Andy had one leg. He lost his other leg when a wall fell on him during the great earthquake of 1994, the one that sunk an entire island beneath the sea. Andy was my friend. He owned a little beach restaurant called the Cool and Calm Cafe. It was across the road from Manzanillo Beach at the end of the road in Costa Rica.
Andy’s restaurant served coconut rice and whole red snapper or fresh lobster with curried vegetables and, of course, rum. The lobster was a bit expensive—twelve dollars, I think—but I bought it because one-legged Andy free-dived for it himself. Well, until he had a bad accident.
I had not seen Andy in probably a month and, when I walked into his little rustic restaurant, I found him sitting in a wheel chair. His dreads were a little longer. His beautiful black face was a little pinched—he obviously was in some pain—but he still wore that every-little-thing-gonna-be-alright air. When I asked him what happened, he explained about the accident and the pins in his leg in an easy fashion and without complaint.
The sand entry to Andy’s little eatery had been washed away by rain and time and it wasn’t exactly easy for Andy and his wheelchair to navigate. So we hired two big boys, a wheelbarrow, and several shovels. And we went to work moving sand from the beach to the front door of the Cool and Calm Cafe. We paid the boys in plata (cash) and a few cans of the local cervasa. A few hours later, Andy had the level entrance he needed to get to work.
Andy took it all in stride. He thanked us in a simple fashion and seemed to add the change of circumstances to his life folder. It was as if everything in life was to simply be accepted. I admired his ability to take life in stride.
A month later Andy was up and walking again. He was still unable to use his prosthetic leg and needed crutches. But, he was upright. When I asked him how he was feeling, he gave me very little complaint. I stopped to reflect on how this kind Rasta man had endured the loss of one leg and now was slowly recovering from—of all things—the near ruin of his other leg, and yet he never seemed to complain.
Oh, I forgot to mention, the first time I met Andy, he was riding a bicycle. Yes, a one-legged man riding a regular bicycle. A one-legged man riding a bicycle and free-diving for lobster and running a Cool and Calm Cafe on the beach at the end of the road in Costa Rica.
So, I guess from the beginning, I was amazed.