Hitting Reset

Chapter Three

"Four classes and two meetings later, I have made it back to you," I mumbled aloud to my bed, as I let my exhausted body collapse onto my blankets and cushions.
 
I rolled over onto my back and was staring at my wooden ceiling, my mind begins to wander and I begin reminiscing about my past, back to my earliest memory all the way up to the present. 

I recall being exposed to the realities I was yet to encounter at a young age. 

It was a great summer but just like all the wonderful things that come with youth like seasons, they don't last forever....

~~~ 

It was the Crop Over season, my country's carnival which lasts for three long months. 

The events leading up to the final event, Grand Kadooment, were so amazing and a lot of fun! 
I participated in one of our events called, Kiddies' Kadooment where children get to dress up in colourful and glittery costumes and then we march the streets in bands of abundance. 

The Grand Kadooment parade is where the adults wore their expensive, colourful and flamboyant costumes, some of the adults' costumes were lined with beautiful giant feathers, rhinestones, sequin, ribbons and glitter.

There were many bands that year and each band had a king and a queen, I used to love it when adults gave us pestering children pieces of their costume to wear and plenty of food stalls at every corner, snow cone men would be pushing their carts that were followed by swarms of bees that were attracted to the sweet syrup. They honked their horns beckoning thirsty patrons to come and cool down from the blazing carnival heat, and I can't forget to mention the energetic calypso music and performances by popular local artists as well as budding up and coming artists.

There were also competitions to win prizes and plenty of dancing. 
Nevertheless, summer vacation was over now and it was time to go back to school.

~~~

"Alright, meh Dime piece, I already have Ellie in the car put on your shoes and let's hit the road,"  mom said.
"Okay," I responded with a mousy voice.

I already had my left shoe on but where was my right shoe? I rushed to my bedroom to search for it, checked my closet, nope not there, under the bed? Not there either.

"Where is it?" I asked myself.

"Dime! Hurry up! Uh gotta get tuh werk, yuh nuh." mom shouted from the living room.

At this point, my young self was really getting frustrated.

"Uh can fin' meh odda shoe!" I yelled back to her.

"Dat is wuh yuh get fuh not puttin' dem tuhgetha in one place!" she quarrelled with me.

I remember now! I was polishing it yesterday evening for school when mom called me to eat dinner. I dropped the shoe and forgetting all about it. 

I quickly slipped on the shoe and met up with my mom, who was waiting impatiently outside in the car with the engine already running.

"Nex' tim' imma leave yuh and yuh wuh haffa cetch bus," she joked.

Back then I took her very seriously, so I tried my best not to keep her waiting in the future.

My mom used to be a teacher that the secondary school that was next to the primary school which I attended. 
She's still a teacher to this day but she's now a principal at a college back home in Barbados. I'm so proud of her.

My mom's name is Juniper Clarke, Juni for short, and her dream was to become a journalist and travel the world. She moved out of her mother's house at eighteen and moved into a tiny apartment.