I was somewhat mystified when Esme Davis advised me to hide all of Momma Simmons’ possessions. Mac’s mother had just died (and I DO mean JUST, she hadn’t been dead for half an hour!), and her best friend wanted me to clear all personal items from the dresser. I had never seen a corpse before, I was still shaking from the experience, and why I had to hide anything was beyond me. Esme patiently informed me that people would arrive soon to “see the dead”, and that’s why it was important to put away anything that could be taken. It had never occurred to me that anyone would want Momma’s hairbrush, or the cup she kept her dentures in at night, but Esme was so intent on making sure everything was placed out of sight that I obeyed.
Years later, on the day Mac and my dad were buried, two friends arrived on my doorstep and announced that they would guard the house during the funerals. I was taken aback by this, and the confusion must have shown on my face. My friends were of the opinion that Mac’s possessions would “walk” down the hill while he was being buried, and they weren’t about to let that happen. Again, it had never occurred to me that people would enter the house and take what they wanted because Mac had died, who on Bequia would do such a thing?
It therefore came as an unpleasant surprise when I heard that Mac’s spear-gun had been stolen from his workshop. I didn’t realize the gun was missing, I heard about it through the Island grapevine, and it upset me. Not only had someone taken something that didn’t belong to him, he had entered my property to do so. Mac’s workshop was located off the pump room under our bedroom, and one had to walk across the front of the house to access it. The more I thought about the stolen spear-gun the more indignant I became. The grapevine news had included the name of the thief, and I decided to confront the fellow and make him return Mac’s gun. I knew the young man was from the mainland, and that he was squatting at Tony Gibbons Beach. It would not be hard to locate him, and I was determined to do just that.
Early one morning I set off for Tony Gibbons, and found the young offender on the beach. He was actually holding Mac’s spear gun when I approached him, so there was no way he could deny that he had taken it! I took a turn on the fellow’s backside, and ranted for quite a while about trespassing on private property and taking something that wasn’t his. I told him he had committed a crime, and that he was lucky the police hadn’t been called. He didn’t look at all embarrassed that he had been caught, nor did he seem frightened. When I asked him what he had to say for himself he actually sounded indignant that I was making such a fuss over the spear-gun.
“Mac want me ‘fo have it” he said. “Mac gone and he want me to ‘fo have it”.
Well, Mac had never met the lad, and certainly would not want someone who had crept onto our property and stolen the spear-gun to keep it. If the fellow had come to me and asked for the gun I might have considered giving it to him, but because he had sneakily helped himself to a dead man’s property I wasn’t about to let him have it. As I took the gun away, I pointed out that he was lucky, if our dog had spotted him on the property he would be limping for sure! Bear (the dog) was huge, half black lab, half rottweiler, and no-one in his right mind would want to tangle with him.
I went home shaking my head, wondering why the fellow had been so unapologetic about the theft. He obviously was not ashamed of himself, nor did he seem embarrassed when confronted. He probably thought I was being unreasonable, Mac WAS dead after all, but as far as I was concerned that wasn’t the point. I would give the spear-gun to one of Mac’s friends, I knew that’s what he would have wanted.
Arriving back home, I decided to take a turn on Bear’s backside too! That dog managed to kill any animal that found itself on our property, and had killed sheep in the neighbourhood too. What kind of watchdog was he, allowing someone to steal Mac’s spear-gun from the pump room? Unlike the young thief, Bear had the grace to look ashamed of himself…..