A Review of Shabine and Other Stories

HAZEL SIMMONS-MCDONALD is a Saint Lucian who has lived and worked in Barbados for over thirty years. She is Professor Emerita of Applied Linguistics at the University of the West Indies and has published textbooks on language learning as well as several articles on educational issues in Creole and Creole-influenced vernacular contexts.  Although in retirement, she continues to do research in this field and also devotes time to creative writing.  

Those Are Pearls

 

INSIDE THE PRISON was warm. Adrian sat facing a grizzled man through a cracked plastic screen. The old man looked a vision of Adrian himself, in a good few years. The one difference were the eyes. The old man’s had seen plenty.

“Hey, son,” his father said, flashing yellow teeth. “You good?”

“I just here, Dads.”

“You ain’t had work today?”

“Nah, I get today and tomorrow off.”

The smile faded. “How you mother is?”

“She miss you bad,” Adrian lied.