Guyana Chronicles Ch. 01

Jade sang the song with no need to look at the screen she knew the words and the when to utter them in time with the music coming from the one poor speaker. The sound of the music was not perfect, but this was Guyana and a fun way to spend the warm evening. Jade found her eyes often returning to Ellen, watching her mouth as she talked to someone or lip synced to the words of the song Jade was singing. And in those breaths their lips were matched, word for word, motion for motion, tongues in the same positions.

Jade could feel her body getting flush in the experience, and warmth and excitement drifting through her brain on a separate path from the song and the music. She could keep track of both thoughts at once but her mind was more focused on the red headed one.

The song ended to the sounds of clapping and shouts from the bar crowd and a few folks passing by in the street, Jade smiled her quirky smile and told everyone thanks while returning the mic and trying to rush back to the table. Just as she was, Ellen was getting up and grabbing her Red Stripe.

"You sing well." She smiled to Jade, "you said there was a phone center nearby?"

"Yeah it is just down the street a ways, are you going now?" Jade reached for the new Guinness Ellen bought her.

Ellen nodded her head. "I want to call before it gets too late."

"I'll come with you." Jade replied and then spoke to the team as she raised an eyebrow, "we'll be back in a bit and then we'll all head back to the house, so enjoy the beer, but not too much."

Jade believed in fun, as long as the fun did not interfere with the work that needed to be done. There was a purpose they were there for and it was not to get drunk in Guyana.

Jade and Ellen then made their way through the crowd of tables and out onto the street. There were not many cars in this part of Georgetown so it was safe to walk on the road. In other parts of the city traveling around seemed like a risky venture, men driving too fast and honking their horns at one another and stop signs were more of a suggestion than a rule.

Ellen walked in silence, her eyes were down, focused on the uneven pavement and random potholes. Away from others she was letting her mask slip some and showing a frown instead of a smile. Jade could tell something was troubling her, there was a sadness to Ellen that she did not show to the others on the team, but here it was now weighing down on her slim shoulders and shadowing her steps. Jade walked in silence with her and acting as a guide reached out to touch her arm and lead the distracted Ellen around the potholes as they came upon them.

They found the phone center that was just down the street and walked inside through a heavy door. It was another new thing; one could sign up for a phone and make an international call then pay for it. The room was not well lit, in fact it was dark like a nightclub and had the same feel to it, and walls were a deep purple and there were reflective yellow stickers like small stars scattered across the walls. Maybe this was once a nightclub Jade thought to herself.

There was a burly looking man in a baggy shirt just inside the door he was silent and did not speak a word. Along the near wall was another window again like the one at the bar they came from. Jade had never been in here before, there was no one she needed to call back in the states and the NGO office she occasional used had a phone and answering machine for when the folks at the headquarters needed to contact her.

Ellen went to the window to secure a phone while Jade went to go sit on a bench against a dark starry wall and nurse her beer. Surprisingly, the phones were cordless, Ellen walked away from the window with a phone in her hand and then went to go sit alone in a corner away from Jade, clearly desiring privacy for her conversation. Jade was here as the guide; she did hope that Ellen knew Jade was also here for support.

Jade sat there watching Ellen with solicitude, she was animated in her gestures and her voice raised as she talked, not quite shouting but surely full of emotions and desperation, attracting attention from the few other phone users in the center making their own calls. Jade clung to the Guinness bottle in her hands rubbing it over and over, chipped nails, caliche colored fingertips along the dark glass.

Jade always had trouble with her nails, they were not pretty like the hands of other women she met in college. She grew up rough, digging in dirt and after the years in college she returned to the dirt, just it was different dirt. She had no desire to ever go back to the place she came from, all that was open to Jade was an unsure future. She was comfortable in the dirt but knew that her hands, her fingers betrayed who she was, her rough past. It was also the reason she felt comfortable in Guyana, similar people, similar stories. A world Jade meant to address, that was her passion.

After a few moments Ellen was there, sitting beside Jade on the bench, her ass in those tight jeans settling down with a plop. There was a dark look to Ellen's face, a brokenness she was letting Jade see, no words spoken just the look of sadness in her eyes. Jade reached out wanting to comfort her, wanting to tell her things would be alright, reaching and laying her hand on Ellen's shoulder, then Jade's plain hand lifted to her hair brushing those lanky strands of red from her face. Feeling committed and not sure what else to do Jade' pushed those strands of hair behind Ellen's cute ear, letting her finger pads slide down along her ear ridge in a careful caress.

Everything was quiet in the phone center, everything except the pounding beat of Jade's heart, it filled her ears as she looked to Ellen. Their faces so close, they could feel each other breathing, slowly leaning in closer to one another. Eyes closing as did the small distance between their mouths meeting softly against each other's.

Jade found herself holding her breath as they kissed, she had always preferred kissing women, it always felt safer to her. She liked Ellen's lips and was happy to be this close to her. There was gentleness in the brushing of their mouths, slightly open, moist, a first moment shared that Jade did not want to have end. Though she was aware that others were watching, the eyes of strangers in a strange place staring at two woman sharing a kiss in the dark.

It was a kiss of comfort, filling a need to deal with the stress. Two people separated from the places they know and adrift in another culture, searching for answers as they grasped at the questions. Both of them runners in their own way, running from things and hoping they were running towards something, only the way was dark. Thousands of miles from the worlds they knew, thousands of miles from lovers and the comfort they traditionally knew. They pulled back a bit for a moment, eyes opening, a look of wandering hope in each of their eyes. Did the other understand?

Jade wanted to kiss Ellen again, but she knew this was not the place, not something others would understand here in Guyana. They needed to venture back to the team and the safety in numbers then head back to the missionary house behind the chain-link fence.

Jade wrapped her arms around Ellen hugging her tight, feeling the softness of Ellen's body against hers, just holding her for a moment of soothing before whispering in her ear.

"We should get going back to the bar it is best that we keep an eye on the group and keep everyone together."

Ellen nodded in agreement and got up walking over to the window to return the phone and pay her bill, pulling some of the worthless colorful Guyanese dollars from her back pocket. Jade glanced around at the dark room of the phone center, no one that she could see seemed to be expressing displeasure at their display of affection, still this was not a safe situation Jade thought and cursed herself a little for putting herself and Ellen in the situation.

They made their way into the dark street again; the short distance of the walk gave Ellen just enough time to compose herself. She reached to Jade's hand, her good left hand finding Jade's right and giving her fingers a squeeze before letting go. At the end of the long block they could both hear the music and some man singing a Bob Marley song.

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The night was quiet along the street they were walking down back towards the old missionary house they were staying in. It was late, tomorrow was another workday and all of the locals were in their homes; behind tall stone walls and chain fences that were lined with broken pieces of colored glass along the top of them. Windows that could be seen were covered over by metal bars. This was considered a middle income neighborhood for Guyana, there were garages and decent cars, signs that the owners were working professionals.

Jade and Ellen had hung back a little from the rest of the team, walking behind, keeping them in sight on the dark night that was clouded over, concealing the stars, giving the two space to talk privately. Jade listened as Ellen poured out her thoughts. Calling her ex-boyfriend, he had dumped her and she was still hurting over it. She still loved her ex despite the poor way he treated her, she knew he treated her poorly, but she blamed herself for the situation. What could she do better?

She went on to confess that all of her relationships ended like this, a string of failed love affairs with hot guys that all ended with her dumped and poorly treated and now physically thousands of miles of away from her problems, unable to throw herself back at their feet she was questioning herself.

There were a few tears on Ellen's cheeks, but she was not a big crier Jade could tell, she was not a drama queen who was just seeking attention. Ellen was sharing her personal thoughts, things she did not reveal openly in front of others, that was Jade's judgement of the situation.

They were linked, a single finger, the index from Ellen's left hand and Jade's right, curled over each other as they walked close together. Jade shared her own failings at romance, her insecurities about herself, feeling like an ugly duckling growing up, barely been kissed before she ran away from home to college. Throwing herself quickly into beds with coeds that paid her attention. Then just as easily she was tossed aside, she learned that was how the game was played and she soon started being the one doing the tossing and roaming from one bed to another as she chose to.

Jade reflected for a moment on the sad state of her own life, like Ellen she felt like a failure on the inside despite the appearances of educational and young professional success. How her own running had led her here to Guyana. Two thousand miles from her childhood home to college, twenty five hundred more miles from Carolina to Guyana. Jade wondered how much further she would run next time when things got to be too much. She wondered if she would ever stop.

Jade saw they had come to the fence surrounding the yard of the old missionary house, the team was huddled in front of the locked gate, Jade had the only key. She made a choice not to let go of Ellen's finger and Ellen did not let go of hers as they approached the team. Stepping among everyone Jade finally letting go of Ellen's hand to reach into the neckline of her floral dress and pull over her head the cord that kept the keys to the various locks she was in charge of.

As everyone passed through the gate Jade and Ellen completed one of their last tasks of the night, something that Jade insisted on, a head count, making sure they had everyone and no one was ever left behind. Jade locked the gate then behind them and slipped the cord and the keys into a pocket of her dress.

"Twelve including us." Ellen's eyes looked tired.

"I counted twelve too." Jade offered a small smile.

"Thank you for tonight J, I mean that a lot." Ellen spoke softly as they made their way to the front door and then to the stairs leading up to the third story where the team slept on a collection of metal framed bunk beds with thin mattresses.

"You're not using that hand tomorrow." Jade sternly reminded Ellen as they climbed the stairs, the chatter getting louder and louder as they approached the open bay room where all the women of the team slept.

Ellen simply cast a look at Jade that seem to communicate, "Just watch me."

"Jade, I have this bite, it hurts, can you come look at it?" One of the other women on the team called out, she was a young blonde from western Canada with a name Jade was still remembering how to pronounce correctly, Sasha but with a B was the sound.

"Duty calls." Ellen kid her and winked, then the redhead slipped off towards her bunk.

After checking on every member of the team and tending to a few new bites and a rash. Jade looked over to Ellen's lower bunk where she was already laid out with her headphones on, dressed in thin shorts and a tank top. Ellen was an authority on Reggae music and worked as a disc jockey in her hometown.

Jade reflected on the phone interview she had with Ellen for the team leader position and recalled being amazed at the depth of her knowledge about not only Reggae music but its importance in culture and history. The insightfulness of Ellen impressed Jade and she knew she found the team leader she wanted for Guyana's first volunteer team.

Jade could see from the way Ellen's chest was slowly rising and falling that she had drifted off to sleep. Jade turned off the overhead light in the open bay room and set about to finally preparing for bed herself, she was always the last one. She settled down on the thin mattress of her bed and fished out her small flashlight and journal from her backpack, setting the turned on flashlight between her teeth Jade then opened her journal and scribed for a few moments. Her thoughts on a kiss and that she needed to stop running. And finally she felt herself starting to drift.

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End of Chapter One