On the morning of Dec. 16, another Bird brother, Curtis, crossed Guiana Island's narrows to present the couple with the proposed Bufton resettlement bill. He urged them to listen to the parliamentary debate on the legislation that evening.
"Curtis told us to listen to the radio because Vere was going to play havoc in Parliament on our behalf," Taffy recalled recently over a cup of tea in his new home. "We listened, and, as it turned out, he voted for our eviction.
"Well, I decided I would take a .38 [caliber pistol] and I would frighten . . . Vere. That's all I meant to do. The last thing I remember is I walked in his office, he was sitting at his desk, and I blacked out. When I came to, Curtis had my hand holding the gun in his hands. My left hand was bleeding and Vere was shot."
Police rushed Bufton and Bird to the hospital. They charged Bufton with attempted murder and sent a squad for Bonnie, 72.
"They lied to me," she said. "They told me Taffy had attempted suicide and that I'd better rush to the hospital. They didn't even give me time for a cup of tea or to clean my teeth. When I got to Taffy, I realized they'd tricked me off the island."
The government and most Antiguans reckon that the Buftons got a good deal. So do the developers, who view the dispute as a bizarre price of doing business in the Caribbean.
"It's just like when you buy a house and there's a previous tenant in it," Haydon said. "We have inherited this problem.
"But our perception is Mr. and Mrs. Bufton have a very good deal [from the government]. . . . They also get a very good income from the government. I believe a lot of care and attention have been paid to them."
The Buftons scoff at such logic. They say the experience alone has so traumatized them that they often pause in conversations with a stranger, look at each other in search of a word, then apologize. "I'm sorry. We've lost our minds," Taffy said.
Newfound Luxury Lost on Outcasts
Besides, they say, their home is under 24-hour police guard--both to protect the couple and to keep tabs on them, officials say. In any event, the Buftons' newfound luxury is lost on them after 34 years of basic survival in solitude.
"We'd been living a very backward existence on the island. That is true," said Bufton, who is out on $10,000 bail. "But we were used to it because we'd roughed it in the bush of Africa. We don't like this new life here one little bit.
"When they took us from Guiana Island, you see, they destroyed our lives. The deer thought we were deer. The sheep thought we were sheep. The ducks thought we were ducks. Here, well, we're just lost."
