Pierre strode potently through Port-au-Prince, on his way to meet with Stephan at the Hall of Records. The streets shone cleanly, the buildings glimmered and the sun baked the streets unrelentingly. The swathes of people who passed before Pierre were a multitude of shapes, sizes and colours, the legacy of years of immigration and integration of white Europeans with the black descendents of slaves in Haiti‘s melting pot.* The sky was clear blue and the streets were pitch black. He did not notice an old man with a straw hat and cane, who smiled and watched him intently as he passed by, but then Pierre did not notice a lot of people. After he had disappeared around a corner, the old man picked up a little stray dog who had been sitting by his feet and stroked it, grinning with stately charm and lifting his hat to a passing robot.
It only took Pierre fifteen minutes to get from his apartment to the café, failing as he did to notice how the many windows of the Hall of Records glittered in the sunlight. He met Stephan warmly, with a brief manly hug and handshake, and then they both sat down. Stephan ordered a latte, while Pierre ordered a toyota.*****
“Happy birthday,” Stephan said. Pierre nodded, but his face remained stony. Stephan noticed. “Not such a happy birthday?”
Pierre let out a sigh, and shook his head. “I forgot. Marissa forgot. She forgot! How could she forget? How could I forget?”
“Cabbages.”
Pierre smiled slightly. “Stephan, you always have a way of making me feel better about these things. Anyway, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?”
“This.” It was a magazine, called
Secret Worlds. Stephan opened it on an article about an expedition to Bimini, supposedly undertaken by the Haitian government in 1937. Pierre read the article, which basically suggested that they had found something, and had covered it up. After a few minutes Pierre looked up sceptically.
“The Fountain of Youth?” He added with a wry smile, “Are you implying that I’m getting old?”
“Lol, not at all,” Stephan said, “The only reason I bring it up is that I recall the Hall of Records was not built, it was born, in the dusty sands of Egypt, and remained
hidden something about a previousd Haitian expedition to the region, in 1835. Both times the findings were kept secret despite the voyages being quite well publicised, and I’m curious if any trace of this remains.”
Pierre glanced again at the article and at Stephan. “So?”
“Well, what if they really did find the Fountain? Everlasting youth…”
“I’ve heard of this magazine before. Wasn’t it
Secret Worlds that first suggested crop circles were made by UFOs? And that the destruction of the Calico Towers was an inside job? By aliens?”
“Well erm yes, but that’s hardly the point. All this stuff, it's all
linked .”
“Were there any expeditions between 1835 and 1937”
Stephan looked blank.
Something clicked.
A bird pooed on Pierre’s shoulder.******
__________________
*It is often said that Haiti is, has and always shall be primarily a nation descended from French black slaves, but this is plainly not the case. Although French remains the official language, genetic studies of a sample of the population of Port-au-Prince have shown that only 50% had any African descent at all, and de Plume** outlines how the black population has remained through the repeated intermarrying of ten or so prominent black families, allowing no outside interference with the gene pool.
**See “Le Rebellion D’Haiti” by Gnome de Plume, University of Cap-Haitien***, 1992
***Oddly, I have done a little bit of research and it turns out that there never was anyone by the name of Gnome de Plume at the University of Cap-Haitien. This is further compounded by the revelation that there is not even a University in Cap-Haitien. I did discover that Albert Louverture spent a few summers in the city, and stayed with a lady called Nora Yaroslavich who allegedly ran a house of ill-repute. In his spare time it seems that Louverture was quite the poet, and produced a volume called “Shrieks from the Cathouse,”**** Witchell and Mebb, no year given. I did discover that it had been translated into many languages, including English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Greek, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Occitan, Italian, Mandarin, Klingon, Irish Gaelic, Turkish, Arabic, Russian, Manchu, Luwian, Dutch, Double Dutch, Esperanto, Coptic, Beja, Kannada, Hindi and Guatemalan .
****Not for the faint hearted.
*****?? Pebble gives no explanation for what was meant here. Indeed, it seems as if Pebble was having a bit of fun in this section, inserting non-sequiteurs on a whim. Maybe something to do with pataphysics? Interestingly, it was during this conversation that news of the mysterious disappearance of Albert Louverture was announced. Maybe Pebble was distracted by the implications of the revelation?
******Ibis