A Jamaican Life

Nothing. No furniture. No plants. No dishes. So, this is what you get for falling in love and trusting. She had left for work and he took advantage and left with everything. She was more than a thousand miles away from family and, despite the severity of the situation, she didn’t want to bother them with her problems. In the coming days, she would find out the extent of his betrail but, for now, she sat on the floor and cried. 

“Sis, I’m either stating the obvious or being incredibly rude, but you look awful.” Blair looked at Trish and the tears she thought she had under control began flowing again. Maybe coming back to work wasn’t a great idea. 

“He’s gone.  He cleaned out the house while I was at work on Friday. He took everything!  Then I received a low balance email from my bank.  When I looked at our accounts it was all gone. I have nothing left.” Trish got her tissues and comfortable in a breakroom chair, then excused herself momentarily.

“Let’s get you someplace more comfortable.  Would you like to go to rest at my place? I just told Samantha you have a family emergency and I’m taking you home. How does that sound?” Blair couldn’t even talk. She just shook her head in agreement.

Later that evening, Trish came home, slid off her shoes, and crawled into the bed with Blair. It was hard for her to imagine a person being so ugly that they would take everything from such a beautiful human being. 

“I have an idea that might cheer you up,” Trish said with as much cheer as the situation called for.

“I’m not going all Carrie Underwood on him.  It seems like it might be fun in the moment, but I’ve got enough going on. Thanks, though.” Trish burst out laughing and Blair looked at her with contempt. Blair couldn’t understand what was so funny and she slid under the covers out of view.

“No, silly! Yes, that does sound fun and you have to admit he deserves it and so much more, but I was referring to something else. You are going to have the immediate reaction to say no, but I want you to think about it. With all of this going on you probably forgot that I was going out of town in a couple of days…to Jamaica.  I want you to join me!!  I have enough in my savings to cover you and I think you could really use the time away.” Blair slowly emerged from under the covers. There were no words.  She threw her arms around Trish and thanked her.

Less than 48 hours later they were sitting in the airport waiting for their flight. Blair was focusing on staying optimistic, although she was unsure how a vacation to Jamaica was going to change the fact that her home was devoid of furniture and her bank accounts were at zero. One thing she was sure of was that there was no way Jamaica was going to make it worse. Blair was staring off into the distance when Trish returned from the corner store with a bag.  She tossed something at Blair bringing her out of a daze. She looked at her lap and saw an instant camera.

“What’s this for?” Blair was confused because they lived in the time of the cell phone. Most people felt cameras were obsolete and disregarded them. 

“I have a tradition. When I go on vacation to a new place I take pictures with instant cameras.  I thought you might want to join me.” Blair hadn’t seen a camera of any kind for quite some time. She had an aunt who loved instant cameras and when she passed away they found more than 20 of them in her closet that had never been developed. Blair thought about all of the moments captured on those cameras and was intrigued by the idea.

“I would love to. Thank you, again. I’m so blessed to have such a good friend in my life.” The announcement for boarding cut Blair off. It was just in time and kept Blair from needing to dig the tissues out of her bag…again.

Twenty-four hours later the beach had taken Blair hostage and it didn’t look like she cared at all. Blair had never felt this kind of peace. On the beach, nothing seemed to matter to her anymore. She lay there for hours taking in the sites and letting the ocean breeze whisk away all her troubles. She paid particular attention to the ocean and its rhythmic dance with the sand. It was intoxicating. Down the beach, a couple of children attempted to make a sand castle. She dug in her bag and found the camera that Trish had purchased the day before. Her thumb quickly rotated the dial to the starting point. She did not want to miss this moment the children were having. This was the first of many.

Blair found herself falling in love with the people of Jamaica. While most tourists were taking selfies or pictures of nature; Blair was capturing the day-to-day lives of the Jamaican people. Although she was sure that they too had troubles, she was intrigued by their smiles and their ability to move forward. There was always something about life to celebrate and on their last night in Jamaica, that is exactly what Blair and Trish were going to do.

“I don’t want to leave.” Blair was looking out the window of the airport, away from Trish. She knew that it sounded crazy, especially for someone who never did anything without planning for months. She knew now that’s why her boyfriend doing what he did hurt her so much. She took it slow.  She planned. She was cautious about the relationship and only let him move in when she was 100% sure.  It was months later that she gave in to joint bank accounts. Was there such a thing as planning too much? 

“Sweetheart, look at me. I’ve been your friend for a long time and, if there’s one thing I know about you it’s that you don’t just blurt things out. I saw a side of you that I don’t think I have ever seen in the last few days. You were free and uninhibited. There was true joy in your words and actions. That means something and you shouldn’t feel as if you have to hide that from me. If Jamaica is where you want to be then, hell, I’ll help you get back here. And, if you’ll have me, maybe I’ll even come with you!” Trish had been a very good friend, however, this response was more than she had hoped for. 

Six months later, Blair sits on the beach looking out at the ocean. She wonders if her life would have turned out this way without Trish and that $30 disposable camera purchase. After Blair returned home, she sent the cameras in to get the pictures developed. Trish had shown some of them off to an acquaintance of hers who owned a gallery. This was the beginning of a whole new life for Blair. That friend wouldn’t take no for an answer and many of the pictures she took in Jamaica became a gallery showing called “A Jamaican Life”.  After a story about the gallery show was published in the New Yorker, Blair was contacted by the Jamaican Ministry of Tourism. The old Blair would have taken months to decide and weighed all of the pluses and minuses of such an offer, but the new Blair had no problem remembering how Jamaica had changed her. Yes, was the only response.