Coromo, parts 556 - 559

556. The sisters returned to the village with Coromo two weeks later and this time they brought along sets of crayons, ball-point pens, pencils, magic markers, a number of sets of watercolor paints,  drawing pads, and several sets of poster paints, the type used in grade school. There idea was to give the children toys that were simple, and did not involve batteries or electricity. For the adults they had several wind up clocks , mirrors, and some odds and ends of clothing.

557. As you can imagine this visit was a big hit, and although the children were thrilled with the gifts, they loved the magic markers best.

558. These children did not have any understanding of the mechanics of magic markers, and after their first long session with them, they were left on the ground with their caps off and the next morning they were all dried up and useless. Then they attacked the ball-point pens, and this kept them occupied for the entire day but the pens suffered the same fate as the magic markers.

559. The watercolor sets were a complete mystery to the children, who never managed to comprehend that water was required, and as for the poster paint, as soon as the caps were off it all turned rock hard in one afternoon. Only the crayons held out for several days and then all melted into a big multicolored glob at the bottom of a tin can.

Coromo, parts 552 - 555

552. The three sisters were reunited in the middle of the wood, and it did not take two seconds for the sisters who had been absent to figure out in great detail exactly what had happened while they were gone, and they figured it out by means of facial expressions that had been in use between them since their high school days.

553. Coromo and the sisters returned to the resort, where everyone received a very abbreviated explanation of what had happened. Soon the sisters went back to their homes in America and over the next year you can imagine how the resort, and their next vacation was a frequent topic of conversation among 

them.

554. The following year they again went horseback riding with Coromo, and with a specific purpose; they wanted to visit his village and see first hand how natives in that part of the world lived. They were expecting to see grass huts, but what they found were primitive shacks all in clusters, naked children, and a lot of old people suffering various ailments with hardly any cloths on.

555. The sisters discussed what they had seen. They were moved to their depths, not with pity or compassion, but with curiosity, and a desire to somehow connect with the villagers, but they wanted to do this in a non-condescending way. So they hit upon a plan, they decided to return again with simple gifts for the children, very basic obvious things that the children they knew took for granted.

Coromo, parts 548 - 551

548. "But the following night the branches and leaves were insufficient and we had to resort to the blankets again, but I said my prayers all night and finally got to sleep about six o'clock in the morning."

549. "The next  day," Coromo said, "I went off and had a long talk with God about my situation. I said, "God, Grandmother always said that no mater what trials we encounter in life, you will give us the strength in get through those trials. Now I want to ask you, was she correct about this, because if she was then I expect those other sisters to get back here before the sun goes down tonight."

550. But the sun went down without the sisters coming back, but that night Coromo and the woman slept soundly all night, only waking up for a short time at midnight, and then again at 1:30, at 3 :30. again at 4, and then again at five. At about five-thirty Coromo was sitting with his back against the tree smoking a cigarette, the woman was again sound asleep, when he heard the sound of a helicopter approaching.

551. "Listen Aunt Jemima", the Duck said, "This is all very interesting, but what has this missing story out of Boccaccio's 'Decameron'  got to do with floor moping and expressionistic painting." Everything," replied Aunt Jemima, "but just let me finish my story and don't  interrupt me."

Coromo, parts 544 - 547

544. Coromo had a grandmother who had raised him, a very devout Christian woman who put the fear of God and eternal damnation into him, added to that was the fact he never in his life had been alone with a woman for any length of time, and the entire situation, compounded by his concussion, threw him into profound confusion.

545. Here is what Coromo told me about it. "That woman and I were alone up there in the woods for four nights, because the other sisters got completely lost in the forest, and were only rescued later with the help of helicopters, and search parties."

546. "The first night it got so cold that we had to use each other for blankets, and even with the blankets it was still very hard to get to sleep. Thankfully Grandmother's teachings helped me get through the night, but I didn't really fall asleep until five in the morning."

547. "The following day"  Coromo said, "we decided that if we had to spend another night in the cold, we had to gather together a lot of brush and leaves to use for cover because it was too uncomfortable and impractical to use each other for blankets, and it made it hard to get to sleep."

Coromo, parts 540 - 543

540. The horse, realizing that Coromo did not know anything about horsemanship, headed for his stall many miles away.  The sisters were in a quandary, they had no idea where they were, no idea how to get back, and no idea of the condition of their guide, and so did not dare to move him.

541. Now, about these sisters, they were not the sort to panic in an emergency, they sat down on the ground and drew up a plan. The first sister would head up the path looking for the village their guide had been talking about, the second sister would go back down the path to the resort on the coast to get some help. The third sister would stay with Coromo, who was alive and well, but knocked out cold at the foot of a tree.

542. What happened next I only know about because Coromo told me about it some time later. He said he came to in the evening and at first did not know where he was or what was happening. The woman who was with him explained what had happened and, from the look of things, he had a concussion.  Night fell and it became very cold.

543. Coromo and the woman figured that since it had taken them three hours to get to the place they were, they could not expect any help until very late at night, and meanwhile it became colder and colder.

Coromo, parts 536 - 539

536. One of my cousins named Coromo was an especially popular waiter. He became very friendly with three American woman who asked him if he knew of any place in the area where they could rent horses for an afternoon excursion.  So it happened that he went horseback riding with the women up into the hills, along paths that ran between the resort, and our village.

537. These women were all excellent riders with years of experience, three sisters all raised on a horse farm in Vermont. They were not the usual timid women, terrified of the locals,  scared to death of anything outside the walls of the resort. They were bold and fearless happy healthy souls, intent on having a good time, and seeing some of the real world. I remember my cousin saying to me, "The bitches were not afraid of bugs even, never seen the like."

538. Coromo went off horseback riding with the women, and it all sounds very exciting, but he did not know anything about horses other that what he had seen on TV at the resort, but since he had a lot of self confidence he did just fine, deceiving his horse into thinking he was in control, when actually he had no idea what he was doing any more than a seven year old driving a car.

539. But as luck would have it, Coromo's horse was startled by a chipmunk that ran across the path, and when the horse lurched to the side, he smacked his head on a tree branch, and fell unconscious on the ground.

Coromo, parts 532 - 535

532. But how was it possible for this cleaning lady on the night staff of the hospital, and a poor immigrant, to have such insight into Buboni's ideas, and art in general. We all turned toward her, and in our faces she could see that she owed us some sort of an explanation.

533. "I was born in a small village on the coast of Africa,", she said, "And in my childhood, except for some wood carvings, there were no paintings around or any interest in art at all. But today if you were to visit my village you would find everyone is an artist, and the selling of paintings is the principal occupation of my people back home. This is how it came about, and why, by accident, I got involved in looking at, and collecting paintings."

534. Several years ago a big French tourist company decided to open a resort facility on the coast about twenty miles from my village.  All of the towns folk were excited that this resort would be an opportunity for serious employment in the restaurant and hotel line. It was at that resort that I first learned the art of waxing floors, and mopping up.

535. The worst paying but most lucrative jobs at the resort went to the waiters, who were paid nothing at all but who made huge amounts of money by our standards. Young tall good looking men from my village who knew the art of the shy dazzling smile did very well.