Under the Mango Tree: 101 Tales (2)

ODE TO HELEN

Challenge No.21 - Setting the Scene.

Begin a story or scene by envisioning the setting first. What is unique about this place? What does it look like? How does your character feel about this place?

-----

The town of Soufriere, located along the west coast of the Caribbean Island of Saint Lucia, is one of the oldest colonial settlements on the island. Known as the Helen of the West*, European powers battled constantly for possession of the tiny island.

Smack bang in the middle of the town is the Roman Catholic church. Built of stone, the church has dominated the urban landscape for centuries. In a line to the sea stood the church, the town square, reputed to hold a guillotine during the French revolution and the jetty to welcome all marine vessels.

This is where Carol sat this Sunday. She perched herself on the edge of the pier and dangled her brown bare feet off the edge. It was a good time of day. Three o'clock. Church service was long over, Lucians were still at lunch and whatever bacchanal was planned for the evening was yet to start.

Silence, pure glorious, rare silence. Broken only by the lapping of the sea and the plop of a fish jumping out here and there.

Carol held her face up to the sun and her peripheral vision caught sight of the magnificent Petit Piton, one of a set of two. She turned to study the giant. Petit, it may be called but it towered over the town and relegated the RC Church to the category of small.

The magnificent Pitons. That's what Gros and Petit were called by everyone. No other word was ever used. It's like it was hyphenated. But really, they were magnificent. The first thing a Saint Lucian child drew was two triangles with a yellow dot in the valley, representing the sun.

Petit Piton stood at seven hundred and thirty-nine meters* and Carol had to lean back to spot the peak. She ran her eyes along the profile of the mountain until it collided with the sea. Her visual examination was halted but no body of water would stop this force of nature. Like a champion diver, the mountain plunged into the sea. How deep? No one knew. But deep enough for a black coastline.

The Taino people thought that God was up there and on a day like this Carol couldn't blame them. Sitting at the foot of the godlike mountain, she could believe it too.

Caribbean islands are known for their beaches and blue/green waters and Saint Lucia is no exception. Except at Soufriere.

Here the waters were black. Black from the sulphur of the volcano. The same volcano that gave birth to the twin peaks. Black because the pit was bottomless. Black for no one knows what lurks in the abyss.

Carol returned to her idle ways on this sunny, dare she say magnificent day. Her feet dangling over the edge as she kept an eye out. For the abyss had a legend.

Bottomless it may be but a desert it was not for the town had a legend and the legend contented that this the lair of the Draak.

© 21 March 2022

* 2,461 feet

* True nickname

===

Longer stories in the series are hosted at https://www.patreon.com/dawnnbooks