Read Online No Pain Like This Body by Harold Sonny Ladoo - Free Book Online Page B

a race or some­thing. Sunaree and Panday walked behind. There were red crabs on the riceland bank. They moved away as Ma walked up to them. But some of them were fat and lazy; lazy just as fat people. Their bellies were big and they looked like red cashews. Sunaree and Panday tried their best to meet Ma. They couldn’t. Ma was a fast walker, but she couldn’t walk as fast as Jesus. Sunaree and Panday trailed behind. Then chax! Panday walked on a fat crab. Sunaree looked over her shoulder and said, “God goin to give you sin Panday!”
    â€œBut me eh do it for spite.”
    â€œYou still goin to get sin.”
    â€œMe eh do it for spite I tellin you.”
    â€œOright,” Sunaree said, “but dat crab have plenty young ones in she belly. Now you kill dat crab and all dem young ones too.”
    Sunaree and Panday sat on the riceland bank and looked at the female crab. The crab’s feet were still moving; trembling like. Something white as cow’s milk flowed out of the crushed and upturned belly. Then the feet became dead.
    â€œDe crab dead now,” Sunaree said sadly.
    â€œGod know it dead?”
    â€œYeh, God know dat.”,
    Panday remained worried and quiet. Sunaree held the crab with her tiny fingers; part of the back was buried in the mud; the mud formed a dirty circle around the belly. She looked carefully; some of the young crabs were moving inside the broken shell. She lifted the dead crab and placed it gently in the water.
    Ma was at the end of the riceland bank. She looked back; Sunaree and Panday were still sitting almost at the other end of the bank. “All you come on chirens, it gettin late!” Ma said.
    They got up and ran to her.
    Ma sat on a potato crate and pulled out the rice plants from the muddy water. The nurseries were thin and long, and softer than grass. Ma pulled them fast with her bony fingers.
    Hundreds of brown doves kept flying over the riceland. Their wings went tat tat tat tat tat as if dry leaves were rubbing against each other. Black birds rose like a steady flow of smoke, passed over the riceland and settled on the long mango trees.
    Sunaree wore a long dress made from a floursack. Panday was dressed in a merino only; he wasn’t wearing any pants. They sat on the upturned crate near Ma, and helped her pull the rice plants out of the ground. Then Pa came into the water and joined them. He knew the work well, but he couldn’t pull the plants out of the ground faster than Ma. But Pa didn’t pull for long. He took a brushing-cutlass and started trim­ming the grass on the narrow meri. As he cutlassed some of the cut grass fell back into the water.
    Several mango trees lined the northern edge of the rice-land. They were tall. Some of them had wild pines growing on their branches. Ripe mangoes fell inside the riceland; that made the water blackish near the trees. The water smelt bad too, because the mangoes were rottening inside of it.
    â€œCome and take up dese grass!” Pa shouted.
    Sunaree and Panday got up. They walked fast. Pa was cut­lassing the grass on the bank. Sunaree and Panday took the grass that fell in the water, made them into small balls and placed them on the meri.
    When they were finished picking up the grass, they went and joined Ma. It was time to scatter the rice nurseries. Ma held the tops of the rice plants and broke them off, because this made the plants grow better. Then she collected them into small handfuls, and tied them into small faggots. Sunaree and Panday threw the faggots out all over the riceland.
    â€œHelp me plant some rice,” Ma said.
    â€œNo,” Pa declared.
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œKiss me ass! Dat is why.”
    Ma remained quiet as a mango skin. She didn’t even look at Pa. She took up a faggot of rice plants in her left hand, loosed the banana string that held it together and started to plant the rice. Ma was always a good planter. The plants stood upright, about eight