West of the Quator

by Cheryl Bartlam DuBois

  From their perch atop the mountain, the rocket’s red glare was breathtaking, and the bombs bursting in air – well… Rob just had to use his imagination. But by now, Rob and Alex were getting kind of desperate to pick up where they left off that night in Cole Bay, and they had decided it wise to get a room for the night. After all, Rob had found Joey’s cash stash and he felt as if he and Alex really deserved this one small indulgence.

  Alex had calculated that by the time they walked back to the car and drove Christian back to the boat yard, they could make it to the Horny Goat Guest House in Simpson Bay, which was owned by a friend of Alex’s and more than appropriately named for the occasion, by eleven – leaving a few hours for them to romp and play before the sun came up the next morning.

  By the time they arrived at the guest house Alex had to wake her friend, Maureen. But hearing the urgent need in Alex’s voice and understanding the anxious look on their faces, Maureen gave Alex a wink and tossed her the key to her best cottage – the honeymoon suite, suggesting that they settle up with her the next morning when they checked out.

  They had barely shut the door to the quaint cottage when they threw themselves into each other’s arms never even bothering to turn on the lights, since they hardly needed to see in order to resume where they left off that dark evening in the surf in Cole Bay.

  For Rob, exploring Alex’s firm, golden skin was like basking in warm sand on a tropical summer’s day, with the fragrance of gardenias wafting down from the hillside as the crystal blue waves crashed over them. Unable to hold out a moment longer, Rob entered Alex, whisking her away enveloped a magical glow. That moment when they both reached a pinnacle where they felt as if they would surely fall from the summit, they suddenly found themselves soaring on a wave that took them high above the perilous cliffs of which they had both been so afraid – the treacherous terrain of love – that terrain of pain and rejection that they now intuitively knew they would never fear again. There they flew together hand-in-hand over the a peak so often mistaken as Paradise itself. Rob felt an instant fleeting glimpse of bliss, and indeed a twinge of what Paradise must be like. Alas, their brief union had only offered him a temporary glance of what he was capable of achieving.

  Suddenly, Rob was a believer that there was indeed such a thing as one soulmate6* for a privileged union during his lifetime. Obviously, Rob had done something right along the way since he had earned the chance to find Alex. Rob was convinced at that moment that no other woman existed, not even Julie Anne who had momentarily vanished from his memory as if he’d suddenly entered an amnesiac trance.

  Alex was simply lost in a state of bafflement, never really having believed that love would find her again. But as Grandma had predicted, she had overcome her fear and opened the door, and there it was – just waiting for her, on the other side. After all, the other side of fear is love, is it not?

  1*ST. EUSTATIUS – (Statia) An island in the Caribbean originally named by the Caribs as ‘Alo’ (cashew tree) and then renamed St. Anastasia’ by Columbus. It was later settled by the French in 1629 and changed hands more than twenty-two times between the Dutch, the French, and the British – making it eventually, not only the largest duty-tree trading port established by the Dutch in 1636 – but the most traded port in the West Indies. Infuriated by their support of the Americas, Admiral Rodney settled the score by launching a naval attack against the tiny island – ransacking warehouses and auctioning of their goods. The Dutch managed to regain possession a few years later, leaving it in its currently impoverished state of being known as the Deserted Rock, or, ‘Statia’ by the locals instead of ‘The Golden Rock, which it was known as in its wealthy years. Today it remains part of the Dutch Netherlands Antilles under the governance of Holland via Curacao.2**

  2**CURACAO – A Dutch island off the coast of Venezuela which is part of the ABC Islands –Aruba, Bonaire, & Curacao – like all Dutch colonies still ruled by Holland. In 1986 Aruba succeed, leaving Curacao the main governing body which reports to Holland for all of their holdings in the Caribbean including Sint Maarten, Saba, & St. Eustatius, which not only report to Curacao, but sends all of their taxable income to them to be doled out evenly between the five little islands. Once of course, Curacao has skimmed of their desired share.

  3*PARADISE PEAK – Offering grand vistas – its true name being Pic du Paradis since it is located on the French side. It is the tallest peak on the island which catches most of the rain leaving it the closest thing to lush and tropical that the island has to offer.

  4*BASTILLE DAY – A French national holiday celebrated every year on July 14th, in much the same tradition as our own Independence Day. It was deemed a holiday in order to recognize the storming and capture of Bastille fortress in Paris by the French revolutionaries on July 14, 1789, which instigated the start of the French revolution and the beheading of Louis the XVI and Marie Antoinette.

  5**MONGOOSE – A smail mammal imported into the West Indies from India for the purpose of ridding the islands of rats, mice, and snakes Unfortunately, the rat being a nocturnal animal and the mongoose not, the islands, although snakeless, still abound in rats and mice.

  6*SOULMATE – The theory that there is at least one perfectly compatible soul for every soul living both in and out of human form, from one reincarnation to another. Compatible of course being a relative term given that humans are never perfect. Timing is everything in finding your soul mate, since it is common to meet one’s soul mate at inopportune times in your life, or when the other person is already unhappily married.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Mistaken Identity

  “If there were no illusion there would be no enlightenment.”

  Eckhart Tolle

  Christian was panicked that something serious had happened to them when Rob and Alex didn’t return to the boatyard for three days. However, Grandma and Grandpa knew that indeed something serious had transpired between Rob and Alex, and smiled as they patted themselves on the back for their insightful, successful matchmaking. Thank goodness they were better at these things than I.

  Grandma’s first great success at matchmaking had been for her best friend, Lorna, whom she had relied on throughout her lonely childhood as her lifeline to happiness. Wini had spent many an afternoon playing house with Lorna, fantasizing about their life to come, and the men they would wed and live with happily ever after. Of course, it was Lorna who had gotten Wini through Warren’s desertion and her humiliation of being left standing at the alter sans a bridegroom, with her friend Lorna in attendance as her ‘maid of honor.’ Lorna had pointed out to Wini that she had been mistaken about the identity of her true love – she had simply chosen the wrong man, and encouraged her to look elsewhere with open eyes.

  Just after Wini had married Stanley, who had hard-won her heart during that year following her annulled marriage, Wini had enlisted in a plan to wed her friend to Stanley’s cousin, Albert. He had recently returned to the island with his degree in tourism – a career not yet needed on the island since the little island of Grenada was yet to hit the tourist map. Being far wiser than her years, Wini knew that outright matchmaking on her part might shy Albert from her target. So, she set out on a campaign to make her friend Lorna appear to be the most popular and sought after girl on the island. And of course, totally unattainable to Albert – leaving Albert none-the-wiser since he’d been off-island the past four years. Within a month, Grandma’s magic had worked and Lorna and Wini set about planning the second wedding in their little town that year. A wedding for Lorna and Albert.

  It was because of Albert that Wini and Stanley had eventually moved to St. Maarten to raise their family, since Albert had found a greater need of his services on the more traveled island than he had in his homeland. And Stanley, had found a better paying job at the island’s rum factory as their regional salesman. Unfortunately, Albert’s job had later taken him on to New York, where he would head up the tourism center for the island. This left Grandma lost withou
t the woman she called sister to relay on during her tough years of childrearing – often spent alone since Grandpa was on the road, or in his case, off island entirely.

  On the third night of Rob and Alex’s tryst, they decided to emerge from their love nest to go out and celebrate their new found love, and begrudgingly share one another with the outside world. Since Rob was feeling fortuitous in his wealth of happiness, he decided to wine and dine Alex with the best the island had to offer. They were not quite ready to go back to the boatyard and dare fate to burst their pink bubble, so Rob took Alex to Marigot to buy her a new dress and himself a respectable outfit.

  Once attired for a romantic evening, Rob called a taxi to drive them out to the Lowlands at the end of Simpson Bay Lagoon to the chic hotel, La Samanna. He didn’t want to embarrass her by pulling up in the Yellow Submarine – their now fend-erless, rusted excuse for an automobile.

  La Samanna, had been built by a wealthy, eccentric American, who believed when he built it that to truly taste the lifestyle of the islands, one must sacrifice such state-side luxuries and expectations as screens, air-conditioning, and phones in the rooms. Eventually, the novelty of spartenism faded and the hotel added those luxuries that Americans have come to expect as a normal fact of life and find it impossible to live without. Offering the only more-or-less private beach in the Caribbean, where presidents, princesses, celebrities, and the mega riche’ could find seclusion, the hotel had gained a reputation as the most desirable escape in the West Indies. Of course, it was off season so Alex knew they would pretty much have the restaurant all to themselves, providing them with a romantic evening that they could look back on as an evening to long remember. Even if it turned out to be for reasons other than they expected.

  Hurricanes had come and gone on the island, along with the beaches, but somehow the sea was always forgiving. The sea always brought the beaches back, especially to this beautiful bay – Long Bay, or Baie Longe since it was across the line on the French side of the island. Sitting high on the terrace overlooking the breathtaking view of the stars glistening on the water and the moon setting to the West, Rob and Alex felt as if they were the two luckiest people alive. Rob had finally arrived, he thought, in Paradise and he was ready to risk everything he had and invest heavily in life’s futures. He was closing in on the decision to ask Alex to marry him – at least sometime in the future, since he was still uncertain as to Alex’s feelings for him and he didn’t want to risk rejection when things were going so well. What he didn’t realize nor did she, was she was already smitten by that merciless condition called love. Since, Alex was unfamiliar with love’s symptoms, she had not yet diagnosed the cause of her light-headed intoxication, and the butterflies in the pit of her stomach. It didn’t matter to Rob that he had only known her such a short tine – there was no question in his mind that she was ‘the one’ he’d been searching for his whole life. Even if he hadn’t even known he was searching. After all, he’d been told that love was the only thing to happen expediently in the islands.

  Being the more well informed and seasoned island inhabitant of the two, Alex simply accepted the evening and the last few days as a brief reprieve from the trials and tribulations of island life, which allowed her to enjoy it all the more since she knew that an end to their state of bliss was as imminent as the onset hurricane season.

  Alex had lived in the islands long enough to know that status-quo was a term only applicable to the endless stream of chaotic events that took place daily, and certainly had nothing to do with describing the local lifestyle. As Grandpa had suggested to Rob, Alex had learned to go with the flow where change was concerned, and had pretty much mastered the art of island living, even if she was still adjusting to the thought of living in love.

  Dinner was unforgettable, as were the few other patrons, who consisted of a well known reggae star and some famous French designer whose dresses started somewhere in the neighborhood of the cost of a small villa on Anguilla. Exhausted from their three day passionate marathon of lovemaking, Rob and Alex decided that it was finally safe to return that evening to the Island Fever for a good night’s sleep – realizing that the most damage they could possibly do that night was to themselves. Several bottles of fine champagne later, they went for a stroll along the beach and ended the spectacular evening with a romantic kiss stolen here and there along the way.

  Rob and Alex climbed into a taxi and headed back to the guesthouse to collect their little yellow submarine, with Alex contentedly resting her head upon Rob’s shoulder. They arrived in the boatyard a little after midnight to find that the only one awake to greet them was Lampchop, who was thrilled to see them return home. It wasn’t until they were onboard the Island Fever that they realized they were not as alone as they’d thought.

  As Rob climbed the boat’s makeshift ladder and stepped down into to the cockpit, reaching his hand inside the port-light to get the key to the back door, he suddenly sensed the presence of another human being sitting in the shadows on the far side of the boat. A faint smell of cheap aftershave tipped him off that it wasn’t Christian, as well as a glint of light from Grandpa’s porch light which reflected off something in his hand. As Alex climbed down behind him, Rob realized that the shinny thing aimed at his chest was a gun so he jumped in front of Alex.

  “Well, well, if it isn’t Joey Wilson. Finally decided to come back to the stash huh,” said the gunman in a heavy Spanish accent.

  Caught off guard for a brief moment by this obvious case of mistaken identity, Rob let out a nervous laugh realizing that this man was indeed looking for Joey and had assumed that just because he was on the boat, he logically had to be Joey. At that moment, all sorts of things were going through Rob’s mind – the most prominent of which was the quite obvious fact that by the look of Guido here, the whole affair must have something to do with Joey’ s illicit profession and drugs, and that it was not a social call since Guido obviously meant business.

  “No, you don’t understand,” answered Rob laughing nervously, finally able to collect his wits about him, “I’m not Joey, I’m his partner Rob… from Chicago,” then suddenly realizing the implications of being Joey’s partner, Rob blurted out –”His partner in the boat I mean… not in his other line of work… ahhh whatever that is.”

  As Rob floundered in water well over his head, Alex stood behind Rob squeezing his arm in order to assure him that she was there to back him up.

  Laughing, the man just looked at Rob as if amused at his feeble attempt to squirm out of his present predicament. “Sure Joey, and I’m Jesus Christ. I’ve been told all about all your many personalities. The way I understand it, you have as many names as the telephone directory,” he said laughing for a brief moment before suddenly turning serious again and jamming the barrel of the forty-five into Rob’s ribs. “You owe Miguel money and it’s time to pay up. He wants his money and he sent me to collect. Figures you have it stashed somewhere here on this boat of yours.

  Suddenly, realizing the gravity of the situation, Alex decided it was time to step in and lend her help to Rob who was shaking so badly by this point he could barely speak.

  “I can vouch for him, I’ve known Joey for years… looks nothing like Rob here. Didn’t Miguel tell you that Joey’s short and blond?”

  “Miguel told me nothing other than not to trust anything he says, and not to come back without his money or the boat. And seeing’s how this boat ain’t going nowhere, I guess it’s going to have to be the money, or you, Guido said gesturing to the stand of palm trees along the edge of the yard. “You see Raul over there? He’s here to make sure you pay.”

  Turning their heads slowly in the direction of the shadows under the trees, Rob and Alex searched apprehen-sively for a hulking, gold toothed, cannon toting, South America thug from a Bond film. They weren’t far off from what their imaginations had so vividly portrayed when he finally stepped from the shadows, except the gun was bigger.

  Suddenly, an idea dawned on Rob, “Wait, I
can prove what Joey looks like…. the passports! I found his passports!

  “Where are they!” asked Alex excitedly, “I’ll go get them!”

  “I ah… burned them all.”

  Alex just looked at Rob speechless realizing that that was in fact how Rob had nearly burned up the boat.

  “Well, how was I supposed to know that they’d come in handy? I was just trying to keep the police from finding them.”

  “What police?!” demanded Guido concerned, pointing the gun threateningly in Rob’s face.

  Reaching for the sky, Rob backed off. “Oh, it was just a small misunderstanding we had with the authorities here, it’s all cleared up now.”

  “So where’s the money!” demanded Guido again, obviously impatient as he nervously waved the gun around in front of them.

  “I’ve tried to tell you, I don’t have any money I put everything I had into buying half this Goddamn boat from Joey and now he’s run off with your money and mine. And he’s probably having the time of his life spending it while I’m here going to jail, rebuilding his boat, and getting held at gun point by a bafoon who can’t tell the difference between five foot eight and six foot two,” Rob blurted out breathless and agitated.

  “Let’s just make this easier on all of us here Joey. You tell me where the money is and I’ll leave you and your pretty little girl here alone,” said Guido in a menacing tone even though he was smiling a wickedly, sinister smile at Alex. “Otherwise,” continued Guido with a lecherous sneer as he grabbed Alex around the neck and held the gun to her head before Rob knew what was happening, “I’ll just have to take your girlfriend since I can’t take your boat.