Imagining Us

Ch. 26- I'm Dreaming of an Island Christmas

The weather in Trinidad was beautiful. 

Mind you, Connecticut had its own kind of beauty in the winter and so did England, but those countries were cold. This was coming from a girl who'd lived between England and Connecticut for most of her life. Esi thought that heading into her 30s that she'd be used to it by now, but she was convinced that her Trini and Ghanaian genes would never let her.

As much as she would've liked to see her other family members, she was glad that it was only chilly down here.

There had been a flurry of holiday activities since her family had landed on the island. There was a Christmas play that the young people from her grandmother's church had put on and a 'Celebration of Choirs' concert that they went to in order to reminisce about the days that her grandfather used to direct it. Plus, her mum had to visit some of her old school friends which meant that Esi had been to at least two other Pre-Christmas parties before today.

~~~

Her whole family—well, not her whole family, but most of them were crowded into her grandmother's living room for prayer before Christmas dinner.

Esi was confident that the tail of one of her grandmother Elaine's china cats was poking her in the back. However, she couldn't do anything about it because she was packed tightly between her mum and her cousin Bri.

There was always one thing that would cause the Butler women to be identifiable—small breasts and extremely wide hips, and of course what they had to carry around behind them. Plus, she was Ghanaian, and that spoke for itself. It made finding dresses difficult—the top of the dress would fit right, but the bottom would be too tight, and vice versa.

Her eyes should have been closed as her father prayed for the food, but instead, she noticed her little cousin Jude. He was edging closer to the ham which was already carved and laid out with the other foods on a buffet table. Before he stretched his hand to grab one of the pieces, he looked up and met her eye. Jude froze, not expecting that anyone would have been watching him.

Esi saw when he relaxed. Then, he gave her a grin that had one tooth less. She smiled and nodded for him to take the piece. She chuckled as he threw her a greatly exaggerated wink. Esi felt a sharp pain in her right side—her mum had elbowed her.

"What?" She whispered innocently.

Her mum looked at her.

"Really?" She hissed.

All Esi could do was shrug her shoulders, and she saw her mum shake her head in disappointment.

In her mum's defense, her grandmother, who was her mother's mother, had been driving them crazy for the past week. The whole house had been scrubbed from top to bottom. Carpets had been beaten out and new curtains hung. Plus, there was all the food preparation that had gone into today. Luckily for her, she was on drink duty. That meant she had to make enough sorrel, Gingerbeer and Ponche de creme for everyone.

Unfortunately, during the process, she was reminded of her promise to Porte—that he'd never tasted her drinks.

Esi sighed.

He still hadn't answered any of her messages, and there was only so much rejection that her spirit could take.

So, she emerged herself more into the Christmas prep. She would do anything else but venture into that kitchen.

There was no way she wanted to be in there with all that tension.

They should have known better than to ask her grandmother how many people were coming to dinner.