For the last few days the skies had been clear, completely devoid of clouds; so the residents of this Swiss ski chalet had spent their days either skiing or looking after those who were skiing.
Between sunset and a suitable hour for repose, a group of us men sat in front of the large log fire and exchange stories.
One of the men speaks up, "Wayne how about telling us more of the lives of Chantelle and James? Did anything unusual happen to either of them once they graduated from Cedar Hill high school?"
I thought for a while and then replied, "Well there was this one interesting incident; but to put it into its correct context I will have to go back a generation."
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Jody Dubois and her friend Marion Johnson were on holidays in Greece. While shopping in the Athens market place, they became separated.
Marion yelled out "JODY! ... JODY! ... WHERE ARE YOU JODY!"
A short while later a handsome man approached her. She asked him, "What do you want?"
The man replied, "Didn't you just call out for me? I'm Joe... Joe D Spiros." He took her hand and kissed it. Just then Jody found them. "Who's this?" she asked Marion as she glared at Joe.
Marion replied, "Jody, I'd like you to meet Joe... D... Spiros... Joe, this is my best friend Jody Dubois." Joe took Jody's hand and kissed it.
A few months later Jody and Joe were married in a small Greek wedding; well, it was small by Greek standards.
Two years later, early one October evening, Chantelle was conceived. By this time Joe had received his residency visa; and he, Jody and their young daughter Amelia had settled into a modest four-bedroom cottage in Cedar Hill.
On one island among a group of small uncharted tropical islands in the mid-Atlantic Ocean; the Chief of the Char natives saw an unusually bright falling star at the exact time of Chantelle's conception. Later that night the Chief again dreamt that that their God would visit their island. However, this time he also dreamt that the arrival of their God would be announced by a beautiful white angel.
A few months before, the whole tribe had seen and heard a meteorite as it passed over their island and crashed into the sea. This corresponded exactly to the time of James Taylor's conception, also in Cedar Hill. That night was the first time the Char Chief dreamt that their white God would visit them, falling from the sky in a ball of fire.
The natives had migrated to these islands many generations before. There were four families who were forced out of their homeland along the Amazon River. Each family settled on a different island within the group. Each family or tribe became known by the main form of makeup they used; and these were determined by the resources of each of the islands.
On one island and only that island grew a shrub which had bright red berries; so the women of this tribe used the juice of these berries to paint their lips and their areola.
Another island had a shellfish with a blue lining in their shells. The blue from these shells was used as eye-shadow and for other markings on the body.
The natives on the third island made a dye from the grass which grew in an open area in the centre of their island. This dye was a bright lime green with a bleaching quality. The women, and especially young unmarried women, used the dye to lighten their jet-black hair leaving it with lime streaks.
The Char tribe's island had the highest mountain peak and it was the only place that was ever struck by lightning. They used the charcoal which was left by the fires the lightning started; it was believed to have mystical powers compared to the charcoal from their cooking fires. Mixed with the pure white clay that existed on only one of their island's headlands; they were able to create all the shades of grey. They exaggerated their eyebrows with the charcoal and painted small pictures on their hips with the various shades of grey and white.
Each family of the Char tribe lived in a separate hut. There was also one long hut for the men and women who had reached maturity and were still single. The men slept up one end and the women at the other end. To reduce in-breading, the sexes were discouraged from mixing. Single men wishing to start a family would raid the other islands looking for a partner; this sometimes resulted in inter-island warfare.
All four tribes worshipped a single God, and each island had a life size nude male statue to remind them of their God. These statues were coloured white using the white clay from the Char Island combined with the sap from trees on one of the other islands; this sap acted as both a bleach and a sealant.
*****
Fifteen years after the birth of James and Chantelle, there was a small boat carrying a group of tourists on a big-game fishing expedition east of Bermuda. One of the passengers was a priest; the others knew this because for some strange reason he was wearing a dark suit along with his priestly collar.
As the hours passed a storm came over the horizon to the west. None of them initially noticed because they were completely engrossed in their battles with either a marlin or a tuna. When the storm made itself blatantly obvious, it was too late.
However as soon as the skipper saw the approaching storm, he checked that they all had on life vests.
One rogue wave washed the priest overboard. One of the others immediately threw a self-inflating life-boat to him; but by the time they found a rope and prepared to throw it, he was already in the life-boat and it had been swept away by the wind and waves.
Two days later he landed on Char Island.
The natives knew that he was not the God of the prophesy, because he did not descend from the sky in a ball of fire and he had dark skin like them. He was in fact a native of Africa who migrated to England as a child with his parents. It was there that he trained as a priest.
He spent some time hoping to be rescued. He stayed on a small hill just inland from a fisherman's hut which was located on the edge of the beach. He kept a large fire burning continuously; during the day he made smoke with green leaves, and at night he made sure the fire had large enough flames to be seen from a great distance out to sea.
What the Priest didn't know was that the islands had a high concentration of iron at their core, and this was magnetised such that compasses were deflected many miles away. The result was that the searching ships, which navigated according to their compass, travelled around the islands without ever seeing them.
Due to the heat and humidity he quickly discarded his coat and shirt, although he did continue to wear its collar backwards. He also converted his trousers into shorts.
Finally, he gave up hope of being rescued and moved to the main village of the island.
He had decided he must learn the language of the natives so that he could live more easily amongst them.
The first thing he did was put together an alphabet that suited the sounds he had heard in their language over the previous days.
When this alphabet was ready, he sat down among a group of young natives. They were all completely nude except for one or two pieces of ornamentation; for the females this was often a belt or anklet of woven fibre. Most young men wore a tight string across their forehead. One had a small feather stuck under that headband; the Priest later discovered that he was the son of the Witch-doctor.
Years later he learnt that the older women wore a wider belt to keep their stomach flat, whereas the young girls wore a thin belt or none, just to show that they still had a sexy flat stomach.
The natives were not self-conscious of their nudity, as seen by their actions; for example, the men, women and children often stood or sat with their legs spread apart. This led to another of his observations: none of the natives of any age had pubic hair; he wondered whether this was genetic, or did they all just shave regularly.
So this group consisted of four young ladies and two young men. The Priest pointed to himself, "Juan!" And then he pointed at the nearest young girl.
"Char Lotte!" she responded happily.
Again he pointed to himself, "Juan." Then he gestured to another one of the female natives.
"Char Issa." She whispered timidly, and then she looked away.
When he looked at the boy with the feather in his headband, that boy spoke boldly, "Char Ley." Char Laila, one of the other young girls, whispered "Guapo", meaning handsome, to Char Lotte; at this they both smiled.
Next the Priest placed a banana in front of him, "One banana." He raised his eyebrows and gestured enquiringly with his hands; that is with his forearms out from his body and his palms up.
Char Lotte spoke first, "Frutas."
Then the Priest added a second banana to the other and muttered, "Two bananas."
Again Char Lotte answered, "Dos frutas."
From this the Priest had what he thought were the words for 'banana' and the number 'two'.
Next he placed a single coconut in front of them, "One coconut," he said and again he gestured.
Char Lotte answered his unspoken question, "Uno frutas."
"No no no!" He shook his head in disgust. Then he thought for a moment; 'Banana and coconut both can't be frutas... Ah; unless that's a general term for food or fruit.'
So he placed a single banana beside the coconut. "One banana," and he pointed to it; "one coconut," and he moved his hand to indicate the coconut as he said this. Then he gestured inquiringly at the banana again.
This time Char Issa spoke, "Uno saging ug uno lubi," pointing to each in turn.
And so it was that he learnt their language and produced a dictionary. What he didn't realise initially was that as he learnt their language, they were learning English.
When he landed on the island, he had on him a pocket bible and a small hymn book. It was a King James Bible that contained only the Psalms and the New Testament.
When his command of their language was sufficient, he began to act as a missionary: teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic to the children; and preaching the word of God, and baptising the converts. Thus he became known as Juan the Baptist. They gave him the tribal name 'Char Beato' which roughly means 'blessed among men'; however he was always referred to as 'Father', 'Juan' or both.
