The Coil: Ecstasy

By Vidya Kissoon

The car man said that driving up to Skeldon is rough sometimes. He said that another car man had a passenger who put a box of ecstasy in the glove compartment . That car man had no problem transporting passenger and ecstasy but he was scared all the way in case police stopped them.
My car had driver, me, Suriname man who in a hurry to catch the last boat from Springlands – the back track boat. The other passenger the driver know from a long time ago from when he was a student (now he has two children) and the driver used to drive minibus.. and he was wicked in he days – “carrying dem chirren wid nuff money to de beach.”   Minibus wasn’t making sense because police was harassing him he said.
Car man talking. Casual-like as we do here. I say Ecstasy? He say yeah man, come from Suriname – he ask the Suriname man at the back seat.. “you know Ecstasy right?” Man say yeah yeah.  I do not know Ecstasy.
I remember another time in a minibus when a man had a haversack full with weed and I kept moving my head away because something was smelling – might have been the smoke on the man clothes. But the man had looked at me like he sorry for the inconvenience and try to shift the bag away like a  one inch or so and I had said to myself okay, at least the gesture was good and pretend that the smell was not bothering me
Car man and me start talking politics. Movie on the dashboard. Car man like this movie and as we driving he keep saying . Look look,..  and I am saying right right.. .
But we doing 80 Km/h sometimes 100 Km/h even in places where it supposed to be 50 km/h.
We get to talking about ‘the rally at Whim’ and he say nah, he aint had time because nobody aint giving he money at the end of the day.  He tells me has an Indian girl. “Look, one thing, dey say dat dey tief, but I aint care what, no matter how dem tief, dem do good because there is the bridge and them road good and suh. And dem odda set was bad too. “
I say right right . He tell me look look at this part and I look at the movie on the dashboard while he look at the movie on the dashboard at the same time he look at  road while he driving a little bit over the speed limit. And we reach Skeldon after the three hours I average.
One morning eating on the side of the Corentyne River. The river makes a nice sound, different from the sea. Sun is bright on it. You can’t look at it. It looks clean but the plastic bottles and Styrofoam, the signs of development are on the banks. It is like if the river has rejected them and threw them back on the shore.  Eating roti, bhajee and aloo chokha.
I laugh a bit remembering my first trip as a child, when flour and potato and all those things were banned – “contraband days” as one APNU+AFC supporter smilingly remembered when she used to take a walk Christmas time on the river to Suriname.
There was something defiant about how the vendors displayed the banned items back in those days. Openly.  And eating that roti and aloo choka at the side of the river which transported the contraband back in the day and the ecstasy felt like some kind of defiance at the Burnham bans.
Something about Skeldon. There are not too many visible campaign signs unlike further down Berbice.  It is like the people are their own masters.
In August 2001,  three persons were allegedly killed by the Berbice Anti Smuggling Squad (BASS), and two persons were shot in the ensuring protests. Maybe there is some kind of balance now between the citizens and the BASS.
Not far from the food place is a jetty with a some sheds, all painted in blue. The stones on the shore around the sheds are also painted in blue. There are signs “No Littering”, No Smoking” and Passengers must have their ID Card or Passport”. One of the places where people can put on life jackets and cross the river quickly to get Nickerie. ‘Back track;.  A man in the uniform of the Immigration Office is sipping his drink standing near to me. I ask him. ‘Do you guys stamp their passports” . He smiled a little bit and said no, this is kind of illegal but ‘what can you do?”.
It is like a blue island in the sea of plastic bottles and Styrofoam. There is a rubbish bin for people to use while they wait to go on the boat.
Something about the cleanliness and neatness and orderliness of  “it illegal but what you gun do “ , corruption can probably be clean and nice, it is not dirty.
There are people praying at the river side not far from the rubbish illegally dumped and the people who might not be travelling the legal route.
Time to come back to Georgetown. The man who brought me up already has passengers so he pass me to a guy who comes in a car with two VOTE FOR APNU+AFC stickers on the sun visors. Everyday unity when possible PPP voter shares business with APNU+AFC voter.
Soul reggae music playing kind of soft. Something about the public transportation so far with APNU+AFC stickers. One minibus had nice conscious music, and the other Piitbull had no music and were on speed limits in Georgetown.
And then we start speeding down the road. I am behind the driver and houses flashing past and I try to imagine what it must have been like in the days with the train.  Nice music. Slow music. My heart jumping.  I ask the driver to slow down. He say no man, don’t worry “I know what I doing”.. confident like the other APNU+AFC voters I know on Facebook.
I think.. Granger and Nagamootoo need to tell the voters to stop speeding. Make the stickers with something like Vote for APNU+AFC and ‘Stick to the speed limit” and maybe Keep playing the nice music.
Man got one hand out of the window feeling the breeze.  I stop looking at the time.
He lessen the speed to not too far above the speed limit to change the CD. More nice slow music. Soul music. I trying to remember the tunes. Like Sam Smith Stay with me
Other people dipping fingers and flashing lights.  Possible PPP Voters and APNU+AFC voters signalling each other that the annoying police deh bout so you slow down and then speed up back again.
I watch Granger and Nagamootoo smiling at me, if I dead now at least they smiling at me and is nice music.
So voter citizen says to hell with speed limit. Wonder after 12 May, what corruption will be fixed and who will decide what is convenient and what is inconvenient.
Whether change or as an artist said, ‘exchange’.
APNU+AFC voter bring me from No 68 village to Georgetown in two hours. He know what he doing.
I feeling shaky. Ecstasy.