When Life Changes The Route

“Mom,” Halle Mason asked her mother, Janet, as they left their home at 5:45 a.m. on Saturday to go to the market. “Why do you love going to the market on Saturdays? It’s hectic and packed with people who work Monday to Friday. There is no space to move around. It’s worse than traffic in LA at rush hour on a Friday evening.”

“Those are the days my yams, escallions, coconut, and orange man come. My vegetable, pineapple lady, all of my people only come on Saturdays,” her mother informs her.

“But Mom, Saturdays are the most expensive day to go to the market,” Halle complained.

“I get the best fresh organic foods, because many farmers are there too,” her mother explained.

Halle nods in understanding as her memory rushes back to the delicious meals she enjoyed all her life as a child. She and her siblings were healthy too, and they never fell ill.

Farmers and sellers come on Saturdays to sell their produce. Many people who worked from Monday to Friday made Saturday their market day. Most people go on that day because they don’t have a choice. Others go because there are more people, which means more food.

They met Joyce and her sister, Beverly, at the Robot taxi stand down the street. All four went into the cab. They met a long line of traffic a few minutes later.

“What is going on?” Beverly questioned, glancing around seconds after their driver joined the long line of traffic.

“Some accident,” he said, searching his phone. Robot Taxi drivers here have the kind of grapevine communication the FBI, CIA, MI5, KGB, and others would envy. When the police are out on the road checking documents or anything else happens on the road, the word spreads faster than wildfire on a windy day.

“I am not staying in this traffic. I don’t want Ann and Tony to finish the carrot and sugarloaf pineapple before I get there,” Beverly said.

Joyce agreed, and they attempted to exit after glancing to see if it was safe. Halle tried to follow them, glancing at her Mom, who yanked her back beside her, saying, “We leave our house together and will go back home together. Don’t you think this delay might happen for a good reason?”

The taxi driver glanced up at them through the mirror, and Beverly looked at Halle, who nodded and said, “She is insane, but hardly ever wrong.”

They left to find a quicker way to get to the market.

Back home, enjoying breakfast after getting everything they wanted at the market, a loud cry seized their hearts. They recognized it.

Joyce was screaming out, “They shot her. They shot her!”

In seconds, there was a massive crowd at Janet’s gate as Joyce explained in tears.

“Halfway to the market, your mother’s words keep hitting the door to my brain and heart. I begged her to turn back, but she refused. So, I went back to the original route we always take. The road was cleared quickly. I have been calling her and getting no answer,” she explained, tears rolling down her face.

“There is a signal issue in the market, everyone knows that,” Halle recalls the many times she can’t make a call while inside.

“There was a shootout with the police and a wanted man they were pursuing, and she got shot. The hospital used her phone to call our mother,” Joy, relate, tears still flowing.

Silence spoke as her eyes turned to Janet, then she asked, “How did you know that something was going to happen?”

“I didn’t,” Janet said quickly. “But we were raised to believe that every disappointment is for a damn good cause. Plus, the taxi route was safer for us. Who the hell walks in that area so early in the morning? Your sister knows the area is dangerous at that early hour. Will she live?”

Wiping her eyes, she said, “We don’t know. We are going to the hospital now. Why didn’t she listen to me and turn back with me?” she moaned, still in pain, walking away.

Sometimes, life will delay us from reaching our destination at the wrong time. Annelise Lords

In my culture, we were raised to believe that every disappointment serves a greater purpose. So, when things don’t go as we want them to, we should consider the situation, find the good in it, and make better decisions.

Life speaks to us in many different tongues, languages, and ways. Being aware, we can understand and see all of them. Annelise Lords

Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoyed it.