It was plain to see by those in the know about such things that the young girl had a spirit in she, and it was only a few people now who would pause more than a moment before giving this as a diagnosis. After all, she wasn't responding to the usual medicines and treatments, and experience at least told that things would only get worse; so talk naturally turned to Bush Dai-Dai and Kanaima; and all that was left really was to decide who would be called in to fix the problem, since the “what” of the problem was generally clear enough.
It was a given that some didn't--or couldn't--abide such talk for obvious reasons having to do with discomfort around things supernatural and other-worldly; but others quite comfortable had different thoughts, which included the usual general references to spirits, as well as more particular mentions of jumbie and bakkoo and what not. In the balance, though, at least to the objective observer, Bush Dai-Dai seemed a fair guess and a reasonable conclusion when the situation was looked at as a whole. After all, the girl's father, Shuga, had just gotten back from the Bush, and under just the right circumstances that would explain how a dangerous, Bush Devil ended up far from its own home, wherever that really was, and in the Village of Salvation tormenting Shuga's child . . . .
There was once a man called Shuga who was brave, strong and handsome, but he wasn't rich. He was so brave and strong that he was known to swim boldly across rivers for sport when others would prudently take boats and ferries; he would run confidently at a comfortable pace for miles as amusement to get to where he wanted when others would rightly take transportation such as buses or trains or cars; and he would lift many, many times his weight in heavy loads seemingly without strain or exertion, which feats of strength could be matched only by very, very few. And, as such things often can go when nature and God decide, Shuga's looks always caused at least a smile, and many hearts to flutter and skip, and all this without effort of conversation or cause; and people called him Shuga on account of the obvious . . . sweetness of his countenance.
In due course, Shuga got married and had a child; and in due course he came to feel that the way he made a living helping out this and that person with their planting or harvesting or general hard work and heavy lifting just wouldn't do. He was no longer impressed with himself just impressing people on account of being strong and brave and . . . sweet. Not being rich also just bothered him; he was Shuga, after all, a God-blessed child from the start, and it was only natural that he should also be rich. And, so, to satisfy himself and solve his problem, Shuga didn't take long to decide that he would go to the Bush to seek his fortune as a pork-nocker to look for gold and diamonds. If it was possible to get rich in the Bush as a pork-nocker, then who better to accept the challenge and succeed than Shuga.
There was once a man called Shuga who was brave, strong and handsome and who went to seek his fortune in the Bush as a porknocker. And much the same as he had lived and fared in the blessed and charmed life that was his, Shuga naturally struck it rich in the Bush; and it would be said for a very long time that his strike of gold was an epic strike indeed, and as would be expected of Shuga. He was rich. But even for the God-blessed, there can sometimes be problems, and there was a problem: The great fortune in gold that he took home was under guard of a most serious and curious sort; the gold was under the protection of a Bush Devil, Bush Dai-Dai.
Now Shuga had a pretty fair sense before he took home all the gold that he did that there was a problem with doing so. After all, the message was made pretty clear, but maybe what would have been clear to others wasn't easily as clear to Shuga. So what if everything was heavier to lift than it should be? No problem for Shuga. So what if certain parts of the Bush involved seemed denser and thicker when it didn't seem to make sense? No problem for Shuga. So what if panning implements and pick axes were often lost, or food showed up missing? No problem for Shuga. And, so what if he heard tell tale sounds such as loud, chilling whistling and what seemed like the neighing of non-existent horses? Well, all not problems for Shuga.
Shuga ignored or just bested all hardships, even beyond the norm of expected hardship from going to the Bush, and went home with his riches of gold. But it was less than a week after Shuga returned to Salvation that his daughter got sick suddenly and without reason or cause, at least reason or cause that most people could find.
At five years old, Shuga's daughter was very reminiscent of her father in all the ways that people could see, so naturally everyone early on started to call her Sweet, or sometimes Sweets, then more and more Sweets, and it was plain that Sweets was just the sort of name that everyone knew would stick because there was the same natural connection between name and person as was the case with her father, Shuga. But when Sweets got sick and started to waste away right before everyone's eyes, the collective sorrow was all around and seemed to be circulated by every breeze blowing about. And what was worse was that looking back from Sweets' eyes seemed a person not so sweet anymore, not a child but something else, and several people reported independently that they shivered and got chills from being around her.
With Shuga's new found wealth, the best doctors were called in, several of them in actual fact, but none of them had a clue. Of course, along the way there was the usual talk of the need for measures more appropriate to the way things seemed, but Shuga ignored such talk. But after the medical opinions were exhausted, at least one of the doctors whispered to Shuga and his wife that maybe they should go outside to take care of the issue. It has to be said that both Shuga and his wife resisted for a time, since even though they were inclined to believe in such things, they had felt that now that they could afford it that other ways presumable more scientific and certain were in order. But even with a small fortune paid to doctors, they still had a sick and worsening child.
Shuga's wife seemed to the world to be handling the crisis well, but Shuga knew better, and he didn't do anything to challenge the prevailing view that they were both holding up well. Shuga hadn't gotten around yet to implementing any of his plans for a very much bigger and grander house, but this wasn't as much of a concern when he and his wife finally decided to seek outside help for Sweets. . . .
- Comentarios
