How to Escape From a Leper Colony Read Online Free

up in Tantie B’s house, in my cot against the wall.
    “You done sleep through the night,” she said when I opened my eyes. “You been in the surgery.”
    I did not think I responded. I was aware that my face was heavy.
    “Took the whole night to get the fire down. Then when folks return we find the phone lines all dead. Been cut.” She cleared her throat. “And he missing.”
    “Who?” I asked, and heard my mouth make a noise that was muffled. My tongue felt dry, as if it was coated with cotton.
    “They both missing.”
    “Who?” I tried again.
    “Lazaro and the nun.”
    I lifted myself off the cot and went to the mirror. My face was covered in gauze. “You been burnt, my daughter,” she said quietly but without looking at me. “The idol fall on you. Smash your face and knock you out.” I did not feel pain, but I could not shake off the feeling of dreaming. “It going be okay. Maybe for the best,” she said more loudly. I pinched myself where my neck was exposed. I looked behind me and then quickly looked back again. If what was behind me changed then I would know I was dreaming. When I whipped my head around there was a shout: “The beach!” I looked over at Tantie. Her face looked heavier than mine felt. Since we’d lived together she had lost two toes. I’d grown more than two inches. She nodded at me. We stood and walked slowly to our door.
    Some people were shouting, calling to each other. Most were huddling forward in whispers. We lepers all walked to the beach. There was already a small crowd forming a circle at the shore. It was easy for Tantie and me to slip in and see. We were on the lepers’ side of the beach and there was Sister Theresa’s body—the hands and feet sparkling in pure white. Her nunnery uniform in pieces and sticking to her smooth body in its fuller places. But she was mostly naked. And she was entirely dead.
    “Have mercy,” gasped Tantie. “Next, he coming for me.”
    And there was no Lazaro. I thought he might come to me. Give me a sign. Tell me that he loved me. That he was seeking revenge for the injuries I had suffered. I sat on the shore and watched the day unfold. My bandages were due to be changed that evening.
    Some of the other lepers sat with me. Perhaps we have a sixth sense. When lunch was cooked Tantie brought it to me and then didn’t leave after we had eaten. I faced inland. I mostly watched the trees and studied the howlers to see if any of them was a boy instead of a monkey. I kept alert so I could decipher any signs from him. Anything that would tell me what to do or where to go. But he did not come to me, after all. It was not me he was avenging. Instead, word came that the boats had all been punctured with large holes and the radios had disappeared. Then I began to watch the big island—the continent of Trinidad—and I wondered how anyone would know to come save us.
    I watched the first nun leap off the dock at dusk—right after supper. She had made sure she had a full belly. Then they all lined up to jump. Oh, to see them. Their white robes flapping like wings, then their bodies hitting the water like birds hunting a fish prey. Then see them swimming. Swimming as though they were the hunted ones. And Lazaro, my Lazaro, was still missing.
    None of us lepers had left Chacachacare since we arrived. An island can be a world. We knew that the Americans had built a Navy base on Trinidad because there was a war going on somewhere. We’d heard that the Marines were there, too. We might as well have been going to the moon. It was as dangerous and as crazy. We did not line up on the dock like the nuns. We just walked into the ocean. Until we couldn’t walk and we had to swim. And we took only ourselves. It was as if we thought we were coming back. As though we were so powerful we could go to the moon on vacation. Both my arms were strong enough. I treaded water and imagined I heard gunshots and the dancing of boots on stone. My face bandages came off in