Dear Nesta,
How you, muh girl? By now, life should be gettin’ less cole an’ you an’ evuhbody else lookin’ forward to warmer days, sence summer en too far off. I could hardly believe tomorrow is de firs’ day o’ June a’ready.
It seem to me as ef Fathuh Time wearin’ skates, faif! Look li’l harder an’ December gine be knockin’ at de door, only jes’ remember, October 21st got to pass firs’, de new date dah ole reverend prophesy fuh de “Big Change”!
I tell Philomena I don’ wanta hear one mo’ word ’bout any “rapture” or it might only rupture de frien’ship we had all dese ’ears. Say “abracadabra” an’ quietly disappear ’pon de 21st October – wid de rev an’ ’e followers – an’ lef muh in peace! Mebbee a strong turbulence in de atmosphere might start pullin’ dem up, mekkin’ duh t’ink de “rapture” happenin’!
When duh get stick half-way in space, so dat duh neiduh up nor down, duh could stop dey an’ float ’bout! We don’ need dem back down wid mo’ new dates, we had enuff!
But Ness, looka how Amurica sufferin’, neh? Dah country gettin’ hit after hit, wevver-wise! I was tellin’ my nighber dat it seem no place over dey en safe to live dese days.
One town in Arkansas get destroy, evuht’ing went flat! In de midwes’, 50 “twisters” roar t’rough in ten hours, causin’ nuff, nuff damage an’ hundreds o’ deafs. I read a story ’bout a young fella in Missouri dat jes’ graduate from high school an’ was drivin’ home wid ’e fathuh, when de tornado hit dem.
He seatbelt snap an’ ’e get suck t’rough de car sunroof! Aldoh de fathuh try all ’e could to hang on to de boy, he c’n fight de win’s an’ ’e son slip right outa ’e han’s! Too sad!
I c’n believe muh eyes when I look at all de damage dem win’s cause. Evuht’ing jes’ mash up, neffin lef’ but sticks an’ stones an’ broken bones.
I wonder wuh type o’ material Amuricans use fuh buildin’ houses, neh? It is true when dese “twisters” start blowin’, yuh don’ know wuh gine happen, but I feel some o’ dem houses is neffin too sturdy, anyway! Duh get put up “in a flash” an’ come down jes’ as fas’.
I always say it mussee mos’ depressin’ to have to try an’ salvage yuh belongin’s an’ start buildin’ from scratch, perhaps to have de same t’ing happen to yuh agen, in a year or so! We mo’ lucky dan we believe, yuh en know?
Sence de year open, de wevver pattern mek a real strange change! De calamities dat tek place in Japan, New Zealan’, Amurica, even de recent earfquake tremors in we area – all dese t’ings comin’ one after de ethuh, show “Mother Nature” gettin’ angry wid we yoomans! In spite o’ de special “Earf Day” event evuh year, we still don’ treat de universe as we should – de price o’ progress – an’ global warmin’ is one o’ de problems now comin’ back to haunt we!
June ’pon de doorstep, an’ we in dis area got to start gettin’ ready fuh any bad wevver dat might turn up, at de same time, prayin’ de sayin’ dat “God is a Bajan” turn out to be true!
Tek care o’ yuhself,
Yuh frien’ Babsie
