Babu, the ‘Water-People’ and the Cure

BY: ABDOOL A. AZIZ
Living with Babu
MY job as a Community Development Officer took me to Leguan in 1970. There was no Government quarter available to me, so I was forced to rent a room with an elderly gentleman named Babu. He lived alone, while his wife shared the adjoining building. Babu was involved with his own ‘private business’, dealing with ‘Water People.’ I moved in at night and though the atmosphere smelled rank, I didn’t pay attention. I just went to bed.

The Warning
The next day at the office, a lady came to see me. She first looked at a young woman sitting at an empty desk. She pitied the girl.
She said quietly: “Affisa, me want to tell you something.”
She looked at the sad girl.
“Oww, look ah she, she nah bright, bright gal. Da man Babu done she life.”
The girl stared at us and let out a big guffaw.
“See, she gone crazy, de man bin a go sell she to dem Wata People. She bin to the wata edge at midnight, then run back. Dem do she wrong. Affisa, na stay dey, da man go sell you too. Me warn you, you like wan son to me, find wan natha place.”
She shook her head in pity as she left.
But not being superstitious, I laughed the whole thing off.

The Strange ‘Party’

Just after midnight, I heard some piercing sounds similar to the sonar of the whales and the rank odour got fishier. There was a lot of commotion and funny outbursts. I was a bit scared and tried to sleep. I felt someone close to me, and a cold hand on my forehead, I was petrified.
The next morning, I passed by the room that had the scent of fish oil. When I got back from the washroom, Babu in all smiles muttered “Ah had a party last night. You hear anything?”
I said “No”
“She see you. One of my people see you, she likes you. She gon carry you down there in the riva,” he said.
I smiled and just went about my business. He said “My people can sure anything.”
I sputtered, “Anything?”
“Yes man!” he said.
I told him of my nephew dying from cancer.
“Bring he, bring he, them gon help.”
I asked “And the cost?”
“Free!”
I did take my nephew, he attended one of their ‘party’ and had to sleep over.

The Cure

I was debarred from the room. I heard some manner of ‘Talking in Tongues’ along with high-pitched screams. Then a scream from my nephew, I began to worry. Baba came up to me
“Come quickly,” he said. I obeyed. He handed me a bed-pan
“Go! Bury it fast!” He said earlier that day, he made me dig a hole in the back-yard. As I hurried out the house I used the torch-light to inspect the contents of the vessel, and to my shock, there was a disc, all bloodied and crawling like a sea urchin. I ran quickly and dumped it into the hole and covered it up. When I came back, I found my nephew asleep on my bed.

Babu said, “He okay now because it gone. That thing bin a suck he blood.”
Again, the room was messy with flowers and water – lillies and the fish odour. My nephew recovered well, he was cured. No money.

The ‘Sale of me

The unseen marine princess came back to visit me. She slept with me. In a trance I could see her beauty, and her skin so icy and it felt like scales. Babu told me he had arranged for me to join my ‘companion’ in the sea world. Not me. I was married already to a ‘surface princess.’ I disappeared from Leguan. Babu died mysteriously, did he pay the price for me?

Stalking Me

Long after I had vanished from Babu’s residence, I felt nauseated eating ‘skin’ fish. And many nights I smelled the fishy smell in my bedroom. But as a man of God, I prayed for protection. Good must overcome evil. I was told that Babu did ‘sell’ a handsome lad to one of the water people. And things went well, but unfortunately the fellow decided to marry his compatriot. That wedding night, he was taken from his bed. The next day they found him five miles away from the beach, his neck broken. I still can’t eat fish and am haunted by that rank smell.
But I must admit, though I was ‘jilted’ by the princess from the sea paradise, I lived a charmed life. At 74, I still dream of romantic escapades with the river inhabitants. But I’m too old now to ‘swim’ down there.

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