Morgana was in bed sleeping. She had returned from the party boat at around nine o’clock that night. They had sailed around the harbor going as far as Lime Quay. Alex and Jessica were there as were Maria and Ron. It was non-stop dancing, but sightseeing as well. She felt listless and had jokingly told Brad not to look for her in the office tomorrow. When her phone began ringing, she wondered who it could be as she wasn’t expecting any calls. Stewart was on the line and she was at a loss to know why he would be calling her at this time.
Stewart had rung her up to put out some feelers as he hadn’t yet talked to Sally.
“What’s going on, honey? I am missing you, every day I regret what has happened to us. Can’t I come up to see you? Brad doesn’t have to know about this.”
“I’m in my bed, sleeping, after partying with my man. Brad is my man now, can’t you understand? I’m not going to leave him. I was engaged to you, remember, but I was so glad to get a piece of diamond that I forgot to ask you about the wedding date. It’s lucky for me that I didn’t or else I would have lived to regret it.”
“Are you sure you won’t live to regret your present love affair with Brad?”
“So what if Brad dishes me dirt? I’m sure I’ll have the
strength to pick up the pieces and move on again. I don’t know why you’re barraging me with your sweet talk, trying to make me reconcile with you, but I won’t, because I’ve already committed myself to Brad.”
“So you’re now his mistress. I knew from a very long time ago that you were sleeping with him. He’s going to hurt you just like he did Dania and Jenna and you can ask him about Zara Corbin and how he broke that poor girl’s heart.”
In his mind Stewart knew that he had played a bad card. He knew that Brad and Zara had been friends when she used to work at Caswell’s former audit firm but she had migrated with her family two or three years before Brad went away but he had thrown that in to cast some doubts in Morgana’s mind. He knew he was playing for high stakes and had to be prepared to risk a lot of things. He wanted Morgana back if only to show her and the world that he could have her whenever he wanted.
“Think of it, if you marry Brad it’s going to cause one big scandal. Everywhere I go on the nightclub circuit I hear the rumors that both of you are lovers, and that you fought Jenna and took him away. There is even a big rumor out there that you are carrying his child and he doesn’t want to marry you.”
“So what if I’m pregnant for Brad and he doesn’t want to marry me? I wouldn’t be the first single mother. Oh, go away. You’re just trying to discourage me from talking to Brad. I suppose you would love it if I told you that I wanted back the engagement ring and the house keys, but I’m sure you must have given them to April or the girl she caught you with in bed. In the past you never had any trouble in getting girls so why are you sounding so desperate?”
“None of them except you meant anything to me and I’ve reformed and am now willing to settle down if you’ll give me the chance.”
“I’m going back to sleep and I’m taking the phone off the hook and turning off my cell phone. Go and look another girl and stop trying to convince me. Goodbye,” she said and hung up the phone. She then took it off the hook and turned off her cell phone before turning over and going back to sleep.
***
“So you’ve returned home, April. Maybe you could tell me where you were,” Camille English requested of her daughter. They were seated on couches in their living room.
“I told you I was going to rent an apartment, mummy.”
“But now your money has run out on you and you bolt for home. You know what I think. It’s that guy, Stewart, who ran you from him.”
She was scrutinizing April’s face.
“What happened to your face? What caused those scratches?”
April hesitated.
“Aren’t you going to answer me and don’t tell me a lie.”
“I had a fight with a girl over him, but I left the apartment on my own accord.”
“What did you say? You had a fight with a girl. Did you hurt her? Are you hurt, apart from those scratches?”
“Neither of us got hurt as no weapons were involved,” April lied.
“Are you sure that the girl won’t bring a charge against you for assaulting her?”
“It was she who attacked me first,” April lied again.
“That doesn’t mean anything. Once you’re involved in a fight any party can bring charges against the other person.”
“Have you seen a doctor?”
“It’s nothing, I just put some antiseptic on it.”
“Was Stewart paying your rent?”
“Why are you asking me all these questions? If you don’t want me here, why don’t you say so?”
“You’re my daughter and I care about you. What I can’t understand is you pursuing that guy, for what I don’t know. You had bust-ups with Morgana over him and when she went away, you and Bobbette were fighting over him. Imagine Morgana returned and he went and got engaged to her and you had to run away. Then you returned and fell back into his arms again. Can’t you see that he’s not interested in you? That guy is using you. Has he ever told you that he loved you?”
“Of course, many times, why would I be with him?”
“Did you believe him?”
When April failed to answer, Camille continued. The girl was in tears now.
“What is it that Stewart has, that other guys don’t have, that you can’t seem to let go of him? I bet it wasn’t Bobbette or Morgana who you were fighting, but some other girl because based on what I’ve heard, both of those girls have left him. You are the only one still around, waiting for what I don’t know.”
“Mummy, I’ve made up my mind not to have anything more to do with him.”
“That’s what you said when he told you that he was going to get engaged to Morgana.”
“I mean it this time.”
Camille shook her head. She was forty nine and had gotten married when she was twenty one years of age. April was the second of her two daughters. She had expressed reservations about Stewart and had even quarrelled on more than one occasion with April over her relationship with him.
“I should put you out, but if I ever hear that you’ve gone back to that Stewart, I’m going to call your father, and let him help me throw you out along with whatever possessions you have,” she shouted at a sobbing April.
April’s father, Cecil, was a mining engineer with one of the bauxite plants in St. Elizabeth. He only came home on weekends.
“Have you ever seen me going with any other man except your father. It’s over ten years now that he has been working in St. Elizabeth and coming home on weekends. Have you ever seen me inviting other men into the house or going out to meet them?”
April shook her head.
“We brought up you and Melody properly. Cecil is worried sick over you. Look at Melody, she found a guy who cared for her and married her. So why you have to be throwing yourself at this playboy, this cha-cha boy, I simply don’t know. That’s what they call them out here. I know women pursue men to be their wives. Men pursue women to make them their wives or girlfriends. All he wants from you is sex and more sex. That guy is in his late twenties. You stay with him another ten, twenty years and it’ll be the same; you having to fight off other women like you’re doing now.”
“I’m going away again.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing. That you won’t go away and be in limbo for a while and then return to Stewart.”
“I’ve already told you that Stewart and I are finished.”
“Okay, we’ll see, but remember my warning.”
“Yes, mummy.”
***
Morgana and Brad decided to go up to Bob’s place for a few drinks before going home. They ordered and were relaxing at their table.
“Stewart phoned me last night. He was asking me if I knew that you had a girlfriend by the name of Zara Corbin.”
Their drinks arrived and they were busy throwing it out into their glasses.
Brad was laughing as he threw out his malt beverage.
“I can’t believe that Stewart would have mentioned Zara’s name to you. There was nothing between us. She left Jamaica with her parents for England about two years before I went away. We corresponded for a year or so, but the last I heard was that she was married and starting a family.”
“I was worried that you were hiding something from me.”
“I’m disappointed in Stewart, but I can see how desperate he is. I hope you weren’t worried.”
“Like I said, I was, but I knew Dania so I thought it must have been some girl before her.”
Brad took some more of his drinks.
“You were in Florida, I was there too, and we never met, although maybe you wouldn’t have even noticed me,” she told him.
“I would have fallen in love with you.”
Morgana laughed.
“It might have been love at first sight for both of us. You know I said that maybe you looked a bit too rough for me.
Then I heard that you were seeing Dania. But you were coming on to me so strong that I said I would go out for a out for a drink with you. Then you wanted to sweep me off my feet and I had to stand firm because I said I was wearing a man’s engagement ring. Little did I know how much it meant to him.”
“Sometimes I was at my wits end as to what to do. I was with a very jealous girlfriend. I had fallen in love with another woman who wasn’t the least bit interested in me.”
“If you were in love with me, why did you start a relationship with Jenna?”
“What was I to do? You were so in love with Stewart that I knew how hopeless it was to try to romance you.”
“Sometimes when I look back, I blame myself. The signs were there warning me about Stewart, but it’s like I was blind. Maybe when I returned I shouldn’t have gotten involved with him, but do some investigations.”
“But you had broken off with him, why did you resume the friendship after you returned?”
“I have to think that he caught me in a time of weakness. I had just broken off with Linton when he called me.”
“I remember one morning when you were all dressed up for a lunch date with Stewart. I was worried the whole time that he was going to ask you to marry him.”
Morgana laughed.
“You had a right to be worried. What a mistake that would have been.”
“Talking about mistakes, Rick told me that he liked Bev so I told him if he liked her he should talk to her. It was no plan by us to go after both of you.”
“I’m going to be frank with you. That’s how I felt. I’m glad that you’ve now cleared the air.”
Their second round of drinks arrived and they threw them out.
“I heard that both Dania and Jenna said that you have a short temper.”
“I don’t think you were hearing right.”
“I know you have a short temper. Don’t forget that I work with you. I’m sure that but for your dad you’d have blown up at some of our meetings.”
“Speaking of my dad, he thinks that there is no finer girl than you.”
“What did he have to say about Jenna and have you told them about her?”
“They only met her once, at my housewarming party. I told them about it and I told them that I was seeing you. They both warned me that I shouldn’t take too long and don’t marry you.”
“I sincerely hope that wasn’t a proposal because I’m not yet ready.”
“I’m just telling it like my parents told me. I’ll know when it’s the right time to propose to you. You think I want you to turn me down.”
“I’ve already done just that.”
“That wasn’t the real thing.”
Morgana laughed, then took some more of her drink.
“You must think that I’m cruel. I’ve never one day asked you about your cooking and your laundry. Who does them for you now?”
“I have a woman, who comes in on weekends to wash and iron for me, but I cook for myself.”
Although Jenna had promised to iron for him, Brad had told her that Miss Della had been working for his family for years. So he didn’t want her to feel anyway by stopping her from ironing his clothes.
“I can’t believe that you cook for yourself and you’ve never invited me up to cook for you.”
“I remember you promising to cook something for me to eat at Sally’s wedding, but you never did.”
“I didn’t want Jenna to feel anyway.”
“Now that the competition has gone I no longer feel scared. But seriously though, I think we have to come to some agreement. I want you to be well fed to give me all those babies you’re talking about.”
“Let’s talk over it some more,” he told her as he paid their bill and got ready to leave.
They agreed that Morgana would look after breakfast and bring it to the office for her and Brad. Morgana was still hesitant about coming to his apartment. She felt that it wasn’t the professional thing to do. Brad agreed and said that they should discuss it further.
***
Wednesday night Stewart had gone up to Treena's home in Mona Commons right after talking to her and before going for Meesha. He didn’t like how she sounded over the telephone, screaming at him and all that. He’d try to put things right with her. He blew his car horn only once but no one answered. He came out and knocked on her gate and got no answer again. He knew that she was home as the lights were on in the house. Her mother never worked on weekends, instead she would go down to the country with her boyfriend, Tommy Sanson. Stewart was aware that was her customary way of spending her weekend. Treena had told him that she was suspicious that her mother didn’t want her to know about the amount of sex she and Tommy were having hence her escape to the country. Tommy had a house down there, plus he was ten years her junior. He called out her name once more and was getting back into his car to try her cell phone when she came out dressed only in shorts and a tank top.
“Baby, you look fantastic. Are you ready for us to go party?”
“Why are you here? I told you not to come back to my home and I meant it.”
“Forget about that girl. She’s history, I told her not to come back to my apartment. As for a woman running out of my apartment two weeks before April came to attack us, that guard is a liar. He goes around imagining things.”
“As I said over the phone to you; I’m finished. Every time I come to your apartment I’d probably have to walk with a knife or a pair of scissors. I can’t bother with that. I feel so embarrassed when I think about it.”
“Like I said that girl is history so you don’t have to worry about her.”
“She said you were hers. Maybe you should keep her alone. Who were Morgana and Bobbette? April said that she shared you with them.”
Stewart was taken aback by the question. He knew April had mentioned their names when she attacked Treena.
“Those girls were some of my social friends, but that girl believes that they and I were lovers.”
“I’m returning inside. April has you all to herself now. I don’t know how she got rid of Bobbette and Morgana, but I certainly know how she got rid of me. Goodbye.”
“I’ll keep on calling you.”
“Go back to April, she’s crazy about you. I love you too, but I’d be risking my life to keep that love and I’m not prepared to do it.”
“I still love you, Treena.”
Treena laughed as she went back in her house and locked the door. Then she flung herself down on a bed and started crying. It had taken a lot of will power on her part not to have pulled the gate and rushed into his arms and let him take her to a nightclub and then go back to his apartment with him.
***
Morgana reached home and was getting ready to go out to dinner with Brad when her telephone rang. Jenna was on the line and for a moment Morgana was baffled as to why the girl would call her again after what had happened between them.
“Hi, Morgana, this is Jenna. If you don’t want to talk to me, I’ll understand.”
Morgana hesitated a bit not sure why Jenna would want to talk to her.
“It’s okay, Jenna, I’m listening.”
“First, I want to say I’m sorry for the way I behaved the other day.”
“Thanks, I want to do the same thing too.”
“I want to say I’m happy for you and Brad. I’ve apologized so many times to him, but in my heart I knew that you are the woman he really loves.”
“Why do you believe that? How do you even know we’re friends?”
“I’ve never met him one day yet and he didn’t have something to say about you. I knew that even if I had hung on to him, he would have left me for you. I’m sure he would.”
“I must confess that I gave you a hard time, but Brad and I have committed ourselves to each other in an informal way. We aren’t living together or anything like that, but we’re giving the relationship time to work out.”
“I’m glad to hear you say that. I wish both of you the best of luck in your relationship.”
“Thanks.”
“Before you go, I don’t mean to pry, but is everything okay with you? You must understand that I learned a lot from Brad.”
When Jenna hesitated Morgana felt like apologizing.
“You wouldn’t understand what it is like to be hiding from yourself. I have returned to my husband because I want happiness. He gave it to me once and I’m sure he can give it to me again. Thanks for listening to me and goodbye,” Jenna said and hung up.
For a moment Morgana was taken aback at the girl suddenly hanging up on her, but she finally hung up the phone not sure why she had called her. She looked at her watch and realized that Brad would be there any minute and she hadn’t finished dressing.
***
April thought over her decision to move back home. Stewart had cut off the money he was giving her. She hadn’t been able to find a job and had decided to return to the States. Her mother wasn’t pleased with her and even her two aunts had called her advising her to drop Stewart. She knew she daren’t tell them that she had attacked the girl with a pair of scissors. Her younger aunt would have flown from California to confront her. Her father, a man of few words had told her to flush Stewart out of her system. Her mother had said that Stewart wanted her only for sex. She wondered if it wasn’t her own naivety in believing that because Morgana and Bobbette were no longer around he would belong to her alone. That girl had brought her to a new reality and she wondered how long they had been lovers and if there were other women. Why had he gotten engaged to Morgana so soon after she returned home? If they had broken up why this sudden mending of fences on her return home? Maybe she had been too eager to ensure that he didn’t get married to her enemy to have realized that he was using her. He had lied to her about Bobbette. He had told her that it was since she went away that they became lovers, but she knew it wasn’t true. Although she had expressed her doubts to him about that before, April still burst into tears again.
***
Stewart was relaxing in Elva's Lounge with Raileen Garth. He was drinking a stout and she was having an apple juice. It was a few minutes past six o’clock.
“This holiday’s gonna be hot. I’m certainly glad to be spending it with a hot girl like you.”
“I can’t wait for those party weekends to begin and then all those reggae festivals. I’m going to spend it with a hot guy. I know I’m going to enjoy myself.”
Stewart remembered not making the trip last year. There were so many upheavals around that period with Morgana returning and April walking out on him. It was always good to go to the North Coast with a hot girl. He had always regretted not spending a holiday weekend with either Treena or Bobbette. With Treena it was because of her mother and with Bobbette, even if Robert was abroad she didn’t want to risk it. He was sorry that he had to be wondering what a holiday on the North Coast would have been like with those two sex bombshells.
“First time you’re going down there, Stewie? Do you drink a lot down there?”
“I went down there a couple of years ago. As for drinking, I don’t do more than normal. The food’s excellent and most of the hotels serve their meals buffet style.”
“I’m sorry I won’t be here for the Independence holidays. My sister is getting married in Trinidad that same weekend. I’m to be one of her bridesmaids.”
“Why did she choose our Independence weekend to do it? I know I’m going to miss you, baby.”
“I’ll make it up to you when I return.”
Secretly he was glad that Raileen would be out of the island during the Independence holiday weekend as it would allow him to party with Meesha. He was also lucky as Meesha was out of town this weekend visiting her sick aunt in Junction, St. Elizabeth.
They decided to go over to Jimmy Chang’s sports bar and spend the rest of the evening there.
***
Morgana, Monique and Bev were relaxing in their living room on Thursday evening. Darren was in his room watching television. Both girls had decided to take tonight off from their busy schedule of partying with their beaus. Monique had announced to both girls that she had an enjoyable time out last night.
“So, mummy, when are you and Uncle Val going to announce the date of your wedding?” Bev asked.
“Now, girls, not again, and why do you want to see me get married? I’m quite comfortable as I am. I’m enjoying myself and Val isn’t pressuring me to marry him.”
“We thought that since Aunt Sally married Vernon it would be the most natural thing for you to do,” Morgana remarked.
“Sally and Vernon were two lonely people. I’m not lonely and Val’s kids, Shurnette and Rog still live with him.”
Shurnette was twenty and attending university while Rog was sixteen and in high school. Val’s other two children, Mandy and Oshane were living with their mother. Rog and Mandy were fraternal twins. Oshane was fourteen and in high school also.
“We seem to be so distant. I couldn’t tell when I’ve seen any of those kids,” Bev said.
“You can hardly say that about Mandy and Oshane. Sharlette doesn’t want Val to have anything to do with either of them. That’s why I fear that if I marry him she might try to get Rog from him, that woman!” Monique exclaimed.
“Uncle Val’s such a nice man. Mummy, aren’t you afraid that you might lose him?” Morgana asked.
“Girls, I’m older than both of you and I ought to know that if a man’s only after your body he won’t stay around long after he gets it,” Monique said to both of her daughters, who were trying to avoid her eyes.
“I won’t say I haven’t been to bed with Val, many times, but I just prefer the life I’m living. We’ve agreed for me to come and spend time with him to help out with Rog.”
“I want to be part of a larger family,” Bev protested.
Monique had to smile.
“But soon you’ll be engaged to Glen and in another couple of years you’ll be married and ready to start a family,” she assured her.
“Mummy, not like that, I mean I want more brothers and sisters and a few nephews and nieces,” Bev said.
Morgana took up a cushion to throw at her, but Bev had run into the kitchen.
“You let her go on, Morgana. Anyhow, I can’t wait to see my grandchildren,” Monique said.
“Mummy!” Morgana protested. “You’re worse than Bev.”
Bev returned to the living room and she and Morgana started throwing cushions at each other.
“Girls, let’s get on with the conversation,” Monique said in an effort to calm things down.
“I’ll marry Val but it will be after both of you have gone on your own. You, Bev, will be in the States and Morgana happily married to Brad. I would have to take Darren with me or else he would have a different girl over here every night.”
“By the time I get married to Brad, Darren will be a grown man, maybe even ready to start his own family,” Morgana reiterated.
“Are you telling me that Brad is that slow. I’m sure that when he asks you to marry him you are going to give him a positive answer,” Monique said.
“We haven’t been talking all that long.”
Monique got up.
“I’ve known people to get married after shorter periods of courtship, but don’t say I’m hurrying you. You take your own sweet-time, but I want Brad as my son in law,” Monique said as she headed for the stairs.
“You heard your mother, girl,” Bev said and Morgana burst out laughing.
The two sisters spent an hour talking about their respective boyfriends. Morgana told Bev of the call she had from Jenna.
***
“I honestly don’t know what is the matter with April? She has never looked at another guy,” Camille English said to her sister, Carmen Mignott.
Carmen had mixed some drinks for her and they were having it as they talked.
Camille was visiting her sister that evening. Carmen was a medical practitioner having a general practice in Spanish Town. She had finished working at four o’clock and had picked up her fifteen year old son, Dale, from summer school. She had a daughter, Brooke, pursuing law at the university and her husband, Danville, was a top civil servant. Camille was a sales and marketing executive with one of those baking companies. Carmen lived in Hope Pastures. Their younger sister, Bettina, was a prosecuting attorney in California. Bettina was married to Heraldo Hernandes, a Venezuelan born, fishing boat skipper. They had two teenaged children, Diego and Miranda.
“She told me that she was going away,” Carmen told her.
“I’m worried sick that guy will hurt her, Carmen.”
“But why does she stick to him and she knows the type of person he is?”
They were sitting and talking in Carmen’s living room.
“He’s one of those playboys. Out here they call them cha-cha boy.”
Carmen essayed a chuckle and then became serious as they both remembered Elana Creary. Elana's father had died, leaving her a two hundred and fifty acre property in Westmoreland. Elana had squandered all the money the estate made on Elroy Erwin eventually driving the estate into bankruptcy. She to run away almost out of her mind after Elroy jilted her.
“Do you want me to talk to her or get Margot to do it?”
Margot Thames was a clinical psychologist and had been a classmate of Carmen who was three years Camille’s junior.
“She says she’s going away. If and when she returns I’m definitely going to have Margot talk to her.”
“These guys, I know April is a strong person and she’ll get over him.”
“I only hope so. I must be going. I have to go and look after something for Cecil. He didn’t go to work today as he had some business doing in Kingston.”
“Say hello to him for me.”
“And you say hello to Danville and Brooke for me.”
The two sisters shared a short hug before pulling apart.
Carmen followed her to the gate and watched her drive off before returning inside to start her own dinner preparations.
***
Morgana was sitting in the front patio of Brad’s apartment. Brad was sitting close by with his arms around her. Both of them had worked until six o’clock on a project and had decided to come to Brad’s apartment. They had bought some chicken sandwiches and drinks on the way.
“Brad, I won’t have it, you having these light meals. I think I’ll have to do something about it. I want you big and strong.”
“I’m big and I’m strong. I can last for hours, Morgana.”
“You’re too rude. I didn’t mean it that way.”
“I can give you any amount of babies you want,” he said. “Maybe we should go inside where we’ll be more comfortable