Christina kept a candle going at all times. She had a little container with straw and sticks sitting near the starter candle to use as kindling for lighting the stove and lamps, so as not to waste precious matches that often were too wet. It was eerily quiet upriver with the dark surrounding us like a wooly blanket. I felt like I could poke holes in it. We seemed so vulnerable in the middle of the jungle like that, with no walls for protection. I could hear animal sounds that I did not recognize and it made me jumpy those first days there.
Barbara and Christina were somehow involved with an exotic black man that strolled the beach with a staff and white clothes. He called himself Nejemiah and said he was from Sierra Leone. Nejemiah loved attention and one way he got it was by riding a white horse along the beach. He was mysterious and loved beautiful women. It seemed to me that he often managed to get them to support him in one way or another. He had a scary vibe, a strong accent and he was beautiful to watch from a distance.
One night he told Barbara he was coming to the house to be with her even though she told him no. We all climbed up into the topanka so he would not find her alone. His energy crept all around us in the dark and we knew he was there somewhere, but we lay quietly holding hands, hoping he would not try to come upstairs. It was one of the few nights I was ever afraid in the jungle. I'm not sure what we thought could happen, but the vibe was negative and intense.
Later on that winter his younger brother arrived..Isaiah from Chicago. He was just the opposite in personality with a friendly and light way of being. He did not have the accent of his older brother either. One day I heard them arguing when they thought they were private. Nejemiah's accent was totally gone! I thought he was a major hustler and eventually he left Yelapa. I'm sure a lot of unsuspecting women had loaned him money which was never returned. Later in life, I found some men used women that way, but this was my first experience of a bona fide hustler. Does anyone know what happened to Nejemiah?
