Storytime Sinting
About this time of year here in Cayman, they have a sort of storytelling tradition or something. Over the years, it has become more formalised into an annual event with a billed name and everything. This year, inspite of Ivan, they had this event again. They called it "Gimistory 2K4", and the storytellers went to Elizabethan Square and told stories to the audience. This was a free event. Natty and I had planned to take MBJr. to it, but didn't get around to it still.
Maybe its a good thing we didn't though! Trust me, it sounds like something that can be enjoyed by the entire family, but at the same time, if your kids are really young, maybe it ain't such a good idea. One Saturday night, we decided to make our way down to the Bayside Cafe to eat. While we were driving, MBJr. asked Natty to tell him a story. Natty said "Later, when you are going to bed I'll tell you a story." Then she turned to me and said "We really ought to take him to the Gimistory thing, you know.". Then she turned the radio dial to Radio Cayman, and what do you know! They were broadcasting live from "Gimistory 2K4" down in Elizabethan Square! People, dis post kind of long, so click the link below if you want to continue to read this...
Natty exclaimed "Hey, its on the radio! MBJr., here, listen to this story!" With that, she turned the radio up. we didnt get the story at the start. It seemed that there was an emcee who introduced the story tellers, because the story that was being told came to an end quickly. A woman with a Trini accent came on next. She announced that a woman in the audience had reported that she had gone to buy a drink and had left her cellphone on her chair, and when she came back it wasn't there, and she was appealing to whoever had taken it to return it. Having got this bit of public service out of the way, the Trini lady announced the next story teller, who took over the microphone and began to weave his spell of fiction. I didn't really listen to that story, as we were approaching the plaza at Grand Harbour where we were stopping so that I could buy a couple of things and return a DVD before we continued on our way to the Bayside Cafe. MBJr. and Natty both were listening avidly, however.
There was quite a line in both Hurley's and in Blockbuster! By the time I had returned, that story was just winding to a close. The audience began to cheer and clap the story teller as the Trini lady emcee took the microphone once more. She congratulated the story teller on his story, then she said "The lady who lost the cell phone has told me that it has not yet been returned! She is appealing to whoever took it to return it! It is not an expensive phone, but she doesn't want to lose her phone number and she has a lot of telephone numbers in the phone that she doesn't want to lose! Please return the phone to the lady!".
She went on to announce that though she was just the emcee this evening, hearing all the wonderful storytellers before had moved her to tell a short story of her own. She would just tell this little story and then she would announce the next story teller. That said, she launched off into her own story. I have written her story here for you. It is all her story, as I remember it... maybe I have added to it a little piece here and there, but it is still her story.
There was a man named George. He was married to a woman named Mary and they lived in a small village in the hills in the countryside. They had what would have been a perfect marriage, with the sole exception being that they didn't have any children. They were both deeply in love, but they both felt a deep need to have and nurture a child. It was Mary's biggest disappointment that after four years of marriage, during which the couple had been trying over and over to have a child, that so far, they had not had a bit of success.
One night George stayed at work a bit later than usual. When he left, it was maybe 8:00pm, and it was an esepcially dark night. The atmosphere was damp, and the air had a bit of a chill to it. As George walked home, he was mulling over in his mind how when he had left Mary to go to work that morning, she had been crying quietly. She was a woman with a very regular cycle, and this month she had passed her usual time. She had gone over the period by a week, and she had begun fervently to hope that she had at last become pregnant. This morning, her hopes were dashed as a familiar friend had shown his face once again.
He had held her softly and had rocked her against his chest, playing in her hair as it trailed down her back and he had tried his best to hush her, and to ensure her that everything was alright and that eventually they would have this little child that they so wanted, but nothing he said could stop the slow, steady dripping of her tears down her cheeks.
As George thought over the events of the morning, he heard a noise off to his right. He turned his head and looked over to the verge of the road, where he could just make out a little, lighter blob of... something, he couldn't make out what. It was almost out of sight in the weeds and shrubbery by the side of the road. He stopped, wondering what the blob was, peering at it in the dark. He shrugged and was just about to set off homeward again when the noise came to him once more, just a bit louder this time. "It sounded like... but no,it couldn't be!" he thought. George made his way slowly towards the little white shape.
As he got right up beside it, he saw that the shape actually was a bundle of cloth. As he stood there looking down at it, he heard the sound again, only this time, he definitely recognised the sound. It was the sound of a baby fussing. George bent down and pulled apart the cloth. He saw a beautiful little baby boy. The baby didn't appear to be more than a few days old, and he looked to be in perfect health, with rosy skin, a full head of hair, and with all ten fingers and and ten toes.
As George knelt there over the baby, a wave of emotions, Anger, sadness and hope swept over him, anger because he wondered how anyone could abandon this beautiful baby on the side of the road like that. Sadness because he felt sorry for the baby, and because he thought to himself that while he and his wife were trying so hard to have a child and had so far been unsuccessful, here was someone else getting this blessing from God and just throwing it away like that. Hope also swept over him, because he began to hope that he and his wife could just take this child for their own.
This swirl of emotions raged within him as he gazed down at the infant's face, and the longer he stared, the more the feeling of hope grew within him. Eventually, he thought "I will take this baby home to Mary! After all, I can't just leave him here! I don't have to take him to the police or anything! There must be some way that Mary and I can keep him! Look at how his parents have abandoned him!". With that thought, he wrapped the baby back up, leaving only the face uncovered and he picked up the baby.
He wasn't that far from home, less than a mile away, and the baby was quite light, and so he began to run home with the baby in his arms. He ran and he ran and he ran, all the time thinking about how he was going to surprise his wife, and about the look she would have on her face as she beheld the baby and as she heard his plan for them to keep the baby for themselves. On and on he ran, but he found that he wasn't getting any closer to home! 
He thought "I've got to get this baby home to Mary!" and he began to run harder, really driving hard with his legs. As the breath streamed from his mouth and nose, he realised that the baby was starting to feel heavier. Still he ran on, but he wasn't getting any closer to home!
His lungs began to pound with the effort of running and he started to wonder how it was that he had been running so hard and yet he wasn't getting any closer to home. He decided to stop and rest for a bit. As he made to lay the baby down while he was taking a breather, he realised that he couldn't let go of it! The baby seemed to be stuck in his hands! He just could not let it go! As he strained his muscles to move his hands away from the bundle of cloth, the baby opened its eyes and looked up at him.
The baby's eyes were black, deep, inky black, like the darkest, most nether regions of the night sky above. Dark eyes , and soulless. As the baby stared up at him, a feeling of an evil presence stole over him, slowly at first, and then increasing in strength and speed, until he could feel his every nerve jangling within him as the waves of evil swept over him. He began to have cold sweat and goose bumps and his hair felt like it was standing on end. Of course, all of this made him strain even harder to let go of the baby, but he found that he just couldn't! 
As he strained to let it go, a voice echoed in hs head. "Why did you pick me up? Who told you to do that! Put me back!". He stood up again, and started running toward home once more, still carrying the baby. He ran and he ran and he ran, and as he ran, the baby started to feel heavier and heavier and heavier. He thought "Once I get home, everything will be alright.". Still, he couldn't help but notice that he was still getting no closer to his home. His brreathing became more and more laboured, as the baby became heavier and heavier, and he was forced to slow down, untill he was just walking along. Still, there was no sign of his home. In fact, the area he was in was looking decidedly strange to him, and he wasn't sure where exactly he was. He stopped once again to rest, and he tried again to put the baby down. Once again, he couldn't!
"Who told you to pick me up! You should not have picked me up!" The voice echoed in his head! Each time the voice echoed, it sounded more evil and dangerous and sinister. "Oh my God!" he thought, " the baby is right! I should not have picked him up after all!". He stared down at the infant, which stared right back at him with those black, soulless, inhuman looking eyes. He bagan to feel very foolish, thinking about how he could have come across a baby of all things lying by the roadside on such a dark night and been foolish enough to pick it up. "It was my selfish desires which overwhelmed me!", he thought. "If only I could just put the baby down, I'd leave it right here." As he knelt there thinking that way, the voice echoed in his head nce more. "Leave me here! Are you mad! Who told you to trouble me! You should never have picked me up from where I lay. The only way you will be able to let me go is if you put me back right where you took me from. That is where I am supposed to be. Now do that! PUT ME BACK!".
George got up and began to run once again, but in the direction that he felt that home was. The baby looked up at him, the soulless eyes boring into his own until it seemed that they would pierce the back of his skull. The baby felt heavier than ever, and his legs felt positively leaden. The voice echoed in his head again. "Where are you going? That isn't where you picked me up from. PUT ME BACK!". George stopped running. "Ok, I am going to put you back.", he said. The baby just stared up at him. George turned around to retrace his steps, but all he could see behind him was bush and brambles and thorns. He wasn't sure which direction to go in.
He stepped off in one direction and the voice echoed "Where are you going? That isn't where you took me from!". He stopped, looking around, trying to make out a familiar landmark. He couldn't. He turned right and started off in that direction. "Where are you going? That isn't where you took me from!", the voice echoed once more. As he looked down at the baby, he thought he could see something sinister and evil behind its eyes. The baby just stared back with those black, soulless eyes boring into his own. He turned further right and started off, then left. Each time, the voice echoed in his head. "That is NOT where you took me from!". He looked down at the baby eventually and said, "I don't know which way to turn!". The baby merely stared back at him and the voice echoed in his head "You should NOT HAVE PICKED ME UP! PUT... ME... BACK!
Poor George... who told him to go and trouble the baby. After all, how could it possibly have been a normal baby, lying there by the roadside like that on such an abnormally dark night? He should have known to leave the baby alone. You shouldn't just pick up things that don't belong to you, because you may end up being unable to put them back, so you see all you who took up the woman's cellphone! You better PUT IT BACK!! Awoah!
The crowd burst out into laughter, cheering and clapping at the story, and indeed Natty and I laughed in the car too. Still, the story had been quite scary, and MBJr. had been listening too. The story disturbed him quite a bit in fact, and he could talk of almost nothing else for some time after. "What did she mean by soulless eyes?" He asked. "Why couldn't the man put the baby down?". Why was the baby getting heavier?" "Why couldn't the man find his home?". "Why did he see bushes when he turned around?". MBJr. kept worrying and worrying away at us about the story, because it had frightened him rather badly. Eventually, I had to tell him two other storys which I tried to make as exciting as possible so as to take his mind off of the scary story he had just heard.
It seemed to work, because he didn't have a nightmare that night, but trust me when I tell you that he hasn't forgotten the story he heard that night either! He heard that story about two or three weeks ago and up to last night he asked Natty something about it!
That is why I said that maybe its a good thing we didn't carry him to Gimistory! So, what did you think of her story? I quite liked it actually... I hope I did it justice... you notice that the story itself is not really ended. Just for kicks, I may come up with a different ending, who knows... Tell you what, we should make a challenge of it... If oonoo want to, you can come up with your own ending too! Post it on your own blog and then link it here in my comments if you decide to play along. Virtual beer and/or rum to the person we decide comes up with the best ending. May the best blogger/reader of my blog win!
Posted by Mad Bull at December 18, 2004 02:57 PM
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Then he woke up deeply relieved--until he realized that the baby was beside him in bed, and he was literally scared to death!
Posted by: Mel Da Piggy on December 19, 2004 01:44 PM
Haven't had time to read this yet....too long. Sorry my yute.
Posted by: Dr. D. on December 20, 2004 07:44 AM
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Then he woke up deeply relieved--until he realized that the baby was beside him in bed, and he was literally scared to death!
Posted by: Mel Da Piggy on December 19, 2004 01:44 PM