Cheryl Albury Book Covers
Mrs. Albury (a member of The Bahamas Bar) presents a collection of her poems, short stories and essays. Albury in the book” Perspectives from Inner Windows,” reveals many of the social problems that we face in Bahamian society. I chose to highlight three of the most prolific stories in the book.
Aubrey
The story of Aubrey follows the tragic tale of Aubrey Jarvis. He is one of the special few allowed to work at the hotels during the summer season. In an age of high segregation and racial tension, he is seduced by the beautiful Alicia Cornings, a married white woman whose rich husband visits the Windsor hotel every summer. Against his will, he is entrapped into a 5-year long love affair. It ends when Mr. Cornings catches them in the acts and Aubrey is accused of rape. In the 1950s, Aubrey had no chance of a fair trial and ends up in prison. His punishment was made even worse by being whipped with the cat-o-nine tails. Affairs are never clean-cut and always end badly. Over time they degrade, just leaving a dirty, chaotic mess.
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Waiting For Love
Waiting for Love is a story of a woman scorned. Phyllis meets the charming Stafford, an officer of the law who should be dependable and loving. Phyllis falls deeply in love with Stafford and ends up engaged to him. Following her heart, she loses her virginity to him, binding her to him forever. They plan to secretly elope and move to Florida, without informing Phyllis's watching aunt. On the planned day of departure, Phyllis stood waiting for Stafford on the swampy airport road. Day in and day out, Phyllis was left waiting for love.
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Pot of Gold
A Pot of Gold is a treacherous thing to hold. In this story, Jacob & Cyril plot to rob a bank, driven by extreme poverty and displeasure in their current lives. They successfully rob the bank, but Cyril ruins it by letting it slip to his estranged girlfriend that soon he wouldn't need her again. Based on that statement, and his growing distant attitude towards her, she puts together that he is involved in the infamous bank robbery. Cyril informs the police of Jacob's involvement and they both end up behind bars. In prison, Cyril is struck by tuberculosis, dying whilst incarcerated. 15 years Jacob waited to go and get the money that he had buried with Cyril. A day after his long awaited release, he goes to the once vacant lot only to find that a convenience store had been built on top of his riches, built only 6 months prior to his release. He begins a long spiral to insanity, throwing away his already waning funds on a pack of lucky strikes every day in the same convenience store that keeps him from his prize.
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