I went to Anytime, cos it's closest. The bartender was handing me the smokes when this young black guy sitting at the bar turned towards me. He looked down at the cigarettes, then back up at me, smiling.
Do you want a Parliament or something? I said. I wasn't trying to be rude but I couldn't figure out why he was looking at me like that.
I don't smoke, he said. I just wanted to see who this beautiful woman was coming in buying cigarettes on a nite like this.
Oh, ha ha, I said. Well. The cold can't stop me from smoking, I said.
I don't like the cold -- I'm from Barbados, he said.
You are? I said. I lived in Barbados for three years.
What? You're joking, he said. Which part?
In St. Michael, on Cave Hill by the University, I said.
His eyes got very big & then he turned to the guy next to him, apparently his friend. He asked him to go sit somewhere else for awhile, but he wasn't really asking because he was shooing him away at the same time he was asking.
Please sit, he said to me, indicating the now-empty stool. Please.
So I had a beer with him, & then another, & all the while we talked about Barbados & so many memories started coming to me at once. It turned out we were the same age, 26. Just imagining us as children, living on the same little island at the same point in time gave me the shivers.
We talked about a lot of things that won't be interesting to anyone who hasn't been to Barbados; it was an awful lot about my school (yes, I wore that ugly green uniform) & his school, flying fish cutters, Banks Beer & Sir Garfield Sobers. We did our best Bajan accents for each other (his had faded somewhat from his years in New York) & talked about soca & dub. We remembered the way the whole island used to watch 25-year-old episodes of Days of Our Lives & the Bajan soap opera Fish Cakes and Bakes. We talked about swimming in the clear water all day long & eating at Chefette.
Really, it was amazing how many things I'd forgotten about & I said so.
What, were you high then or something? he laughed.
Come on, I was 9, I said. But coincidentally I'm high now.
So anyway. I think this was especially strange to me because it marked only the second time I met a Bajan outside of Barbados. But it felt weirder than it sounds & all day long I've been thinking about that little island, neither windward nor leeward, & remembering all the memories as slowly as I can.
