friday evening i made my way down to marie’s yard, waiting for everyone to convene so we could head out for our long anticipated girls’ weekend out. we had originally planned on spending the weekend in ocho rios, but due to communication problems, money constraints and the change of dates, we ended up hitting the road, letting it choose the final destination.

there i waited with cootay and darnette, in front of cudjoe’s shop; all of us waiting for marie and rocksan to get back and for naina to come out of her yard. finally, three figures came from the dark shadows of the field, naina, kayla and glacia. there we waited another 20 minutes or so, until headlights approached, and with it the boisterous shouting of marie and rocksan. all of us soon regrouped and headed down the road. as soon as we reached curtis a car creeped up and came to a full stop. rocksan was ready to jump into dumpster, thinking it was brown, luckily it was sarge. everything loaded in the trunk, rocksan, marie and sarge headed to pick up jasette and nadine. the rest of us made our way to the bus stop to wait for our ride, when suddenly it passed us.

we somehow managed to reach nadine before sarge… she informed us she wasn’t going to be able to join us this weekend, but made a peace offering of yam and dasheen. we took the offering, but refused to accept her absence and forced her to pack and join us. just as she was ready, sarge arrived. we all piled back into the cars… cootay, me, naina, and darnette all squeezed up in the back of the second car. it was decided we would head to st. elizabeth, to stay at a place they had stayed at years back in leeds.

as we were approaching santa cruz, our car kept getting passed by a gas truck with the words, “jesus is coming,” on the back… on one of the occasions we had passed this gas truck, we passed through a speed trap. the driver hit the gas and zoomed along, praying to god he wouldn’t get pulled over. all of us were tense, as the roads were extremely winding. cootay told the man she had five children to return to and i pleaded i had yet to have children and i was too young to die without children. all we could do was laugh off our anxiety and remember that ‘jesus was coming.’

we safely arrived before the others, but the time was freezing, and so we all stood outside shivering waiting for them. turns out they made a pit stop at mothers for some food. naina went in to register and get the room key. meanwhile, we all sat in sarge’s car. little did we know it was then, after they had pulled in and sarge had turned off the car, that his starter had died. so, when we attempted to move the car and it repeatedly failed to start, we gave up hope and headed up to the room. we all had a good laugh at the place… a door without a screen or glass and two locks, an empty kitchen, broken down and left over furniture, missing chairs, … yea, we had a good laugh.

we begged the guys to get us a few things, some food and drinks, whatever they could find. an hour later they came back with sardines, bread, coffee and tin milk. jasette attempted to work the electric burners of the stovetop, which had all sunken into the stove. it’s a miracle she got it to work. we had a feast of coffee, bread and sardines. shortly after the laughter and nonsense subsided, we all ended up piling onto one another on the king size bed… marie, me, naina, nadine, cootay  cuddled close together and jasette and darnette on a twin bed. needless to say i got zero sleep… i had marie snoring in one ear, while simultaneously kicking and thrashing towards me; i had nadine snoring in my other ear; and the television blaring. morning came all to suddenly at 5:30.

sluggishly i rolled over to the sound of loud chatter and laughter… everybody was wide awake. the guys had quickly gone to work on the car, after a couple hours there was a deliberation that a new starter was needed and we could pay a fortune for one in santa cruz or opt for sarge to take public to montego bay. we opted to pool money and within an hour or two, the car was working. we wouldn’t have enough money to stay another night in the room, not that we really wanted to, so we started brainstorming of plan b’s and c’s. we debated about heading to marie’s house in montego bay, but we had just one small toyota corolla for two car loads of people, so that quickly was axed from the list. we then opted to just make two car loads to santa cruz… we needed food.

so one car load made it’s way to santa… the rest of us waited it out till we couldn’t stand camping out in the parking anymore, and we began walking. 15 or so steps led us straight to sarge; we headed to santa. it was then, as we were passing the first carload that we decided to keep going till we found a restaurant. with a wave, transfer of funds for drinks, and a smile we we drove on. as we approached our faithful roadside food stall from previously this summer, we decided this would be the best stopping point — everybody could get some food and sustenance. we all piled out and sarge backtracked to get the others.

we reconvened and hung out for a while, before deliberating as to what our next move would be. marie and i talked about heading back through petersville, to see if we could catch another dancehall session. so that was the supposed plan… another car load loaded up and we made it as far as a roadside club. sarge again backtracked for the others and we attempted to make a nice time of a dead club. after about 15 minutes music started to blare from within and we set up camp along the side of the road, sitting along the embankment. eventually the second load arrived and by then more people had made a presence. we ran into qq, the dancehall singer and got to meet him and his promoter. they had just ended a show in montego bay and made a pit stop at the club on their drive to somewhere. they invited us to a christmas show in santa cruz and promised they would remember the seaford town girls.

i convinced sarge we should make a run for more refreshments and so the two of us, marie and cootay headed down the road in search of a shop. we ended up driving all the way to white house, a very long and unexpected trek. we soon made our way back and so the night kicked off… we enjoyed the little party at the club and then just as the time was getting good, the next car arrived and half of the group was ready to head home. our little group, piled into sarge’s car, was far from ready to head home. we called the front car and told them to keep an eye out for any street parties and we warned them we would be stopping. sure enough, as we passed through the bush, we found a nice little street party. we all stopped, tried to convince everyone it was the best decision and the next car left, leaving all of us to squeeze up in the corolla. after a very enjoyable time, sleepiness and the cold finally broke us down. all nine of us piled into the little corolla and we were soon on our way. dropping off people along the way, we very slowly regained some space in the car. we laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation with the car and all agreed that this had been a well enjoyed and very memorable trip.