Love Overcomes All

It was a breezy morning when all the people were stirring in the small country town of La Petit Savanne, a remote little town, where everybody knows everybody.  One of the fascinating things in La Petit is that they have been blessed by the Lord with beautiful scenery and the "Trade Winds".  Air so clean, that you can take in a lung full every morning that you awaken out of sleep.  Moderate temperatures, no hot, hot summers, no winters.  Thank God.  There are two churches, one school, and one doctor's office.  The villager's grow most of the food that they eat.  They also fish and hunt.  It is so good to be able to eat nature’s whole fresh foods, because it makes a difference in your health.  The women work in their gardens, planting chives, tomatoes, cabbage, peas, corn, basil, peppers, mints and different herbs for remedies.  The breadfruit, coffee, cocoa, mangoes, and coconut mostly grow on their own.  The men also work in the fields planting cassava, eddoes, dasheen, cucumbers, plantains, bananas and sweet potatoes.  At a certain time of the year they get an abundance of fish, of which the flying fish and tetewee are prominent.  In the town, the houses are not built close to each other, every house has land around it where the villagers plant their provisions at the sides and back and beautify the front with flower beds.  They take great pride in keeping their yards clean and flower beds trimmed in creative designs.  Brooms are made of palm and coconut branches.  There are also competitions for the best kept yard.  In La Petit, there are two seasons, wet and dry, and they get a lot of rain.  Bright sunshine can hurriedly give way to a sudden heavy downpour. The thunderstorms and lightning are tangible, and in their wake they sometimes leave damaged trees, crops and overflowing rivers.  It is also a very mountainous country, and when the planes travel over head, all you can see is mountains.  The houses are built the old fashion way, with wood and verandahs to relax on.  Once in a while when traveling on the outskirts of town you will see a modern style home, the population there is about 700 people.

About two miles from town, live the Pierre family, Jean and Lucille Pierre, their two sons Garelle and Ulyses, and their daughter Jonee.  Ulyses is the youngest child, he is 11 years old.  Right across from the Pierre family, lived the Bartiste family, Elisa and Jerry Bartiste and their two children Damase and Millie.  Now, Damase is 19, and Millie is 13, and every Sunday the two families would get together for Sunday dinners...

... So Millie decided to go home also; people were starting to leave, some of them starting on their long journey back home and some to rooms they had rented for the weekend. Millie made her way home and to her surprise she saw another vehicle in the front yard. She got very curious and started to the house, as she approached the porch she could hear voices inside speaking. Millie opened the door and there standing in the living room was that young man she was looking for. As she entered the house he turned to look at her and to her amazement she recognized Ulyses all grown up and changed. Millie’s heart started pounding so hard she thought she could hear it. Ulyses just stood there looking at her and smiling. Millie found her voice first and said “It’s you, O Lord it’s you, Ulyses” as they hurried quickly towards each other. They threw their arms around each other holding each other tightly. As they held each other Ulyses thought of how he had gotten to that point, his classes were completed and he was determined to make it back home for the festivity. He knew he had not written to Millie for a long time so he did not let her know that he was coming. So he traveled for four days to get there on time. When he arrived in La Petit Savanne the festivity was on its way but it was still early so after parking his vehicle he walked down the familiar road that he used to when he was a kid. As he was walking down the path he saw three people having a conversation, and as he got closer he realized one of them was Millie, the other two he did not know. Looking at Millie he saw that she had changed from that thirteen year old to a beautiful young woman. She had not seen him coming down the road for she was facing the other way, so he came up behind her and heard the conversation she was having so he decided to play a guessing game with her. It was a pleasure to see the look on her face when she entered the house and he faced her. Right there and then Millie looked up at him and said “That was you who spoke at my back this afternoon.