Friday evening of that week couldn’t come fast enough
for the party animals. Stewart and Morgana were at Reason’s nightclub in New Kingston. Robert and Bobbette were at Solid Mix nightclub, also in New Kingston. Celia left by herself telling Rick that she was going to find a man to party with. Glen and Leona went to Eason’s nightclub on Constant Spring Road.
Brad was at Ruddy's nightclub on Half Way Tree Road with Jenna. They had danced to several songs when he saw Dania enter the nightclub followed by Celia. Brad was over by the bar as the waiters were quite busy and some patrons had come up to the bar to take their drinks back to their table.
What happened next shocked Brad as Dania had doused Jenna with beer. Jenna jumped up and threw some water at her. Brad raced from the bar as both women wrestled with each other.
"Leave my man alone, you hear girl," Dania shouted at a wide eyed Jenna.
Brad parted the two fighting women as a crowd gathered to look at the two drenched women.
A waitress ran to summon the manager.
“What’s happening here?” he asked upon entering the area.
“Those two women were fighting.”
The waitress pointed at Jenna and Dania.
“Where the hell are the guards? If you weren’t women, I’d have you thrown out of here. Two of you girls get them cleaned up and out of here.”
“I don’t want anything like this to happen again. You two women are lucky I don’t call the police or bring charges against you.”
He wheeled around and made for his office. Both women were shown the bathrooms where they could get themselves cleaned up.
Brad looked around wanting to ensure that nobody he knew apart from those women were there.
You’re a dirty liar, you told me that you and she were no longer friends,” Jenna shouted at Brad as she emerged from the bathroom.
"That's what he told you," Dania shouted at her as she too came out of another bathroom.
"Shut up Dania, you should be ashamed of yourself. Celia, you’d better get her out of here. I know that it was you who instigated this. You wait until I see Rick,” Brad shouted in Celia’s direction.
He took Jenna's arm, but she flung his hand away.
"Don't accuse me of anything, Brad. See your girlfriend there, you ask her,” Celia shouted back at him.
“I’ll take a taxi home,” Jenna said.
“I brought you here so I feel responsible for seeing that you get home safely.”
“Well, okay, if you say so.”
The fight now having ended, most patrons returned to their previous activity. Brad helped Jenna to his vehicle while Dania and Celia went to their respective cars.
***
Rick was playing dominoes with some of his friends. He left the game at twelve o’çlock that night after getting Brad’s call about the fight between Dania and Jenna.
When he reached home, he didn’t see Celia. He tried
getting her on her cell phone, but it was turned off. He decided not to wait up on her, but went to bed.
He had his breakfast and was reading the morning papers when she drove in. When she came to the patio he shouted.
"Where the hell have you been?"
"As if you care, I was down by Dania," she shouted back.
"After the way you behaved, I know you didn't want to face me. I can bet you are the one who put Dania up to it.”
"Dania is a big woman, she knows her own mind. I’m only sorry that it wasn’t Morgana. As for that little sister of hers, you watch me and her,” she responded and stormed off into the house.
***
“I don’t believe what I’m hearing, Dania. You went to fight a girl over Brad. That’s not how I brought you up,” her mother, Beulah, shouted into the phone.
“Mummy, I’m sorry I just didn’t know what I was doing.”
Beulah’s face was contorted and Dania would have known how she felt by just looking at her. She had lost her job with Town and Country Developers Limited, a real estate firm, when they decided to close down and make the staff redundant. It was a job she had held for some fifteen years. When she failed to find another job and realized that she couldn’t survive on her redundancy check alone, she decided to migrate. She had a United States Green Card and decided to use it up. So she had come up and stopped with one of her sisters, but things didn’t
work out as Beulah would have hoped. Now she was on her own and doing two jobs in order to have enough money for her retirement when she returned home.
Brad and Dania had been friends since high school, but
Beulah was a bit apprehensive that the relationship might not work out and even moreso when Brad went abroad to study. She knew that several eligible guys had come around, but Dania had been willing to wait on Brad. Now he had returned and her daughter had to be fighting to keep him. She and Dania’s father had divorced two years before she migrated.
So what’s the end result of it all? Is the girl all right? Did you get injured?”
“None of us got injured, as no weapons were involved.”
“Was Celia there?”
Dania hesitated, whoever told her mother that she had been fighting would have told her that Celia was there too. Try as she might, she couldn’t remember seeing anybody at Ruddys last night who knew her well enough, that they could call her mother and report that she had been fighting except it was Brad and that was completely out of the question.
“Yes, she was there. But she had nothing to do with it.”
“I’ve warned you about Celia. That girl isn’t a good person.”
“Celia is my best friend and I’ve told you that she had nothing to do with the fight.”
“Okay, but you see how far away I am. You’re a big woman now and quite capable of making your own decisions. I only hope that from now on they’ll be the right ones.”
“I know they’ll be.”
“I just hope so, goodbye,” Beulah said and hung up.
Dania sat down, fuming. Of all the nerve and she didn’t know who had phoned her mother to inform her about the fight. She had also heard that the girl was thinking of bringing a case against her but Dania didn’t care. This talk with her mother had done it for her. She was now free of Brad. She vowed never to make the type of sacrifices she had made for him, or for any other man again.
Eight years ago and sixteen year old Dania, while studying for her examinations at the Caldwell’s Private Library on Half Way Tree Road, had spotted nineteen year old Brad Newman. He soon came to sit beside her and they started talking. They would have lunch and walk to the bus stop together. They would call each other and he would visit her at her house. Then one Saturday they were playing around in her room and they ended up making love.
Brad went to university while Dania was at teacher’s college, but they were still together. Then he went away and she decided to wait on him despite other eligible guys coming around. Now it was over because she just felt that he wanted to see other women and she wasn’t going to stand for it. Dania decided to get a good night’s sleep, vowing that any man who wanted her body again had to be prepared to marry her.
***
Stan was on the plazas looking for work when his cell phone rang. It was Bishop. Stan felt his heart skip a beat.
"Stan, where are you? Listen, I want to talk to you about a little contract I have for you.”
"What kind of job?"
"I’ll tell you when I see you. You still have that thing there? You see how good I was to you. How much money did you get out of Oraine Chen's briefcase?”
"What thing are you talking about? And I didn't take any money from his briefcase.”
"All right, but you still have his gun though?"
When Stan didn’t answer at once, Bishop said.
"Easy man, I’m not going to tell anybody about the gun. Come and check me around eight o’clock at Nully’s bar on Dunrobin Avenue.”
From the moment Bishop mentioned Oraine Chen's gun,
Stan knew he was in trouble. His hunch had proven correct. He had been set up. Bishop had answered his trick question. He ran to his car. He would go to his house, but then he realized that Bishop might have the place under surveillance. He couldn't go back there. He still had twenty thousand dollars of the money on him. He would have to go down to the country to thaw out for a while.
***
That Saturday evening Rick phoned Bev but she told him that she was still busy with her studies. He and Celia were in the living room, watching television.
"I thought you would be going out with your sweetheart,” Celia remarked. “What happened, she turned you down?”
"What makes you believe that girl and I are friends? I just talked to her and you flew off, accusing me of being friendly with her."
"From you started seeing that girl, things haven't been the same between us.”
"Listen, why do we have to sit here tearing up each other? I’m going out, are you coming?”
"No, because I’m not sure if we meet your girlfriend, I won’t be cast aside.”
"Suit yourself, but I just can't believe you'd be willing to play second fiddle to anybody,” he said before going to his car and driving off.
Celia went inside for an ice-pick and put it in her bag, locked up the house, got into her car and drove off. Fifteen minutes later she was in the Canrieves and passed by the Simmond’s house. She didn’t see Rick’s car outside. She went further up Hobbs Avenue and turned on a side road and came back down the avenue. Only one car was parked in the Simmond’s driveway. It could mean that Rick maybe had a rendezvous with Bev, but where? She could not guess. There were so many places around town where they could be. She stopped the car twice to vent her frustration at not finding Rick’s car at Bev's home. She didn’t want to pass by Randy Chin’s sports bar on Westminster Road, where he and Brad hung out sometimes playing dominoes. She stopped again and called Dania and told her she was coming to see her.
***
When Celia reached Dania's home, she was watering her garden.
"What's up, Celia? I thought you would be out with Rick."
"Rick and I are just about in the same position as you and Brad,” Celia replied before going to the porch and taking a seat.
"I'm following my mummy's advice. I'm giving up Brad."
"You're too easy going, Dania. What happens if you find the man of your dreams and some girl wants to take him away? Are you just going to let him go like that?”
"I thought Brad was the man of my dreams but now it all seems to have turned to ashes.”
"Rick is still the man of my dreams and I’m not about to see it fizzle out into nothing.”
For a moment Dania wanted to ask her why fight when she and Rick weren’t even lovers anymore? She decided not to tell her about the call she had received from her mother since she had been very disapproving of Celia.
"Seriously though, do you think we made a mistake in attacking that girl? After all it was Morgan, we went there for.”
She and Celia had gone to Bob’s entertainment complex and for the first time in her life Dania found herself drinking more than a pint of any alcoholic beverage in the two beers she had consumed. She had only taken a few sips of the third bottle before dumping the rest on Jenna.
"She deserves a beating, look how many sacrifices you had to make for Brad. As for me, I never said I wasn’t involved with someone else when Rick was away, but you were so loyal to Brad and look what he has done to you.”
"You can say that again. I could have been partying the whole time he was away, but I’m willing to learn from experience.”
"I still have Teddy bothering me to leave Rick for him, but I realized after I broke up with him that he’s just not worth it,” Celia said, taking the ice-pick out of her bag.
Dania gasped on seeing the weapon.
"What were you going to do with that ice-pick?"
"I wanted to puncture Rick's car tires if I saw him parked at Bev's home.”
"Are you sure that's all you wanted to do and did you see him?”
"No and that's why I'm so mad. I'm going down to Teddy’s house. I don’t know why I’m bothering to talk to him after what he did, but I’m so angry with Rick,” Celia said and went to her car.
***
Brad kept beating his fists into the sofa. Imagine Dania phoning to tell him that she was breaking up with him and they had agreed to end the relationship. He wasn’t the one who wanted them to stop talking to each other. There was no logic in her coming to fight Jenna. She didn’t even know the girl. He felt that his earlier theory was correct. Both Dania and Celia had come believing that he was out with Morgana and were going to embarrass her. He decided to call Dania.
“Dania, what the hell’s the matter with you? You called and broke off with me and then I find another woman and you came to fight her. Are you crazy or what?”
“Brad, I’d rather not talk to you. I don’t see what we have to talk about seeing that we’re no longer in a relationship.”
“Oh, so you’re not prepared to tell me why you came to fight Jenna. You don’t know the girl or if I’m in a relationship with her.”
“As I said I’d rather not discuss it. I’m sorry for what happened and for that I apologize if I cause you any embarrassment.”
“I know it wasn’t you who started anything. I’m warning you about Celia. I’m not saying that she’s a bad girl. But she’ll use you to fight her battles for her.”
“She isn’t using me to solve any problems for her and as I said I’ve got to go now,” she said and ended the call leaving Brad still fuming.
Dania burst into tears as she came off the phone with Brad. Her mother had quarrelled with her and now she was getting it from Brad. She had practically chased him away from her. They never expected to see Brad there with a new woman. Now that she thought about it, she realized how foolish she had been. She had virtually surrendered a man she had been in love with because she believed that he was infatuated with Morgana. She should never have given him up like that and even if she got proof that he was having an affair with Morgana, she should have been prepared to fight her for him. She had to lay it down to her own naivety and inexperience. But she had learned and as she got ready for bed, she vowed never to make the same mistake again and she would stick to those resolutions she had made after her mother had called her.
***
When Celia reached home, she saw that Rick wasn’t home as yet. She made some supper and was having it while watching television when he drove in. After locking up his car he came into the living room where she was.
"Where did you go? I forgot something and by the time I returned for it you were already gone. Don’t bother coming up with the Dania excuse again. You’re going on as if I’m the one who is straying, when you know what you’re doing.”
"I was with Dania. You can call and ask her."
"How many boyfriends did you have while I was away?"
Celia started prancing around the room. She went and put down her tray in the kitchen.
She returned to the living room and sat in one of the couches opposite him.
"You heard that I was sleeping around and all this time you never asked me about it?”
"I could have gone on real bad about what I heard, but I just decided to give you a chance.”
"Since you heard so much about me, why did you want me to come and live with you? You wanted a maid, a comforter, isn’t that it? You were just using me, probably trying to get back at me for what you heard?”
"I was giving you a second chance and now you're doing your best to blow it.”
"Giving me a second chance, I don't need any second chance from anyone. You know what, I’m going to bed,” she said getting up.
"You still haven't told me about what I asked you and the guy you were out with tonight.”
"I don't have anything to tell you and I wasn't out with any man tonight if that’s what you want to know,” she flung at him.
Rick watched her go. Should he give her another chance and give up on Bev? He wondered. That he knew would be too easy foe Celia. He wanted to call Bev but he wasn’t sure Celia wouldn’t be listening. Brad had told him that he would be trying to persuade Jenna not to press charges against Dania and probably Celia.
***
Brad had returned home from playing dominoes with Rick and some other friends. His parents had gone out. Why not he thought, let them enjoy themselves. They would probably be surprised to see him at home at this time on a Saturday night.
He put through a call to Jenna. The girl was still insistent on pressing charges against Dania and probably Celia.
"Hi, Jenna, what's up?" Brad greeted her.
When she didn’t answer at once he thought something was wrong.
"I'm going to bed. Why did you call at this time?"
"Because I wanted to find out how you are doing. I still want to apologize for the other night,” he said. Brad felt that it was probably the third time he was doing it, damn Dania and Celia.
"I'm doing okay."
Brad felt a coolness in her voice.
"What have you decided to do about what happened last night?"
She didn’t answer at once. He thought she must be doing a lot of thinking.
"Honestly, I don't know. It's not even the girl, who threw the beer at me, that I want to punish but the other one. I feel that she was real instigator.”
"What are you going to charge her with? She was just an eyewitness and she so happens to be my distant cousin’s girlfriend.”
"I’ll give it some more thought. I have to go to bed now, so I’ll see you.”
"Sweet dreams," he told her before hanging up. He wondered if Dania and Celia had messed up things between him and Jenna.
***
The tall woman dancing with the equally tall man could be mistaken for a model. She was thin and had her hair was blown out. She wore a huge pair of earrings and had on a pair of blue jeans and a white blouse. The man was also wearing jeans and a pink shirt. The time was ten thirty and they had been going around for a couple of days now. When the song finished playing they returned to their table at Crystal’s nightclub.
“I know the crew will like you, Kedija. You seem to be a fun loving girl.”
“You’ve been saying that since we started talking. I’ve met some of them and they seem to be nice people.”
Immediately after dumping Flavia, he had gone in pursuit of Kedija and without hesitation the girl had agreed to go out with him the first time he asked her.
“I saw you looking in my direction several times so I knew you were interested in me. Flavia, my last girlfriend, was more the homebody type. She didn’t like the limelight. I hope you aren’t like that.”
“I’m a fun loving girl and I like to party. That’s what I like about you. I was just about to drop Caple when he went away. He said he was going to study but I found him boring. It was like he was studying all the time. He just didn’t want to take me anywhere.”
Linton knew what she meant. He had put in some serious studying to get his degrees, but he had found time to party and was never afraid to tell a girl that he was studying. He knew that women as a rule didn’t like men who seemed to live in the books.
“So are you saying that Caple is no longer a part of your life?”
“I’m going to call him tonight and break off with him,” she informed him.
That was the spirit, Linton thought. He liked women who could make up their minds.
“If he’s a bore, you should send him packing and if you find me that way you know what to do.”
“If I thought you were like that I wouldn’t have agreed to date you. I’ve seen you and know your style. That’s why I didn’t hesitate when you asked me out.”
“That’s it. You and I could go places, girl,” Linton told her. He wondered if she knew that she was on borrowed time. If she didn’t measure up to other women in the crew he’d give her the usual time and if she failed to make the cut he would dump her.
They talked some more, got up to dance again and then did some more drinking before leaving the nightclub at minutes past twelve that morning. Linton was ready to announce Kedija to the crew as his new woman.
***
Brad went jogging that Sunday morning. After he returned home and had breakfast he decided to go over to the beach at Hellshire. When he was on the Causeway, he saw two persons waving to him. They were Stewart and Morgana, coming from the beach he guessed. Stewart was really a lucky guy to have a girl like Morgan being so much in love with him. He had to think so as she had turned down all of his advances.
He was on the beach talking to some friends when his cell phone rang. It was her.
"Hi, Brad, I saw you alone in that big vehicle of yours. What happened to your girlfriends?”
Brad drove a Honda CRV while Rick drove a Nissan X-Trail.
“My luck seems to have run out. Everybody seems to have deserted me. You and Stewart are really smug these days. I wish I was as lucky as he.”
"I heard about that incident. That’s why I was so careful."
"It was nothing. I just hope nobody blows it out of proportion. Where’s Stewart?”
“He's around, but maybe I would have been the one, who would have gotten mixed up in that incident,” she told him. “You won’t hear anybody say that they heard about it from me.”
"You don't have to worry. Stewart won't get you mixed up in anything like that.”
"I can't be certain, you men are all the same," she commented.
"Oh, what has Stewart gone and done now?"
She didn’t answer at once, but after a while she said.
"I'll see you in the morning."
He was left in suspense after she ended the call. He didn't even know why she had called him.
***
Stewart was reclining in a chair on his balcony that evening when his cell phone rang. Bobbette was on the line.
“Stewart, we have to talk. It’s very important that we meet.”
He wondered what it could be all about.
“What is it, Bobbette? Why can’t you just say it out loud?”
“I don’t want to say anything to you yet. It’s a shock to me and it’ll be to you too.”
Stewart wondered if it had something to do with Robert. Maybe he had shown her evidence that she was cheating on him and was leaving her. Although he would be glad to have her all to himself, he knew he couldn’t support her and the lifestyle she was used to.
“You want me to come and see you this evening and you can tell me all about it?” he asked.
“No, you can come tomorrow evening and we’ll talk.”
“Okay, baby, I’ll do that,” he said and they both ended the call.
Stewart wondered if he shouldn’t just drive up to her apartment. She had been behaving a bit strange of late. She had even told him that Robert was now around nearly every day. He didn’t believe that the guy was around that much, not when he had so many businesses running. Nevertheless, he would go up to her apartment tomorrow evening to find out what the big puzzle was all about.
***
When Brad reached work that morning he had no idea whether anybody else apart from Morgana knew about the fight. He went into her office.
"I’m declaring myself free, single and disengaged," he announced to her.
"How long do you think you'll be able to remain that way? I’m sure that even if you wanted to, the girls wouldn’t let you be.”
"Dania has broken up with me and then I just take this girl, Jenna, out for a drink and before you know it she’s in a fight with my ex-girlfriend. To make matters worse, she was threatening to bring charges against Dania and possibly Celia but this morning she phoned to tell me that she didn’t think she would bother again.”
"You've had quite an adventurous weekend, Brad. So why not make up with your two women?”
"Dania is acting on her mother's advice. Can't say I blame her and Jenna says I’m trouble. Dania and I agreed to break up. Actually, it was she who suggested that we break up so I can’t think of any reasons why she should have come to fight Jenna over me.”
"Maybe you should get married."
"Morgana, remember I've just returned from my studies, I haven’t settled down yet. Plus, I’m still living with my parents.”
"Maybe you should have a steady girlfriend again."
"I'd only have one if it was you."
"I have to say no, I don't want to hurt Stewart."
"I want you to give it some serious thoughts, though," he said getting up to leave.
"Okay, I'll try, but I’m not making you any promises," she said as he made his way out of her office.
***
Monday evening Stewart went up to Bobbette's apartment to hear the big news that she couldn’t tell him over the phone.
When he reached her apartment it was about seven-thirty. She was in the living room watching television. She was dressed in a pair of blue shorts and a yellow t-shirt. Her breasts were straining against the t-shirt and her nipples were threatening to bore holes into it as she wasn’t wearing a bra. He drew her to him and kissed her.
"Where is Robert?"
"He went down to Ocho Rios today. He's not returning until tomorrow.”
"So we have this big apartment and the whole night to ourselves. Why not make the most of it?”
He reached for her again.
She evaded him and said.
"That's not why I called you here."
"Okay, what is it then?" he asked. He noticed the tone of her voice.
"Robert has asked me to marry him."
Stewart's ears were ringing, he thought he had heard a bomb drop.
"What! Repeat what you’ve just said. Robert has asked you to marry him? So what did you tell him?”
"You tell me. I told him I would give him an answer by Su