Read Katani's Jamaican Holiday for Free Online Page B

river stones. Quick as a flash, so fast he could barely see her movements, the River Mumma dived into the water. But Orrin saw that she had left her comb behind. It shone and sparkled and glittered with a thousand different rays from the gold and jewels with which it was made.
    He wasted no time. Quickly he waded through the water; then, as it got deeper, he swam to the rock and retrieved the comb. Back on the bank, he turned it over and over in his hand. A few strands of the River Mumma’s long hair were stuck in it. He took them out, folded them carefully and put them in his shirt pocket. He couldn’t believe his good luck. The comb must be worth a fortune, he thought. It was decorated with a lot of beautiful gems; rubies, diamonds, emeralds. Though he had never seen jewels like these before, he knew that what he had in his hand was almost priceless. This was the answer to all his problems. He would take it into the city and sell it to a jeweler. He was sure he would get enough money to make a better life for himself and his father.
    “He didn’t remember that she would call to him forever?” I asked, then put my hand over my mouth as I realized I was interrupting.
    “No,” Cousin Cecil answered. “He was dazzled by allthose jewels. He forgot about the legend that said the River Mumma would come back for her comb and would call to him until he returned it.”
    Suddenly, the electricity returned, and we were bathed in the bright light from the veranda bulb. Blinking, we looked around at one another, as if we had been in a different world and were suddenly pulled back to this one.
    “Right!” Cousin Cecil said. “That’s enough for tonight. I’ll continue the story tomorrow night.”
    “Oh, no!” I groaned. “I hate cliff-hangers. Now I’ll be thinking about what happened to Orrin all night long.”
    “Please, Dad, you can’t leave us hanging,” Olivia begged. “I never heard that one before. It’s still early.”
    “Tomorrow night,” he promised. He had returned from being the mysterious storyteller to his usual stern self. “Besides, I want to have a little chat with Ruby before she turns in.”
    An Invitation from Olivia
    “Your dad is quite a storyteller,” I remarked to Olivia when we were getting ready for bed. “I bet he could go around to schools and everything. Kids love those kinds of tales. You know—the ones that are a little scary, but not too much,” I explained as I climbed under the covers.
    “Yeah,” she replied. “My mom used to tell him she was going to start collecting his stories and get them published. He stopped telling stories after she died. Tonight, he was almost like his old self. Good thing you came. Him used to laugh a lot before. Maybe him laugh more now.”
    Poor Cousin Cecil. I had never lost anybody close to me, and I didn’t even want to think about such sad things.
    I wasn’t feeling sleepy, and neither was Olivia, it seemed.This was a chance to get to know her better, so I asked her about her school.
    “I love school!” she said. Her enthusiasm for everything kept reminding me of Maeve. “We have a three-day holiday from school this week. And on Monday, we’re celebrating Black History Month. My class is making a presentation on Marcus Garvey. You know who he is, right?” I shook my head. “He’s one of our national heroes!” Olivia explained. “He grew up in Jamaica more than a hundred years ago, and then he moved to New York to fight for civil rights. Anyway, I’m in the class presentation. You should come,” she told me. “My friends would love to meet you.”
    I thought about it for a moment. Going to school on my vacation wasn’t exactly what I had pictured for this trip, but it might be kind of interesting to see what school was like in another place.
    “Yes!” she said, clapping her hands and raising her fists in the air. It was a gesture I would see her make whenever she was excited or very happy about anything from then on.
    Just as