Belizean Nail Soup

By Felene M. Cayetano

A search for "Belize" in Google, iTunes and bing yields well-crafted content by the tourism industry stakeholders, government officials and non-Belizeans describing their new home. The stories in Belizean Nail Soup tell what the real Belize is about - its sights, sounds, smells, tastes and textures. Each story was conceived in the mind of a Belizean man or woman, mostly educators, well aware of the challenge and importance of writing these stories for the generations that will follow.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Felene M. Cayetano
• Release date: Nov 11, 2013
• ISBN: 9780975382028

Felene M. Cayetano

Felene M. Cayetano was born in the Central American country of Belize and migrated to Los Angeles, California at the tender age of 9. This migration experience at such a young age shaped her outlook about people, permanence and the definition of home. While seeking answers she was certain only that she loved to write poetry, read non-fiction or realistic fiction and became alive sharing those joys with others. These certainties led to self-publishing a poetry collection in 2004 and many years of schooling before returning to her birthplace and commencing a career as a librarian.

Book preview

Belizean Nail Soup

edited by Felene M. Cayetano

Copyright ©2013 by Carmen Carrillo, Felene M. Cayetano, Andre Marsden,

Dr. Ludwig Palacio, Ethnelda Ramirez Paulino, Carmichael Polonio,

Ix-Chel Poot, Dr. Harriet Arzu Scarborough and Natalie Williams

All Rights Reserved. Persons who wish to use any story or part of story included in this collection may contact the author or editor.

Published by: Felene M. Cayetano – https://www.felene.com

Cover design: Dirk Joseph

Smashwords edition

ISBN: 978-0-9753820-2-8

Other publications by Felene Cayetano

Evolution: Weaving in and out of Consciousness While the Truth is Somewhere in the Middle (print edition – 2004, Smashwords edition – 2013)

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Contents

Introduction

Foreword

Belizean Nail Soup

Twelve and Nine

Siblings

The Last Meeting

Finding Hope

Today

An Earthquake Story

All Dogs Go to Heaven

John Gets Away

ABC/KIM

Glossary

Biographies

Acknowledgements

Collectively or individually, the authors wish to thank

Belize for providing the factory of inspiration reflected in these stories;

The Creator for manifesting and fueling the factory;

Our Ancestors for safeguarding the factory in order for all

Belizeans to manage the factory with color, resilience and distinct cadence, especially

Our Communities that nurtured, protected and guided

Our Families who extended that love to us and gave us

Time, Space and Understanding to one day return the gratitude with this collection.

Introduction

Under my beds, on top of my closets and within suitcases are notebooks heavy with ideas, stories or poems. I had a feeling that I was not alone in my position as a writer with no time to collect them into something that could qualify as a book. Enter Felene, the editor and publisher.

I sent out an email to writers to submit whatever's been collecting dust under their beds, on top of their closets, within their suitcases or on their to-do-lists. The objective of this call was to have a set of short stories that would inspire other Belizeans to publish and, for those who had stories festering in their minds, to write.

The title is borrowed from the story that I felt provided a dynamic sample of the flavors and textures of Belize. This contemporary Belizean adaptation of a timeless European folktale shows the essence of the people – resourceful, quick-witted, and multilingual.

As editor, I tried to remain as true to each author's writing style as I could which will account for the mixed usages of British and American English spelling. I used the Belize Kriol dictionary as a resource for keeping consistent with the Kriol spelling; however, in cases where I felt the Kriol spelling might confuse the reader I used the English word instead. Enjoy!

Felene M. Cayetano

April 2013

Foreword

Lawrence Vernon

Novels are described as divine because they go on forever, but the short story is often considered the perfect mirror of mortal man. This collection of short stories, written by Belizeans from various walks of life, at once embodies Agatha Christie's valued opinion of the short story as: Something that can be read in an hour and remembered for a lifetime.

Surely these ten short stories with their varied themes, characters and plots fall into the category of those to be remembered for a long time. The writers have used a lot of feelings and suggestions, as well as used language creatively to impress a vision of life on the reader. In keeping with the strict tenets of the short story their inspired writing is about the kind of people they know, and about the kind of events in their lives which very likely they personally experienced.

At no time is the reader lost along the way, and can readily relate to the lesson learned in the titled story "Belizean Nail Soup to Siblings through to the Barranco narrative John Gets Away. Other stories treat on the themes of gang influences as depicted in Andre Marsden's Twelve and Nine," which paints a glowing and accurate picture of the street life in Belize City.

Ix-Chel Poot summons a moment of profound realization in "The Last Meeting," serving to remind readers that the neglected opportunity is one of the things that do not come back.

Felene Cayetano's long but compelling narrative "Finding Hope effectively displays the ability for one to look at the everyday world and to be literally 'knocked out' by it. Her principal character Kendra is brilliantly depicted as a mentally wounded soul who cannot understand the real world, and as a result feels a need to re-invent it. Felene's second story in the collection, Today," grasps a moment of pregnancy and invests it with the cultural aspect of obeah as opposed to modern medicine.

Ludwig Palacio describes a real life experience with an earthquake felt in Punta Gorda in his "An Earthquake Story." It conjures up an affinity and concern that families feel for each other in times of crisis.

Although there was not tragedy as such like an earthquake, Carmichael Polonio's "All Dogs Go To Heaven" seems to be the personal loss of a treasured pet. This poignant story brings us face to face with the significant and traumatic accidental death of a dog, and the writer's conviction of a doggy heaven.

A story entitled "ABC/KIM" by Natalie Williams succinctly tells of a young boy, Sydney, who is the result of his married father's extra-marital affair, and is 'experimentally' living with his father and his wife.

Throughout the stories, which obviously were selected for the writers' skill at language, characterization, structure and dialogue, can be detected the power of humanity. That power is exemplified by concentrating on the particular which results in saying a whole lot about the universal.

Short story writers over the years have been variously described as moralists, entertainers, and even prophets; but in