Sharma Taylor

I hear you husband say in him testimony at church two Sundays ago that doctor just diagnose you with cancer of the pancreas. Stage 4. That is well serious. The Bible say you must cast your cares on Jesus for He cares for you.

When Myrna laughed, the sound rumbled from deep inside her belly. People would pause at this other-worldly eruption. Myrna’s laughter sucked the air dry-dry like she was eating a mango seed, working it between her teeth, juice running down her chin as she devoured its flesh. I am older now and she is long dead but I still remember Myrna’s laugh. As a child, I believed that after it came from her mouth, fully formed, her laughter became a separate thing that lingered after the wind carried away the sound. I tried to laugh like her but mine sounded like freshly-shelled red peas spilling into a tin bowl.  Yuh laugh and yuh word dem mus’ have weight, she’d say.   I begged her to show me how to laugh until the earth shifted under its force. But she’d shake her head and say: Girlie, mi cyaan teach yuh dat. It haffi jus’ come. *** Villagers called her Smiley and the old folks said har head touched, meaning she was a little slow, maybe on account of being dropped on her head at birth by the district midwife, who was known for having fingers as slippery as hot butter.