PINEVERGREEN FOREST
FUNGUS Operandi (Part 1)
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GLOSSARY (Trinidad/Caribbean slang words and meanings:) Ah ---------------- I Batchac ------- Large brown ants, known as fungus growing ants. De --------------- The Eh --------------- an interjection like ".., you know." Meh ------------ Me Mih ------------- My Yuh ------------- You or Your. 
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W hile in Dr Ramdeen's chair, Kimberly recalls an unusual confrontation she had when she was with little with a trail of fungus growing ants (what they call in Trinidad, "Batchac") that were carrying away her little cross that she lost and three ten cent peices. "Kimberly, where yuh? Yuh outside? Don't stay out too late eh baby. It gettin' late!" Kimberly heard her mother's command but was already taken up in her search for that thing that was very special to her. Her tiny gold plated cross. She was meticulously retracing the path she took while playing in the back yard two days ago. But after an hour of searching for the cross she had since she was a baby, it was no where to be found. She look in among the twigs, leaves and insects. In every little crack, crease and crevice that she could find in mother's garden but to no avail. Still, she continued. Eventually, a trail of batchac caught her attention. She was always fasinated by ant trails so without a second thought she proceeded to follow the trail to see where it was going. Slowly, she crept ahead of the trail to see where the ants were going. "If ah follow them ah might find their nest." She thought to herself while looking at the trail attentively. She had almost forgotten about the cross for a moment. Some of the batchac along the way were carrying bits of leaves, some twigs, some stems and some were not carrying anything. She followed them along the concrete base of the back fence, over a stick, through the grass, up a cherry tree and over some branches. Suddenly, she came upon a strange sight that astounded her. She was so baffled by the sight that her little heart began to beat faster as she zoomed in to take a closer look. She couldn't believe it. Her little cross was being touted away by a batchac up an inclining log. And he (the batchac) was followed by three ten cent pieces touting ant pals. "Mih cross!" she gasp in astounishment. "What they doin' with my cross and one... two...three ten cents?" Kimberly was confused. Yet still, the scene seemed familiar. Like she had seen it before. Now she remebered. It was the picture in the children's Bible she uses for Sunday School. The picture of Jesus carrying the big heavy cross up calvary hill. And also, she remembers her mother reading to her that "One of Jesus' desciples had sold him to the soldiers for...how much it was again? ... yes, it was thirty cents. A meesely thirty cents that could only buy three bubble-gum." "And what happened next, Kimberly." asked Dr. Ramdeen. "Well, my mother called me to come inside." "Kimberly, come inside now darlin'!" called Ms Jordan to her daughter. "At this time, I carefully reached over to the little bugger with my cross in his mandables and attemped to take the cross away from him. Ah stretched until my two little fingers held on to the cross. But when ah picked it up, I realized the ant was still holding on to it with his legs dangling in the air. Ah try to shake him off but he wouldn't let go for anything. Next thing I know, "Mr Batchac" run up my finger and bite me on my hand. Mr Ramdeen chuckled a bit then Kimberly continued. "Well my reflexes took over and I slapped the ant off my hand. But while I was fightin' up with that ant I had no idea what was going on elsewhere. About a thousand ants were already half way up my legs." "Oh my God." Dr. Ramdeen muttered quietly. "As soon as I saw those ants on my legs, I started to scream and as soon I start to scream they started to bite meh. Then I started beating about and slapping my legs like a mad child. My mother heard me screaming and rush outside to see what goin' on. She said, "Oh Gosh, batchac bittin' uh gyul." and she grabbed me off my feet and hurried me inside to the shower to wash off the ants. Talk about pain!" "So you dropped your little cross in all that commotion I guess?" Dr. Ramdeen interjected. "Yeah, I drop it, yes, (steups)." "So what happened next?" "Well I was VEX! While mommy was washing me off in de bathroom, I tried tuh show her that I found my cross by making a cross sign with my fingers but she tried to reassure me by sayin', "But I just sat there still in de bath tub with my head down, sulkin'. I heard every word she said but I still wanted my cross because it was special to me. To me, that was Jesus' cross." "So your mother's words didn't really do much to comfort you then. Still I really can't understand why ants would be carrying a gold plated cross." "It is real gold, Sir." Kimberly interjected. "Oh, I see. "Well, maybe for a little while, yeah, I did consider what she told me." "But I don't see what use they would have for it. And I notice that you're wearing it now so you did manage to find it." "That's right's, after I fixed them I got it back. That night I was furious and plottin' fuh revenge on them batchac." "Oh, and what was your "Modus Operandi" for revenge, Miss Lady." "A garden fork, a can of kerocine and a box of matches. Those were the tools of revenge." Dr. Ramdeen looked at Kimderly, both puzzled and shock at her "arsanal" of choice. "What did you do, burn them out?" Kimberly smiled menacingly, "Hear, this is how it went down: I got up the next morning at about 8:30am before mom woke up and sneaked outside. I got the matches from the kitchen and de garden fork and kerocine from the tool shed outside. Then I went over to the ants nest in the back yard and plonged de fork right in de middle and twist it upward. This disrupted de ants inside and a whole bunch of them came scampering out wildly. Then ah open de kerocine and poured some of it on de them. Then I lit a match and... Woosh! Up goes the nest in flames" "My goodness! You mean to say you almost burn down your mother's back yard for a cross?" "And it left a black stain in the yard to. I had the scoldin' of my life after my mom found out I was playin' with matches? But you know, the way I got my cross back was really wierd." "What yuh mean, the queen ant came out waving a white flag sayin' 'We surrender!' and handed you back the cross?" Dr Ramdeen joked, "I'm sorry that was very unprofessional of me. Please, continue." "Actually you're not to far from what really happened. The next day I went over to the spot where the batchak nest was and I saw a strange thing. The spot where the nest was, looked like the shape of a man's face moulded in the dirt. It was obout a yard long and three quarts of a yard wide and a foot high. And it had a sinister smile too. And right on top of the nose on that face, was my cross, glistening in de sun." At this point Dr Ramdeen was extremely puzzled at Kimberly's strange story. At this point he was also wondering if Kimberly had a mental problem. Kimberly continued, "When I reached over to pick up the cross, there was a cold gust of wind that sounded like a whispering voice. It was really scarey. And you know what too?" "What is that, Kimberly?" "That face seems very familiar to me. Like I've see it before and after that incident." "Are you sure?" "Yes, really familiar." End Stay tuned for FUNGUS OPERANDI #2. |
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