LOST AT SEA

Lloyd is 12 years old. He lives in Kingston, Jamaica, with his mother and his grandfather, Maas Conrad. Maas Conrad is a fisherman.

Lloyd has been going out to sea with his grandfather since he was very little. His grandfather teaches him about the sea and the creatures in it. Lloyd always feels most at home with his grandfather at his side.

One day his grandfather doesn’t return from a fishing trip.

Lloyd is worried. Is his grandfather lost at sea?

When we first meet Lloyd, he is sitting by the sea, waiting for his mother to finish work. She is a vendor at the fish market. When his mother comes, they walk together through the streets of Kingston.

It’s dark and raining.

creatures varelser vendor gatuförsäljare

Lloyd walked toward his mother and the shelter of the umbrella and together they walked through the dark streets of Kingston, the rainwater sweeping the streets, hiding the smell of human waste, taking the garbage of the city into the sea.

Lloyd heard his grandfather’s voice in his mind: shelter skydd waste avfall garbage sopor padlock hänglås edge utkant blown gått sönder

I come from a line of fishermen.

Lloyd held the umbrella while his mother struggled with the front-door padlock of their small house near Bournemouth on the edge of Kingston Harbour. The nearest streetlight had blown many years before.

His mother kissed her teeth. “Me tired to tell you wut’less father to buy one new lock,” she said. Finally, the lock scraped open and they went inside. The air was full of water and the house was damp “Go to bed, pickney. As God is my witness, you nah be a fisherman. As God is my witness.” damp fuktigt narrow trånga, smala shower curtain duschdraperi tacked fastspikat lightbulb glödlampa lantern lykta mildew mögel cabin hytt sagging slakande rag trasa torn slitna cot säng wrapper omslag crumbs smulor cinnamon kanel

When you kiss your teeth you make a hissing (väsande) sound with the mouth. It is often used to show disapproval (ogillande) or anger toward something.

In British English: “I’m tired of telling your worthless father to buy a new lock”.

In British English: “Go to bed, child. As God is my witness, you will not be a fisherman. As God is my witness”.

He went into the narrow room at the back where he slept and untied the shower curtain tacked to the top of the door opening. There was no lightbulb or lantern in his room but light from the only other room in the house crept under the curtain, which smelled of plastic and mildew; smells of home to him.

There was no window in his small space and he imagined it was like a cabin in a ship, below the waterline.

He stripped off his wet clothes and hung them over the sagging line that held his school uniforms, pushing the uniforms to one side to make space for his undershirt and shorts. He dried himself with his rag and changed into the torn briefs he wore at night. He sat on his cot and felt hungry. Had he finished the bun from lunchtime? He thought so, but looked through his backpack just in case he had left a small piece.

He found only the wrapper and he licked it for the crumbs, for the cinnamon and sugar smell.

2. What does Lloyd’s room look like?

3. What does Lloyd do when he gets to his room?

TARGET WORDS

From

Gone to Drift

by Diana McCaulay

Black Crab

In the search for his grandfather, Lloyd learns that there is one man who might know what has happened to his grandfather. The man is called Black Crab. Lloyd and his best friend Dwight go to find him.

Lloyd and Dwight made their way to Newport West next day. Lloyd told himself he was on a quest. His sidekick was Dwight. Black Crab would know where he could look for Gramps. And if it was Portland Rock, he would go there next.

The Shotta bar was a plywood structure with a slanted tin roof, like a lean-to. Dancehall music throbbed from two large speakers on either side of the bar. Two old men with lowered heads sat on bar stools. Beyond them, a fisher worked on a fish pot under a sea grape tree. There was no beach.

The barman had reddened eyes. Lloyd ordered a Pepsi in two cups without ice and the barman brought them. The boys sat at the bar and looked around. Apart from the two men at the other end of the bar, there was a thin black man sitting right in front of the speakers with a cell phone to his ear. He was dressed in torn jeans and an undershirt and another cell phone buzzed on a metal table in front of him.

“We ask the barman for Black Crab or what?” Dwight whispered.

“Shh! Just cool,” Lloyd said. “Make us wait a little and see what happen.” Nothing happened. The man on the phone ended his call and wandered outside. The barman closed his eyes and his head fell forward. A mouse ran across the packed dirt floor. It was hot in the tiny bar—the sea breeze had not yet come up.

Lloyd rapped the bar and the barman jumped. “You know a man name Black Crab?”

The barman’s head came up and he met Lloyd’s eyes. “What you want with him? You not from ’round here?”

“Bournemouth,” Lloyd said and instantly regretted it. It was best not to tell anyone where you lived. “Just want ask him a question, boss.”

“Black Crab don’t so much like question. But you young still. CRAB!” he shouted over the music. “This yout’ here want a word.”

The boys turned to see the thin black man who had been on the phone walking toward them. He did not look scary in the least. As he walked up to them, Lloyd saw he was older than he had first thought. He had a seagoing look around his eyes, which were scored with wrinkles. His arms were ropy, as if he spent hours drawing a net. His skin was black but it had the fisher’s tinge of salt. “You askin for me, yout’?” His voice was soft but Lloyd heard an echo of menace in the simple words.

Lloyd slid off the stool and stood in front of the man called Black Crab. “Boss,” he said. “Me is Lloyd. Lloyd Saunders. This my friend Dwight. We from over by Gray Pond fishin beach. Me—”

“How you come to be lookin for Black Crab?” The truth or a story? Lloyd decided on the truth. “Me is lookin for my granddaddy, Maas Conrad him name. Him lost at sea. Him go the Pedro Cays, eleven day now, and him don’t come back. Nobody heard from him. So—”

“What that have to do with me? Where you get my name from?”

“We hear,” Dwight said. “We just ask around and we hear. We hear say you know about the foreign people what come here to buy dolphin. We hear you is a big man so we come find you.”

Black Crab did not react to Dwight’s voice. His eyes remained fixed on Lloyd, who became aware that the two old men were leaving the bar. The barman followed them, shaking his head. The music pounded and the bar was too dark. “Boss,” Lloyd said. “Me don’t mean no disrespect. Please. Me don’t care if dolphin catch for whatever reason. Catch them all, me say, long as man can eat a food from it. But my granddaddy, him is an elder. Him hold to the old ways. All me want know is if him see sumpn him not suppose to see and if him is hurt somewhere, alone somewhere. That’s it. It don’t go no further than me and Dwight. Me can’t hurt you, me know how to keep my mouth shut. Me is not a informer.” Lloyd stopped. He had not said the right words, the words that were in his heart. Is he dead? Will his body ever be found? Will I ever know who killed him?

Black Crab stared into Lloyd’s eyes. “Informer to dead. Right, yout’?”

Lloyd nodded. No one spoke and the music blared. Finally, Black Crab said, “Where you granddaddy fish from?”

“Gray Pond beach. That’s where him keep his boat.”

“What him boat name?”

“Water Bird.”

“You have a cell?”

“No, boss.”

“WINSTON!” Black Crab bawled and the barman came running over. “Pass a paper and pen.” Winston looked under the counter and Lloyd saw his hands were trembling. He handed over an exercise book of the kind the boys used in school and a ballpoint pen. Black Crab tore out a piece of paper and wrote on it shaking the pen to make it write. “This my number. Call me in a week—”

“A week!” Lloyd said. “Suppose him is hurt, starvin, no water, somewhere on the coast or lost in the boat with no engine.”

“You love you granddaddy, yout’. That a good thing. Me did have a

Stretch

Caribbean Stretch

granddaddy too. Awright. You call me tomorrow. Then you throw away that paper. You forget the name Black Crab, you hear me? You go school, you play a little ball, you help you mother, you go sea, you do whatever you do. Me don’t want see or hear from you again, seen?”

“Yes, boss. Thank you, boss,” Lloyd said. “Tomorrow.”

The boys turned to go. “Me can ask you one thing, boss?” Dwight said. Lloyd pinched his arm but the words were out.

Black Crab said nothing but his eyes narrowed and moved to Dwight’s face. Lloyd was suddenly afraid for his friend. “Why them call you Black Crab?” Dwight asked.

The man called Black Crab laughed. “But see here now. Why you think? Them call me that ’cause me love eat black crab!”

Excercises

Choose one or more of the exercises.

1. What do you think has happened to Lloyd’s grandfather, Maas Conrad? Will Lloyd find him? Write the ending to the story.

2. Write a script for the scene at the Shotta Bar. Include both dialogue and stage directions. Rehearse the scene and act it out for your classmates.

3. The dialogue in Black Crab is written in Jamaican English, with different words and spelling than in British English. Rewrite the dialogue in the text using British English vocabulary and spelling.

4. Work in pairs. Write 7–10 questions each to be used for testing reading comprehension. Then answer each other’s questions in writing or verbally.