four tarantulas, a woman kept in an underground cage, a dead deputy and the laughing boy/ part 2 continued

MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2012

Four tarantulas, a woman kept in an underground cage, a dead deputy and the laughing boy/ part 2 continued

Four tarantulas, a woman kept in an underground cage, a dead deputy and the laughing boy

fiction
edward w pritchard

They kept whistling boy strapped to oak crate boards, facing the large fire and when the tourists came up the hill from the restaurant someone would rattle a stick against the bars of the top of the underground cage that the ship Captain's wife had been imprisoned in these last five months.

The ship Captain's wife had become crazy in her long captivity; the woman would clean and clean the musty underground burrow. The woman caught the earth worms that moved through the walls of her temporary home and placed them in a bucket hooked and attached by wire to the top of her cage. Each morning very early the fisherman gathered up the worms and at night after a long day at sea the men from the boats would leave a whitefish or a tuna for the captain's wife to supply her with nourishment for the day.

When whistling boy heard the stick scraping and rattling on the iron bars of the ship captain's wife's cage he would become violent and rock back and forth explosively foaming at the mouth until whoever was scraping the bars would bring the stick over and whistling boy would try to bite it in half. The tourists always would applaud loudly at Whistling boy's agitation and some of the rich tourists would throw silver coins to commemorate the spectacle.
end part 1

part 2 continued

Juan woke very early with a start. The strong sustained winds overhead were battering the hut he slept in causing Juan to pull the thin tattered blanket over his face for protection and warmth and for a moment Juan was with his ancestors again, a small mammal hiding in an underground burrow fearful of predators and life ending meteorites. 

A few minutes latter Juan lead the two powerful horses pulling the heavy bunches of bananas he had stolen up the  sloping hill toward the seashore where the tourist restaurant and bars were. Juan would make a good profit on the bananas. Out of habit Juan tore off a few of the ripest bananas for the crazy ship captain's wife who slept on the soft dirt in her underground cage.

Juan felt the laughing boys eyes watching himself  as he slipped the bananas through the bars of the ship Captain's wife's cage. Juan crossed  himself instinctively for laughing boy was powerful medicine having been rumored to be the lost son of the President of  Nicaragua. Out of respect Juan tossed a banana to laughing boy but could not hear laughing boys thank you because of the strong winds. 

The old one eyed cook at the tourist restaurant had paid Juan a good price for the bananas for bananas were expensive now because there was much pilfering of bananas from the Company owed trees by the natives of the Island. 

Juan clutched his pocket where the money from the sale of the bananas was as he struggled to keep up with the noisy perspiring horses. Soon Juan would be home and would give the horses extra grain to eat for their share of the large profit from the sale of the stolen bananas. 

As he ran Juan thought of the ship Captain's wife. How long had she been imprisoned in the underground cage?
 Someone should release the ship Captain's wife.  No, the tourists might complain and as the Deputy said without the tourists there would be no tourist restaurants and no one to buy the ripe bananas and Juan and those like him would be without work.

The winds aloft were strong this morning and Juan felt small as he ran along the road back to his hut to open the large can containing grain that he would scoop out generously for the horses. One must be careful when opening the can containing the grain. Once four tarantulas had been found feasting on grain kept in a large sealed silver container containing grain for the horses. At least so said the Deputy.