King of the Dancehall

by Nick Cannon

  “So … she was like his girl?”

  Toasta couldn’t look at me. That’s when I knew Kaydeen had been telling the truth.

  “Listen…” Toasta shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “Everyone has a history, brethren. Maya was attracted to the big man ’round town for a likkle bit. But, then she snapped out of it. She must not want to rehash old business.”

  I gave him a side-eye. “Well, what about Dada? I’m starting to see why he’s not so eager to forget the old business between them. And there I am, walking blindly into the whole situation.” I sucked my teeth, disgusted by the way the whole thing had played out. No matter how you cut it, I came out looking like the sucker.

  Toasta didn’t seem sure what to say. He seemed to be processing the secret she had kept from me, and finally understanding my anger.

  “Oh, my God. Women can be ruthless, eh?”

  The question seemed rhetorical. So I didn’t bother to respond.

  “Maya Fenster.” He gritted his teeth and looked at me sidelong. “I told you that itch was gonna bleed, Tarzan.”

  I remembered his words to me when I first met Maya. In his own comical way, Toasta had warned me that the Fenster women were a handful. I thought he was referring to the hoops I had to jump through just to get her attention. The dancehall, the bishop, now this. I wished I had known on that sunny day when we first met that Maya had the potential to steal my heart and break it before I even knew what happened.

  “Even if you thought I knew, you could have mentioned something about her and Dada.”

  He looked at me, helplessly. “I thought she told you, Tarzan. Look. I got my own relationship problems with her big sister. Peta Gaye is talking about leaving and taking the kids if I don’t get a real job. I’m trying to get her to see that my music career is about to jump off. She say she need a man with more stability. Eh? So, forgive me if I didn’t pay closer attention to you two.”

  I felt bad for Toasta. “Man, Peta Gaye ain’t going nowhere.”

  Toasta looked toward the sky like he prayed I was right.

  I smiled. “You ain’t got nothing to worry about, Toast. You’re a good dude. Your dreams are real. They’re gonna happen. It’s your vision. You believe in it, and I believe in you, bro. Your name is gonna be up in lights. Watch!”

  Kaydeen and her Laydeez walked up. I was surprised that they were still hanging around The Jungle at this late/early hour.

  “Hey there, Yankee boy,” she said. “How are you holding up?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Ya sure?” She appeared to be mildly amused by my misfortune. I knew she didn’t like Maya. But, right now the last thing I needed was somebody rubbing my nose in it.

  “I said I was fine.” I took a swig from my bottle of Hennessy.

  “Mind if me and mi girls hang out with you until we go home?”

  I frowned. “You should be going home now. It’s late.”

  She looked at me, her head tilted to the side, her eyes sexy and captivating.

  “Can we stay or not?” She wore her hair in a ponytail, highlighting her flawless facial features. As usual, her dancehall attire was skimpy and she stood there, confidently, with her arms folded across her fluffy breasts.

  I smiled involuntarily. “Sure. Why not?”

  Her crew blended in with mine, all of us drinking, dancing, laughing in the parking lot. We were having a good time, enjoying each other’s company. I found it easy to let my troubles subside whenever Kaydeen was around. It seemed she had a knack for showing up at moments when my mind was flooded with worries. Moments when I found myself at various crossroads with Maya. I watched Kaydeen as she danced and laughed with her friends, joking that I was Tarzan and she was Jane. To me, this woman seemed like a chameleon. At the same time trashy and classy. I wasn’t sure why the mixture of those two qualities didn’t turn me off. In fact, it was quite the opposite. I felt my dick get hard watching her wind her hips, seductively, in a crop top and skintight leggings.

  Suddenly, Kaydeen grabbed my hand, and began dancing with me out of the blue. She turned her back to me, and twerked her booty against me. I was grateful for the barrier between us. Otherwise, I might have forgot where the hell I was, and boned her right there in the parking lot. She was going in! I was confused at first. Until I saw Maya and her crew exiting the club, heading in our direction. Kaydeen leaned back, and ran her hands across my face, her back against my chest, and her ass pressed even tighter against me. She glided her hands down the length of my arms, lingering on the muscles in my biceps. I stood still and let her.

  Maya was furious. She charged toward us like a raging bull. When she got close, she stopped, and glared at me with hate in her eyes. She got aggressively close to Kaydeen and addressed both of us with her voice in a clipped tone.

  “Um … excuse me. Is there something ya wan’ tell me?” She looked like she was ready to fight.

  I put my sunglasses on and answered her with silence. I knew that if I said anything, it would be disrespectful. Her image in my eyes had been tarnished.

  “Tarzan! What di hell is wrong with you?” She looked like she might self-destruct.

  I shot a wicked glance in her direction. “I should be asking you the same thing.”

  She looked from me to Kaydeen and back again.

  “What are you talking about, Tarzan? Mi nah have time for ya fuckery!”

  I looked at her, amazed by her audacity. After all the shit I had learned about her, she had the nerve to be raising her voice at me.

  “Who the hell are you yelling at?” I took a step toward her.

  She got in my face. “Mi yell if mi want! You’re out here holding hands with this uptown SKETEL!”

  Maya screamed the word in Kaydeen’s face. It was an old-school Jamaican term for a ghetto tramp. The moment I heard the word, I knew this would end badly. Mama used the word to describe the woman who had run off with my daddy when Trent was just a baby.

  The insult hit Kaydeen hard. She let go of me and got right back in Maya’s face.

  “Who ya call sketel?”

  “You! Mi nah stutter!”

  Maya mushed Kaydeen, sending her reeling backward until she caught herself. Kaydeen seemed shocked that Maya had laid hands on her. She rushed toward Maya, but I held her back. Both of their crews talked shit on the sidelines, ready for war. Kaydeen’s girls, especially, wanted blood.

  Kaydeen laughed.

  “Funny! Ya wan’ call me a sketel when ya never tell di man about you and mi brother.”

  Maya froze. She looked at me, her eyes filled with guilt.

  “Whappem, Maya? Cat got ya tongue? Why did you keep such a crucial piece of information from the man you love?”

  Maya looked like she wanted to disappear. She looked at me, her eyes filled with desperation.

  “Yeah. You seemed to have left out that little piece of information,” I said. “When were you planning on letting me know about your relationship with Dada?”

  Maya looked like she had seen a ghost. “I didn’t think it mattered, Tarzan.” She looked down at her hands. “It was in di foolish past. It doesn’t matter.”

  I laughed. “Apparently, it does. Otherwise, why wouldn’t you tell me about it? What happened to honesty, loyalty, and trust? We talked about all those things, remember? You told me I was your first!”

  Kaydeen laughed then, and I realized what a fool I looked like to everyone around me. That cut even deeper than Maya’s betrayal.

  “You were!” Maya insisted.

  Kaydeen laughed, louder this time. “Yeah right!”

  Before I knew what happened, Maya slapped Kaydeen with all the force in her body. The sound resonated across the parking lot, getting everybody’s attention. Immediately, a full-on brawl broke out. Kaydeen’s crew and Maya’s both jumped into the melee and chaos erupted. Desperately, I tried to tear Maya and Kaydeen apart. But the women were like two feral cats locked in a fight so vicious that I feared for my own safety. />
  I heard Dada’s jarring voice before I saw him.

  “Well, well, well! What do we have here?”

  Kaydeen and Maya finally withdrew to separate corners. Both of them were still angry. Especially Kaydeen. She called out from behind a wall of her friends.

  “Miss Perfect didn’t tell Tarzan about her history with you, brother.” She laughed, wickedly. “All this time, Tarzan didn’t know.”

  Dada looked at me, smiling.

  “Looks like someone finally found out the truth, eh? A likkle Jamaican history for ya, huh, Yankee boy? Look. Mi nah sweat it. Every hoe have their history. Mi nah wan’ her no more. You can have that bitch.”

  It happened without any thought whatsoever. I punched Dada across his face so hard that his sunglasses flew off. Stunned, he stumbled backward, and before he could gather himself, I cracked my Hennessy bottle hard across his head.

  Dada fell to the ground in a motionless heap.

  His crew rushed in and complete anarchy ensued. Fists, knives, machetes, chains all came out in a wild frenzy of rage. All of us were locked in a battle to the death, and I felt the cold steel of a knife slicing through my arm. I recoiled to find Kutan barreling down on me with his machete raised at a deadly angle. Killa Bean appeared then, rushing Kutan, and knocking him to the ground with such force that Kutan dropped his weapon. Killa busted him in the head with the handle of his own machete, ensuring that Dada’s enforcer would be sleeping for a long time. Suddenly a gunshot rang out amidst all the ruckus, and I turned to see Dada standing with his gold-plated gun in the air. I wasn’t sure when he had regained consciousness, or how much time had passed while we were locked in this bloody battle. His eyes scanned the crowd, frantically, searching. In my gut, I knew he was trying to spot me.

  Within seconds, the police swarmed the scene. Everybody scattered.

  I jumped on my motorcycle and revved the engine. Kaydeen jumped on the back of my bike just as I prepared to pull off.

  “I’m with you,” she said, breathlessly.

  I hesitated a second before gunning the engine. She held on tightly to me as I sped away from the scene.

  We rode along the coastline, the scenery even more magnificent than usual as the sun rose on the shoreline. I wasn’t sure why Kaydeen had decided to come with me. It didn’t matter. I needed an escape so desperately. It was hard to imagine how I would get myself out of the mess I’d made this time. Once again, I had let my anger get the best of me. I knew there would be hell to pay in the days to come. But, tonight I decided not to worry about any of that. The more distance we put between us and the dancehall, the better I felt. I felt light as a feather, with Kaydeen pressed firmly against my back as we rode out.

  We left Kingston and headed out to Portland. Kaydeen suggested it. She said it would be safe if we rode out to the coast where her father had a manor. She wanted to show me a different side of Jamaica.

  “It’ll help clear your mind,” she said in my ear as we rode together.

  I didn’t fight it. I wanted to get as far away from everyone and everything that I knew as possible. Maya. The bishop. Dada. Everybody. I felt like I was suffocating. A change of scenery sounded nice.

  We arrived at the manor just after sunrise. She showed me around the impressive property. I took it all in as best I could. My eyes felt heavy, as if I was high off of Farmer’s best weed. Still, I let her lead me around on a tour of the place. It was a large home with what seemed like a dozen bedrooms. I wanted to be more excited about it. But, the truth was I was exhausted. I fell asleep in one of the guest rooms within minutes after we arrived.

  When I woke up hours later, Kaydeen was right by my side. Her hair was fanned out on the pillow beneath her. She looked like an angel lying there asleep beside me. She woke up a few minutes after I did, her eyes dancing again.

  “You’re awake now, eh, Sleeping Beauty?” She winked. “You talk in your sleep,” she said.

  I frowned. I worried about what she might have heard. With everything I had on my mind, there was no telling what I uttered. “What was I saying?”

  “Apparently, there’s some place that you don’t want to go back to.” She touched me tenderly on my cheek. “You kept saying that in your sleep. ‘I don’t want to go back.’”

  I nodded. I knew exactly what that was about. Prison. The thought of it had been haunting me ever since I emerged from the jail in Kingston. Now more than ever, with the threat of Dada breathing down my neck like an evil dragon, I worried that I might be pushed to make decisions that would force me right back to the place I never wanted to see again.

  Kaydeen didn’t press the issue, and I was grateful. She sat up in the bed and faced me, her smile bright.

  “Come with me,” she said. “I want to show you something.”

  I followed her, encouraged by her enthusiasm as she led me downstairs. Now that I was wide awake, I looked around at the grounds of the plantation-style manor she had brought me to. The place was lavish. The furnishings were old, solid wood. It all looked antique, sophisticated, and expensive. I reminded myself that the woman I’d gotten to know on the gritty floor of the dancehall was a wealthy and privileged socialite who lived in a world I knew nothing about.

  I was impressed by how she managed to navigate those two worlds so seamlessly. If I had met her in the circles of New York’s arts and culture scene, I would have been impressed by the beautiful dancer with an international flair. If I had encountered her in the ritzy world she gave me a tour of now, it would have been easy to see that she was comfortable and very well versed as she fluttered among the finest things money could buy. But, instead, I had met her in the rawness and savage bestial energy of The Jungle. Kaydeen seemed to morph from dancehall queen to sophisticated jet-setter in the blink of an eye.

  She brought me outside and led me down a long, winding trail in the back of the big house. It was a gorgeous day in Jamaica. Like something out of a fairy tale. The sky was so blue and clear, and the lush green gardens seemed to resonate with scents and colors. The path was obscured by trees, and the sun played peekaboo between the branches. It felt romantic, walking with Kaydeen along that path, headed for an unknown destination. She held my hand, gently, as we walked. Soon, we arrived at an amazing waterfall on the far end of the property. It was the most breathtaking thing I had ever seen.

  Without a word, she stripped down to her bathing suit. It was skimpy to say the least. A tiny string bikini that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. It was impossible not to stare, and hard not to drool as she dipped her toe into the streaming water. She jumped back, giggling at the cold temperature against her flawless skin. My eyes were locked on the way her chest bounced as she leaped. The jiggle of her ass and thighs with every step she took. This girl was bad and she knew it.

  She dove into the water and swam around beneath the surface before coming back up for air. I watched her, impressed by her form.

  “Come in!” she called out to me.

  I peeled off my shirt and dove in without hesitation. The water was cold, but it didn’t take me long to adjust. Kaydeen moved in close to me, our bodies warming one another beneath the water. We swam together, chasing each other playfully and splashing around. Kaydeen was gorgeous, fun, and free-spirited. She seemed to be feeling me, too, judging by the way she touched me every chance she got. She couldn’t keep her hands off me, and I wasn’t complaining. We bonded that day, blocking out all of the drama that had surrounded us in the days before. Finally, we climbed out of the water and dried off in the sunshine. I leaned against a large rock beneath the waterfall and caught my breath.

  Kaydeen looked at me and smiled. Then she began to dance for me, grinning as she winded her hips. I smiled, too, enjoying the show. I had forgotten all about Maya, about the beef I had with Dada, and everything else that had been troubling me. Instead of burying my head in my hands, I danced with Kaydeen beneath the waterfall on a perfect sunny day in Jamaica. I felt freer than I had in years.

  I
took her in my arms, and pulled her close, grinding into her to a rhythm only we could hear. I kissed her with my hands cupping her face firmly. I needed her to feel what I was feeling. How desperately I meant that kiss. Kaydeen moaned with pleasure, and she held on to me tightly.

  Boldly, she grabbed my manhood in her hands as she kissed me. I was hard as a missile. She stroked me until I was on the verge of erupting. Her grip was firm, contrasted by the softness of her delicate hands. This felt better than anything I had ever experienced in my life. Better than Tameka, better than Maya.

  Maya.

  I pulled away for some reason. Aware, perhaps, that what was going down between me and Kaydeen was wrong. She didn’t let me go, though. Instead, she released her beautiful, perfect breasts from her bikini top, dropped to her knees, and took me into her mouth.

  My head rolled back in complete ecstasy. My hands wandered without my consent. The sound of the pounding waterfall, the feeling of Kaydeen’s mouth on me, her breasts in my hands. It was all too much. My knees buckled as I erupted in her mouth. Instead of recoiling, she kept going, slowing her pace, and sucking every drop as it poured forth from me like a geyser. I gasped for air, experiencing a feeling unlike anything I had ever experienced before.

  I felt like my head exploded, in more ways than one. I sat on the ground beneath the waterfall afterward, spent.

  Kaydeen sat beside me, her head resting gently on my shoulder. She seemed relaxed and unfazed by what had just occurred, or by my reaction to it.

  “Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?” She was talking about the waterfall. But, she could easily have been speaking of herself. At that moment, she looked like the most stunning woman I’d ever seen.

  “It’s definitely something,” I said. I felt like I was dreaming. All of this felt too good to be true. Surreal. I glanced at Kaydeen, wondering if she was feeling as strange as I was.

  “Totally different from Kingston, eh?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. Definitely.” I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I needed this more than you know. Thank you.” I was thanking her for more than just the tour of Portland. She had just blown my mind.