by Kerry Young
‘Is not me you need talk to. Is her.’
But Morrison not paying me no mind. It seem like he actually want me to be the baby godfather as well. He just prefer to lay the whole thing on Margaret like it her idea alone. This is what I guess anyway after him say to me, ‘You talk about the things we have done together and what of it? Wasn’t it kindness that you showed to Merleen Chin, and the waitress from Club Havana, and even Meacham’s daughter? You care for your children and Zhang and your mother. Even the girls in East Kingston tell me how lucky they feel with you looking out for them. Anyway, we don’t know anyone who would make a better godfather for John, because in a way you are the person who gave him life. So who better to help him understand how to live it?’
I reckon all this talking with Margaret make Morrison done lose his mind, so I just shrug my shoulders and walk off. I can understand Margaret maybe thinking she doing something good by the child because she dunno nothing. But Morrison should know better. Maybe he just forget what we been doing. Like every now and again he forget he not supposed to be drinking liquor.
Father Michael think maybe the godfather thing OK if I ask God for forgiveness and go to confession and Holy Communion and I say, ‘No, man. We already been through all of this.’
‘Then why don’t you just say no?’ That stop me dead in my tracks.
‘I think you need to face it, Pao, there is something that the Lord is trying to make out of you. Some lesson He wants you to learn. Some corner He wants you to turn. Maybe you just need to let Him do His work with you as He is doing with Karl and Mui.’
So right then I see in his face for the first time ever that maybe he think he make a mistake.
‘What you mean, Karl and Mui?’
He take a deep breath. ‘Both Karl and Mui have been baptised and received their First Holy communion. Karl attends Mass regularly with Fay, and Mui also attends during the time that she spends with me.’
I just look at him in complete disbelief. ‘And this is what you been doing with her all this time she coming here and I think you taking an interest in the child?’
‘I am taking an interest in her. Mui belongs to a group of young people who are studying the Catechism in preparation for their Confirmation.’
Well right then I feel like just swinging my arm and boxing him. I can’t believe how he betray my trust like this.
‘And you never think, in all the time that you and me spend together, you never think that maybe you mention any of this to me?’
‘Mui asked me not to.’
‘Mui asked you not to? Mui is a child. You and me are grown men. Is you and me should be talking to one another not just you go talking to some child.’
I can hear myself now and I can hear how much I shouting. Michael just stand there, calm in him little space that always surround him. He just stand there with him hands clasp in front of him.
Then after some long time him say to me in that still voice he got, ‘I know you think that you are a bad person. But in this life good and evil are not always as clearly delineated as you think. Good people sometimes commit bad deeds. And bad consequences are sometimes unintended or unforeseen. Virtue does not reside in particular actions. It resides in the settled moral state of the individual.’ Then he stop and draw breath and say, ‘One thing I do know is that you can never come too late to redemption.’
I just walk out his room and slam his little door.
When I ask Mui ’bout it she say it true. She ask Father Michael not to tell me because she know it only make me vex and she really want carry on with it. She really like Father Michael, and then she say to me, ‘And Papa, there is really a lot to learn, you know.’
20
Manoeuvre
So right in the middle of all of us sitting there in the shop counting the money from the weekly pick-up, I got Samuels giving me some long political speech ’bout how bad everything getting in West Kingston. All ’bout unemployment and poverty; and how the people losing hope; and how they running outta patience; and how it all going lead to open warfare in the streets. And him telling me all of this as if I can’t see for myself how West Kingston busy dividing itself up. Like everybody don’t know that Trench Town belong to the People’s National Party and the Labour Party got Tivoli Gardens, and how all the rest of them fall. Every little township lining up to face off with next door, and this is Samuels’s explanation for why, even after I already tell him to stop it, he still busy selling guns in Chinatown.
So I say to him, ‘I tell you this before, and I going tell you again. West Kingston is West Kingston, and this is Chinatown.’
‘Yu nuh see what happen with the Chinese riots already?’
Well now this just make everybody stop. And them all turn ’round and look at me because they know how vex it make me the way people like to talk ’bout the Chinese riots . So I say to him, ‘Don’t say nothing to me ’bout no Chinese riot. There was no Chinese rioting. It was the Chinese that was catching hell, and Chinese shops burned and homes vandalise, and people harassed in the street.’
‘That is what I mean. The Chinaman got to protect himself.’
So right then I just jump outta my seat and grab Samuels in the collar with my left hand and make like a two-finger gun with my right hand and stick it in his temple and shout, ‘POW, POW.’ Real loud.
And then I sit down and I say to him, ‘How you like that for this Chinaman protecting himself? I expect one of your.365 Magnum sound a bit louder than that.’ But Samuels not paying me no mind, so I just say to him, ‘I don’t want you selling no more of Louis DeFreitas’s guns in Chinatown, you hear me?’
And he look at me and say, ‘What make you think they come from Louis DeFreitas?’
‘Don’t mess with me, man. I know where they come from. And I know DeFreitas getting them on special delivery straight from the CIA.’
‘Nobody know that. That is pure rumour.’
‘How you think all them guns getting on the island? You think the rude boys flying up to Miami and bringing them back shove in their hip pocket?’ Samuels just sit there and look at me so I say to him, ‘This here is a family. It not no posse with anybody looking to make themselves a reputation so that they can go sing a song and make a record ’bout it.’
I ask Zhang what him think because I know for sure Samuels not going do as I tell him to. Him making too much money with DeFreitas. And I don’t want no guns in Chinatown because the next thing is everybody going have to be going heavy every time they step out the yard. But the thing that really worrying me is that maybe this thing with Samuels is the way DeFreitas going find to creep into my territory.
Zhang say to me, ‘Sun Tzu say, “ What is difficult about manoeuvre is to make the devious route the most direct and to turn misfortune to advantage. Thus, march by an indirect route and divert the enemy by enticing him with a bait .” ’
Zhang say Sun Tzu also say, ‘ Those who excel in war first cultivate their own humanity and justice .’ So the first thing I do is start reclaim the neighbourhood. I have to make them so loyal to me they would never think of doing any kind of business with DeFreitas. I start visiting with people not just for the weekend pick-up, but in the middle of the week as well. Calling in sometimes just to share a bowl of tea with them; taking the time to ask ‘How is business?’ or ‘How is the family?’ On occasion I take a small gift for the baby or a present for the son or daughter’s wedding; I exchanging recipes and news of this week’s best buys. I taking part in the neighbourhood gossip ’bout Madame Huang’s daughter who make terrible pickle: ‘Never going to get a husband with pickle like that.’
I listening and I talking; I listening and I listening. I just taking the time and making a effort.
Then I get the boys go give a hand ’round the place, so they doing something useful, unloading a delivery truck, reorganising a warehouse, repainting a shop. Something practical so people can see the benefit. Pretty soon I am giving advice, people asking me to sort out them little
disputes, I putting injustice to right. I not just fixing things behind closed doors no more. My authority is out in the open. I step out from under Zhang shadow.
Then I start ask people if they buy gun from Samuels. And it turn out that they do it because Samuels work for me and they think is what I want. So I tell them no. And I say to them, ‘We going put the gunrunners outta business.’
I tell them I will buy back any gun they buy from Samuels for twice the price they pay him for it. All I ask of them is that they broadcast the price they get from me and say it the same as what they pay Samuels in the first place. So pretty soon news going reach DeFreitas that Samuels holding out on him, and him not going like that.
I tell Judge Finley to arrange a meeting with DeFreitas and I pack up all the guns in a old crocus bag. A couple days later we take a slow drive to West Kingston, me, Judge Finley and Hampton. All the way there I thinking ’bout what Zhang tell me ’bout Sun Tzu and the devious route and enticing the enemy with a bait.
DeFreitas operate outta a three-storey wooden house on the edge of Tivoli Gardens. It got one of them plastic multicoloured beaded curtain thing hanging in the doorway that lead from the street into this dark, dingy little bar where them playing ‘My Boy Lollipop’ on the jukebox. Then a couple of his men take us up some rickety stairs to his office that on the first floor. All the way up there we squeezing past the traffic of women who live up the top floor and service the customers from the bar downstairs.
When we get in the room it empty apart from one straight-back chair and a large mahogany desk that DeFreitas sitting behind. He look like him been sitting there all morning trying to strike the right pose. Him look pale and sick, and he got this thin line above him lip I guess him must think is a moustache. Him men stand up behind him with them feet apart and them arms folded, like they think they going scare somebody.
DeFreitas nod him head and tell me to sit. So I do it. The place stink of stale sweat and beer and tobacco. It almost like it oozing outta the wall. Hampton put the sack of guns on the desk.
I look straight at DeFreitas and I say to him in the meekest voice I can muster, ‘I am offering these guns back to you because I don’t want any trouble. You have them. Sell them again anywhere you like, just not in Chinatown.’
DeFreitas just smirk at me. ‘And who you think you are that you can come here and tell me where to do my business?’
Sun Tzu say, ‘ Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance .’ So I say, ‘I am just a small businessman and you is a big man with the whole of West Kingston at your feet. I hoping you accept these guns as a gift. A sign of my respect. After all West Kingston is big and Chinatown is small. Your power is great and mine modest. So all I want to ask yu is if you could leave the Chinese to me.’
DeFreitas scrutinise me, then him eyes pass over the sack of guns. I can tell him thinking ’bout how much money he going make again the second time ’round. He stand up and start pace the room. He got a walking stick with a handle like a silver fox head. He go over to the window and start look out. Him rubbing him neck. Him staring at the floor. Him taking so long over this, I start wonder if I read this thing all wrong.
When him come back, him rest the walking stick on the side of the desk and put both hands palm down on the surface. Him body rigid. And when him lean forward, the long nail on the little finger of him left hand scrape against the wood.
‘I want Samuels.’
‘Samuels? What you want with Samuels?’
DeFreitas don’t like that and him snap at me, ‘That between me and him.’
I wait. I know timing is everything. So I just sit there.
‘We got a very small family. Well, we all here, apart from Milton who is just a boy. How I going manage without Samuels?’
‘Him give you some trouble nuh? Over these guns.’
‘True, but we have come to an understanding now.’
‘Give me Samuels and I stay outta Chinatown.’ I sit for a minute and I just look at him. Then him say, ‘Take it or leave it. I not haggling with you.’
Sun Tzu say, ‘ One anxious to defend his reputation pays no regard to anything else .’
Driving back to Chinatown Hampton say to me, ‘What we going do ’bout Samuels’s chores?’
‘Kenneth Wong been pestering me this long time to give him something to do. Divvy up Samuels’s jobs and let Kenneth run some errands with Milton.’
‘You mean Miss Fay little brother?’
‘How many Kenneth Wong you know?’
‘She not going like that. Her little brother involve with you and your business.’
‘You worry ’bout your own business, and I will worry ’bout Fay. Anyway, is just for now, till we find someone else.’
I wind down the car window and stick my elbow on the sill. And then a funny feeling come over me so I tell Hampton to pull into a gas station and I go inside and buy a cigar, a big, fat Montecristo.
I get back in the car and I light it. And I take a satisfying puff. And I think to myself well that is the first big thing I manage to do without thinking in the back of my mind that Zhang was there to fix it if it all go wrong. The first big thing that I fully responsible for. It seem like I change today. I grow up. I am forty years old and I finally become a man.
It feel good to watch the smoke curl outta the window and drift away on the gentle afternoon breeze.
21
Death Ground
‘ Ground in which the army survives only if it fights with the courage of desperation is called “ death ”.’ Therefore, Sun Tzu say: ‘ In death ground, fight .’
Three month later Mrs Samuels come see me. Samuels dead. Shot in the back of the head. He been missing three weeks but the police just come tell her last week that they find his body shot and burned and left in a alley. She know who do it. But there no point going to the police over a thing like that. They not going move against a man like Louis DeFreitas. She even go see DeFreitas herself to plead with him, and beg him for some support. But all he say to her is for her to come see me. He tell her I will take care of everything.
She wait before she come because she didn’t want bother me. She know Samuels not work for me no more, that he working for DeFreitas at the time he die, so really is DeFreitas’s responsibility. But she dunno what to do because she got four children to feed, and she got to keep a roof over their head, and she got school fees, and she only earning a little money work part-time in Mr Chung shop. She fret so much she can’t think, she can’t eat, she can’t sleep. She dunno which way to turn. She dunno what she going to do. And she start cry.
So I tell her she right. Samuels really DeFreitas’s responsibility but, I say, in truth I feel partly responsible because if Samuels was still working for me there is no way DeFreitas would have lay a finger on him. DeFreitas know the rules, you can’t go rough up somebody else’s man. So in view of this, then I happy to help her.
I tell her to hush herself and blow her nose. I take care of everything. Rent, school fees, Blue Cross medical insurance, clothes for the children, a little extra every month, whatever she need to make ends meet and make a good home for her and the children. She don’t have to worry about a thing. And I just touch her light on the arm.
That is when she really start to bawl. It get so bad I have to call Hampton to come drive her home. And even as she going outta the gate she still thanking me, and waving at me, and telling me what a good man I am.
When I tell Judge Finley what happen he say to me, ‘So what, you surprise DeFreitas kill him?’
‘Yes. I never think he go do a thing like that.’
‘I thought that was exactly what you had in mind the day you jump up and pow two shots in his head.’
‘No, man. I was just making a point.’
‘So what you think DeFreitas was going do with him?’
‘I think maybe he give Samuels a good hiding and teach him a lesson. Maybe bust him down the ladder. I never imagine he would go kill a man over a thing like that
.’
‘Well then you must be the only man in Kingston who think that way, because right now a man can get shot just for wearing the wrong colour shirt in the wrong part of town. So maybe this be a warning to you to throw out every green or orange shirt you got in case anybody think you supporting the Labour Party or the PNP.’
Next day Fay come tearing into Matthews Lane and straight into the bedroom where she start flinging open drawers and emptying everything into a suitcase she got open up on the bed. I go stand up in the doorway and I say to her, ‘What you think you doing?’
‘What does it look like I am doing?’
‘Well, it look like you going somewhere. But it seem to me like you already gone from here so I dunno why you think you need to take anything else.’
Right then she stop what she doing and she turn and look at me.
‘I heard about Samuels.’
But I don’t say nothing to her. The two of us just stand there. She looking at me, and me looking straight back at her.
‘Cat got your tongue?’
When I look at her I see that she really hate me. Her face look hard and her mouth got a real cruel twist. If she was a man she would have thump me. She would have try to mash me up just so she can let off some steam and work out how she feel. But she not a man and she can’t do that. She can only stand there and think that maybe she can wear me down with her stare.
But just then she grab the vase and throw it at me. It hit the doorframe and smash, and it shower all the water and glass over me because the flowers was still standing in it. I feel like I going just jump on her and beat her till I wipe that look off her face. But I don’t move a muscle. I just stand there. And I brush myself down a little, try wipe off some of the excess water. And then I turn ’round and go back down the couple of step, and sit down at the table and pour myself a bowl of tea.
I expect she going carry on packing but she don’t. She follow me. And then she start talking while I sitting there with my back to her.