Satiricus was solemn. It was September 11 – 9/11 – and it was a day of infamy that would last forever. He still remembered where he’d been on that fateful day in 2001. He’d been looking around for insurance coverage on his old jalopy and suddenly, there on the TV screen in this Insurance Office, were those planes plunging into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre.
“I felt like they were plunging a knife into my heart!” he somberly concluded to the fellas gathered at the Back Street Bar.
“Budday, me bin a cut cane da day,” said Cappo. “An’ me na hear till me come home.”
“Me bin a guh a Berbice fuh see me Cha Cha da day,” said Bungi. “But me na get fuh guh.”
“Why?” asked Satiricus.
“Dem Pee an’ See people bin a protes’ a Eas’ Coas’,” replied Bungi. “An’ dem dig up de road! Me neva guh fu’get da day!!”
“Well, as for me,” said Hari, who everyone was looking at expectantly, “I was eating a saltfish-and-bake breakfast at Quik Serv on Main Street.”
“Budday, da ting happen aroun’ 9 a’clack wan Chews-day marnin’,” said Cappo. “Me bin done cut 2 ton cane and yuh bin a still eat bre’kfuss?”
“Hari is a big-bai, you know!” smiled Satiricus. “But isn’t it a good thing we never had such a terrorist disaster in our country?”
“Wha’ raas yuh a taa’k, Sato?” burst out Bungi. “Yuh know how much people dem bandit fram Buxtan kill afta dem done dig up de road?”
“C’mon Bungi, you know that 3000 persons weren’t killed during what Prezzie call ‘the troubles’!” protested Satiricus
“Well, maybe not,” pointed out Hari quietly. “But that’s not how you compare these things, do you?”
“What do you mean?” asked Satiricus.
“Well, the US had 300 million people, and so the 3000 who died were only 0.0001 per cent,” continued Hari.
“And fuh Guyana, 0.0001 per cent a abee papulation a only 75!!” said Bungi, who was a dominoes champion numbers whiz.
“An’ abee know dem bandit kill mo dan 75 people yaa suh!” concluded Cappo triumphantly.
“Let’s drink also to our greatest tragedy,” said Satiricus quietly.
