by Rocky Carr
They were all pleased with the haul, but Roderick was so delighted he couldn’t stop laughing and throwing his money in the air.
‘I’ll slip away,’ Tee said. ‘I’ve got things to do.’
‘Yeah, nice man, later Drape Up,’ Roderick replied.
Later, when he added in what he had stuffed down his underpants, Tee discovered he had a total of three grand. He stashed most of the money and took a few hundred pounds and sorted Girlie out. Then he drove to see Karen and sorted her out. By the end of the evening, he must have sorted everyone out even if only with a drink or food or some cigarettes, and he ended up that night at a club where he got stoned and nicely drunk.
The next day he went and booked himself on the first flight he could, which was five days away, two days after Christmas, hoping he would make it back to Jamaica not too long after Gamper, who was being flown there in a casket.
He went out and bought presents for the family he had not seen for so many years, including a beautiful dress for Mama which would make her look like a queen. When the day came, he took a cab out to the airport. It was a long flight and on the way the plane stopped in Bermuda, from where Tee sent postcards to Girlie and Karen and other people in England. Then they took off on the last leg of the journey and before long, as Tee was anticipating the great welcome he would get, the plane began to descend over Jamaica, towards Norman Manley airport. Below them, the sun was sparkling on the sea. When the doors opened and he stepped outside, the warm sticky air hit him like the breath of a giant.
Tee collected his luggage and walked through the doors to be greeted by his sister Jeanie and her husband Joseph. After they had laughed awkwardly and then hugged each other, he looked around at all the other people being reunited. Up above them was a balcony, and standing there, watching everyone like hawks, was a group of men who looked just like the bad bwoys he hung around with in Brixton.
When Jeanie saw what he was looking at she cried, ‘Lord God, Joseph, no bad bwoy so-and-so and him tiefing friends dem dat? Jesus Christ, hurry up and tek we way from here, you hear, for me no able fe dem try robbed and kill us ya!’
‘Just relax and cool man, ah me name ranking! No, bwoy, can’t test dis,’ said Joseph. He was a tall, slim, dark-skinned man with more brains than strength.
It was about forty-five minutes’ drive to Chapelton, the small town where Joseph and Jeanie lived with their baby daughter Sakasher. On the way they passed through Spanish Town, where they told him Carl was now living. Tee couldn’t wait to see his brother again. As they drove on, Tee noticed the lush greens of the countryside around him, and how brightly coloured people’s clothes were. Joseph waved at passers-by who smiled and saluted back. It all seemed so small. The bright sun made Tee squint and his shirt was sticking to his back, but he breathed the air in deeply through the open window. Jamaica was his old home, and yet he couldn’t help feeling like a tourist.
When they arrived, Tee stretched himself out on the veranda.
‘Pupatee?’ Jeanie called to him.
‘Yes, sister.’
‘Wha you want fe eat?’
‘Anyting, man, me just no eat pork.’
‘Joseph, go kill two chicken fe me no do, darling.’
‘Ah no nutting dat man, it dun already,’ he said as he left to carry out the request.
Tee lifted up the baby and looked at her. She was about the same age as his daughter Paulette.
‘Tomorrow Joseph will take you over to see Mama and Pops,’ Jeanie said. ‘Come on, I’ll show you your room.’
When they came back down, he tried to give Jeanie some money, but she refused. She was the youngest of all his sisters and without doubt the most beautiful. She was also very educated, as she was a school teacher.
‘You want some orange?’ Joseph asked him when he came back with the chicken.
‘Yeah, man.’
They walked outside and there were three orange trees hung with big fat fruit. He reached up and picked one, and when he ate some it was sweet and fresh. He took another one and he kept picking and peeling and eating orange after orange.
‘How long you in Jamaica for?’ Joseph asked.
‘Six weeks,’ he said. Then he asked, ‘When ah Gamper’s funeral?’
‘Your sister no tell you? You miss de funeral.’
‘No?’
‘Yeah, man, dem buried him couple days ago. It was a big funeral, everybody was there man.’
Tee was shocked and sad that he had missed the funeral. He had come all this way specially to see his brother buried, and suddenly he realised how long it had been since they had last seen each other. But at least he was in Jamaica and he could put some flowers on his grave and have a talk to him, whatever good it would do.
When they got back into the house there was a strong smell of curried chicken and Tee’s mouth was watering.
‘Pupatee, you want rice or bread with de chicken?’
‘Me no mind you know, sister,’ he replied.
While he was waiting for dinner, Joseph took him into the front room and opened the bar, where there were bottles of red and white rum, brandy, wine, stout, Heineken and soft drinks. Tee tried some white rum first, which set his throat and belly aflame and his head spinning. By the time dinner was ready he was almost drunk and twice as hungry. His sister placed in front of him a large bowl of chicken and gravy, and another bowl of rice, and another with calaloo. To drink, there was a large glass jug filled with iced grapefruit punch. Joseph turned on the radio and Tee ate listening to classical reggae and the Jamaican news station, as content as he could be. He was home.
The following morning, Joseph and he set off to visit Tee’s parents. It was a hard drive, followed by a long walk from the end of the road. They crossed rivers and climbed hills, and finally came to familiar landmarks. Here was the river where Gamper had rescued Tee. It still looked dangerous, but Tee was a good swimmer now and he looked forward to taking a plunge.
‘By the way, Pupatee, you smoke ganja?’ Joseph said.
Yeah, man,’ Tee replied. ‘I’m dying for a spliff.’
‘You should of tell me cause we did past de place where dem sell it. Anyway, me have couple ah fifty-cent sticks,’ he said, handing Tee one.
They climbed a little hill and there below them was the house Tee had grown up in. He was filled with excitement. His mother was standing on the veranda, looking up at them. He rushed down to the house and took her in his arms and kissed her and hugged her. ‘Let me see you face,’ she said, but he just kept holding her in his arms. When finally he stepped back to take a look at her, she was smaller than he remembered: slim and strong and dark. He tried to look his best for her, putting on the most angelic smile he could, for she was a God-fearing woman.
‘So you come to see Mama, Pupatee,’ she said. You brother Gamper dead. You know dem bury him couple days ago, see him grave deh in de back.’ She pointed and he saw a neat grave.
‘Where is Pops and everyone else, Mama?’ Tee asked.
‘You father gone down ah British market. From you left when you was a little boy till now him no miss a Saturday when him no go British market. You will see him later. You brother Carl work ah Spanish town driving taxi car. You sister Ivy big son Ervin turn bad man and live down ah British side. Ah just me and you father plus you brother dead and left pickneys live here now son.’ She turned and shouted, ‘Hedward, Barry. Come meet you uncle.’
‘Yes, Granny,’ small voices responded, and two boys ran out of the sugar-cane field, eating cane.
‘Howdy, Uncle Pupatee,’ they said, and Tee saw that they looked just like Gamper.
Joseph said he had to go and conduct some business and Mama told Edward and Barry to collect firewood, leaving her and Tee to talk. He told her how everyone was in England, and then gave her £200. He said he was going to give the same to Pops.
‘You better just give him £100,’ she said. ‘You know how him drink de white rum and go on bad when him ready.’
Tee
looked at her in surprise, but she shook her head. ‘Him still de same, him no change. We even have to sleep in different room and bed, because him too rude!’
Tee gave her the dress he had bought for her. It was a bit big but she was thrilled and held it up to her asking how she looked. Then she burst into tears, and said how happy she was to see her wash-belly son now he was grown. He wondered how much she knew about his activities in Brixton, but she didn’t ask.
Eventually Mama set about making dinner for them all: saltfish and ackee, yams, green bananas, sweet potatoes, dumplings and coco. The food of his childhood.
When it grew dark, Tee began to get impatient to see his father. Suddenly he saw the outline of a figure on a horse on top of the hill and he walked up to meet him. Pops looked down at Tee, screwing his eyes up in the darkness.
‘Wha happen, Pops?’ said Tee.
The old man looked at him good. ‘Ah Pupatee?’
‘Yeah man, ah Pupatee.’
‘Den how you look like Carl so?’
Pops got off his horse and they shook hands and walked together down to the house. Tee could see that his father had shrunk. He was half the size he had been, the muscles thinned out.
‘Papa, you see our son come look fe we?’ Mama said.
‘So me ah see, Ma.’
‘You want some food?’
‘Yes, tanks.’
When he was finished eating, Pops had a bit of food left on his plate. ‘Hedward and Barry!’ he called. ‘You can have dis if you want.’ The two boys smiled and took the food aside and began eating. Tee gave Pops £150, which he took and thanked him for. It was late now and very dark, as it had been when Tee was young. There was still no electricity in this part of Jamaica. Pops and he washed their feet and said good-night.
In the morning, the cock-a-doodle-doo of the rooster woke Tee and for a moment he thought he was a boy again, waking in the only house he knew. Mama was soon up and in the kitchen, and Pops followed shortly afterwards. When the two boys appeared, rubbing the sleep from their eyes, Tee smiled as he remembered back to when Carl and he had been just like them. It was good to be home again.
Tee walked around the house. Mama was boiling coffee and frying dumplings and eggs and plantain. Then he strode outside. Edward and Barry were chopping wood, and down below the large cherry tree, Pops was milking a cow. Tee went down and helped him until they had a whole bucket to take back up to the kitchen. ‘It good to see you again, man,’ Pops said. ‘Specially with you brother Gamper who just get buried.’ Tee couldn’t find the words to show his sorrow so he just nodded.
Eventually he said, ‘What we doing today?’
‘Me going to pad up two donkeys and two mules and go cut some grass down where you grandfather did buried and put the grass away. When me come back and feed de milking cows little every night. Me can’t cut de grass every day in me old age, me son.’
‘No worry yourself, man. Me ah look forward fe do de most work today, Pops.’
After breakfast, Pops and Tee walked with the donkeys and mules about three miles down to a hill with tall grass. Tee took two of the animals and climbed up the hill to where the grass was out in the open with the blazing sun right on it. He cut the grass quickly and tied it into large bundles and was soon leading the animals back down to where his father was working. He had cut plenty of grass, so Tee bundled that up too, and they cut and bundled together for many hours. When they were finished, Tee took out his cigarette. His father asked for one.
‘Me never know you smoke, Pops?’
‘Yeah, man, me smoke, man.’
On the way back they saw some boys fishing on the river bank.
‘Catch any fish?’ his father called to them. The boys smiled and bent down and lifted from the water two long sticks which had plenty of fish on them. Tee remembered how much Mama and Pops loved fresh fish, and how much he had loved it too.
‘Give me a sec, Pops,’ he said, walking up to the boys. ‘About how much dollars’ worth ah fish me can buy from you boys?’ he asked them.
Their eyes lit up and their smiles reached their ears. ‘You can give we two dollars,’ they said.
‘Two dollars? Me will give you two dollars each.’ They couldn’t believe their ears and looked at him as if he was mad. ‘Me no hear nobody seh is ah deal yet,’ he said.
‘A deal!’ they all shouted at once.
Tee gave them their money and they laughed at their good fortune. When he got back to his father, Pops asked what he was going to do with all the fish.
‘What you and Mama and the boys can’t eat me will eat, me love fry fish, you see, man.’ That night, dinner was fish soup and fried fish with yam, callaloo and breadfruit.
As the days passed, Tee walked all over the neighbourhood. With his mother he visited the spot where Gamper and Carl had killed the large hog and where he had killed the little piglet. ‘Son,’ Mama said, ‘all dis ah fe you, so if you ever come back ah yard fe live, you can bil you house pon dis land.’
Tee smiled. Then they saw a girl of about eighteen years coming towards them, carrying a bucket of water on her head. She greeted his mother while he stared at her, for she was tall and beautiful.
‘Hey gal child,’ his mother said.
‘Me ah hear you Mrs Kay.’
‘Mrs Dee up ah de yard deh?’
‘Me tink so Mrs Kay.’
‘Tell her seh me ah come look fe her.’
A little while later, Mama and Tee followed the girl to Mrs Dee’s. He could remember Mrs Dee, who had been quite old when he was a boy, but she did not recognise him.
‘Dis ah me washbelly bwoy, Pupatee,’ Mama said.
Mrs Dee held and kissed Tee, but all he could think about was the girl with the bucket who he had seen around the back of the house. ‘Mrs Dee,’ he said. ‘Me no too rich you know. But see thirty dollar here, fe buy you bread and milo.’ She almost cried with pleasure, but he cut short her thanks by asking if he could get some water.
‘Rose,’ Mrs Dee called.
‘Me ah come, Granny.’
‘Mrs Kay son ah come fe ah drink ah water, God bless him.’
Tee left Mama and Mrs Dee faster than a long dog and went round to the back where Rose’s and his eyes made four. She gave him the glass of water and he took a sip and then put the glass on the side and started chatting her up. ‘Boy,’ he told her, ‘me come from England five days now an you ah de first ting me see so sweet.’
‘You too lie.’ She smiled.
‘Ah true man, me ah come take you out one of them days. Where you want us to go, down a river go swim?’
‘Ah joke, you ah joke,’ she said shyly. ‘Ah who dem call you?’
‘Pupatee.’
‘Bwoy, you relly favour you bredda Gamper weh dead, an me see no different in ah you face from you other bredda Carl. Me tink you was him, but you bigger and taller.’
‘Me no even see him yet.’
‘Me see him, all ah de time. Ah drive him taxi.’
‘Come, we go, Tee,’ Mama called. ‘We go now.’
Tee took Rose in his arms and held her, saying, ‘Me ah bring you ah England go marry you, you know. You would ah like dat sweety Rose?’
She smiled and blushed, and he kissed her on the cheek.
‘Pupatee!’ his mother called again.
‘Bye, Rose,’ he said. He began to turn away, but then he stopped and fished out $15 and gave it to her. Then he joined Mama and they made their way back home.
‘You like de little young gal?’ Mama teased.
‘She’s nice.’
‘Well, no badda go wid you fast self an breed her up, den go back ah England, fe go mek people chat we name when you gone.’
‘No, Mama.’
She looked at him and said, laughing, ‘You stay deh bout you no man.’
Sure enough, two days later he found himself at Mrs Dee’s again. Rose was there and the first thing she said to him was, ‘It looks like you never know dat me did miss you,’ and gave him
a sweet smile. That night he stayed for supper, and the night. When he got home the next day, all Mama said was, ‘You and dat young gal!’
The time passed quickly and before he knew it the weekend had come around again. On the Saturday he went with his father to the British market. Although there were plenty of shops selling West Indian food in Brixton, Tee had forgotten what a real Jamaican market was like. You could buy anything there. The place was alive with gossip, haggling and raucous laughter. Everywhere you looked there were bright colours, and the air smelt of spices and ripe fruit. There were huge piles of green bananas lying about, strings of orangey yellow ackee hanging up, sacks of spices, baskets of fish, coconuts, sugar-cane, bright yellow corn, callaloo, chocho, mangoes, pineapples, soursops, saltfish, live chickens, all kinds of meat and offal. There was a stall selling mouth-watering barbecued jerk, and another selling iced skyjuice. The stall-holders, most of them plump women, grinned or called out to Tee as he strolled by.
After wandering around, Tee joined Pops in the bar, where he and eight or so friends were drinking white rum and water.
‘Wha happen, Pops, you all right?’ he asked.
‘Yeah, man.’
Everybody stopped what they were doing and had a good stare at him. Tee told the barman to make two large bottles of rum available for everyone to drink. ‘Nice one, youth man, you know wha we like,’ they all said.
‘Ah me last son, you know,’ his father said.
‘So weh him did deh?’ someone asked.
‘Him did go ah England when him was ah little boy.’
‘And now you lost one son and gain another one, you lucky, no, rass?’
Pops smiled. An old woman piped up, ‘Ah wait, ah you last seed dis Putto?
‘Yes, mum,’ Pops said.
The lady turned to Tee and placed her hand on his chest, saying, ‘Sonny, Mrs Kay always produce a child for your father if not every year, every other year, but long time ago in this very bar they all joke that him gone soft in his old age because nearly three years passed still Mrs Kay never had no big belly and they told him you back get weak now Putto, you seed bag dry up. And sonny,’ she continued, ‘you father bet everyone a bottle of white rum each that his back no gone weak yet and him seed bags no dry up yet. And sonny, everyone bet him he couldn’t make Mrs Kay produce another youth, and the end of that year Mrs Kay had you. And me was in this very bar when you father came in one Saturday and collected his bet from everybody.’