We were driving slowly through the narrow country road with our parents that afternoon, and we hadn’t passed a moving vehicle nor seen anyone for a while.
There were houses fairly spaced out and without fences on either side of the road, and everyone seemed to be inside of their homes.
I can’t recall where we were actually heading to that Sunday afternoon, but this small pastoral village of Freeport in my home country of Trinidad and Tobago was on the way to our destination, and the weather was ideal for the drive – lightly windy but also a bit sunny with moderate temperature, and all seven of us siblings – three boys and four girls, were packed into our dad’s mid-size sedan.
From the formative years of my childhood, I had that confidence that I was a good-looking kid. This was largely due to the affirmative type of comments that my siblings and I would get from our parents and our wider adult family and neighbors. And though I didn’t think I needed any further boosting of this confidence, I had an interesting and memorable experience on that evening which just pushed the curtain further, and one that my parents told of for a long time after.
I was just 10 years old. All the car windows were down, and I was close up to the right rear window with my head outside of the car soaking up the refreshing country ambience. There were cashew trees in almost every yard in that village, and the aroma of ripened cashews that fell to the ground was in the air as we drove.
Then we approached a woman up ahead standing on the right side of the road and in front of a house all by herself. As our car passed her a few feet, she suddenly and almost frantically called out to my father to stop. The neighborhood being quiet, my dad immediately heard, stopped the car, and reversed, curious to know what the person’s concern or interest was.
Our parents were noticeably taken aback but also pleasantly surprised as the lady began to explain her reason for stopping our car. My siblings and I eventually caught on to and pondered the interesting scenario that was unravelling before us. It turned out that the young lady, who I later learned was just eighteen at the time, but who seemed to me like a grown woman as I was just a kid, had just seen the most handsome little boy she had ever seen, his head sticking out of the window, and just could not resist meeting and getting to know me, and therefore spontaneously and boldly decided to get the driver’s attention before our car got out of sight.
A pleasant conversation began there between her and our parents, although she hardly took her eyes off of me, maintaining a broad and happy smile as she spoke with them while turning her head to me repeatedly. After a few moments, her mother joined us at the roadside and also began chatting with my parents, all the while the young lady looking at me smiling as if she had just found something she had always wanted. Though flattered, I was not all that impressed, as this total stranger was almost desperately trying to make friends with me as I remained in the car. Even kissing my cheeks although we hadn’t met before.
The adults chatted a little more before both mother and daughter began to insist that we all come out of the car and join them in their house for some light refreshments and a quick hangout.
We all eventually got out of the car and also met her father as well as one or two of their other five children, most of whom were grown.
Not much time had passed getting to know each other, and our hosts, desiring our company for a little longer, quickly changed the plan from light refreshments to full blown supper. This change soon saw my mom joining this friendly mother of the home in her kitchen as if they had long been friends, and the two interacted fondly as they began to quickly put the large meal together, and while everyone else also got acquainted. As for me, being quite a self-conscious kid, I was trying to deal with the personally challenging situation.
The young lady who had stopped our car was Yvonne. Strangely though, while everyone interacted, Yvonne sat observing me for most of the time with a smile on her face and her head turning in every direction I moved. Her later actions would shed light on the reason for this interesting behavior.
A very close and long-lasting friendship was born that evening between both sets of parents, and wherever we were originally heading to that afternoon was of course either cancelled or postponed.
Before we left however, manifestly overjoyed with getting to interact with this little handsome boy who she had “found”, Yvonne sunk her teeth into my cheek hard enough that I cried. It also left a mark that remained for a while. And though I protested time and again, she would smilingly repeat this irritating act each time upon us leaving their home.
In spite of the painful experience, I eventually came to accept her almost unbearable gesture for what I instinctively knew it to be all along – a deep, difficult-to-control expression of her love for me. Also, when Yvonne sat observing me on that first day, this wise young woman was purposefully discovering that I was not the conversational type, and she thenceforth sought to engage in anything physically that interested me.
Whenever our families gathered, Yvonne acted as if no one else was present besides the two of us. Her father owned a sugar cane field located on several acres of land behind their home. He also had a light chestnut horse which was usually tied up in the back of the house, that was used to pull the cart to transport the sugar cane to the weighing station, and being a little kid who loved horses, Yvonne ensured that I had good experiences interacting with the horse Tonto.
She would also take me for walks through her father’s sugar cane field when the cane is grown and ripe, and we would cut and snack on pieces of cane as we walk toward the brook on the other end of the field, where we would sit under the soursop tree and feed the fishes. Here is where she first told me of her new friend she met at the recent farm show.
Picking and eating cashews from the few cashew trees in their back yard with my siblings and learning to roast the cashew seeds (nuts) over a homemade firepit out in their backyard when the sun sets, also made for a unique experience for us kids.
I still have flashes of Yvonne beaming with gladness when she discovered that I liked the yellow shirt she presented me with. She had made it for me on her mother’s sewing machine during a time we hadn’t seen each other for several months. It became my favorite shirt.
Such was our bond, and the fact that she was so irresistibly and unapologetically drawn to me by some kind of unexplainable chemistry, and which had brought the two families together as instant friends, made our friendship feel special and the connection divine.
Yvonne eventually got married to her friend she met at the farm show, and we saw each other much less frequently.
However, when it came time for me to get married, I looked forward to and was glad to have Yvonne at my wedding, just as she had also looked forward to attending.
It was no surprise that the evening would not go by without Yvonne having her special moment. Hardly anyone moved, and the faces of everyone all reflected admiration and delight, as Yvonne stood upfront and proudly told of our unusual meeting, and the unique and enduring relationship that we shared on her “finding” me when I was just 10 years old, and the cherished friendship formed between both sets of parents.
Before she took her seat, Yvonne walked across to where I sat with my brand-new wife, bent, and gave me a not too easy bite on my cheek, ensuring that it left a mark that remained for a while. Just like on that first Sunday afternoon. This time I was smiling instead of crying.
These precious memories, all because this daring stranger had so unusually and interestingly taken the spontaneous and deliberate action in that fleeting moment that our car drove by, to not lose the opportunity to meet and get to know the most handsome little boy she had ever seen.