Broughtupsy

Brayden’s

Thoughts

Animals should not be in
a cage. They should be free.

If a girl told me that she liked me,
I would not mind, but I am

focusing on my school work.

If I was an older brother, I
would be happy, help take care

of my younger sibling and be
very protective.

Real friends look out for
each other. They keep

secrets and lead each other
in the right direction.

I would like to tell the
government to make the
country right and to make

more jobs.



A Deb is a yog
rl of prise d

proprieti.

e opposite of all
is Jgas.

hen Life Give ou emos Pray - Be Patient - Take a Break -
Get Help - Push Through a Little More -
Seek the Savior - Look to the Future -
Embrace the Moment - Recognize Weakness -
Faith - Seek Answers - Accept Unanswered Questions -
Reach Out to Others in Pain - Take Care of Physical Needs -
Accept Unique Circumstances - Endure - Connect with Love
Ones - Share Experiences - Be Open to Change - Grieve Loss -
Forgive - Notice Tender Mercies

Lil Red

Lil Red was walking through the
shortcut on the way to carry her
grammy, who was under the
weather, some chicken souse
and freshly baked bread. Her
mother told her not to talk to
strangers; but while picking up
some fallen almonds, a scruffy
looking jonser asked her where
she was going. The jonser was
an older man, and her Grammy
told her to be respectful to her
elders, so she told him that she
was catching the number 21 to
Pinewood. TO BE
CONTINUED …

Great Bahamian Bꝏks

tickled

Add

sapwsdgehaljcaieytttcazwtcyitivutooelhuas!r
whwahtenhaypopuerns

words are
ultra

befdraazzzzlliinngg!?!

IBus. tJraatendebTVuasrilnisqa uEreissotva

Heralding Heritage

 ahamian antas  TODAY, THE TRANQUIL SEA WAS A WAVE OF MOCKERY. The news given to
the merstudents was the opposite of serene. It was turbulent. Treacherous tidings were
A�� being delivered by the school-lead, Knautica.

B . J  e Tu r n q u e s t “This,” Knautica spoke slowly, hesitantly in a whisper, as her eyes moved over the
message quickly. “This is not good.” She got up from her sponge desk and seat and swam
up to the front of the assembly of merstudents. She studied the royal sealed leaf note,
holding it at an angle that did not allow the sharp-eyed merstudents to read the reverse-
etched text. The more she read, the more her lovely face contorted with worry.

“This is another result of the sin of gluttony!” Knautica was reading ahead of what she
was saying. “But we will trust that the Creator, our helper, along with our waterly king and
council, will repair this disturbance.”

Even someone of Bay's intelligence knew that Knautica was rewording or skimming the
words of this message.

"Normally, the head youth instructor was awash with a look of confidence and wisdom,
but right now, she looked washed out – for a Color Lush. Knautica's vibrant,
kaleidoscopic coloring that she took pride in had gone glisteningly pale. She wore the
color of high-sparkle that humans and sharks cannot look at, the same way they cannot
look directly at the sun. Her scales stood up. Then, the school-lead's scales tilted to the left
and showed their full iridescent side, creating a part deflective and part reflective anomaly.
The surrounding pristine white Bahama sand was mirrored on Knautica's tail.

Scale-rise only occurs when mermans are in distress, have to camouflage for survival, or
during some similar emergency. Scale-rising cannot be willed or controlled - it was
instinctive and involuntary. Color Lush mermans like Knautica never completely swam
off their natural nervous flipperishness about being in the Mid-Levels Sea. They felt safer
in the Lows, awash with a full sense of safety; their multihued tails glowed down there.

Bay signaled a message to her brother but got ignored.

Reading on, Knautica whispered, “Creator, help us!” Bay wanted to look to her friends,
but her focus was now fixed on the school-lead.

“Sharks,” Knautica's voice trembled. It was evident that she battled to regain her
composure.

The school's beauty, Waverly's brown eyes dilated. She repeated Knautica's word,
“Sharks?”

Bay felt for the two Color Lushes in the class. When it came to their stunning coloring,
Color Lushes certainly had a disadvantage. They were a beacon for sharks. Their home
was at the bottom of the sea, where sharks did not venture. Even though the school was
atop a sea-hill, Knautica and Waverly should've known that they were as safe as they would
have been if they were in the castle waters. There were no words Bay could think of to
comfort them. She could not fully understand their fright, as having a bland, or basic
colored tail made her look less appetizing to a shark.

Bay suspected that Knautica was suffering from the condition called se- There was something about se-adventures, ascending, and the inhalation of
adrenaline, which was a flush of strong emotions that caused reason to pure salted air that made her feel whole. That was another secret, even from
sink or crest. This state was also rare for mermans who cultivated a her brother. She was smart enough to know that a mer should not hanker for
balanced, paradisiacal life. An almost boring life, where one was forced to air. She could be accused of being more human than fish.
swim the thin line of right and wrong in order to dive into a bit of fun and
flippancy, Bay reflected. Mers anchored a slur in the meaning of flippancy Bay's eyes were fixed on the school-lead's tail. She looked at her own tail and
– like froth and foam, they, the minimalists, regarded flippancy as useless. then at the others in the class. Nothing. Rumors had it that scale-rise was
They would not say it aloud, but she knew they thought she was flippant contagious. She doubted that, suspecting now that it was a wave of froth. It
and a failure. Her thoughts swam away to why they judged her. made more sense that if one mer was in danger, then the other mers in the
same place were likely subject to the same threat. If it were just her who was
Se-adrenaline filled her - filled her with sloshing delight - each time she left unchanged, she would have concluded that her thoughts and reasoning
went on those secret swims. If she were to be boastful, she would admit could not grasp the complexity of these hazardous tidings being discussed,
that it made her senses crest. It was laughable and ironic: her being tops at and that was why she was unaffected. Coral, the smarty-tail, who referred to
something of great depth. Normally, she was at the bottom of everything. her sunrise coloring as 'morning-glory,' also remained unchanged. So, Bay
The ironic part was that her discovery was a whale of a secret. Her great thought, that was proof. It couldn't just be her own slow comprehension that
find and newly acquired skill were unknown to anymer. had her unchanged.

Bay thought it was a skill, but maybe she was being generous with herself Bay looked out of the classroom's doorway in the direction of the se-
by using that term. She was not fully confident in her belief that she did academy's entrance. Her sharp vision locked on to the welcomed pest, their
truly, at last, have something she was good at. She knew, however, that added protection. If Waverly and Knautica would follow her gaze, their fear
now she could somehow sense when the air particles grew different, will be reduced with this reminder. The area was heavily fenced with dense
when they were less salt-infused like the air particles closer to the surface. coral reefs and teemed with some of the most skilled guards in Lucaya.
She had learned to use her gills and travel through her secret current, Incidentally, there was a great biological repellant for the unwelcomed beast.
following the less salted water flow to find the surface. Bay now knew that A double reinforcement - a habitat filled with plague planktons - also
this always led to the shallows, then to the surface. She was great at surrounded the area. Plague planktons were small and painful. They loved to
something huge, but no one knew it besides her brother. suck sharks' blood and did this from the inside. This habitat was populated
with no less than a swarm of a hundred thousand of them. It made sharks
foam. The joke of the sea was that these micro pests were the ones truly at
the top of the food chain because they nibbled sharks. Sharks knew to stay in
the Southern Ocean, not just because of plague planktons. These beasts of
the sea were untamed but not senseless. They respected that the mermans
were smarter, fleet-finned, and often armed with weapons.

Since she'd splashed into this secret, Bay had not had a single day of Not one merstudent of the prestigious Royal Se-academy of Salina Point
feeling sunken. Mers prayed once under the sunlit sea and once during the dared to blink. They feared missing the phenomenon that was displayed on
moonlit sea, but all her life – that is, before her discovery - she had to pray Knautica's tail. All young tails were coiled up tightly, sunk deep into their sea-
three times instead to ask and seek help from the Creator for her low sponge seats.
feelings. It was the only way she could stay afloat and not sink into
depression. She prayed less on some days since her discovery. She felt Bay wondered if, like the stories she had heard, Knautica would contort her
guilty about this when she remembered the next day and would do an unscaled parts to fit in a wrapped, long, scale-rise tail and be awash with total
extra prayer. Her old, sad self had drifted away. And it was the sadness that invisibility. It would be a rare thing to see. Like Bay, most of the merstudents
had prompted her to swim off alone to pray. The simple anticipation and had never seen it done. Obeying the ancient laws of the Red Sea Scrolls, they
recognition that the discovery was hers alone made her happy and gave had lived in a safe zone all their lives. Mermans now lived in one of the three
her a feeling of worth and wholeness. She no longer had the reminder to Promised Waters that flowed from the Original Garden and once watered
pray that extra prayer, the reminder was her sunken feelings. She knew the the Tree of Life. Though they are allowed able and to swim all the oceans,
discovery was a gift from the Creator. It was a miracle that she'd needed. It mermans rarely did or wanted to. The promise of safety was attached to the
cured her. Promised Waters. They never encountered danger. This was apart from
Bay's ventures concerning Finn. Finn was not dangerous, she mentally
retracted. The encounter with him was simply a calculated risk, perhaps, but
definitely not dangerous.

Waverly and Coral, her friends, Bay knew, had the same drift of thoughts Mers can read the waves. They can calculate if a wave was made by wind, a
and wonder as she did. Everyone did. Bay considered that perhaps there certain animal, or a human craft. They can also calculate the size and speed
was one merstudent whose thoughts dove deeper as usual. of what's in the waters. The day she met Finnegan Bain, the sea was
uncalm, choppy, and not ideal for a small motorless sailboat to be out on,
She looked at her twin brother, His Royal Highseaness, heir to the Shoals obviously making it a perfect day for a daring - airheaded and wild, as she
of Lucaya, Prince Buoyant. Buoy, as only she called him, listened was called - mergirl to break the surface. Finn's boat was being whipped
intently, his tail rigid. Any day now, his name could be etched on another about violently by the sea. The sky was a menacing dark grey that promised
leaf in The Living Scroll Forest for doing something out-swimming. As a torrential downpour of freshwater for the merfolk's medicinal
royals, their names were placed there at birth. Bay knew that her name freshwater pond reservoirs. The watercraft did not look seaworthy. Its sail
would only be etched on the scroll leaves to record her start, coronation was tattered and patched up in many places. The night-colored letters
for the Eleuthera, and her end – nothing she had control over but was 'ACKLINS' was cracked and peeling. The angry wind looked like it would
given. Her brother wore the royal colors, or colorlessness, like her – the totally destroy the sail. The boat's rope was frayed, and its anchor, eroded.
colors of tropical sea and seaweed. Even though she was told countless This human boy might as well be sailing on a whale-sized empty crab shell,
times why royal babies were not allowed to break the surface until they Bay had thought. The waves that ricocheted off Finn’s boat were
were 12 high-tides, to prevent the sun tinge - brand - a hue on their overpowered and crushed by the sea’s more powerful waves. This was why
tender scales permanently, today, for the first time, she realized exactly Bay did not detect the boat until she was close to it – well, that and the fact
why she had to wait so long to get baptized by the sun. It was to keep the that she'd gotten a sub-grade in Wave Reading class even after taking the
scales of royals, the chief protectors of the sea, as close to this scale-rise course three times. She was not staring in the direction of the boat, and
reflective cloak permanently. Bay and her ancestors were created with when she swam around, she saw it. Even with super sharp vision, she
the perfect colorlessness of aquatic light and shadow. wanted to get closer. She wanted to touch the boat and close in on the
touch with air between her fingers, not water. She could see him, but she
The royals led longer journeys, travelling in open seas. They were one of could not smell him. Water was still in her ear canal. Her super-hearing
the few who left one Promised Water to get to another. With their skin- ability was still adjusted for water and not coordinated yet for air. She
and-scale concealing features, it was safer for royals to venture closer to wanted to hear the sounds the boy made.
the sinners' line to scout the area, the surface, and shark territory. They
needed the advantage of concealment when and if an expedition or Bay justified her actions. She told herself that she was not doing anything
misadventure called for it. The royals were also skilled in swimming in wrong or forbidden. Nor was she breaking any law by allowing her
formation to engulf and veil other mermans during long journeys or curiosity along with her tail to flow closer to this human boy. Mermans
high sea ventures. This kept everymer unseen by creatures at the top of kept away from humans because humans had eaten from The Tree, and it
the food chain. had altered their natural splendor. Humans now looked through a marred
scope and saw - sometimes did - ugly before they saw beauty. Often, they
Bay’s eyes glanced down at her tail. Her tinge was almost gone. About did not see far past their actions. Merman's vision was so clear they saw
eighteen high-tides ago, there was a phase where she wanted color more consequences and the promise and protection of obedience. Mermans
than anything; it drove her to the surface daily for a temporary tinge. She also still had all their abilities and instincts from when the first mermans
gained a temporary coloring like what she imagined the rainbow would were created. For their obedience, they were safe from the Tempter, the
be if it could be metallic or pearlescent shades of sea grape. She also fire-dweller did not venture close to water. Also, according to both The
gained a human friend Finn. She was not ashamed of meeting Finn, but Red Sea Scrolls and Human Studies, humans had the infamous failing that
now, she felt like an empty crab shell about her ascension habit for color came about from a tongue that bit into a lie. The human tongue got
and tinging. Her twin brother would never offend – resist - the Creator infected, gaining a disability - a fluency in untruths. Even if a merman
or try and change what was natural, what was a sign of duty and service showed themself to a human, no other human would believe it and would
to come as she did. Okay, she told herself, perhaps offending and think that the tale was a fabrication.
resisting were exaggerations. Still, Buoy would never in his life, be
concerned with such a trivial matter as getting a bit of color on his tail. Then there were two other safeguards for the mermans. One of these is
Bay's lungs deflated as she thought that Buoy would also never feel the other human affliction: judgment and attitude towards different
invisible. mental capacities. If a human reported a mer-sighting, they would be

judged as a liar or having an unsound mind. She did not know humans were salty. Were they the salt of the earth?
History said humans were made from dirt. She assumed that it was dry
When Bay snuck closer to the human boy's boat, what she saw was soil. Perhaps they were made from wet soil, she questioned? The only way
amazing, shocking, and intriguing. It stilled her tail. Water was trickling she could find out more was to show herself to Finn.
out of his eyes. Bay did not know that humans had water in their eyes.
Knautica had only covered one hundred and sixty-three of four A merman’s memory of events and experiences after they have passed the
hundred lessons on Above The Waters and Human Studies. It surprised fryinfant stage of life is remarkable. Still, this does not factor in se-
even Bay that despite her poor grades generally, she did okay in these academics, Bay laughed to herself in the middle of her surface-dream. But
subjects, but this information had not been taught yet. The truth was Bay was as certain as the waves would always flow until He Who Walked
that these two subjects were the only ones where she had good grades. On Water returned, that there was nothing about her first encounter with a
She could not count the top grade she earned in Red Sea Scroll Studies human she would ever forget, even if she did not have a naturally great
and The Law that she tied with Buoy and Coral. Red Sea Scroll Studies memory. Once Bay had made up her mind to show herself to Finn, and
and The Law were not lessons. They were how mers lived each and every though she knew as the air inflated her lungs, it was then or never, her mind
day, swam through each and every wave, and this was why everymer's spiraled with what-ifs. It was mid-splash that hesitation had surged
grades in these subjects gained excellent marks – and knowing the things strongly through her. Her tail quivered between splashes. A rush of worry
in these subjects was the anchor for eternal life. and doubt pervaded her mind. It almost hurt. It was deep thinking.
Sometimes, thinking too long or hard had an adverse effect on her. The
When the human boy leaned overboard, Bay did not swim away like a faithful cure, as always, was not to think.
wise mergirl ought to have done. She told herself that she had the body
of aquatic light and shadow, and for once, she could use the bland Leaping slowly through the downpour, directly in the human boy's view,
colorlessness for her advantage and interest. was calculated. She plunged back into the water and then slowly ascended,
her full torso and human parts facing a frozen audience of one. The way
She strained to recall the actual rule or clause concerning, being seen by a he looked at her filled her mind, lungs, and heart with something it had
human. It was not a law; Bay was sixty percent sure. It was more like never experienced before. He looked at her in a way no mer had ever done.
respected advice, and it went on about “one thousand miles away and He saw her. Through the predictable shock, according to the tidings about
once in a hundred years.’ She smiled as she remembered in full detail, human reaction to meeting a mer, there was more. Having someone look
correctly, ‘for safety, mermans can be seen once every three-score and ten years {840 at her that way was worth any punishment she would get. He looked at her
moons}, by one human, per one thousand miles.’ No human has seen a merman with fascination and admiration. Nothing that swam in the sea had looked
in over a thousand moons. She was sure that neither her parents' nor at her that way. It was se-affinity at first sight.
their parents’ generation had human exposure.
Bay broke off from her thoughts of Finn.
With irresistible curiosity, she swam under the rickety boat and hid. But
the wilder, more outrageous thing she did, happened as the water from She returned her full attention to Knautica. She forced herself to listen like
the human’s eyes dropped into the sea as he looked up at the sky. Bay Buoy, intently, and not surface-dream - her guilty, secret pleasure, and
found this even harder, impossible to resist. She took a risk, awash with likely the reason, or a big factor, for being a sub-ranked merstudent.
nervousness. She thought for a splash that the boy's vision was as clear as Knautica was not discussing school studies. The school-lead was reporting
hers. One of the human’s punishments for disobedience was the death critical conservation issues. It had to be extremely important or critical as
of some of their natural abilities and gifts. It has been preached to royal guards had traveled from the castle to bring the tidings. Bay focused.
everymer, she imagined, that since The Fall of Man, only seven of This was not a class she could retake like she had to with Wave Reading
twenty-one original abilities and senses remained. Ultra-vision was not twice. This was life and a big part of her purpose and duty. After all, she
among what was left. No longer could humans see off to great distances, was next in line to the great Lucayan throne (after her brother – thanks to
see in the dark, nor see clearly, the Creator's works and miracles. Most what she estimated to be fifteen tail-splashes apart). It was her own silly
mermans hold an inherited dislike or prejudice towards humans, but Bay calculation as her brother was always fifteen splashes, words, classes, or
found that she pitied them. Funny thing, she always thought, that ideas ahead of her. Bay forced herself to focus. She had to display the
humans were lured with such an ironic whale of a lie – a false promise sensible manner of a leader too. She would one day soon, reign over lesser
that they would be more god-like. They were so much closer to being in water – the beautiful waters of Eleuthera, the pink sand sea! There were
the image of the Creator before they fell from grace. not many places under the waters that boasted the alluring pink sand. Only
7 of 682 waterways had this beautiful spectacle.
Remembering that the human boy had dulled vision, Bay exposed a
hand for less than a splash, paddling the water that dripped from his eyes At the end of Knautica’s report, Bay’s gills, like the entire school of
to her quickly. She scooped up the human liquid, the first non-sea water
she had ever seen, not counting downpour, and breathed it in. It was merstudents, flared and flapped. This post-Easter report from Above The
salty and had the purest flavor she had inhaled. It fascinated her.
Waters was grave. The news was tsunami-level devastating. Heads bowed

in silence - a sign of respect for the incredible number of gills lost.

Rules BAHAMIAN’ING GAME
last Name PLACE ANIMALS SYMBOLS THINGS SAYING FAMOUS
See how long
it takes for
you to list 49
Bahamian
items. Play solo
or get a group
of friends and
see who is the first
to list 49 things.

Listings across
categories does not
have to be evenly
listed.

e & Lcy

CULTURE

Sports
Music
Art
Literature
Fashion
Food

REVIEW & CONCERNS endangered
safe
celebrated

RegattaWhy isn’t this the national sport?
Not many young people have had
exposure to this sport.

Rake n’ Scrape Junkanoo is celebrated and has a
deep nationalistic pride to it, Rake
Junkanoo n’ Scrape is at the opposite end

of our musical celebration.

Straw Work To niche at this time. Only a few
families are still producing native
straw craft.

Buh Bookie & Dead! Need rescuitation. Our
beautiful folklore is now lost to

Buh Rabbi Etc the young generation. Fix it!

Androsia Lots of hope and possibilities

Fashion Designers to be a powerhouse locally and
internationally. We have some

great talented designers.

A foreign infusion is on the rise, with

The Infusionthings like mayonnaise in conch salad,
and the street Carnival. Will this change
what is quintessentially Bahamian
and delicious?

READ & REPEAT

YETI will use the power of

“T“h“IIicsdaodnno’t’etdsgone’ttthwitis.o”.r”k.”

NOW TRY ADDING
“yet” to the end
of each sentence:

“T“hI“iscI addnoo’net ’sdt nog’etthtwiisto...r..k. y.y.e.etyt”.e” t”

FANTA GANGS

Let your gang be stuff that are: good - positive - uplifting - healthy

Da Darlis

ANONYMYS ANGELS

No MEAN KIDS ALLOWED

You love to spread newYoucan’tkp EnAgrleishyiosLubaoonfrgitunhageg?oepiinnsiocnhotholat

a secret?

SKILLS s?PMCCoooalnpirctykEeywentArXtiinntCWgearCrlMeyasatItInoTTragIHeNr AGN, WEENLGL-LPISAHIDMCAAJORERERSThe hidden glitz in Lit
GAINED Reporter
Librarian
Research skills Technical Writer
Creativity Editor
Freelance Writer
Problem-solving Social Media Manager Author
Empathy Lawyer Blogger
Translator Government Relations
Social awareness Lexicographer Publishing
Writing skills ESL Teacher Freelance Editor
Journalism Political Strategist
Verbal and nonverbal communication Paralegal
How to analyze and process information Brand Strategist Teacher
English Professor HR Specialist
Attention to detail Communications Ofcers Communications Specialist
Organization Public Relations Specialist Business Development Specialist

You look it,

Book Itmake sure you

My advice is a prose and a verse.
Don’t keep your intelligence con ned to what’s in your purse.

Don’t be the oddity of a brainless beauty.
Pretty plus dunce does not equal cutie.

CYBER ATTACKS

ARE OUT OF CONROL

One winter weekend, with west winds whistling, Wyatt William went to Windemere Waters.

Without works to wear him down, and walking near the water’s edge, his thoughts wandered and
wondered to the world’s war of words. In Wyatt’s wake, he wholeheartedly wagered that words
wielded the way to woes and wows!

Worthy words will do wonder-works, and weave warmth, while wicked wretched, wayward
words causes winces, wounds, wailing and whimpering.

Wyatt wished that the world would withdraw from words which whip and wreck like weapons.
Be wary and warned; wrong words will weigh down our whole will.

When we wield words that add to other’s well-beings, we become - whatchamacallits -

wonderful word warriors.

FAVBOUCLAIBSUTLITSHTE

Mudda Goose

Jack ād Jill
WĈt ova da hill
to da governmĈt pump fa water.
‘cause da road wĂ holĒ, Jack got a cĀoli
ād Jill died of laughter.

Culture Comedy
CHARACTERS

We Need A Next Generation of
The Fox Hill Storytellers,
Ms. Daiseys, and Arlene Nash-Fergusons
Claudette Allens



SUMMER
2022