And a little child will lead them

TRINIDAD-BORN writer Lynn Joseph delivers a flawless lyrical composition that captures the September 11 terrorist attack in New York. Joseph channels the wretched loss of two families with a cascade of agonising intonations from Elizabeth and Brandt, the novel’s young protagonists.

Elizabeth, who resides with her mother in Dominica Republic, loses her father in the tragedy.

As Providence dictates, she befriends Brandt whose mother, an employee in one of the destroyed buildings, seeks respite from the haunting trauma by returning with her family to that very Caribbean island.

Dancing in the Rain makes a definitive statement – America’s tragedy was universal, impacting families of every hue and culture.

It delves into the existential core of humanity and showcases our commonality, our connectedness.

There is a sentience that binds us - never to be separated. We are united in pain and joy. It is an ineffable phenomenon that comes to life when Elizabeth and a friend somehow sense the anguish of that fateful day long before its occurrence.

It is testament to the metaphysical reaches of our being.

Elizabeth’s words prove disturbingly prophetic: “That night, after we get a call from Papi saying he arrived safely in New York, I started having my dreams. I dream I’m trapped in a box and I can’t breathe. I wake up coughing and smelling smoke. After three nights of the same nightmare, I tell Clara about it.” Clara, equally sensitive, instinctively “begins drawing pictures of small, dark boxes on loose leaf paper…” There is thread of foreboding that weaves throughout this narrative.

It begins with the numb tranquillity of Elizabeth’s aunt, Dona Maria, whose grieving for her diseased husband smothers her ocean front home with a rueful ambience.

Elizabeth, though, survives in this lugubrious dwelling as she anticipates the arrival of her father - her hero from New York. It is a yearly ritual that stirs the precocious girl.

“A year may seem like nothing to some people….But a year of missing Papi seems like forever to me. And it probably seems even longer to Mami…,” she muses.

And when he arrives at the airport, Elizabeth’s reaction is almost transcendental. “And then he is there in front of us, my sweet-smelling Papi, my handsome, spin-me-around Papi, and I can’t breathe as the world goes faster and faster and my yellow dress spreads out liker butterfly wings in the breeze.” On the eve of his return to the US she is lonesome, torn, and hopeful that he will stay. She recalls, “I start to cry…at Papi’s unseeing eyes, at the mist and the dark clouds. Everything feels on the verge of breaking…No one says a word. Then quickly…it’s all hugs, kisses and last words…I run up to the passenger side and press my hand into Papi’s and whisper, ‘Come back, soon Papi’.” But he never returns. Before he perished, we learn that “he called to say goodbye [and that] he was coughing so much he could hardly talk… that he couldn’t breathe.” Like identical twins, the mothers of the two leading characters are in tandem – withdrawn and grieving, oblivious of the heightened distress they have caused.

“Months after Papi has vanished in Nueva York, Mami still cries every night,” Elizabeth records.

And figuratively magical are her words: “Some nights, Mami’s tears spill out the window, down the hill and into Sosua Bay. The water level in the bay is rising drastically.

Her tears are wet but they leave scorched embers behinds, so hot I can’t walk without feeling the feeling the burn of her grief under my feet.” Her mother lashes out, blaming her daughter for “willing” her father’s death. Her pained is rammed into our breasts, and surely, we are moved. Meanwhile, Brandt must grapple with his mother’s sadness and anxiety, hoping that the family’s relocation would have offered some relief. But emptiness swallows both families.

Anguish seems infinite. Elizabeth cries - again - this time listening to her grandfather’s harrowing escape from Nazi Germany. She learns of man’s inhumanity at an early age. But neither she nor Brandt folds under the emotional weight. They respond.

There is goodness, love and forgiveness in innocence. The children aim to redeem the world by first redeeming the hurt of their parents, if only for a day. This time Providence smiles.

Dancing in the Rain chronicles the potential of humankind to commit the most egregious excesses.

Still, it emphasises the infinite capacity for kindness and forgiveness.

It offers hope, ever lending credence to the biblical prophecy: “In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all.” Feedback: glenvilleashby@gmail.

com or follow him on Twitter@ glenvilleashby Dancing in the Rain by Lynn Joseph © 2016 Blouse and Skirt Books, Jamaica ISBN: 978-976-95436-9-0 Available at Amazon Ratings: Highly recommended