“ You-all going to a party or what,” asked Zipper as the well dressed group of mostly young people came onto the truck by climbing onto the steps to the truck’s cabin then into the vehicle.

  “ Party with bible and thing in we hand?” said a well dressed young man in a broad chequered tie.

  “ I hope you not drunk tonight you know Zipper,” said a hefty girl with her pressed hair combed back. “ These roads ain’t the kind to drive drunk on.”

  “ I was driving these roads before you was in pampers girl,” said Zipper.

  “ Why you come up the road so late though?” asked a tall girl with thick glasses.  “ We were waiting for you since nine O’ clock.”

  “  I had a little set-back with some engine problem,” Zipper lied, for he well knew that the last thing a passenger wanted to hear was anything related to brake problems; not on the steep winding roads of Dominica.

  “ If we know you were coming late we could have carried on the prayer meeting longer,”  said Chequered Tie.

  “ Let’s go Zipper,” Hicks shouted from the back of the truck. 

            There were no more seats available and the people who came on had to stand.  The young church folks remained standing just behind and beside the driver.  There was a loud grating sound as Zipper threw the truck in gear then he revved the diesel engine and slowly drove off.  There were no lights on the road. To his left towered the hills and to the right the land dropped off as it plunged down toward the beach which bordered the sea. 

  “ You-all had crusade or what,” Zipper continued  addressing the church folks.

  “ We just start tonight,”  said Hefty.  “ You can bring the wife and children you know.”

  “ Wife?  I done with that long time man,” said Zipper with a broad gummy smile.

  “ That is part of what we have the crusade about,” said Chequered Tie.

“ Too many people making a joke out of this marriage thing.” 

  “ But you ain’t know the circumstances of the situation and you passing judgement on me,” Zipper said as he grappled with the staring wheel and negotiated a tight corner and a steep downward slope of the narrow road.

  “ I ain’t judging you,” said Chequered Tie.  “ That is for God to do.  I sure when you married her you promise to keep her for better or for worse...”

  “ She had a man with you or what,” asked a fair chap with a budding moustache.

  “ But hear what this li’l boy asking a big man like me,” Zipper said and laughed.