Pao

by Kerry Young

  But anyway she frighten me enough to make me think I go build myself a safe because I sure as hell not putting any of my money in any bank. Next thing you know they asking all sort of questions ’bout where it come from and I definitely not getting into any kind of conversation over a thing like that.

  So I decide the best place is under the shower. Ain’t nobody going to think of looking there. I tell Hampton to dig the hole and fix it up, and make sure it watertight. But it cause so much commotion I couldn’t stop everybody in the house from taking an interest, especially Mui who seem happy to spend all day just sitting on the little bench in there watching Hampton sweat and strain.

  18

  Opportunity

  Well now, the Jamaican woman feeling on top of the world because they convinced Carol Joan Crawford going win the Miss World competition, which will be the first time a Jamaican do it. So every one of them start fetch up like they think they the most beautiful thing that grace every man day even if him minding him own business just walking down the street. And you can’t do nothing with them they all get so feisty. Not that they need much encouragement in that direction.

  And if that not enough to make the nation feel proud they decide to hold a anniversary celebration for Independence Day just in case we didn’t get enough chance to sing and dance and eat the first time ’round.

  This time they planning a military and police parade from George VI Memorial Park all the way up to Cross Roads. And they hoping we not tired of cheering because they think we going line the route and wave the flag for the whole thing again. And the jewel in the crown? The prime minister going take a salute at the march past.

  I can’t make up my mind whether to go or not. I think that maybe I must have something better to do than go stand up in the street in the hot sun and watch them congratulate themselves, because I start think to myself that maybe Gloria right. They keep telling us ’bout all the progress they making and sure enough I can see they building the Esso oil refinery downtown, and the big hotels in New Kingston and suchlike. They got cement pouring outta the Carib works like there is no tomorrow. But I also hear some heavy rumblings from West Kingston ’bout unemployment and how the people over there poor and vex. So what I figure now is, Independence is good for the young and the old but only for some of them, the ones that already got something to invest in the progress because they are the ones that going reap the prosperity. And what happen to unity in all of that I not quite sure.

  So the Friday night before the anniversary celebrations the telephone ring. It is Morrison. And in truth it is more like one o’clock in the morning.

  ‘What you doing ringing the house at this time of night, man? You not got no bed to go to?’

  ‘I have just received a telephone call from Captain Meacham.’

  ‘I thought he left when the British army make their retreat last year.’

  ‘He is back for the celebrations. He brought his daughter with him to show her Jamaica.’

  ‘So what this got to do with me?’

  When I finish talk to Morrison, I get dressed and get in the car and take a ride ’cross Windward Road to Club Havana. The parking lot got cars park up every which way and the Cuban salsa is pumping out so loud I bet they can hear it halfway ’cross the Palisadoes. But since there nobody out there it no matter.

  I circle the car park a couple of time to see what I can see and then I park up on a verge and get out. I got a flashlight in the trunk. The car park not that big which explain why it so pack. So it not long before I see it up in a corner sorta nearly under a bush. But it not actually hid as such. I just take my foot and ease it over and when the body slump on it back that is when I see him face, and then my eye catch sight of the knife. It look like some kinda butcher knife just laying there on the ground. I get out a kerchief and pick it up by the point and I throw it in a old crocus bag I got in the back of the car.

  I drive over to the Blue Lagoon and telephone the police, and tell Clifton Brown to come meet me there.

  When Clifton turn up a good hour later he already been to Club Havana and he already got the name and address of a waitress that run off this evening before she finish work. Him tell me he got to go back to the scene , that the way he say it, because he have to catch up with what his men doing. So I say for him to meet me at the waitress house in an hour. Then just before him leave he say to me, ‘Is two bodies down there, yu know, not just one.’

  I get back in the car and I drive up to New Kingston where Meacham holed up in the house he rent for his vacation. When I reach the house he open the door before I even knock it. Morrison is sitting in the living room with a glass of Appleton in his hand so I reckon he just forget again that he a Presbyterian.

  When I see him it remind me that I not paid no visit to Mrs Morrison and the baby since they come back from Cedar Valley. I know they call the baby John, and Morrison already tell me that Margaret delighted that you can’t tell from looking at him that the baby half Chinese. I don’t say nothing ’bout it though because Meacham think we get rid of the baby, and he already look embarrass that he have to call me out like this. So I just make a mental note to myself ’bout making a visit.

  Captain Meacham tense. He don’t like what going on. He don’t like being in this position with me, not a second time. It already stuck in his craw over the thing with Merleen and the baby. So I just say to him, ‘Where your daughter at?’

  And he say, ‘In her bedroom.’

  ‘Well she better come out here and tell me what happen so we can all go get some sleep tonight.’

  When Meacham gone to get the girl I say to Morrison, ‘He know this going cost him?’

  And Morrison say, ‘Yes. I told him. He said I am the only person he knows still on the island. That is why he called me.’

  ‘Yu must mean the only white person, because it seem like he still know me, and he still know Merleen and any number of other girls that he love and leave just the same way he leave her, although I don’t suppose that love come into it that much.’

  Meacham daughter white and skinny. She look like she could do with a good meal inside her. And she got dark brown hair, cut short. Her name Helena, and she only eighteen year old.

  According to her, she take the big kitchen knife from the house in case she need to protect herself when she go down to Club Havana. This is how she tell it anyway. She say she lucky to have the knife with her because the boys just follow her out to the car park and jump her for no reason at all.

  I listen to all of this and then I say to them, ‘She can say self-defence if you want, but you know yourself questions going be ask ’bout what she doing at Club Havana in the first place, a young white girl on her own, drinking liquor and carrying on. And then she go kill two boys with a big knife that she herself take down there.’

  I look at Meacham and I say to him, ‘It don’t look good, Charles, I have to tell you that. Not with the Jamaican police. Not with the fact that these boys had no weapon of their own. Not at the moment with the Independence celebrations and everything people have on their minds ’bout the British and colonialism and slavery and all of that. Because they will think to themselves well now we have freedom but we still have some little white English girl who think she can come down here and murder two Jamaican boys for no good reason and get away with it. And that not good. Really, is very bad timing. That is what it is. Bad timing. And in truth I don’t think a Jamaican jail is going suit your daughter. No, Fort Augusta not going suit her at all.’

  So I tell him the only thing to do is get the girl off the island as soon as possible.

  ‘Just you take her back to England.’

  Then afterwards I say to him, ‘Where the clothes she wearing at the time?’

  ‘They are on the back veranda.’

  So I tell Morrison to take them home with him and burn them because I don’t trust Meacham to take much care with anything he do.

  Then I say to him, ‘What about the car she driving?’
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br />   ‘Parked out the back.’

  When I go look at the car it one of them old English Rover. A nasty-looking grey thing that sit up stiff and straight just like Meacham.

  I look at him and I say, ‘Where you get a thing like that?’

  ‘I borrowed it from an ex-army friend.’

  So I turn to Morrison and I say, ‘So he still have at least one ex-army friend here on the island then.’

  But Morrison just want to shush me because he don’t want me getting on the subject ’bout how the English only want to know you when it suit them. Or more like, when they got some little job need doing that they don’t want to soil they little white hands over. Is 1963, we independent, but we still servicing them.

  When I open the car door I see the seat got blood all over it, and the steering wheel and the gear-stick as well. Blood all over the interior where she open the car door from the inside to get out. I close the door and I walk back inside, and the two of them follow me. I pick up the telephone and I ring Hampton.

  ‘Yu need to go get Milton and the two of yu come over here with what yu need to clean up a car.’

  ‘What! Yu mean right now?’

  ‘What yu think I ringing yu for this hour of night if I don’t want yu come do this thing right now?’

  Then just before I leave the house Meacham say to me, ‘She dropped the knife. Do you think there is much chance that the police will find it?’

  ‘None at all,’ I say to him. ‘Not that the Jamaican police incompetent or lazy, you understand. But I already got the knife. I pick it up in the car park earlier this evening and I keeping it nice and safe for you.’

  By the time I cut ’cross town to the waitress house Clifton Brown already there waiting outside for me in a parked car. When we knock the door a man face appear at a side window and then him come and open up.

  ‘Is you, Uncle. We ’fraid maybe it be the police.’ And he let us in.

  The waitress turn out to be him little sister, a girl of just sixteen. She lock herself in the bathroom she so ’fraid, but when her brother tell her to come out she do it. And just as she pass him by, him reach out and box her, like a slap in the back of her head. But the slap seem to get weaker from when it leave him hand to when it reach her head. Then him sit her down and tell her to tell me what happen. So it seem like him vex with her, but him still care for her and worried for her as well.

  ‘The white girl been coming down the club all week. And every night she talk to me a little. And I talk back. Then tonight she ask me if I want go sit out in her car with her, where it a bit more quiet and we can talk. And I say alright.’ She stop and she look at me like she wondering if she want to go on. And I look at Clifton because he the one that need encourage her now she on his territory. He the one that need set her mind at ease.

  So he say to her, ‘I think we know where you going with this and it alright. Believe me, you in fine company with this.’ Both she and me look at him sorta quizzical, but then she carry on.

  ‘When my break come, I go out there and one thing and another, and then she say to me if I want get in the back seat of the car with her. She say we can get more comfortable. I don’t know what come over me, I just say yes. We was in there for a while and then the next thing I know there was this banging on the car window and a lot of laughing and hooting. And when I look ’round there was two boys. Just children really. But they acting like they gone mad, screaming and running ’round and banging on the car. I just panic in case all their carry-on attract someone attention. Anyway, before I know what was happening she jump outta the car with this carving knife and was slashing at one of these boys. She was in a frenzy. I never seen nothing like it in my life. It was like she just become a completely different person. And while all this was going on the other boy just stand there staring at her. So I was shouting, ‘Run, run,’ but he didn’t move. It was as if he was glued to the spot and then she swing ’round with the knife and catch him throat. And that was when I run, and come home because I didn’t know where else to go.’

  So now me and Clifton both know we got a situation. After all, the perversions of white people is one thing, but Jamaicans doing that sort of nastiness, no. And definitely not a young girl like this. Not in Jamaica. Once she set foot inside that car she become guilty. And judge and jury wouldn’t be too fussy ’bout what them punishing her for.

  I say to Clifton, ‘We have to get this girl off the island tonight. Yu going have to take her to Cuba.’

  ‘Cuba! How me going do that?’

  ‘Yu have to take a launch, man.’

  ‘I can’t take out a police launch at four o’clock in the morning for no good reason and take it to Cuba. Yu mad?’

  ‘Well you of all people, Clifton Brown, I would have thought would understand a situation like this. If this girl stay here tonight she going end up in jail for sure, while her little white girlfriend flying free back to England on the morning breeze. Is that what yu want to happen to her? Look at her, she nothing but a child.’

  When I look at him I can see that I got him convinced, so I say, ‘Alright then, but yu going have to keep her somewhere safe tonight and then yu can put her on the morning flight to Miami. All yu need for that is some US identification and a ticket.’

  ‘What identification? What the hell you talking ’bout?’

  ‘Passport, man. Driving licence.’

  ‘And where yu think I going get that?’

  ‘Is independence weekend! Yu know how many Americans out there right now drinking liquor and living it up. Go arrest somebody and let them cool off in jail while yu take them papers. How come yu can’t ever think nothing for yourself, Clifton?’

  Just before him go I tell him to try keep the thing outta the newspapers at least till after the holiday weekend done.

  When I go back to Matthews Lane I put the knife in the safe and try get a couple hours sleep before daybreak.

  The next morning Meacham come see me on him way to the airport. He park the nasty grey Rover car outside the shop across the street, and I see the girl sitting there like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.

  Him come in the shop and I say to him, ‘The car clean enough for you?’

  And him say, ‘Yes.’ Then him just hand me a envelope and when I look inside it I see it full of US dollars. I half begin to wonder where him get so much money from so fast overnight, especially on a holiday weekend, but then I realise I don’t care. At least he have the good manners this time to put it in a envelope, not like how he just hand me the naked bills when he pay me to get rid of Merleen’s baby.

  I think him see himself as paying for a service. And I think him expect me to go give him the knife. But then I start think ’bout how this man going fly outta here and leave me with all his responsibility. I got Merleen Chin and baby John Morrison, and I got Marguerite Lopez, which is what the waitress call after Clifton done sort out the business with the driving licence.

  I got all these people to look out for and put through school and everything. So I look at Meacham and I say to him, ‘I was thinking of something regular.’

  Clifton do the business with the newspaper thing as well because the story didn’t reach the Gleaner till the Wednesday morning, 7 August. It make page four, squeeze between the Coral Gardens murder case and a hit and run in Savanna-la-Mar. There it was. ‘No clues in stabbing of youths.’

  On Friday 2nd August two youths were found stabbed to death in the car park of Club Havana on the Windward Road in Kingston. The youths, Winston Morgan and Aubrey Williams, both aged 13 years old, were from Kingston in the parish of St Andrew. Police have no clues and have yet to arrest anyone in connection with these fatal woundings.

  19

  Reputation

  A week or so after that I go visit Margaret Morrison and the baby. I take some peanut brittle for her and a little shirt and pants thing for the baby that far too big for him but Margaret say is OK he will grow into it.

  Well, Mrs Morrison right. You can�
��t tell from looking at him that his mother Chinese. Baby John look just like a regular big-frame baby white boy. Funny thing is he even got a full head of ginger hair just like George. If you didn’t know no better you would even think that George Morrison him papa.

  Margaret entertain me royal with tea and shortbread biscuits. She so happy with the baby she can’t thank me enough. She say it change her whole life. She say it give her life meaning. She say every day she thank the Lord that He bring baby John to her. She say she and George happier than they ever been their whole lives. I never hear anybody carry on so much over a pickney. I feel like I want to say to her, ‘Is just a baby, you know, Margaret,’ but I don’t say nothing because it would hurt her feelings, and I don’t mean to do that.

  Then she turn to face me, and she turn her whole body right ’round so she looking at me square and direct.

  And she say to me, ‘I would like to ask something of you. You don’t have to give me your answer straight away, but I would like it if you would at least consider it. I beg you, just think about it before you respond.’

  I can’t imagine what she going say to me.

  But then she say, ‘George and I would like to ask you to be John’s godfather.’

  Well, you could have knock me down with a feather. ‘Margaret, I honoured that you ask me, but ’

  She put her finger to her lip like to say shhh, and then she say, ‘Take some time to think about it. Please. It would mean such a lot to us and I don’t want the decision to be hasty. Please just think about it.’

  Next time I see George I tell him he got to talk Margaret out of it.

  ‘I can’t be no baby godfather. All the things you and me do together and then I going stand up in church and say what?’

  ‘I have spoken to her about it repeatedly, but Margaret has her heart set on this. I don’t know what else to say to you, Pao.’