Barbados: The Perfect Place to Live?(How She Surprised Herself When Danger Appeared)

Photo by Tom Jur

Dining out with friends we hadn’t seen for a few months, Peggy and her husband Rob, the music was too loud to talk together. While the guys discussed guy topics like sports and stuff…yawn…Peggy and I began chatting about dilemmas, and what we thought we’d do in certain situations. I’d had more than a few sips of the potent margarita sitting in front of me, so I didn’t remember the exact reason for starting that topic, but when Peggy began a story about one of her surprising reactions, I was so intrigued I decided to write about it.

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She started with the background:

Years ago, long before Rob, she was dating another man named Clark, and they’d loved to travel. They went many places together to scuba dive and explore.

One day, Clark told her that he’d decided they should go to Barbados to dive, work and live. He’d had a friend who had just returned from Barbados and had loved it so much he wanted to go back soon. Clark, being intrigued, did some research about the island, and what he read piqued his interest as well.

The first discovery he’d mentioned to Peggy in his excitement about the prospect, was that Barbados was thought to be the birthplace of rum. He told her that in the 1600s Barbados had been the number one sugar producer in the world. And, of course, it was only natural for someone to begin making an alcoholic concoction with that sugar, and that drink became known as ‘rum’ which came from several possible reasons.

In the 1700s the oldest rum distillery in the world was conceived, called Mount Gay, and supposedly is still in business.

“And that really intrigued Clark,” Peggy said wryly after relating Clark’s little history lesson. “And so, after much preparation, off we went.

“The place was gorgeous. So green and lush with lots of history and old buildings. I was fascinated,” Peggy admitted.

“Both of us loving to scuba dive, Clark thought we could get jobs helping out the tourists, or he, being a mechanic, could be useful in that area. I was a schoolteacher, so I thought I could teach, since the schools were English-speaking, and we got really excited about being there to start a new life. That is until we were warned about some of the drawbacks of the area. As with many places we’d been, we were warned about keeping our belongings, especially our billfolds, tucked in tightly because thievery was a pastime for some. For others, it was their living, and they’d keep a close watch out for new tourists.

“Since the British colonized the island back in the 1600s, it had operated on a plantation economy in those early days, having to rely on African slavery to work the plantations, I’d read. That kept the slave trade running freely until the British Empire passed the Slave Trade Act in 1807, and then came the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833. By then, though, the African population surpassed that of the English by a really large percentage, which was the reason why we saw way more black people there than white people. I’m not prejudiced, so it was fine with me, but some of the men were huge and intimidating. The women were beautiful, but I couldn’t get over how big the men were.

Photo by C D-X

“With that said, I’ll explain the dilemma, which first started this conversation.

“The only place we could find to live at that time was a cheap hotel room. But because it was on the third floor, we thought we’d be able to capture the breezes floating around outside to tone down the heat in our small space with no AC.

“However, we’d been warned by the desk clerk never to leave our patio doors open at night, or when we’d be gone, but being on the third floor, we saw no danger in having them open while we slept.”

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Anticipating what came next, I thought about the beginning of our conversation about what we’d do if confronted by certain situations, one of which was mentioned: what would you do if you woke up to see someone in your room?

I’d thought about what I would do many times when I was suddenly awakened by hearing a sound that was out of the ordinary. I’d be relieved to find that it was from wind, or rain that had suddenly come up, or something else not too concerning, but then I would lay in bed thinking about the ‘what-ifs.’ I’m sure many people have done the same, and my reactions to those ‘what ifs’ was mainly that of crawling under the bed.

When I told this to Peggy, she’d nodded, and said she thought she’d likely lay quietly to let the intruder take what he wanted and then leave.

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“About our original conversation,” she began, “I’ve found that a person can never really tell what he or she will do until the situation presents itself. I thought I’d be this meek little person, hiding from danger, but this particular night I totally surprised myself.”

I looked at her with curiosity, eager to know what was next.

“First of all,” she said, “I was sleeping in the nude; it was too hot not to. But then, I’d always slept in the nude because, to me, it’s just more comfortable to not have night clothes on to have to fight.”

I nodded in understanding and agreement.

“And so, when I heard a noise that woke me up, knowing that a bomb could go off and Clark wouldn’t hear it, I slowly opened my eyes to look around and was startled to see this huge man silhouetted in front of our opened patio doors.”

“Oh, my God!” I stated, imagining her wanting to pull the covers over her head in fright, and expecting that to be her next statement.

Photo by Alexandra Gorn

“My immediate reaction to that bad surprise was not what I’d expected of myself at all. Instead of cowering, I grabbed the sheet and hopped out of bed, wrapped the sheet around me, and screamed at that big black man, ‘What are you doing in here?!’ And I rushed toward him. He was so surprised that he stumbled backward and then turned and jumped over the railing just before I could ram him with my head.”

Wide-eyed, I asked, “And then what?”

“I looked down over the patio railing expecting to see him splattered on the concrete, but there was no sign of him. Apparently, besides being really big, he was also very agile, as he must have landed on his feet and kept running.”

“That’s an amazing story, my friend. I’m gobsmacked at your bravery and the reaction you had. Wow!”

“So am I,” she said. “That was years ago, and it seems like yesterday, since I remember every detail, and I’m still surprised about my reactions.”

“I guess that just goes to prove that we have inner strength when we need it at times when we least expect it,” I told her and then asked, “What did Clark say about the whole episode?”

She laughed. “He just asked, ‘What happened to my wallet?’”

“We left the island soon after that, realizing that Barbados may not be the place for us after all.”

I sat looking at this person I thought I knew with renewed admiration and respect, and told her, “I hope I’d have that kind of courage or reaction to do something like that if I ever need to, instead of hiding under the bed.”

She smiled. “Yeah, well, I think I was pretty lucky. It could have turned out much differently, and that was why I didn’t want to stay there. I didn’t want to be tested a second time.”