Katani's Jamaican Holiday (12 page)

Cousin Cecil stared at her. Then he said, “Is that what you think, Liv?”

Olivia burst into tears, and he bent down and hugged her. I could see the surprise in Selvin’s face.

“It’s true, I don’t think you are old enough to wear her jewelry. Some of the pieces are very expensive and a bit too sophisticated for you just yet. But, if you had told me you wanted to wear that necklace to church, I would have allowed you.”

Olivia sobbed even louder. Later she told me that only her mom had ever shortened her name to Liv, and when her father called her that, she felt as if her heart were breaking.

But I was in trouble too. “I’m very disappointed in you, Katani,” Grandma Ruby began. “If you had told me about all this, we could have solved the problem without terrorizing the old lady and putting yourselves in danger. What
were
you thinking? Wandering on the lonely country road at night? Suppose something had happened to you? What would I tell your parents?”

I couldn’t say anything. Mixed emotions raced through me. Anger with Olivia, shame because I had let Grandma down, but also a feeling of being terribly misunderstood. Didn’t Grandma know about loyalty to friends?

“You are going to be grounded for the rest of this trip,” she added.

I wanted to cry as well. Here I was in Jamaica, and now I was going to be grounded. It wasn’t even my fault. I just shook my head back and forth. I wasn’t the criminal here. I just wanted to help my cousin. The tears were dripping down my face.

“No!” Olivia cried. “It’s my fault. Please don’t punish Katani. I made her do it.” I was grateful to hear her say that, and I reached over and squeezed her hand.

“Ruby,” Cousin Cecil said. “Can I see you inside for a moment?” They both went into the living room while Olivia and I tried to dry our tears. But Olivia was so upset, she threw her arms around me and kept saying how sorry she was. I just hugged her tight. I knew in my heart that it wasn’t all her fault. We had both got carried away by that lost necklace.

Enid stood at the kitchen door, shaking her head. “Pickney!” I heard her say. “Always getting into trouble.”

Selvin said, “I’m not sorry for you nutty girls. Why didn’t you come to me? I could easily have gotten back the necklace.
I could have helped you out of your jam without all this fuss and muss.”

“Selvin”—I made a totally feeble attempt at a joke—“I am just going to have to plead teenage brain syndrome here.”

“You are one crazy girl, Katani!” He took a big swallow of sweet tea and began rocking in his chair.

B
y the time Grandma and Cousin Cecil had returned from their
What are we going to do with these girls?
conference, Olivia and I had calmed ourselves down and were preparing to take our medicine. I knew I had messed up really big-time, and I fully expected to be spending the rest of my vacation in Jamaica in Olivia’s bedroom. I just hoped Grandma Ruby would let me read, even if it was books on how to be a really good person or how not to lose your privileges forever. That would be a better fate than staring out the window at Spotty and counting split ends.

Cousin Cecil spoke first. “We have decided on the consequences for your actions. We don’t want that poor old lady to spend another night worrying, so I am going over there now to explain what happened. Tomorrow, you two young ladies will pay Miss Eva a visit.”

“Miss Eva?” Olivia and I said in unison.

“Yes,” Grandma Ruby said in a voice I hadn’t heard before. “Madda Bird has a name, just like everyone else. Her mother named her Eva.”

Olivia and I both looked down at the ground and then quietly slunk off to our bedroom as Grandma Ruby picked up her book and headed for the veranda. I wondered if this meant Grandma had decided not to ground me after all.

When Olivia and I got to the room, we flopped down on the bed with simultaneous groans. Olivia turned to me with such a miserable expression on her face that I had to stifle a huge giggle.

“Katani, I just can’t go over to Ol’ Madda Bir—I mean, Miss Eva’s, empty handed. I just can’t.”

“I know what you mean, Olivia.” I responded and turned over to look at her. “It would be so totally cheesy to just show up and say, ‘I’m sorry,’ then stare at the ground like a pair of pathetic goofballs. But what can we do?”

And then it hit me. I jumped off the bed, kneeled down, and pulled out my suitcase from under the bed. I started tossing clothes everywhere. I was sure I had brought them…they were in here somewhere. I was sure of it.

“What are you looking for, girl?” Olivia kneeled down beside me.

“Ahh, here it is.” I yanked out a bag with a pair of knitting needles and some leftover yarn I had from a project back home. “I always travel with them. You never know when you might have some downtime and want to make something or just want to chill out. Knitting is great for that,” I told her.

I pulled out the two balls of yarn I had brought with me, one small white and one larger pink. If I worked diligently I could have the scarf by midnight. I was psyched! I had my mission.

“Oh, that is so pretty. I love that color. It’s like a rose,” Olivia said as she fingered the soft yarn. “What are you going to do with it?”

“Tonight I am going to sit in this room and make the prettiest scarf I can for Miss Eva. She can wear it if a wind comes up at night. With these needles, it’ll knit up nice and lacy so she won’t get too warm.” I jumped up on the bed and began right away. Knit one, purl two. I could feel my mind focusing and relaxing at the same time—a design was forming in my mind—something perfect for the old woman who obviously loved birds.

“Well, I like your idea, Katani, but what am
I
going to do? I can’t knit.” Olivia sighed.

We sat in silence for a minute when all of a sudden Olivia jumped off the bed and snapped her fingers. “I know—I know what I gwine do. What do you think of this, Katani….”

The Party Planners

Olivia and I worked all evening while Grandma and Cousin Cecil sat on the veranda chatting and listening to music as if nothing had ever happened. I kept waiting for one of them to come in the room and ask us what we were planning, but they never did. Cousin Cecil never went into the kitchen at all. Both of them just let Olivia and me do our thing. Olivia wouldn’t even let me in the kitchen to see what she was doing.

I worked all night on the scarf and I was very happy with the design. When I set aside my needles I realized that it was dark outside and everyone was asleep. I was starving. I snuck quietly out of the room on my tiptoes. I certainly didn’t want to wake anyone tonight, but I needed a glass of milk or something. I crept through the main room, past Grandma Ruby’s bedroom, and into the kitchen.

When I turned on the light and saw what Olivia had created, I almost couldn’t believe my eyes. Suddenly, I heard
footsteps. I spun around. Grandma Ruby was standing in the doorway. I looked at her, and she held out her arms. I flung myself across that room so fast, I could have qualified for the Olympics. I laid my head on my grandma’s shoulder and let out the longest breath of my life. It was like I had been holding it all night long. She patted my back, and suddenly I knew that all was forgiven.

We sat down at the table and both had a glass of milk and a bit of Banana Bliss.

“Katani dear, sometimes it is difficult to decide between loyalty and stepping up to the plate when the truth is needed—it’s even difficult for grown-ups. You will face many decisions like this on your journey to adulthood. I hope you will think carefully about each decision that you make.” That’s all my grandma was ever to say to me about Olivia’s and my nighttime adventure. But it was all she needed to say.

The next morning, when I woke up, Olivia was already up and working in the kitchen. I threw on a sweatshirt and rushed to join her. We had both agreed that it would be proper to make breakfast for everyone. I looked around for Olivia’s creation, but she must have put it away.

“Olivia,” I asked, “do you want to tell them the plan, or do you want me to?”

She thought a moment. “I think you should do it. But I want you to…” She lowered her voice and explained the rest in a whisper.

When Cousin Cecil and Grandma and Selvin entered the kitchen, they could only stare at the table in surprise.

“Well, now, young ladies. What have we here?” Cousin Cecil asked.

Olivia and I had set the table like Martha Stewart. We had flowers and napkins folded like fans. We had grabbed some
wildflowers and put them in a vase. Olivia, who turned out to be an awesome cook, had made eggs and bacon (at my request) and huge platefuls of traditional Jamaican food for everyone. There was Enid’s run down, green banana porridge, fried dumplings, and ackee and saltfish. “You can’t come to Jamaica and not eat our national dish,” Olivia explained with a smile, pointing to a bowl full of stuff that looked like scrambled eggs with bits of brown stuff in it. “We take the ackee, which is this red fruit, and boil it and cook it in oil with shredded salted codfish and
plenty
of onions and pepper.”

“Why, that sounds perfectly delicious, Olivia,” Grandma commented.

“Please help yourself! I’ll be right back,” Olivia urged with a wink at me, and dashed out of the room.

As everyone sat down, I made the announcement we had planned out: “Olivia and I are very sorry for our mistake. To make up for it, we have worked on a surprise for Miss Eva. Olivia will go first.”

Olivia walked back into the kitchen carrying the most beautiful cake, covered with coconut. It almost looked like a wedding cake, with three tiers. At the top, Olivia had fashioned a white bird made out of frosting.

Cousin Cecil looked at his daughter with such pride and began to clap. Olivia beamed.

When it was my turn, I unfolded the pink scarf. In the middle I had knitted a small white bird. Selvin whistled. “Very good work, Katani. You are a very good artist.”

Grandma just smiled, but I knew she was proud too.

After breakfast, Olivia and I cleaned up. It was decided that we could go visit Miss Eva that afternoon. Grandma was off to the bakery, and Cousin Cecil was going to meet with some American grocery store representatives. Selvin
announced that Olivia and I would be going on a little adventure. I looked at Olivia in disbelief.

“I bought tickets a week ago to take you girls to Dunn’s River Falls.”

I looked at Grandma and Cousin Cecil, and they nodded. This was too good to be true! I was free. I would not be imprisoned for the rest of my vacation.

Olivia and I ran to the bedroom to change our clothes.

A
s we went down the steps to the beach, we could see and hear the rushing water of the falls. “This view is amazing!” I shouted over the whoosh of the water. The falls were steep in places and scary looking in others, with lots of overhanging tree branches. But there were also a few calm pools where people were wading and splashing around. At the bottom of the path we found a beautiful stretch of light brown, powdery sand, with palm and almond trees gnarled and twisted by the wind, and clear blue waters stretching out into the distance. There were buoys marking the limit for swimming. The end of the falls roared into the sea.

“Want to climb?” Selvin asked.

I think my eyes bugged about a mile out of my head. “Climb up that waterfall? Are you crazy?” I asked him.

He just laughed. “Not crazy, Katani. People do it all the time. And I can be your guide. I have climbed these falls many times.”

“Come on, Katani. Let’s do it! Those girls look like they’re having fun.” Olivia pointed at some girls around
our age, standing in a little pool about a quarter of the way up the falls, laughing and splashing. She had a point: They did look like they were having a blast. But feeling like the most un-athletic girl on the planet, I wasn’t sure if I was up to scrambling over sharp, slippery rocks.

“There is a craft village at the top,” Selvin said temptingly when he saw the hesitant look on my face. “Shopping, Katani. Clothes and beads and fabrics…”

Well, that settled it. I’d just have to push aside my fears and go for it. Sometimes fashion requires sacrifice.

Selvin, Olivia, and I linked hands and formed a human chain. As I stood at the foot of the falls, staring up at the tumbling, noisy, foaming water, my knees started shaking. I was holding Selvin’s hand, but I remembered the saying that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. I definitely didn’t want to be that weak link. Olivia and Selvin were depending on me.

“Ready?” Selvin asked. I stood tall and gripped his hand a little tighter.

“Ready!” Olivia and I shouted back.

Climbing was seriously intense. We had to pick our way along paths where the water wasn’t rushing down too strongly, choosing each step carefully. Once, I slipped and lost hold of Selvin’s hand. He helped me to get up, and we continued climbing. “You can do it, Katani!” Olivia shouted in my ear. Sometimes we had to pull strongly to help one another over a tricky patch. I was sooo glad when we reached a calm area where we could rest in the pool of water there. What an adventure!

As Olivia and I flopped down into the cool water, I noticed that we had caught up with the girls we had seen climbing up ahead of us. They were lounging in the water nearby.

“Hi!” Olivia greeted them, like she had known them all
her life. I was so impressed by how that girl could talk to anyone. “That climbing was hard, wasn’t it?”

“Definitely,” a girl with a head full of tiny, beaded braids answered her. “I think we almost lost Megan a couple of times.” She looked over at her friend, who was rubbing a scraped knee, and the three of them started laughing.

Megan shrugged as she giggled. “I’m pretty much terrible at athletic stuff. And our guide said it would be tricky.”

“That’s right, I warn you!” remarked the woman with them, laughing too. Her long braids were pulled up into a ponytail, and she wore a snug-fitting, neon green and bright yellow athletic shirt. It was totally sporty-chic.

I could tell right away from their accents that these girls weren’t from Jamaica. They were from the States, like me. “Where are you from?” I asked.

“California,” the girl with the beaded braids answered. “I’m Leesha, and this is Megan and Kayla. And our guide is Vicki.”

“I’m Olivia!” my cousin introduced herself, jumping up and splashing through the shallow water to give high fives to all the girls and Vicki. I waved from where I was sitting. “That’s my cousin Selvin, and this is Katani,” she informed them. “She’s a little shy, but I know you will like her.” She smiled at me.

I just shook my head at her. That Olivia certainly had a way of making friends. “I’m bad at sports too,” I said to Megan, and we smiled at each other.

“Hey, why don’t you guys join up with us?” Kayla suggested. “We could be like one super-long human chain! Is that okay?” She turned to their guide.

“Okay by me,” Vicki answered.

Selvin nodded. “Good idea.”

We all linked arms again, Vicki first, then me and Megan, Olivia, Kayla, Leesha, and finally Selvin. With everybody pulling together, it was SO much easier to wiggle our way through the water. I was really happy to have another non-athlete there with me (and I think Megan was too), but at the same time, I was totally inspired by Vicki’s awesome, sporty attitude—and awesome fashion choices.
Maybe sports and fashion can go together
, I thought as I helped Megan step over a huge, pointy rock.

At the top we all collapsed, giggling, in another pool of cool water. I was having so much fun talking to the girls that I didn’t even notice that Selvin wasn’t there until Olivia suddenly tugged on my shirt. “Do you see what I see?” she whispered, pointing behind me. We all turned around. There were Selvin and Vicki, browsing the shops in the craft village, grinning like crazy and standing
very
close together. Boy, that had happened fast!

“Oooo,” Leesha said teasingly. “Vicki and Selvin, sittin’ in a tree—”

“K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” Olivia finished. We all burst out laughing. Okay, so maybe it was a little fourth-grade, but I had to admit that Selvin and Vicki did make a very nice-looking couple.

On the way home, Olivia and I teased Selvin about showing his romantic side. “You gwine call your new girlfriend, Selvin? You better,” Olivia laughed.

“Pickney,” he grumbled, but I could see he was trying hard not to smile. “Empty barrel mek de most noise. By and by, yuh wi si.”

“Um, translation?” I asked Olivia. “Did he just call us empty barrels?”

She laughed. “It means we don’t know what we are talking about.”

“We know more than you think, Mr. Selvin,” I said, trying to sound very proper. “Olivia and I are
very
mature for our age.”

Then I stuck my tongue out at him.