Pao

by Kerry Young

  ‘Mr Philip, it like a war zone in that house up there. Every day Miss Cicely playing the piano and singing at the top of her voice. Her favourite one at the moment is “Sinners, Turn: Why Will You Die?” I know it by heart myself now because Miss Cicely play it a hundred times a day, especially when Father Michael visiting. She thump down on them keys, because she play it loud but she no play it too good, and she sing, Dead, already dead within, Spiritually dead in sin, Dead to God while here you breathe, Pant ye after second death? She play it over and over. Will you still in sin remain, Greedy of eternal pain? O you dying sinners, why, Why will you forever die? She sing all fourteen verses of Mr Wesley’s song just like she learn it when she was a Methodist before she turn Roman Catholic, so I dunno what Father Michael make of that.

  ‘Then all the time Miss Cicely quoting the Bible like she say, He that soweth to his flesh shall of flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting . She love say things like that when she know Miss Fay can hear her. So they argue ’bout that and how Miss Fay running to Bishop’s Lodge all the time and how Father following her from one end of town to the other. And when Miss Fay tell her Father Michael her counsel Miss Cicely say, You should let the word of the Lord be a lamp unto your feet, and a light unto your path .

  ‘But truth is I never see nothing going on with the Father. I never even see him stand close to Miss Fay or touch her or anything like that. He just always got his hands clasp in front of him or resting in his lap. And he always keep so still. You never see him like make no sudden movement. None of the help say they notice anything so I dunno what go on but for sure Miss Cicely not happy ’bout it.

  ‘Then when they not arguing ’bout the Father Miss Cicely say it not seemly for a married woman to be constantly running between her husband and father and dragging the children with her, and going out with her friends every night, going to every nightclub and party in town.’

  And then Ethyl sorta lower her voice and look down and say, ‘Because Miss Fay go out at night a lot.’

  And then she carry on, ‘And Miss Fay say it not her fault she have a lot of friends and it better than if she running ’round town with some jock. Well that word now, “jock”, really get Miss Cicely started on some long speech that she finish off by saying, You too busy fretting about your social standing when you should be saying to yourself the Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer .

  ‘And even in the middle of them arguing Miss Cicely will just stop and say something like, We pay all that money for your schooling and you can’t even stand up straight. Why you need to lean on the doorpost? And then she tell Miss Fay to act like she a respectable woman. Another time she say to her, Take your hands off your hips! What you think this is? You think you big enough now to be standing there akimbo scowling at me? And if Miss Fay interrupt her, Miss Cicely say, I am talking. I am talking to you here if you don’t mind .

  ‘But the worst time was when Miss Fay say that Mr Stanley run off to England just to get away from her, Miss Cicely that is.’

  Ethyl talking so fast I have to put my hand up like a policeman say stop so as I can ask her who Stanley is because I got no idea who she talking ’bout.

  ‘Mr Stanley Miss Cicely’s firstborn.’

  ‘Miss Cicely got another child?’

  ‘Yes, sah. But Mr Henry not him father. I dunno who him papa except I hear Miss Fay say something ’bout Mr Johnson marrying Miss Cicely off to Mr Henry. And that make Miss Cicely vex ’cause she say, Mr Johnson was your grandfather, God rest his soul, and you will talk about him with a civil tongue in your head. He didn’t do nothing to you . So I dunno what all that about, except it seem like Mr Johnson Miss Cicely’s papa.’

  ‘So what ’bout Stanley going to England?’

  ‘Miss Fay say Mr Stanley run off to England to get away from Miss Cicely hounding him every day ’bout how he stupid and lazy and irresponsible, and how he never going ’mount to anything. And Miss Cicely say it not true, Mr Stanley go to join the Royal Air Force, to serve his Queen and country in a time of need. And Miss Fay say no, Mr Stanley sick and tired of Miss Cicely because no matter what he do Miss Cicely never forgive him for being as black as her.

  ‘The latest thing is a letter come from England for Miss Fay. It come from Mr Stanley and it say he can make arrangements for her to go there. She write a reply to him and she say she need a divorce so she can get the children from you, but the Church not going give it to her. I know it bad of me but I been taking the liberty to steam open the envelope when they come and when she give me the letter to take to the post office.’

  Then she stop and she just sit there and look at me. And then she say, ‘I think that all I got to tell you right now, Mr Philip.’

  So I say, ‘Thank you, Ethyl. You must be hungry you come here straight from work. Maybe you go get ’ but before I finish talk Hampton jump up and start mumble something and shake out him legs and brush down him shirt and pants, look like him trying to make an impression.

  And then finally him say, ‘I can take Miss Ethyl for some dinner and drive her home after if that alright with you?’

  I just look at him. And then I say, ‘Yah, man.’

  After the two of them leave I lock up the shop and walk ’round to Matthews Lane. When I get there, there is a big commotion going on. Mui talking so fast I can’t make no sense outta what she saying. Ma trying to get her calm down when the telephone ring. It Clifton Brown.

  ‘I got Karl down here at the police station.’

  ‘What you got him doing down there?’

  ‘He get arrested by accident. I just trying to sort things out now and I bring him over the house in a hour or so.’

  When Clifton turn up he got Xiuquan and two police constables with him that I never seen before. He say they young, they new to the neighbourhood, they didn’t know no better. They make a mistake. I reckon everything they do must be a mistake the two of them look so dimwitted. And with one of them so tall and the other one so short they just like Mutt and Jeff out on another one of them get-rich-quick scheme. I almost expect one of them to say ‘Oowah!’

  But these two constables not no comic strip, because when they see Xiuquan lifting the bow and arrow outta the store they shout at him to stop, and when he start running, they chase him till they finally catch up with him halfway down Barry Street and they take him back to the station.

  When I ask Xiuquan what him think he doing he say they frighten him when they start shout, and him just in a hurry to run back home.

  So I say to him, ‘But you no pay for the things you take outta the shop?’

  ‘Pay? We never pay for anything. It was a gift. It is always a gift.’

  ‘So if it a gift how come yu start running when yu see the police coming?’

  But before he get to answer Mui say, ‘Because you cannot always trust the police to understand your situation.’

  I think to myself yes, she right. But I also know another Xiuquan that take off just like that when the police turn up.

  Just then I look ’round and catch Zhang walking off up the yard to his room.

  Clifton push the constables forward to come apologise to me, and they both tell me them sorry. They nuh know who Xiuquan is. They nuh know him my boy. Arresting him a mistake they regret and they promise it never happen again.

  I tell them is OK, these things happen. No harm done. And I open some Red Stripes and pass them ’round. The constables sit down and drink the beer, and they smile at me, but I can tell they none too happy ’bout the whole situation.

  Sun Tzu say, ‘ When without a previous understanding the enemy asks for a truce, he is plotting .’

  23

  Waging War

  West Kingston was like a powder keg just waiting for something to come put a match to it. So that day when Edward Seaga stand up at the hundredth anniversary of the Paul Bogle Uprising, and when the crowd start heckle him, an’ him say to them, ‘If they think they
are bad I can bring the crowds of West Kingston. We can deal with them, in any way, at any time. It will be fire for fire. Blood for blood.’ Well that is when the mayhem really start up in earnest, and I wonder if it was a wise move for him to stop being a music promoter and become a politician. Not that all the shooting was Mr Seaga’s fault because it was going on long before that. I think the blood-for-blood thing just ease it up a notch.

  Anyway, it was just like Gloria say to me. It was open warfare in the street. And this was 1965, just three years after Independence when we was out on them same streets parading and dancing and singing ’bout unity. Now everybody was just out there gunning down one another. It get so bad that one day they report that in a two-hour period on one West Kingston street they fire two thousand rounds of ammunition. How they work out a thing like that I dunno. I don’t even know how people can afford to buy so much gun and bullet. And how come they so happy to spend so much time and money just trying to gun down their neighbour.

  I say to Judge Finley that it was exactly the sort of thing I worried we was headed for when Samuels take up with Louis DeFreitas, and how good it was that we stamp it out straight away. How good it was that we keep them guns outta Chinatown because I didn’t want nothing to do with what was going on.

  And him say to me, ‘What about unity and being brothers in arms?’

  ‘This is not unity. Unity is when you gather together to face a common enemy. Who is the enemy in West Kingston?’

  ‘They think it is the man next door with the gun that is trying to kill them.’

  ‘Killing your neighbour not going solve unemployment and all the misery that go with that. Their enemy not their neighbour. Their enemy is the masa that is making himself rich while all them boys bleeding to death in the street. If you want talk ’bout brothers in arms then maybe we need to get together and go get back the land that still owned by British landlords. And maybe we need to go see ’bout how we going stop these foreign investors from just taking out all the profit as fast as we can make it for them, so Jamaica can get to keep something for herself. And then maybe we wouldn’t need so much foreign aid. But the ordinary man can’t do nothing ’bout these people. He don’t even know where to find them. All he can do is take up a gun and fire it at the people he see every day. And the worst thing about it is he doing it with a gun he get from the CIA. The masa don’t even have to beat the slave himself no more. We doing it for him.’

  But there is not a soul listening to me, except Mui.

  So then the next thing we realise is, we got to go do something ’bout Kenneth Wong, because it seem like somehow Kenneth get himself all mix up in the middle of everything. Like he use the excuse of running a few errands for me to go turn himself into his idea of public enemy number one. So I think I go solve that by hiring Desmond Drummond and telling Kenneth he don’t work for me no more. Not now I got Desmond. I think this going fix it because Desmond a long-time friend of Milton who turn out to be one seriously big, bad bwoy so I think that will send Kenneth running back to his mama. But it not so. Kenneth still going ’round the place acting like him working for me. So people start get confuse over whether it Desmond they dealing with or Kenneth, and I have to talk to the boy over and over and explain to him that he should go back to school and try get some qualification. But him not interested. Him say he don’t need it. His papa nuh got no qualification, I nuh got no qualification, but we still rich, so what he need qualification for? And I tell him things changing. He can’t spend his life just run ’round town like me. Maybe he should go ask his papa to work in the supermarket business. But him just shrug and walk off and I know him not going do it.

  When I go talk to him ’bout what him doing he say he not interested in politics.

  ‘But you running with one of the biggest political gang of rude boys in West Kingston!’

  ‘Louis is my friend.’

  ‘Louis DeFreitas is not your friend. Him not nobody friend. DeFreitas only DeFreitas’s friend. You get thick with a man like that and yu heading for trouble. DeFreitas busy talking politics now but him only a punk. Him don’t care ’bout unemployment and education, him only interested in what advantage or money he can get outta a situation. And right now everybody say is the CIA backing him to be causing all this violence so they can destabilise the country.’

  ‘I tell you I not interested in politics. Louis been good to me. He let me work and him pay me.’

  ‘Yu can’t trust him. Louis DeFreitas will just as soon put you out front to take a bullet in your chest as shoot you in the back himself if that work out better for him.’

  But Kenneth not listening to me. I start thinking it all my fault anyway, because there is no way a boy like Kenneth Wong was going meet a man like DeFreitas unless he was on the street running errands for me.

  Finley say to me, ‘Maybe you shouldn’t take it so hard. After all, Kenneth was bugging you anyway. That was the way he was heading. He would have got himself involved somehow whether or not it had anything to do with you.’

  A part of me know Finley right, but another part of me still feel responsible. I got no idea what to do with Kenneth. Sun Tzu say, ‘ Too frequent rewards indicate that the general is at the end of his resources; too frequent punishments that he is in acute distress .’

  So I decide to go talk to Henry Wong ’bout it. But it turn out Henry don’t know nothing ’bout what Kenneth doing. Him say the boy just come in and outta the house and eat his meals and leave his dirty laundry behind. Kenneth don’t talk to nobody, and when he in the house he lock himself in his bedroom, which he put a big padlock on the door so nobody can go in there when him out.

  All Henry know is Kenneth got a lot a money. He buy a lot of fancy clothes and a record player and a whole heap of records him busy playing in there. And he buy a car and driving it ’round even though he got no driving licence.

  Henry say the boy been off the rails a long time. Even before he legal to leave school him stop going while Henry still paying the school fees. And Henry say him think the boy smoking ganja in the house because the maids say they can smell it. Henry dunno what to do with him and all Miss Cicely say is she praying for him, but Henry not counting on that doing much good.

  ‘I not know what to say to you, Pao. If you got a idea I happy to listen. But is Cicely that really deal with children.’

  Three days after that, on a hot Thursday afternoon, Henry Wong collapse in the street. They take him to the public hospital because they dunno who he is and that he rich. And down there they decide it was a stroke that cut him down. When I hear ’bout it I ring George Morrison and tell him to take a ambulance downtown and bring Henry back up to Old Hope Road. Later when I go see him he paralysed down one side and he in a bad way.

  After a few days Morrison say Henry not going get any better and he may be more comfortable at the Chinese Sanatorium, so that where we move him to. This is a nice place. It clean and calm and the nurses really seem like they care for him. Like they mean it, they not just doing their job. But when I go see him all him say to me is how he want me to bring him some rice and peas and chicken and saltfish fritters and bammy.

  I want make sure that somebody go up there with food every day so I make out a rota for Finley and Hampton and Milton. And then Zhang surprise me when him say he going go as well, because I can’t remember the last time Zhang leave the house to go any further than Barry Street for the Chinese newspaper. How him going make it up to North Street I dunno. But then it turn out that Tartan Socks McKenzie say he going drive him so that work out fine.

  The last time I go visit Henry him reach out him shaky good hand and grab my sleeve and pull me to him, and whisper to me, ‘I done tell Cicely already, I want you to have the business.’

  When Henry die, Cicely decide to have the funeral in Holy Trinity Cathedral, which was the second time I go there that year. The first time was when I go watch Michael get consecrated Roman Catholic Bishop of Kingston, which was what the archbishop telephone him
’bout the day we was in the garden at Bishop’s Lodge. Michael look proud and serene that day the same way he look now, because Fay insist that is him conduct the funeral and although Ethyl tell me Cicely muttering ’bout it, somehow Fay and her come to some agreement because is Michael standing up there saying, ‘ In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti .’

  I surprise myself when they start recite because I never think I had any emotion ’bout all this church thing. After all, I already go to church and become John Morrison godfather and I didn’t feel nothing at all. But just now I can feel a little something in my chest when all the voices start ring out: ‘I confess to Almighty God, to blessed Mary ever Virgin, to blessed Michael the Archangel, to blessed John the Baptist, to the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, to all the saints and to you, Father, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word and deed.’ And then for no reason at all I just start pound my chest, three times like the rest of them: ‘ Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa .’

  I look down and I see Mui just stand there gawking at me and suddenly I come over like I suffocating, and I realise it the smell of burning frankincense, and I think I going start cry. But this not got nothing to do with Henry Wong, it just the smell of incense, and the jangle of the little bells, and the purple and white and gold of Michael’s get-up, and the candle burning by the coffin, and the sprinkling of holy water.

  When Michael begin sing the Preface, I gather myself together, and Mui turn ’round and start look forward like she should have been doing all this time instead a staring at me.

  Michael do the commemoration: ‘Remember also, O Lord, Thy servant Henry who has gone before us with the sign of faith, and rests in the sleep of peace.’ And after a while it over. And the soprano start sing Ave Maria in Latin.