Pearls, Again

This March while I was in Grenada to launch my book, I went as usual to see the planes that still lie at the old airport at Pearls from the time of the Revolution.  A young boy walking by also began to contemplate them, circling around them, peering in, looking up at the wings.

Puri 2015                                                                                

Author:  Why do you think these planes are here?

Boy:  They crash?  Maybe they run out of fuel and lose control.  They land, they bump up, and crash.

Author: And you think it happened how long ago?

Boy: Twenty years?

Author: Why do you think twenty years?

Boy: Depends on how long it is.  [Wind renders his words inaudible in the recording.]

Author: Oh, okay.  So what do you think, what are you wondering, when you’re standing there looking at those planes?

Boy: What happened to the passengers or the pilot?

Author: So you were wondering what happened to the passengers or the pilot?

Boy: Yes, miss.

Author: Okay.  So, actually, from what I understand, the planes have been here since 1983.  You know of anything that happened here in 1983?

Boy: No, ma’am.

Author: After the Grenada Revolution, the U.S. came in. This used to be the old airport at that time.  They were still building the new airport.   (See — that’s the old runway where the planes used to land.)  So luckily nobody crashed, but … these planes were left here after the Revolution…   One of them was going to be used, I think, to spray crops.  But I don’t think they ever used it, because by that time the Grenada Revolution fell.  Have you heard about the Grenada Revolution?

Boy: No, miss.

Author: Oh, hmm.

Boy: I might hear as I grow up.

Author: Good point.

…. Do you have any questions you would like to ask?

Boy: If you can say what happened to the people on the planes?

Puri 2015