Invitation

“The All Appliances Store” at Port-au-Prince
invites you to
the unveiling of the first escalator of Haiti
on Friday, June 21, 1996 at 5:00 pm.

Cocktail attire.
RSVP: 225-1996

When Elisabeth’s friend told her about this exciting invitation, she had no doubt that she would also receive one. She surely did not want to miss the unveiling of the first escalator in her country! She became thrilled remembering that her and Jeff Lafleur, one of the owners of “the All Appliances Store”, attended the same college in the United States. He would certainly not forget to put her on the guest list. Gossip travels fast in small countries, and Jeff probably knew that she admired his hardworking family who invested heavily in their poor, unstable, and risky economy. They were the ones who introduced modern appliances in the Haitian households: refrigerators, microwaves, washing machines, electric irons, and more. She thought they were visionaries and respected their success.

Two weeks before the event, no invitation had reached Elisabeth. She dared calling Jeff despite the fact that it had been years since she had her last conversation with him. She couldn’t resist telling him how honored she would be to be present for this upcoming important gathering that his family was hosting. Flattered by Elisabeth’s uplifting words on the achievements of the Lafleurs, Jeff acted as if Elisabeth’s envelope had been sitting on his desk, waiting for a confirmation of the recipient’s address. After the call, he promptly assigned one of the drivers the task to hand deliver Elisabeth’s envelope. On the printed card, he wrote a personal note: “So glad you can make it”. That would compensate for the late delivery of this invite.

Once Elisabeth had the assurance to be part of the headcount, she would start planning her outing. How should she dress? In June, it is still daytime at 5 pm. A nice skirt suit should be perfect. Does she have one that fits? Elisabeth would not want it to be black. Black looked too serious, too professional, and rigid and it was not really cocktail attire. A nice tender color would do better. She remembers a pretty baby blue skirt and jacket purchased about a year ago, that she wore only once. With a white shirt, a golden breast pin, a pair of classic black patent leather pumps, she should be fine.

She wisely made arrangements to carpool with two friends. With the insecurity prevailing in the streets, it was safer not to be alone in a car. In addition, an article of the local press about this event released that there would be 500 guests. Parking would be an issue, and it would help to have to find a place for only one car.

At their arrival, they are welcomed by a rum punch and excellent Haitian delicacies: “acras” (1), fried plantains, fried breadfruits, crispy peanuts, delicious griot (2). The store is clean, spotless, well decorated, and chairs are placed facing the majestic shining escalator showing a red and blue ribbon ready to be cut. An orchestra is playing some background music. The crowd gets bigger and bigger. Everyone is smiling, mingling, happy to see each other, conversing admiringly about the Lafleur family.

A host announces the beginning of the ceremony with a procession marching towards the podium located by the stairs. The parade is headed by the members of the board of directors of the family venture “The All Appliances Store”. They are followed by the mayor of the city of Port-au-Prince, two deputies, two senators, the legal counsel of the company, their banker, and a priest. Once installed on the stand, there are speeches, all of them panegyrics of the Lafleur family. And finally, the priest is asked to bless “the wonder”.

This is the moment that has to be perfect! It has been planned, programmed, rehearsed, and repeated numerous times. Four actions have to elegantly synchronize: the priest says his last “Amen”, the mayor cuts the ribbon with a pair of golden scissors handed on a lace pillow, the orchestra starts with the joyous notes of the Fifth Symphony of Beethoven, and a designated employee turns on the button of the escalator. It has to be theatrical and memorable:

Amen – ribbon cut- Music – escalator starts!

Practice makes perfect. It is therefore not a surprise that everything works out fine! It is such a magic moment that it takes the crowd a couple of seconds to realize that the bending priest going up the stairs progressively leaning forward is not part of the show! His black cassock has been caught between two stairs of the escalator and he is scared to be swallowed by them.

– Scissors! Yells the President of “The All Appliances Store”!

This exclamation is an eye opener and the seconds that follow are long…. There should be a pair of scissors handy as one was just used to cut the ribbon. Thank God!  They are quickly handed to the President of “The All Appliances Store” who rushes up the stairs. To carry out her operation, she can’t hold the handrails. She lacks balance on these moving stairs where she manages to face the priest with threatening scissors that she promptly uses to generously cut the priest’s cassock and set him free. Annoyed by this large piece of fabric holding its sophisticated mechanism, the escalator loudly starts shaking. It then stops completely with a not so reassuring smell of burning. Now at the top of the escalator, liberating scissors in hand, the President of “The All Appliances Store” bears a wide satisfied smile: the priest is no longer held captive but he is sweating with a totally drawn face.

His impeccable, chic black perfectly ironed cassock that walked on the red carpet is now missing a quarter of it, from the front waist to the floor. It sadly reveals a worn-out pair of pants poorly mended in several places and held at the waist with a very old belt. This is an unwanted reminder of the humble daily life of this priest dignified for the occasion.

A wave of sadness went through the assembly.

The “All Appliance Store” had taken all steps to have this escalator never stop rolling once it was turned on. They had  worked on a contingency plan with a focus on reliable continuous electricity with a generator and a backup one. They were selling electrical appliances in a country where most of the time a power outage is what turned them off. They concentrated their planning of this nice event on having these stairs on, surely not off. This explains why scissors came to their mind when a disappointing, unfortunate, unexpected incident happened during their well-rounded ceremony. “Turn it off” was not in the plan.

-(1) acras: yam fritters

– (2) griots: fried pork