All the Clues

by Sarah Jane Weldon

  Rynelle’s uncle stood on the spot, waiting and watching the young man, taking in everything about him. The young man glanced towards the crowd, and caught the eye of a pretty young lady. Ahhh. He was in love, and he was out to impress and woe his lady. That was all Rynelle’s uncle needed to know. He would let the battle go on just long enough for the young man to impress his lady, before he beat him. It was a brave and ambitious challenge, he’d give him that. But Rynelle’s uncle could not lose today, he needed to win this for his own girls, for his family, to give them hope to cling on to through the tough times ahead, especially if this was their last carnival together.

  The young man would tire soon, once the adrenalin of the day started to wear off. He was a ball of energy, dancing and jumping all around Rynelle’s uncle, trying to draw him in but Rynelle’s uncle wasn’t biting. He might have a few decades on his young opponent, but he also had the benefit of experience on his side. The day would be long and he knew to save his voice and passion for the harder battles later in the day. No, he would lull the young man into a false sense of security for now, let him be the one to start the battle.

  The challenger was like a young buck about to get into a ruck with the alpha male of the herd. Overconfident, unaware of the strength and experience of his aging competitor. That would be his downfall, but it would be a good lesson for him to learn.

  The young man drew confidence from another glance at his girl in the crowd, and grew a little taller as he sucked in his stomach, and puffed out his chest. The words came easily at first, he’d pictured this moment in his head for months: ‘Cupid laid by his brand, and fell asleep: A maid of Dian’s this advantage found’. His voice was deep and strong, the Shakespearean words enveloped in his thick Carriacou accent. The crowd could not see his face behind the mask, but they sensed from his voice that he was resolute and serious about winning.

  More people gathered around the two men, waiting to see the response of the young man’s opponent. They whispered amongst themselves ‘di ola di moon di brighta di shine’, a little surprised at the balls of the man to take on the unbeatable champion.

  All eyes turned to Rynelle’s uncle. ‘And his love-kindling fire did quickly steep in a cold valley-fountain of that ground’ came Rynelle’s uncle’s response, as if he were indeed breathing fire himself. The young man interrupted the old man’s flow, not wanting to get caught out or to forget his words. The adrenaline was pumping through him now, and the last thing he wanted was to be caught off guard. He raised his own bull pistle stick like a wand, flailing his arms around as he spoke. ‘Which borrow’d from this holy fire of Love, a dateless lively heat, still to endure, and grew a seething bath, which yet men prove against strange maladies a sovereign cure’.

  The young man could sense that the crowd were impressed with his bravery and command over his words. All eyes were on him, including his girl’s and he wanted to devour every moment of that power. He paced back and forth, walking as close as he dared to his opponent, hyping up the crowd as he did. The crowd were buzzing with excitement - the day was still young and if this was the level of dueling now, what on Earth was to come later in the day as the battles progressed?

  Rynelle and her family were not worried in the slightest about this young man. He was no match for her mamoo. They all knew that her uncle was just playing with the newcomer, much as a cat might play with a mouse, tormenting it before finishing it off. Mere entertainment to warm up for the battles proper. Rynelle was surprised to find herself grinning as she looked at the faces of her muma and nana. They were smiling too, and Rynelle knew they were thinking the same as her. Her mamoo was luring the man into a trap, delighting in the fact that he knew he still had the same intellect and quick wit that he had had as a boy. He still had it. Age had not stolen that from him.

  Rynelle’s uncle raised his arm out towards the crowd as he drew breath himself: ‘But at my mistress’ eye Love brand new-fired, the boy for trial needs would touch my breast; I, sick withal, the help of bath desired’. His words came off like butter, so easily they came to him, and he hadn’t even broken a sweat. He reeled off the Shakespearean sonnet as easy as if he were reading off food from a menu board.

  The crowd was large now, girlfriends leaning on the shoulders of their boyfriends, men with gold teeth nodding and egging the men on, and old ladies shouted kras words of encouragement. It seemed that everyone was an expert of duals, and everyone wanted to give their input and advice to the two duelers. Those people in the crowd who knew Rynelle’s uncle well, knew that the young fella brave enough to take him on, was about to get chewed up and spat out, his day ruined before it had even started. But the risk was worth it for the young man. He wanted to make a name for himself within the community, to get the same kind of respect that people seemed to have for Rynelle’s uncle. If he could just win this battle, he would be respected for the rest of his life.

  Sadly the young man’s pride had got the better of him, and he spent too much time dreaming of winning his girl’s heart, than he had in training or preparing for the battle. Had he been a little but smarter, then he might have spent his earlier years at carnival, studying his opponent, learning the old man’s tricks and moves, ready for the match today. But he was in too much of a hurry, was blindsided by his desire to win and make the old man look a fool, for the sake of impressing his girlfriend.

  The young man was jumping around on the spot, drops of sweat hitting the floor around him as he perspired under his thick, heavy costume. He felt certain that he had won the dual. He yielded his bull pistle at Rynelle’s uncle shouting out the words at the top of his voice for effect: ‘and thither hired, a sad distemper’d guest, but found no cure’.

  But Rynelle’s uncle was far from done. The young man had got cocky and for a second stumbled on his words, being that he was so caught in the moment and cheers of the crowd. The young man paused, just long enough that he lost his thread, couldn’t find his words. Rynelle’s nana shouted fiercely, her voice lost in the raucous sound of the crowd ‘that’s masun. Finish him off’.

  Rynelle’s uncle did not need to shout, instead, he lowered his voice just enough that the audience fell silent as they focused their ears on the accuracy of his prose. He stepped up close to the young man and the final words tumbled out before him: ‘The bath for my help lies where Cupid got new fire - my mistress’ eyes’.

  Rynelle’s uncle bowed a fancy bow to the young man. He had won the dual, and he looked on as the young man’s posture flopped a little as he quickly remembered what was to come. Not only had the young challenger lost the battle of words, but he was about to be whipped with the bull pistle, in front of the very people he had been trying to gain the respect of. The crowd erupted into a cascade of noise, a release of energy and emotion that Rynelle’s uncle had won the battle, they found themselves somehow torn between emotions, they loved the spirit of the young man and his belief that he could win, but they also found themselves rooting for the triumph of age over youth, as if it gave them hope for themselves.

  A lady who had been refereeing the dual raised a large brass hand bell over her head and rang it hard to signify the end of the battle. Rynelle’s muma and nana might have been more frail than they once were, but their spirits were strong and both were celebrating her uncle’s win, as he raised the family’s bull pistle and struck it across the back and head of the man who had lost the battle. The young man raised his arms beneath his cloak to shield himself. Rynelle’s uncle beat the man hard, the thwack of the stick loud against the man’s cape. To a tourist, the scene might have looked painful and violent, but it was more for effect, and the partakers were quite protected from injury by the discs on their head, and their stiff, material capes. It was all for show. The real pain, came from losing the battle, but it was all in fun.

  The two men hugged and congratulated each other on a fine match, and the crowd quickly swamped Rynelle’s uncle, raising his arm high in the air and lifting him up to show him off as their champion
.

  Rynelle forgot herself momentarily, caught up in the crowd as people congratulated her and her nana, but where was her muma? Rynelle panicked as she spotted her mother a few feet away, somehow separated from her as her mother had gone to shake hands with a lady who had come to congratulate her. Rynelle had to break free of the well wishers, to grab her mother’s hand, but nana was oblivious as she chatted to all the people she knew. ‘We’ve got to go nana’.

  There was no way to get her uncle’s attention, and even if she did, there was no chance of him breaking free from the crowd either. The lady rang the brass bell in her hand, signifying the end of another battle close by, and the crowd around them soon dissipated. Only her uncle was swept away by well wishers, and he would be busy for the rest of the day now. Rynelle stepped quickly towards the place where her mother was, nana still with her arm linked through Rynelle’s. She held out her hand to her muma, not ready to lose her yet. ‘Muma are you OK? Do you need to sit down?

  Her mother could see the fear in Rynelle’s eyes, and as sick and exhausted as she felt right now, her only concern was for her daughter. She did not want to be the cause of such a pain in that which was most precious to her. She tried hard to put on a brave face. ‘Rynelle. I’m fine. And I’ll be even more fine once I see you relaxing and enjoying yourself for once. But I bet your nana wouldn’t mind some’.

  Rynelle’s only wish right now was to get her muma home, back to the safety of their shack by the sea. She looked tired and frail. They had done what they out out to do, to see Rynelle’s uncle do battle once more, now Rynelle wanted to find any excuse she could to get them home.

  ‘It’s so hot muma, please can we go home now and get some of your nutmeg ice cream? I want to eat as much of it as I can before I go back to Grenada’. Rynelle felt like a silly child, but she had to find an excuse to get her mother home, without her mother feeling bad.

  Chapter Four

  Lessa fowl, lessa shit

  Fewer people, fewer problems.

  Joe looked through the window of the International Space Station one last time, Earth passing below as they travelled at 28,000 km per hour. In four hours time, all being well, he would be back on Earth.

  He was filled with mixed emotions. He enjoyed the quiet and solitude of life in space, he worked well with the other astronauts and felt a sense of great satisfaction as he went about his lab work, studying the effects of zero gravity on microbes and antibiotics in sealed petri dishes. Life was simpler here, there were boundaries and rules, and everything had been practiced and prepared for long before they arrived half a year ago.

  But he missed life on Earth too. The feel of the rain and wind on his face, and the freedom to be able to open your front door and go out for a walk, or to go off for a hike.

  He packed up the last of his belongings, his best friend Robert packing his things away too. Robert was excited to get home to see his wife and children, and he was staring at the photograph taken pre mission, thinking to himself how much they would have changed since they had been away. Joe often wondered how Bob coped with being away from his family, what it must be like to miss out on your child’s first words, or first steps, and to never get those moments back. Joe was glad to be alone, no one to miss him, and no one to watch their return to Earth live on television if things went badly wrong.

  The past few weeks had been extra busy as the crew prepared for their return to Earth, so busy that they had barely had time to think about saying goodbye to space, and to adjusting to life back on Earth. But now they were packing their final things, the reality was sinking in. Joe was still young and fit, so he felt fairly certain that he would be back again next year.

  Ground crew had been watching the weather and had scouted out a landing site, somewhere in Kazakhstan. Their optimal return trajectory already plotted. There was little more to do now. The three members of the returning crew picked up their packs and headed to the Soyuz capsule, taking in one last look around them. It was time to leave already.

  ‘This is Ground Control, we’re ready to begin the undocking procedure this end’. Joe, Robert, and Val turned to their international crew mates and hugged them goodbye before pushing their bodies through the small tunnel leading into the Soyuz capsule. ‘This is the ISS, we are ready to prepare for undocking’. One final hand shake with the crew remaining onboard, and the three astronauts were inside the Soyuz orbital module as the hatch closed behind them.

  The hatch is carefully checked, to make sure there are no leaks that could cause an unexpected cabin depressurization

  The crew members put on their spacesuits and enter the descent module that they will occupy for the ultimate rollercoaster ride back to Earth

  Former astronaut Frank De Winne is now head of the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne

  He remembers clearly the emotions he felt as he was about to leave the International Space Station

  Wow! Today I'm really going home because of course the days before, you are preparing for the descent, you are reviewing all the procedures you are going through all the radiograms

  But it is only at the moment that you are in your spacesuit and that the hatches are closing that you know that four hours later you will be back on Earth

  Both crew and vehicle are now ready for the undocking sequence

  The Russian segments of the station have several docking ports for hosting Soyuz vehicles

  In this example, the vehicle is going to undock from the so called Service Module

  In this case, the undocked Soyuz reaches an orbit below the station

  The orbital velocity of the Soyuz also increases

  Sometimes, however, the Soyuz is docked to a port underneath the Station

  In these situations, approximately 40 minutes before the undocking, the Station changes its orientation

  The Soyuz then undocks and joins a higher orbit and its velocity decreases

  04:38

  In both cases, after one revolution of the earth, the orbits intersect

  04:42

  but because of their now different velocities the Station

  04:46

  and the Soyuz arrive at the intersection point at different times

  04:50

  This prevents any possibility of a collision between the two vehicles

  05:01

  When the Flight Director is ready a "GO"

  05:04

  is given to the crew to initiate the undocking

  05:07

  The crew commander issues the command

  05:09

  to open the Soyuz hooks

  05:11

  These are the only mechanical devices holding the vehicles together

  05:15

  After approximately 3-4 minutes, the hooks are

  05:18

  fully opened and the Soyuz is no longer firmly attached to the Station

  05:22

  A set of pushers that were kept mechanically compressed

  05:25

  while docked, gently ease the Soyuz away from

  05:28

  the station at a relative speed of 12 to 15 cm/s

  05:38

  Being so close to the Station, the Soyuz propulsion system

  05:41

  is inhibited in order to avoid contamination of the Station with residual

  05:46

  chemical dust produced by the Soyuz thrusters

  05:50

  The crew gets visual confirmation of the separation through the image

  05:54

  provided by the external TV camera, and also from indications

  05:58

  displayed on their monitors

  06:03

  ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli,

  06:05

  returned to earth aboard a Soyuz spacecraft at the end of Expedition 27

  06:10

  I didn't actually feel the detach, when we detached

  06:15

  from the Station, physically I did not feel it
/>
  06:18

  The physical departure from the Station

  06:20

  is done because of the push of some springs that are inside

  06:24

  You don't want to start your engines close to the Station,

  06:27

  because you are going to plume everything

  06:29

  So you are just kind of drifting away and what you

  06:32

  are doing, what we were doing was just looking at the instruments,

  06:35

  looking at the camera outside and checking that the Soyuz would be inside

  06:40

  the departure corridor, this is what we were doing

  06:44

  I did not really feel anything The only thing is that we felt

  06:48

  we started this long journey back to Earth

  06:54

  Three minutes later, when the spacecraft

  06:56

  has moved about 20 metres, the crew monitors

  06:59

  the 15 second burn that increases the separation speed up to 2 km/h

  07:05

  This leads the Soyuz to a safe position relative to the Space Station

  07:11

  After the undocking, the ground controllers upload

  07:15

  the data needed by the on-board computer to

  07:17

  autonomously perform the descent

  07:20

  The crew is in constant communication with the ground

  07:23

  They verify the validity of the data, before allowing the computer to use it.