Mothers day on Aruba

[charlescroes]

On the tops of cacti there is a yellow flower. Practically never touched since it is surrounded by the spikes of the cactus. It has few petals but the bright yellowness is a gift from nature. To get to one is a sure sign that cactus spines have caused pain to someone. This cactus is native to Aruba and the year is 1895. Off in the country side there is a small Cunucu house which is painted a blazing white. A dusty dog is sleeping in a curl at the door entrance – off to the side a rooster is starting to prance. Inside there is a family. Without moving a muscle, the dog opens one eye and scans the environment. He knows that day is on the edge but that he still has some time to rest before doing “Dog things”

The Man inside the small house fishes three days a week and plants what he can the other. Sunday they all rest. The only child is a girl and she is a shadow of her mother all day and the brightest light of her father for ever. As this family moves through life, the ladies take care of “lady things”. Once, when she was barely able to talk, the little girl asked her father what he did that his hands were so hard and all cut – he said – I do “Man Things”. Life was simpler then.

Hanging on a piece of wood that makes up part of the inside of the door frame – is a cloth bag. Inside of this bag there is a small handkerchief with fishing hooks, a small roll of wire to be used for tying “things” (whatever “things” are) a piece of dark brown bread and a picture of the family which was taken in a small temporary studio in back of the church in town. The colors are browns and ivory and the clothing they wore for that photograph was borrowed from the photographer just for the picture. To make it seem as if the clothing fit, the photographer pinned it together in the back. For that one “snapshot” second, they were elegantly dressed and all hair was pushed back with the aid of pomade, oil and a fine tooth comb. Also in the bag is the top to a thermos jug. It is aluminum, and time has misshapen the edges to the point that they are not able to screw back on the thermos. On the closed window sill is the thermos.

Before the darkness of the night even considered leaving, “Mother was awake and in the kitchen. The coffee for her man was prepared as was the dark brown bread in the bag. Making sure to lift her feet high so as to not awaken her child, she went to her child’s’ small Cunucu house room and smoothed the sheet that covered her and touched a dangling strand of ebony black hair that was off to the side. There was no door to that room but instead a curtain. The mother pulled it together and let her hand linger on the curtain cloth a bit – then - turned around and went to the room where she and her husband slept. Almost floating so as to be still, she hovered and looked at him. Closed her eyes and then opened them again. The smile that came to her face was hidden by the night. Mother moved to her side of the bed and melted into it so as to not awaken the “Fisherman – Farmer – Father – Husband” that was sleeping there.

Mother was on her side with both eyes shut as she waited for the rooster to stop prancing and start his call to the world. She pretended to be asleep. Father had been awake a long time ago. He pondered the day with eyes closed – all the while listening to the wood in his house start to stir. It is a known fact that houses in the country side sleep and awaken. Some snore.
Then it was time – he walked as quietly as he could to the kitchen and sat on the scarred wooden table to drink the half cup of coffee that had been left there aside brown bread with butter on it. He went outside and took off his clothes and walked to a large bucket of water that had been sitting there all night. He lifted it and poured it over himself. Without drying himself, he dressed into old fishing clothes and hard leather sandals. From the outside, he reached into the door way and around to the window frame to grab his cloth bag. With the bag straps twined through the old belt he had around his waist, he walked in the direction of the sea. Family, home and dog would be seeing him when it was equally as dark tonight.

Daughter crawled up on the bed on the fathers’ side and looked at her mother. Instinctively she got out of bed and decided to make coffee for “Mama”. She did and it brought moisture to the woman’s eyes.

The rooster starts
The dog moves
The windows start to open one at a time
A Daughter takes coffee to her mother
A mother looks at the loveliness of her daughters hair and recalls a strand of it at night.
When the two walk to the kitchen, they find a cactus flower lying on the wood.
A man, with a cloth bag tied to his belt walks and as the sun greets the earth he continues to move towards the sea and it is apparent he is picking cacti spines from his hands
It is May 13 in the year 1895
The place is Aruba
And the event is in the imagination.


Happy Mothers Day
Be well
charles