Pao

by Kerry Young

  When Sam finally get round to telling us what he want, he say, ‘Merleen Chin,’ in this smooth, silky voice like him making a commercial for some chocolate bar. But that didn’t fool me none. I knew right away what he was after, because when we finish with the Charles Meacham business and baby John getting born, Merleen finish school and go study tourism in America and now she back she get a good job in a big European vacation company booking people into hotels and what not, and that is good for us what with all the hotel contracts we busy negotiating all the while.

  ‘Merleen can’t full up your hotel with guests just like that.’

  Sam smile like he sweet. Like he think he some handsome Prince Charming, even though he got little chests like a woman and he flabby ’round the middle. Sitting there in some seersucker shirt and white slacks and shoes, but no socks. What kinda man go ’round the place and no wear no socks?

  ‘Well if she can’t we’ll have to think real hard about what you’re proposing to do right here.’ And he look at me and then at Finley and back at me again. Then he smile and say, ‘Come on, guys, we’re all grown men. You know the score and I know for sure that you two have a lot more experience at this kind of conversation than I do. Right?’

  We don’t say nothing to him, so he just carry on.

  ‘I tell you what, how about I just say these three little things I have in mind and you see how that hangs with you. First, Merleen Chin. Wouldn’t it be great if she could get some guests placed right here in this little piece of wonderland? Maybe get us up to what, and I want to be fair with you guys, so let’s say eighty-five per cent occupancy. I’m sure she can do that. Second, Margy Lopez and that cute little cosmetics company. Yeah. All that importing, and for the supermarkets too. I could source all of that for you. Really. I spend a lot of time Stateside. It wouldn’t be any problem at all. Third, good staff, so hard to come by, don’t you think? And the wage bill, man, what can I tell you? I would so like to dampen down with that. Know what I mean? But heck, they’ll just run off or go to the unions. So maybe you can figure out how to get all that to work?’

  ‘We don’t have nothing to do with no unions.’

  ‘Ah yes, but your friend Mr DeFreitas does, doesn’t he?’

  We just sit there and look at him.

  ‘I know yu think yu got us over a barrel and that is why we going do all of this for you.’

  ‘Barrel?’ and him lean forward. ‘You want me to spell it out? Illegal gambling, extortion, prostitution, stolen goods, money laundering, and that’s to say nothing about perverting the course of justice, you know, little girls flying off to Miami when they should be here facing a double murder rap. You get my drift?’

  I take my hand and just rest a finger against my lips in case I go say something that I regret. Sun Tzu say, ‘ When an advancing enemy crosses water do not meet him at the water’s edge .’

  Then in a real friendly voice him say, ‘Hey, you probably need some time to think about all of this. You know, figure out how you’re gonna get this shit together.’ He reach into the top pocket of his shirt and pull out a business card and hand it to me.

  ‘Why don’t you call me when you are ready?’ And he get up and walk off, stopping at the door to tell the waiter to put the drinks and such down as business entertainment. Then he turn ’round and come back to the table and lean across it and say to me, almost in a whisper, ‘And let’s not forget about the archbishop. An affair with the gang boss’s wife?’ He sorta raise his eyebrows both together. ‘What would Rome say?’ And he knock on the table a couple of times with him knuckles and say, ‘Don’t keep me waiting.’

  When we leaving the hotel me and Finley see the two constables standing up in the lobby dress in some nice, neat, press security-guard uniform.

  Sun Tzu say, ‘ Those who do not know the conditions of mountains and forests, hazardous defiles, marshes and swamps, cannot conduct the march of an army .’ So I tell Clifton to go find out what happen and it turn out that Mutt and Jeff so mad with me for turning down their drug deal, especially after they take the hiding and nuh say nothing, that they decide to go dig up everything they could find out about me and anybody that have anything to do with me. And all of this information they decide to go give to Ian Maynard Fitzgerald because they can see that he got money. And since they more interested in the money than bringing me to justice they run off to Negril with the news because Sam got the wherewithal to take advantage of everything they got to tell him. Plus it seem like maybe Sam in the drug business with them now so the three of them busy living it up in Miami when they not here guarding over Sam’s wonderland.

  And who is Ian Maynard Fitzgerald? Some old boyfriend of Clifton’s. That is how Mutt and Jeff come ’cross him in the first place, tailing Clifton to Negril and Miami where he leading this double life.

  So I say to Clifton, ‘This man, he nuh supposed to be a friend of yours?’

  And him say, ‘I used to think so.’

  I can see Clifton already feel bad ’bout it so I don’t say nothing more, especially since it not Clifton fault anyway, it mine for refusing to join the constables in their drug dealing. But that was never going to be, so it was always a calamity just waiting to happen. And in truth it been sitting there waiting a long time, not from the drug dealing, not even from the hiding they take, but from the moment the two of them decide to go help Fay take the children from me.

  34

  Control

  The telephone ring and when I pick it up it is Mui. She say she ready to come home.

  ‘Mui, yu know that is what everybody want. That is what yu been working so hard for all these years, but honestly this is not a good moment.’

  ‘Papa, it’s Jamaica. Is there ever going to be a good moment?’

  ‘Maybe not, but there will be a better moment than this one. Trust me on that. Anyway, has something happened? Yu nuh sound so good. Yu sound like maybe yu just done crying.’ She quiet at the other end of the phone. ‘Something happen then?’

  ‘I met a woman at one of the dinners. She is a head of chambers at Lincoln’s Inn.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘And I happened to mention that I am Jamaican and she remarked that she had been to Jamaica many years ago. Anyway, she seemed quite friendly. She asked me my name, which it seemed like she already knew. And then she asked me who my father was, and when I told her she completely changed towards me. She became very dismissive, almost hostile. It was such a sudden transformation I started to wonder if I was imagining it, and then afterwards I thought perhaps she had some kind of personality problem because someone told me that she actually asked to be seated next to me.’

  ‘What this woman called?’

  ‘Her name is Helena Meacham. If you know her it may be under a different name. I know she has been married and divorced and I’m not sure if Meacham is her married name.’

  ‘No, that is her name from when she was down here. But so what? What so important ’bout this that it make you cry?’

  ‘Well, since I met her some horrible things have been happening around me. First of all I seem to be getting less work from the chambers’ clerk. Less work, less well paid, less interesting. Second, people who used to be quite friendly have stopped speaking to me, and a few have been quite rude or nasty. I am beginning to feel completely ostracised.’

  I think to myself ‘ostracised’, what kinda word is this? But then I know Mui smart enough to make her way in England so now she got all sorta English word and she even sound like she English as well.

  ‘Yu nuh think maybe yu taking it all too serious?’

  ‘No, Papa, it’s really horrible.’

  ‘And yu think this Helena saying things to people to make them start treat yu this way?’

  ‘I can’t say for sure. I haven’t even seen her again since the dinner, but it does seem uncanny in its timing.’

  Uncanny? I think she completely outta my league now.

  ‘But how do you know her anyway?’

 
; ‘I help her and her father fix a couple problems they had down here.’

  ‘Then surely she should be pleased to have met me.’

  ‘It wasn’t ’ and then I run outta words but it no matter. Mui cut straight ’cross me.

  ‘This thing with her happened a few months ago and my life has been unbearable since then. I don’t see how I can carry on like this so I thought the best thing to do is just to come home. That is what I have been wanting to do all along anyway.’

  ‘Mui, yu not that long qualified. Don’t yu think yu should stay there a while and get yourself some experience?’

  ‘You don’t understand, Papa. I hate what I am doing. I hate having to get up every day and go to work to face people who have become so cold towards me, who can barely bring themselves to look at me, who walk out of rooms when I enter them. It takes the pleasure out of everything. Everything. At least if I come home I can feel that I am doing some good.’

  ‘Calm yourself down. Yu getting yourself all irate over some stupid woman. What yu mother say about it anyway?’

  ‘I haven’t said anything to her about it.’

  ‘Yu nuh tell your mother ’bout it? Mui, yu got to talk to her. She right there with yu. Not like me four thousand mile away on a telephone. Anyway, how can people change just like that? They nuh know yu long before all of this happen? How can one woman make them turn like that?’

  ‘Power, Papa. She has it and I don’t. Besides, like you always used to say, white people stick together and that is as true in England as it is in Jamaica.’

  I think to myself Mui need to simmer down and take it steady. Everything got its edge. You just have to find it. Sun Tzu say, ‘ The general must rely on his ability to control the situation to his advantage as opportunity dictates .’

  35

  The Burning of Personnel

  I reckon that getting out from under Ian Maynard Sam Fitzgerald was going to take a bigger authority than me. And what with the phone call with Mui and Gloria pointing out to me that Margy Lopez didn’t kill nobody, it put me in mind of Charles Meacham and the thing I realise is that Meacham stop paying me. Him just stop, just like that. Years back. And me so busy feeling bad ’bout Fay taking the children, and Zhang and Ma, and all the excitement with Manley and everything I never even notice. And then I think well, that sorta rude of him. So now I think it time to catch up with Meacham and that murdering daughter of his, Helena.

  I call Clifton and say to him let’s go get a drink over the Blue Lagoon. And I ring George Morrison and tell him the same thing.

  When we meet up I say to Morrison that I glad to hear John finish him training to be a doctor now and that he and Margaret coming home after this long while. And I congratulate Clifton on him big promotion. ‘You almost at the top of the tree now, Clifton, eh? Chief of police going be your next stop.’ And we clink our glass and drink, and then I tell the two of them what I want them to do.

  ‘Charles Meacham! We nuh finish with him yet?’

  ‘I reckon him still owe us one.’ But George and Clifton not so sure, so I say, ‘Come on, George, you know all ’bout England. And, Clifton, you know all ’bout policing. I reckon between the two of you we can find Meacham. I even give you a head start because Helena Meacham a barrister with chambers in Lincoln’s Inn in London.’

  The two of them just sit there and look at me. Then George start waving him arm at the bartender to bring him another Appleton, and Clifton say, ‘Yu joking? Yu can’t be serious. A barrister? For real?’

  ‘For real.’

  Him think on it a little while and then him say, ‘Well, they say hide in plain view. So maybe that what she doing. No safer place than right there in the lion’s den. But yu know this a serious business. You playing with fire if yu going take these two on.’

  ‘Trust me.’

  When Clifton ring me a few days later him say him got news and when I go meet him over the Blue Lagoon him tell me.

  ‘Charles Meacham rise up the ranks to become a major in the British army but now him retired and living in Winchester. The daughter, Helena, go study law at Oxford University and then she go to the Inns of Court School of Law. She called to the Bar in 1968 and now, like yu say, she have her own chambers in Lincoln’s Inn specialising in family and criminal law for women.’

  When Clifton finish reading from him little notebook I tell him to give me the address of Helena Meacham chambers in London, and when I get back to Matthews Lane I get on the telephone and order up a big bouquet from one of them international flower people and I send them to her with a note.

  Helena,

  So good to have caught up with you after all these years.

  Warm regards,

  Winston Morgan and Aubrey Williams (Club Havana)

  When Meacham telephone me the next day I just say to him, ‘Charles, how you doing?’

  ‘My daughter received your flowers. What silly little game are you playing now, Yang?’

  ‘Game, Charles? I not playing no game. Is this a game to you? Is that why you just decide to ignore me and hope I wouldn’t notice?’

  ‘That was years ago. I decided that enough was enough.’

  ‘True. But I just need one more favour from you. I have a little problem down here that I think you can help me with.’

  Meacham quiet at the other end of the telephone so I tell him what I want, and I tell him the name of the culprit and him two henchmen.

  ‘I couldn’t possibly do something like that! What do you think I am?’

  ‘Well before you hang up the telephone let me just say, which I sure you know anyway, there not no statute of limitations for murder. Plus, with everything I hear tell ’bout the new-fangled things they doing with this here DNA, I sure pretty soon they will be able to do something with this knife I still got from the last time I meet your daughter. But anyway, Helena doing so well with her lawyer work and everything I reckon she must know ’bout all of that as well.’

  Meacham still quiet so I say, ‘And then when that is done you can rest easy and just ignore me because you right, fair is fair and enough is enough. You won’t hear nothing from me after that.’ I catch my breath, and then I say, ‘Tell Helena to give my daughter a rest as well. She will know what I mean.’

  Meacham just hang up the telephone. But two weeks later Finley come tell me that Sam Fitzgerald and the two constables disappear. It seem the three of them up in Miami having themself a good time and they just disappear. Just like that, not a trace, and the authorities think it probably drug related.

  I think to myself yes sir, the British army is good. I think they must be as good as the CIA, maybe even better, they get their business done so fast.

  A couple days later Mui ring me and she seem happier. She say everybody alright with her again. She getting work like she used to. People talking to her just like nothing ever happen. She like her job again. She going stay in England but I mustn’t forget, she still want to come home when the time right in Jamaica, and I just say, ‘Yah, man.’

  36

  Precautionary Measures

  But the whole thing unsettle me, and I start think ’bout what would happen if I should end up marking off the days on the wall of some Kingston jail cell and mopping the floor in the penitentiary. I think well the boys alright, they been making good money all these years, but Merleen only got her little job at the vacation company and Margy nothing more than an employee at Yang Cosmetics.

  I tell Merleen to come have lunch with me up in a hotel in New Kingston. The restaurant quiet so I choose a table in the far corner behind some tall potted bamboo.

  ‘I was very young, and he seemed so mature.’ And then she laugh. ‘Well, I suppose he would seem that way, being old enough to be my father.’

  I just smile. Merleen turn into a fine woman. She gracious, and composed.

  ‘I thought he knew everything there was to know. I thought I was going to be cared for, protected, educated, groomed if you like. I thought he would make something of m
e.’ She stop while the waitress put down the teriyaki chicken and rice in front of us.

  ‘I felt sort of honoured. Foolish, wasn’t it?’ And then she laugh again.

  ‘That wasn’t foolish. Yu was a child. And he was a grown man.’

  ‘A grown man who came here and captured something young and innocent, something in its infancy, and he took what he wanted from it and when he was done he left us to fend for ourselves, John and me. Independent if you like.’ And she smile. ‘Rather like an English Pinkerton and Chinese Butterfly.’

  Well now she completely lose me, but I get her drift because she and me both know she not just talking ’bout her and Meacham, she talking ’bout the British and Jamaica.

  When we finish eat and deal with our business I walk with her down the stairs into the lobby and through the side door, past the empty swimming-pool loungers that the tourists should be sunning themself in and the empty chair under the almond tree where they should be reading their book, and we make our way past the rubber trees and coconut palms, and along the path following the pale blue flowers on the plumbago hedge into the hotel car park. The air still damp from the morning rain.

  Next day I ring Margy and tell her that I going take a trip to see her next time she in Port Antonio. Then Finley decide we all going go because Port Antonio is really beautiful.

  The day before we supposed to go Milton tell me that all the rain we been having the past two weeks cause so much flooding the government declare five parishes disaster areas and they busy evacuating people from them homes.