20 min later 30 spotted animals later to first spot a man-made standing raft with my friend ralph on it. Who wouldn’t want to stay when you see rope swings, ziplines, waterfalls, and rafts I don’t need to go sit on a sailboat when I can have fun here with the boys and gals. I immediately told my grandparents I’m staying, and I do not want to go on the sailboat while I was waiting in line to swing in the water from the ropes.
“Keep in mind that if you decide you want to stay you will not have dinner tonight because you are supposed to be catching dinner on the boat.” I hear you grandad, weeeeee!” Splash. Not even by the time I finished riding the zipline they were gone but I figured that they would be generous and get me a small fish or something. 2 hours later when they come back to the river for me, they come to put their feet in for a little while the sun is still out. We talk about all the animals that they saw while sailing and how heavy the waves were pushing them. All to find out that they were going to let me starve tonight. After that I was so mad, I was ready to go, and I did not want to say a word to anybody. Luckily on the way home, I found that log of a stick that I had on the way out. Here we are walking back maybe 5 five minutes away, and my grandparents see about a good acre worth of land and a few chickens, proceeded to ask what kind of food you like that involves chicken? Not knowing he was in a comedian mood I started dreaming and naming all kinds of dishes from fried chicken to chicken finger soup. “Look up and catch a chicken maybe you can figure out what exact dish you want then.” I can’t be that hungry if I do not want to kill them huh? crazy how he found some chickens. I did not want to kill the chickens because we were up the street from a soup stand on the street, why kill the animal when they have it made guys? Because you was not thinking about the bigger picture just the now but NOW you will think next time. But the chickens are still in da grass go get em’ ma boy. Finished the walk mighty pissed off and went to bed all because I wanted to ride the rafts, swim, play marco polo, ride ziplines over water and hang with the beautiful island gals. Before I went to bed, I yelled they gave me snacks at the river so HA! I found them.
Moore is a cadet at NMMI.