During many of my trips to Jamaica in the ‘80s and ‘90s, I stayed at Apple Valley Park in Maggotty http://applevalleypark.com/home.php . I had wanted to go up to Accompong Town for a couple of nights but the room where I stayed a few years back was not available. It seems a family member from England had taken up a longer residence than my new friends had anticipated. One day during the beginning of my second week at the park, Marshall had come down to visit and said he had a place for me to stay if I still wanted to spend a few nights there. I jumped at the chance. I hurriedly packed my bags and Marshall helped me haul them to the transport area at the front of Shakespeare’s in downtown Maggotty. When we got to town, Marshall had a youth take my bags over to where I would be staying and we walked over to a shop owned by his uncle Jubie (like Ruby with a J). We sat around the shop drinking some rum and warm beer until well past dark.
The alcohol and a lack of sleep from a little party the night before while we were playing music at the park, was taking its toll and I told Marshall that I would like to lie down and rest. He walked with me across the trails up and down the hills in the town past the Kindah Tree and finally ended up at a strange house perched on the side of a hill. Upon reaching the porch,
Marshall reached through a cracked open window and opened the door from the inside as most houses there don’t lock their doors anyways. He showed me where the outhouse was and the standpipe should I need to use them and then offered me a nice, soft bed in the main bedroom. I thanked him for his help and generosity, stripped down to a pair of shorts as it was quite hot and before long, I was fast asleep.
Somewhere in the middle of my sweet dreams, I heard some people outside the front of the house. More activity ensued and soon I heard some work, like sawing and hammering, taking place but I was still tired and decided to just roll over and try to ignore it for awhile. I keep drifting in and out of sleep and the noises outside my window were increasing. I smelled some cooked food and reasoned that Marshall must be fixing us something to eat. Boy, I was getting hungry. I lay in bed for a while longer and then got up, opened the bedroom door to the porch and gave out a big yawn and stretched my weary body against the door frame. The noise suddenly stopped and to my horror, a couple of dozen people were seated around the front lawn and porch! Just about that time, I realized that I was nearly naked having on only a pair of shorts.
I started to go back into the bedroom to dress when a Maroon who look like he just came out of the bush, charged the porch with a flailing machete in his hand screaming something about “Duppy” and a lot of other words I could not understand. Marshall sprung into action and grabbed the man’s arm and said something like, “That is no duppy! That is Bill, my friend”. For a brief moment I was terrified that I was going to die so I jumped back inside the room and leaned against the now closed door. Marshall came around from the living room entrance to the bedroom and told me that the reason he had a place for me to stay is that he just got the house from his aunt’s passing and that I had been sleeping in her bed. The commotion outside was a “Nine Nights” and the guy with the machete thought I was the soul of his aunt still walking around the house. I wanted to be angry with Marshall for this incident but I could see he was deeply apologetic and a little shook up at the scene himself.
I sat down for a bit and composed myself before putting on some nicer clothes and joining in the rituals. I had always heard about Redemption Songs since my seeing Bob Marley and the Wailers in 1978 and now I was singing them! The people welcomed me warmly and the guy with the machete put it down and warily shook my hand. Over the next 20 years of visiting to Accompong Town, I can’t count the number of times that this incident would come up in a conversation. We all had a good laugh over something that could have ended quite badly.
Peace and Guidance
