End of the Map

Anton Chekhov believed that every element of a story should contribute to the whole. "If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise, don't put it there." A month ago, I was sitting in my driveway, talking to my neighbor. We were talking about fights in Barbados. I was curious to know how the men here typically behaved when a fight broke out. Did they throw fists? Was anyone quick to grab a knife? How often did shootings happen? Ever see some wild shit? She laughed and said that none of those things happened all that often on the island. She went on to note that of the three or four fights she had witnessed in her life, all of the men picked up a rock to use as a weapon. "Huh," I thought to myself at the time. "Good to know." Fast forward to this morning. I've been trying to get a new routine down since restrictions have loosened and gyms were allowed to re-open. I settled on this: wa...

One hundred and fourteen miles east of Barbados sits the island nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. St. Vincent is the name of the largest island in the archipelagic chain that constitutes the country, which gained independence from Britain back in 1979. It was also in 1979 that the country last saw the eruption of La Soufriere, the volcano that casts a shadow over Georgetown and Fancy on the northern end of St. Vincent. La Soufriere hadn't made a peep in forty-two years. That changed last Friday. La Soufriere erupted early in the morning hours of April 9, spewing gas and ash as high as thirty-three thousand feet. More than sixteen thousand people were ordered to evacuate at that time. What to do with the residents has become a stumbling block for the country. Cruise ships have offered to help but many of those weren't ready until the following Monday. Many citizens refused to evacuate. And of course, this all sits against the backdrop of the covid-19 pandemic (thank good...