this ain't no joke. This is warriors going to battle. This is the guts of the people, their blood" (123). Aldrick becomes the dragon of Port of Spain for two full days. He feels joy when he sees terror in people's faces after gazing at him: "he liked it when they saw him coming and gathering up their children and ran". On his way home, Aldrick stumbles upon the Calvary Hill band that refuses to end Carnival and wants to continue dancing. Aldrick slowly works his way to the front of the band towards Sylvia, who has been dancing wildly to the rhythm of the steelband. After observing her for a while, he reaches out to touch her but she spins out reach and, facing him, delivers a vocal blow: "No mister! I have my man!" (128) Suddenly, Guy appears behind her and caresses her towards him, leaving Aldrick frozen in the moment, dwelling in pain as Sylvia dances away with another man. 9. Ash Wednesday Aldrick awakes on Ash Wednesday and emerges from his room to look out at the yard with Carnival still swimming in his mind. He inhales deeply and the stench of poverty hits his nostrils for the first time in his life. He looks over all of the "pathetic and ridiculous looking shacks planted in this brown dirt and stone, this was his home". With Sylvia's rejection still fresh in his mind, he says, "I have to learn to feel." This marks his acceptance of Calvary Hill as his home, and his life. Meanwhile, Miss Cleothilda recognized, for the first time, a change in the yard that threatens her position of queen: a combination of Philo's newfound success, her inability to convince Aldrick to do something about Pariag's continued presence, and most of all, Sylvia's new man, Guy. Guy could "keep her in style",(135) and if she became ambitious, could become the new "queen". As a result of all this, Miss Cleothilda begins to use Miss Olive as a way to create a friendship with Sylvia so that she could mold her as she saw fit into the new "queen" of the yard. Her relationship with Philo causes a stir in the yard and people begin to question whether or not it is intimate. If so, it brings a more human side, a weakness, in Miss Cleothilda. A shyness comes over Aldrick and he begins