Mangos

My goodness, remember when we used to go to the beach together? We’d round up the gang and find an empty cabaña. The padlock on number 52 was perpetually broken so we’d sit there with cheapo Publix sandwiches, lots of oranges and maybe even a watermelon or two. Every once in a while someone would bring a little beer and a hammock and we’d have it made. I never thought to bring mangos. Maybe it’s because they usually weren’t in season during the school year and that’s when we could get everyone together to head out. Maybe I just wanted the mangos to be the precious jewels that I only shared with my family. Whatever it was, you never got to experience eating a mango out in the open sea, the light sea salt bringing out the intense sweetness. You never got to throw a mango peel out to the ocean and watch the waves devour it greedily, not wanting to give it back to you.

I don’t think we knew each other well when Katrina happened. Eramos bebes, babies, in high school and we had just started boot camp for the school’s Coast Guard Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. We were out of school for a whole week. I was so upset the day after Katrina passed by, walking out to the backyard and seeing one of our strong, prized mango trees splintered in half. Our cacti had collapsed completely on top of our outside deck. A freaking mess.

Then I saw the news and I heard the stories, the horrors about what had happened in New Orleans. Suddenly, clearing up the wreckage that Katrina had caused in our backyards didn’t seem like such a burden. A week later and Wilma hit, a cute little storm compared to what Katrina had been. Our school flooded that time (maybe it wasn’t such a hot idea to have a school on the bay, especially in a state where hurricanes frequent). She gave us two weeks of no readin' writin' and 'rithmetic which, after clearing up the wreckage, were spent sleeping outside in the God given 65 degree weather. Mami would bring out the mangos she had salvaged from the backyard and we’d eat as many as we could, knowing that we wouldn’t be able to preserve them until the electricity came back on and who the hell knew when that would be.