A Day Like This

It was a hot and languid summer's day and the progeny of Eve and
Adam went about the world with a weary, listless mien. Humming birds
flashed back and forth between the Heliconias that grew on the fringes
of the rain-forest and filled the Dominican countryside with vibrant
colour while the great gnarled trees plunged their branches desperately
into a deep blue sky. The canopy cast mottled shadows on the earth
beneath and flickered in the breeze and there was a natural stillness
to the world. A minibus shot past along a nearby road, disturbing the
silence and the dust and he could faintly hear the loud reggae blaring
out from the little stereo as it faded back into silence. A Sisserou
parrot left its hiding place somewhere in the canopy and flashed across
his path in a blaze of colour and he felt honoured, blessed, that he
should have seen this rare, secretive creature.
The occasional cloud that crossed the sky gave him no succour from the
intense sunlight. He sat down on a rock, checking it carefully for
insects first, and waited for his girlfriend, who had been delayed by
calls of nature of every sort. He listened to the silence and realised
that it was no such thing; there was a constant ebb, a noise that
exists wherever life might be, a harmony, born of synergy and balance,
just audible beneath the other noises of the rain-forest, beneath the
calls of birds, the chirruping of ciccadias and the babbling of the
streams. Dominicans boast that their island has three hundred and
sixty-five rivers, one for every day of the year, and water can be
found all over the island, from the crashing of the Atlantic on the
volcanic rocks of the west coast, to the centre of the island and the
boiling lake and finally to the placid east coast with its lapping
Caribbean sea and the bubbles of volcanic vents they call
Champagne.
Yesterday they had been at Scott's Head, a beach on the south-east
corner of the island, where public holiday had prompted beer and
barbecues on the black, volcanic sand and snorkelling in the sea. A man
called Dino had invited them. He had hired out a kayak to them a week
ago and they had paddled along the coast to snorkel amongst the bubbles
of Champagne and he had warmed to them and invited them as his guests
to the barbecue. They had eaten fresh Tuna, marinaded and barbecued;
they had swum in the sea amid the harmless little jellyfish that the
sea had washed in and they had dived down to the coral and chased the
Angel Fish. Now, as he perspired in the relentless heat, he dreamed
longingly of the cool sea.
He heard Helen's footsteps coming up the path and he took his camera
out and aimed it down the track and as she rounded the corner he took a
beautifully framed photograph of her between two trees, her face lit by
the mottled sunlight of the trees.
"Hello."
"Can I have some water?"
"Of course. Are you all-right?" He took the small rucksack off his
back and put it on the ground in front of him. He took out a Sigg
bottle full of cold water.
"I'm fine. I was just thinking about sulphur." She took the bottle
from him, unscrewed the lid and took a long draught from it ten she sat
down beside him.
"Thinking about what?"
"Sulphur - the cat that walks up and down the track to the Boiling
Lake."
"Oh yes. Yes, that was amazing. She must be fed by the tourists. When
I think of the Boiling Lake I always think of the lunatic who lives at
the beginning of the track. What was his name - Dr. Cool, or
something?" he asked, taking the water bottle from her.
"I can't remember. Something like that."
They sat in silence then. He put the water bottle away. She sat and
gazed around her at the trees, at the little stream she could just see
through the trees, at the flowers. A blue lizard flitted over some
nearby rocks and stopped for a moment, eyeing them with primordial
suspicion.
Food or foe?
Foe. It ran away into the trees.
"I love it here, darling. It's so peaceful; I'm so much more relaxed
here than I ever have been at home. It's beautiful." She turned away
and smiled to herself and sighed a deep, satisfied sigh as she realised
how happy she was. Life has few enough moments such as these and she
closed her eyes and secured it forever in her memory.
"Helen?"
She turned to look at him. He was knelt on one knee, smiling up at her,
squinting slightly into the sun. In his hand he held a small jewellery
box that contained a gold ring with a solitaire mounted on it.
"I love you, Helen. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will
you marry me?"
He looked a little nervous and a shot of adrenaline filtered through
his body as he waited for her answer.
"Can you promise me there will be more moments like these? Will I ever
be as happy as this again?" she asked, smiling and feeling as
emotionally vulnerable as he felt.
"Yes," he whispered.
"Then yes. I will marry you," she said and she took the ring and
slipped it onto her ring finger as a small, solitary tear ran down her
face. "Besides," she said as they stood and held each other tightly,
"One day like this, one day as happy as this is enough for any
lifetime."