As the evening rolled on Bananny slipped back to her cottage and returned with several packages. “I loved sending all the lanterns up at dusk,” she said, “it was beautiful. But our tradition has always been to send up a wish lantern for New Years. Would you guys like to do that?” and she tossed a number of Chinese lanterns on the table. The gang proceeded to gather around a couple of tables and each couple filled their lantern with a list of wishes for the New Year. Extra lanterns were offered to other patrons at the bar and they began their own wish lanterns. Nattie took a look at the rest of the gang’s lanterns as they all waited for the big send up. She came back to Nick with the most serene expression on her face. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled in tight, squeezing her head against his chest.
“I just looked at everybody’s lanterns,” she said, ”And I just can’t believe how lucky we are. These really are the best people ever. Every single wish on every lantern is for somebody else. Not a single wish from anybody for themselves.”
Nick’s chest nearly burst with emotion. This was why he had so wanted to be in Negril for New Years. To share it with Nattie and the circle of incredibly compatible souls they had stumbled across in the past year. He felt tremendous happiness and contentment. Then he felt a little itch on the back of his neck and gave it a scratch. “Hmmmmm,” he thought, “that feels a bit like a wild hair.”
“Unbelievably lucky!” Nick said with a kiss, “Let’s go have some fun!”
They launched the wish lanterns and sat arm in arm watching them disappear into the night sky. For the longest time their four lanterns hung tight together in the celestial backdrop. It felt like they had sent their own constellation to the heavens. May heaven grant all the thoughtful gifts requested…
A return to the bar brought out the buffoonery in the group again. The song “Crazy” came on and the gang was intent on proving it was written for them. Carlton was insistent that he could make any ridiculous New Years Eve trinket look good. Again and again he tried, always confident of his success. His confidence to accuracy ratio was not stellar. His hilarity quotient was off the charts.
The Red Dread Head was passed, everyone was sure they could pull it off with the most panache. Sketch did pull off a decent cameo and had a picture taken where it appeared he had lanterns implanted in his head. Nick didn’t like this usurpation of what he had decided were his Red Dreads at all. He grabbed them off Sketch and tried to put them back on his head but he was standing right under a big rotating fan and it kept throwing the glowing red braids all over the place. Suddenly, it hit him…
“Time to vogue, people!” and he faced the fan throwing the red dreads to his left and right and offering some serious posuering. The whole bar loved it and was whoop-whooping him on. Looking around, he saw one of the high barstools close by and pulled it under the elevated fan.
“And we do it like this!” he hollered and jumped up on the bar stool. The bar was bouncing with laughter and screams. Just as he managed to stick his face in front of the fan with the dreads blowing out behind him the fan shuts down. A groan ran through the bar.
“You gotta get down, Nick,” said Carlton, “I think you’re making BamBam nervous.” Nick looked over at the bar manager who was waving her index finger back and forth while shooting him a smile. Nick shot a smile back and the group returned to the home base at the end of the bar.
The music continued to be outstanding and really pulled everyone at the bar together. At one point they played Vybz Kartel’s “Life We Living” and the place just blew up. Everyone knew that the lyrics to the song were a sad look at surviving in destitution but they were all caught in the poignancy of the refrain to their immediate situation. “Look at the life we living!” they sang to each other with unabashed gratefulness in their eyes and enormous smiles on their faces.
The evening pressed on. K-dog was working the bar with a new guy, Naughty NotTy. There had been some trepidation in the crew concerning Naughty NotTy because there was tremendous love and affection for his predecessor. Naughty put himself right in the mix on New Years Eve. During a pause in the music he slipped off behind the bar and slipped off his shirt. Special-K, who had been helping out at the bar because it was so busy was up front mixing a drink. The thump thump of a dancehall beat started on the stereo and Special-K started a little hip shimmy-shimmy. Then he was there, behind the bar, doing a little bare-chested beefcaking. The bar got out! Special-K turned around and played a perfect flabbergasted! Naughty started the slowest and longest “I’m making a move on you!” you’ve ever seen. A step, a shaky-shake, a flex, a head turn, a pose. The entire time he had this look of nearly unbridled fear on his face in this “How is this happening, I can’t seem to stop myself, why am I now a step closer?!?” sort of way. As the song neared it’s climax Naughty was right on top of Special-K, her fingers up to her mouth in anticipation. Suddenly, he lurched at her and they were together in a full on Chess Massey. Nothing separated their bodies from knee to shoulder as Naughty had Special-K pushed up against the bar. He started to shake, almost convulsed, against her with his head turned to the side and a look of complete shock and disbelief on his face. The place was just going crazy and then BOOM, the song is over. Naughty NotTy stepped back and put his head down. Special-K raised her hand, kind of like a bishop offering a ring for kissing. Naughty grabbed her hand, bowed his head and was off to redress himself. There was a standing ovation.
The vibe carried on and the next thing you know the stereo is playing Unconditional Love by Jah Cure. Many in the bar paired off and danced. Nick and Nattie were lost in each others arms as they sang, “You never see it coming… and the next thing you know… Unconditional Love! Unconditional Love!” Chills ran up their spines, tears ran down their cheeks. Turning to the sea of love surrounding them they pointed to each of their friends and sang, “Unconditional Love! Unconditional Love!”
In the swinging and swaying that followed the song Nick continued to press Nattie on a topic he’d tickled her with all night. All the girls in the group had actually danced on this bar. All except Nattie. And Nick was bound and determined to change the record on that front.
“You should get up and dance on the bar!” Nattie said trying to redirect the subject.
“Only women are allowed to dance on this bar!” said Nick.
“I’d dance on this bar again!” said Boom Boom.
“I’m in!” said Ariel.
“I’ll go if everyone goes,” said Bananny, looking squarely at Nattie.
With that the first notes of Sweat (A La La La La Long) kicked in and so did the impetus to get the girls up on the bar. Partners, patrons and staff were calling them out. The pressure was building and Nattie couldn’t resist any longer. Suddenly, there they were, climbing up barstools and onto the bar. Four of the loveliest ladies to ever grace the bar were now raving it up ON the bar. The boys were ecstatic and high-fiving each other. There was definitely a feeling of accomplishment. It would have been a great night without the girls dancing on the bar. But now? They just had to admit it, it was better. When the girls got down off the bar Special-K came over and started smacking her hand on the bar.
“Guys on the bar, right now!” she ordered.
“Guys don’t dance on the bar here,” said Nick.
“Tonight they do!” commanded Special-K.
With this the girls were totally on board and pressing the guys. “We danced, you dance” was pretty much the argument and it was pretty lock tight. Only Sketch was able to wiggle out of it due to his circumstances. This spoke mightily to his circumstances as he would have been the first to jump up in most situations. To the first beats of Shaggy’s Mr. Boombastic the guys crawled up on the bar. Then something truly extraordinary happened.
The boys rocked it. They took that bar and owned it. Nick slid down the bar and dropped into a dagger squat and pumped it. Cousteau was shaking the moneymaker and throwing the occasional hip thrust and fist pump. Carlton started with an easygoing locomotive that broke down into some serious funky freakin’. The place absolutely exploded. Whoops and catcalls were tossed at all the boys. Special-K held up a 100J for Nick, waving it at him. He dropped into another dagger squat and before you know, BAM, there it is, dancing tips for Nick were stuck in his shorts.
“Shake it!” they were exhorted. And they did. Oh Lordy, did they shake it.
“Bravo, Bravo!” yelled the remaining Italians when the song was over. They high-fived, shook hands and patted backs with the boys. Italians are clearly easily impressed by crazy people.
After the bar dance the place started to clear out. The staff wanted to get home and say Happy New Year to their friends and family. As they headed out of the bar Nick stopped to say goodnight to BamBam.
“I would not have fallen off the chair,” said Nick with a grin.
“You clearly would not have fallen off the chair,” said BamBam, throwing a little smile back.
The gang was headed back to the cliffs edge where they still had a couple of hours of chillin’ and spillin’ to do. Nick, with Nattie on his arm, sidled up alongside Bananny. He slid his arm around Bananny’s shoulder and gave her a big kiss on the forehead.
“That was acceptable,” he said with his typically sarcastic tone.
Bananny smiled. Her face at this point could have been photographed and placed in the dictionary as the definition of satisfied. She turned to Nick and said, “Yeah, it didn’t suck!”
Originally Posted by Guirigay
