Jacqueline's sudden dislike for beef had created much tension between herself and her mother. Her strange attitude started days after she spent a night in a guinea mango tree. She refused to buy, prepare or eat the meat.

But, what was even more disturbing to her family was her explanation of her disappearance on the night she spent in the tree. It was inadequate, giving people reason to speculate. For family and friends, the night was a sleepless one, loaded with anxiety and dread.

When dawn broke, Jackie, as she was called, struggled, on the way home, with her bagful of the now soft mangoes, memories of that awful night and her sleepy head. When she reached her gate, she saw a small gathering of neighbours and family members. They exclaimed in unison upon seeing her, her mother rushing to her first. There was blood on her shoes and her dress was stained with mango juice.

Mango bush

Her mother, Miss Pinky, was now very agitated, and threw the mangoes from her bag. "After all we go through last night, is mango bush you go!" she blurted out.

"Is not like that Mummy," Jackie retorted tiredly.

"Give her some time nuh," a neighbour pleaded.

When Jackie settled on the steps of her house, the crowd gathered around her to hear her story. She was reticent at first, and kept looking down at her bloody shoes. Then, in a slow, weary way she told them how she had eaten too many mangoes and fell asleep on the ground under the mango tree, but she couldn't explain the blood on her shoes.

Youth bull

That same night, the nightmares started, with Jackie shouting "youth bull! youth bull!" in her sleep. But, it was the Saturday when she refused to buy meat for the beef soup that her mother began to get really concerned about Jackie's new disposition. For she was a well-behaved, normal 15-year-old, who did her chores without a murmur.

Her refusal to drink the beef soup heigh-tened the tension. Her father, Ralph, didn't mind as he had her share. It was followed by a belch, and a long evening sleep.

It was now going three months, and Jackie wouldn't budge. Miss Pinky couldn't take it anymore, so one Friday she went into Jackie's room. She sat beside her on the bed and scolded her. After about 30 minutes of her mother's monologue, Jackie slowly said, "I saw them Mummy, I saw them."

"See what Jackie?" Miss Pinky asked anxiously.

"It made me sick."

"What yuh talking about?"

"I saw them kill the youth bull."

"Youth bull?"

"Yes Mummy, the youth bull."

"Them who? And what youth bull?"

"Missa White young bull, Clive and him

friend them kill it."

"Clive?"

"Him same one ... ."

"Mine yuh mouth, mine yuh put mi in

trouble ... ."

"But is true!"

"Lawd have mercy!"

"Well them didn't have no mercy on that

bull."

"Stop it, from the other day you getting crazy!"

"I'm not crazy Mummy. I know what I

saw that night."

"What night, child?"

Miss Pinky was now at her wits' end. She got up from the bed and sat in a chair across from Jackie's bed, staring her in the face.

"The night when I got stuck in the mango tree."

The mango season was at its peak, and Jackie, as did the other children in the village, would go to gather mangoes in the early summer evenings. They would make sure to return by nightfall. The night when Jackie witnessed the killing of the young bull, she went hunting alone, and had some difficulty in getting out of the tree with her bagful of mangoes.

As she contemplated a way to get down, she heard the snapping sounds of breaking twigs below. She looked down and saw a young black bull searching for fallen mangoes. It was now late twilight. The bull, realising that there were mangoes strewn all around, decided to linger for a feast. When it was finished, it lay right down at the foot of the tree to chew its cud.

Jackie was now terrified for she had a morbid fear of bulls and cows. And nobody knew exactly where she went. Nightfall suddenly came and she feared the worst. In her predicament, and silent tears, she recalled stories of red-eyed rolling calves and three-foot horses her grandmother told her, and shuddered.

Gripped by fear

Her emotional state was all a jumble, and she regretted the very moment she decided to go mango-hunting. Everybody would be wondering where she was. Her father was going to beat her for sure, and her confusion got intense. Fear gripped her when she heard loud talking and heavy footsteps, but she was also relieved. She was about to call out, when she heard the bull stir. It got up and became restless.

The voices got nearer and clearer. There were three different voices, and she recognised them. Then, she saw the light of what appeared to be a torch. The bull was now stomping. Jackie's body shook, for she was afraid to fall from the branch on which she sat. She held on to an upper limb and tigh-tened her hold on it, for the men were now under the tree.

The one in the lead held up the torch and shouted, "See the black brute yah!" Another yelled, "Gimme de rope, gimme de rope!" while the third dipped into a big bag. With rope in hand, they surrounded the animal, quickly cast the rope around its neck, and tied him to the tree. Jackie froze on the branch, staring in bewilderment at the faces of Clive, the butcher, and his two assistants.

When the resisting bull was secured to the tree, the butcher took a big, sharp knife from the bag and stabbed the bull powerfully in the neck. It made a deep moaning sound as it collapsed to the ground. Jackie closed her eyes for a few seconds, and squeezed the limb.

Making sure the bag of mangoes didn't fall, she didn't move a muscle, as she watched in horror as the three men laughed and chatted as they dismembered the bull, their merry faces glistening from the light of the torch. When they were finished, they put the parts into bags, and left the entrails behind. They put out the torch light before they departed, leaving Jackie and her bagful of mangoes shaking on the branch in the dreadful dark.

As daylight came the shakened girl garnered her courage and got down from the tree. She jumped from the lowest branch and landed in the bull's blood. Her stomach churned and goose pimple clothed her tired body.

When Jackie was finished telling her story, Miss Pinky shot up from the chair, went to an open window, and looked into the direction of the butcher shop. She had a beef to settle with Clive, the butcher.