Distant+Whispers

Petra frowned. “He’s not my Yankee man, Nigel. Stop talking stupidness.”
“Yuh invite he to this fete, ent?”
“Of course, Nigel! I kept my promise,” Petra said smugly.
“Yuh beg he to come?” Nigel asked playfully.
Petra sucked her teeth. “Nigel! Please! I told him. That’s all I promised to do. I told him! He’s not
a child.”
Nigel’s grin broadened. “Yuh offer to give he a drop? How the man gonna reach if he don’ have a
car?”
“I told him where to catch a taxi,” she replied.
“Petra, you are a hard woman,” Nigel said, shaking his head.
“Look, Nigel,” Petra snapped, flashing her large eyes at Nigel, “de man busy. Ef he can’t come, he
can’t come. It’s nothing big.”
“Busy? Busy doing what, Petra? You said yourself the man got nothing important to do.” Nigel
turned towards his cousin. He gave her a stern look. “Maybe allyuh done humiliate the man too much.
Maybe he jus’ want to stay at that chic Normandie Hotel and forget allyuh. I know I would.”
“Nigel! Hush! I don’t want to talk about it.” She sighed. “Listen, ah going up de hill to the church
to meet Tammi.”
“Tammi? At the church?” Nigel smiled. “Why she go there? There’s no men up there at the Church
of Our Lady of Fatima.” Nigel laughed.
“Stop making joke of my friends, Nigel,” Petra responded, punching her cousin on his arm.
“Tammi is a woman of faith, you know that. Tammi doesn’t come to Laventille that often. Why
shouldn’t she go to Our Lady of Fatima to pray? Isn’t that what hundreds of tourists do every year?”
“Tammi praying for a man, Petra. What de Bible say about repeating the same thing over and over
again?”
“Nigel! Stop!” Petra turned away quickly. “Ah gone. If mommy come, tell her that I’ll be back
directly.”
* * *
Tammi was into one of her extremes again. This Tammi leaving the church of Our Lady of Fatima
with Petra was not the same Tammi revving up her behind at carnival two weeks earlier. Not by a
long shot.
“So, Petra, that’s why ah gonna become a nun. Ah feel dat Gawd wants me to serve him fuh all of
mih life.”
“Okay, den, Tammi,” Petra searched for words as the two of them descended Upper Picton Road
towards mommy’s house. “Ummm, that’s…that’s good news, Tammi.” Petra turned away from her
friend, scrutinizing the graffiti on the gray walls of Fort Picton. She needed any distraction to hide her
skepticism as this new revelation of her dear friend.
“Ah a changed woman, Petra. Ah a woman of Gawd. All of me belong to Gawd. My mind, my
spirit, my body. All uh me.”
“You’re body, too. Okayyy…that’s wonderful,” said Petra, gazing at the road.
“Ah gon’ cover myself up, muh body, muh hair, just like the Spiritual Baptists and just pray all