it was literally decided saturday morning at 9am, while sitting on my veranda, drinking coffee, talking to jess, that i would meet up with them at 11am in sav-la-mar and make our way together to treasure beach. i jumped into the shower, tried to gather and pack a few things and headed out. stopped and tried to quickly chat with everybody along the way. made my way down to the bus stop, thinking surely someone would pass by and i could beg a ride. well, how wrong was i when 11am came and went and there i remained… by the bus stop. luckily, a car was passing when i had just given up hope and i managed to score a lift to lambs river; then there were no rides going to darliston. my friend chris came to chat to me and mentioned brown had just passed through, so i called him in just enough time and he turned back from rat trap for me. i didn’t reach sav till very late, but i was not the last to come. melissa and matt showed up 10 minutes later and after a detour to juicy patty, we made our way to the bus park en route to black river. melissa thought she had the magic touch to get the driver to hurry and head out, but as it works here in jamaica is quite different… expect to wait anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour or over; it just depends on the people flow, time of day, day of the week, driver, … so many little details. after an hour we were finally on our way. a quick stop in black river for food and drinks at the nearby supermarket, where a few of us were gifted some random food items (come to find out it’s a weekly event and it only happens at this supermarket in black river), and we were soon off again. this time we managed to get a ride from a passing driver with newly installed shocks and we were headed to treasure beach.

the house was phenomenal… dennis’ old yard, right on the beach. it was a small west coast reunion. we hadn’t reached till nearly 4pm, but the day was still lovely, so we all decided to make our way down the beach, past the rocks, for a dip. we played a game of frisbee and soaked up the setting sun. we woke up bright and early the next morning to the sound of rain, and so it continued, all day… james, curt, melissa and i played a rather intense game of scrabble. curt and i got molested as for the majority of the game we were dealt only vowels (me) or only consonants (curt). try making magic out of that. near impossible. then imagine james popping out z’s and w’s left and right, and melissa giving a pathetic display of forged sympathy. it turned ugly fast. the first game ended with curt and i throwing our leftover letters furiously on the board. then we had a rematch and the same thing happened again.. so yet again, we ended it the same way. we demanded a fair rematch and made an oath to never play scrabble with james or melissa again. a week later curt was still perturbed about losing to melissa. for our last night we all made the trek to jack sprats. the rain had let up a bit, though it was still drizzling. we had to jump and leap over many a massive puddle en route, but made it. our last night we set up nick and heather’s projector and had movie night… i tried to fight the sleep halfway through the movie. everyone was really exhausted. jess and i ended up bed-less and managed to find a place on a short sofa and the floor, on some cushions. a few of the guys were still on the back veranda drinking and hanging out, everyone else had gone to bed, and then there was jess and i in the living room. it had started raining harder and thunder had begun to roll in… at about 2am  a strike of lightning lit up the house and suddenly struck just our house. the power blew just like that. jess and i jumped straight up and before anyone could respond, everyone was running around the house shouting to find out where everyone was and what had just happened. we managed to get back to sleep and morning soon greeted us. we cleaned, showered, packed and waited for our shocks guy to come for us. at around 10/1030am he came. we all piled in and headed back to our respective homes. in the end it was dave, jess and i in sav. the sky had darkened so severely that i opted to head straight home, instead of stopping for food and candles like i had planned. it took an hour to catch a ride to darliston and just as i caught the ride, it began to pour; i considered myself lucky. as i reached the field i ran up, trying to shield myself from the rain. when i got to my yard i ran into bowtie and cudjoe taking refuge under the house. i learned the current had been gone from morning and it hadn’t stopped raining. i caught up with them for a while then headed in to unload and cook before night fall and darkness.