Glen and Bev were seated on the back patio of her home. Monique had gone to look for Sally and Morgana had phoned to say that she was going to hang out with some of her colleagues at Jimmy Chang. Darren had gone to play some six a side football.
Glen had come to visit her in a brand new Rav-4. He had allowed Bev to have a spin off it on their road.
“I can bet that I’m going to be the envy of a lot of girls,” Bev announced and Glen laughed.
“It’s my mother’s, I’ve just been using it until I’m ready to leave the island. Remember that I sold my car.”
“Unless you tell them, everybody will still believe that it’s your vehicle.”
“That’s what most of my friends are driving these days. Maybe when I’m returning I’ll bring one home with me.”
“Glen, you and I know that you can afford anything you want. My car seems ancient compared to this.”
“Remember that you’ll soon be going to medical school. I suppose you’ll soon be able to afford something like this. Maybe you can even bring one home when you’re returning too.”
“I’ll have to spend four more years on a campus and then a year doing my internship. By that time you’ll be tired of waiting for me.”
“We could get married long before that.”
“Nothing doing, darling, I wouldn’t get married to you while still going to school. I would have to depend on you. No way, I won’t do it until I complete medical school and start working.”
“Why should we wait so long?”
“If we’re serious then it’s only fair that we help each other to achieve our goals. I know that you’re doing a holiday job with your father until you go up. I think he would like you to know the business some more before you take up any responsibilities, so more than likely it will be after you return.”
“He knows that I want to go abroad to complete my studies. I haven’t made up my mind as to which school, but as soon as I get my results I’ll know which one I want to go to. I know you want to go up too. I know I’ll finish before you because you want to do medicine. I hope we can stay together after we go up.”
“I’m like my sister. I’ll stick with you if you’re faithful to me. But it’s you I should be asking those questions. I’m not sure I won’t lose you to one of my African-American sisters or it could be some Yankee girl coming to take you away.”
Glen laughed and said.
“I’ve spent so much time in the States and I wanted to return to my Jamaican girls. Those American girls are too fast for me no matter their color.”
“We shouldn’t talk this way to each other unless we’re serious,” Bev said getting up.
“Do you want something to drink?”
“You can bring a soda for me.”
When she returned, Glen was looking at the late afternoon paper.
“I want my man to drink harder stuff than this,” she said jokingly.
“You’ve seen me partying before and you know that I party hard.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen you partying before. I don’t think I would ever go out with a guy, who didn’t know how to party. You know I don’t like quiet men or the shy types.”
“So which type do I fit into?”
“I think you fit in between, which I like. The bold types are out there pursuing every woman they take a fancy to. It’s like Morgana’s fiancé, Stewart, you know that they’re no longer together. He was running wild with Bobbette, April and a lot of other women.”
“You know Stewart, he loves going after the women. I’m wondering why it took so long for her to find out?”
“It took me a long time too. I’ve heard rumors about him. I can’t say I believed them.”
“I know girls, who would die to go out with you in your new sports utility vehicle.”
“I haven’t made any dates with any girls. You know you’re
the only one I’m interested in dating. Can we go out tomorrow night?” he asked her, holding her hand.
“Sure, why not. I’ve finished school now. I won’t do any holiday jobs or anything like that as I’ll be pretty busy checking out schools in the States and making other arrangements. You can pick me up here, but where shall we go?”
“Let’s go to Solid Mix. It’s a long time I haven’t been there.”
“Okay, can’t say I’ve ever been there before. Where is it?”
“Dumfries Road.”
“Is it nice? I don’t like going to any of these corny places.”
“It’s a nice place and comfortable.”
“Okay, I’ll go with you,” she said.
Bev came into his arms and they shared a light kiss.
“God, you’re so beautiful,” he told her and Bev laughed.
“I always thought that you were so handsome, Glen.”
“Let’s go inside, mummy, Morgana and Darren should be home soon,” she said and they pulled apart.
“How did that incident with Morgana work out?” he asked as they walked towards the house.
“We haven’t heard from that man again, but we’ve been told not to let down our guard because the guy, who’s threatening her, is still out there,” Bev said as they went inside the house.
Bev was in the kitchen looking after some drinks for herself and Glen when Morgana drove in, after picking up Darren. Glen
had gone to sit on the downstairs front patio.
Morgana and Darren greeted him and the former went inside to put down her bags and car keys before coming out to the patio just as Bev was handing Glen his drink.
“I can see the glow on both of your faces to know that you’re taken with each other,” Morgana remarked and Glen laughed.
“You’re seeing it on my face, Morgana. I have to be working overtime to get her to say something nice to me,” Glen said and Bev hit him in his back with her fist, nearly making him spill his drink.
“You know that’s not true, Glen. If I wasn’t interested in you I wouldn’t invite you here in the first place,” she rebuked him and Morgana said.
“I’m starving, so I’m returning inside and leaving you two lovebirds to get on with your romantic conversation.”
“See you later, Morgan,” Bev said.
“Bye, Morgana,” Glen said, waving to her.
Glen didn’t leave Bev’s home until after eleven o’clock that night. Monique had arrived and had gone inside after greeting them.
When Bev went inside her mother was in the living room watching television.
“Morgana has gone to bed. Won’t you come and sit beside me, Bev?”
Bev went and made some tea before coming to sit with her mother.
“I don’t want to pry but the two of you looked so serious about each other that I thought you hardly noticed when I drove in.”
Bev laughed and said.
“That’s not true, mummy. I sent Glen to open the gate for you.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing. Guys like Glen have enough cash to spend on any girl and many of them will simply go for the money.”
“I’ve told him that he’s far too rich to be interested in a girl like me, but he keeps telling me that I shouldn’t make that bother me.”
“He seems to be a genuine person, but then you never know. Men can change in midstream that you hardly know the man you thought you were in love with.”
“I told myself that after what I went through with Rory and then Rick I’ll be extra careful when it comes to men.”
“There’s a good girl,” Monique said throwing her arms around Bev.
“So how are Aunt Sally and Uncle Vernon doing?”
“They’re okay and getting used to married life again.”
Bev stood up.
I’m going up. I’m falling asleep on my feet.”
“I’m going to finish watching this show. Good night, darling and sweet dreams.”
Bev clearly getting Monique’s hint, protested.
“Mummy!”
“What did I say?” Monique asked, laughing but Bev was already out of earshot.
***
Wednesday night Linton was still thinking over what Melanie had done. Women had some strange ways of behaving. He thought that he may have been at fault. Why had he bothered to tell her that he had returned to Jamaica to show Morgana up? Simply put, he should have told her that his decision to return home had nothing to do with Morgana.
He had given no thoughts to dropping Melanie because she didn’t measure up to crew member’s women. Actually, she had outshone quite a few of them. He had been very complimentary to her and when they had been down in Ocho Rios although they shared the same room they had moved the beds to opposite ends and it was she who came into his bed. He couldn’t understand her, saying that he was on an ego trip. Maybe he shouldn’t have said anything about Morgana or just ignored her when he saw her at the club. He decided to call Melanie as he didn’t think she had gone to bed as yet.
Melanie was tying a cut-off stocking over her hair as she got ready for bed when her house phone rang. Linton was on the line.
“Melanie, we have to talk. I don’t understand your reasons for getting so upset the other night.”
“I’m still upset and I still think that your behavior was childish.”
“You accused me of using all of you girls when it was actually you girls who dropped me. Morgana never saw me out with either Flavia or Kedija.”
“As I said before, none of us meant anything to you. You couldn’t have come to Jamaica to win back her love because you never made any effort to contact her once you were in the island. You weren’t going to harm her so all you wanted to do was to show her that you could get women just as attractive as her. You gave up your job and life in a first world country because some woman hurt you bad. Frankly, I don’t think you’ve gotten over her yet.”
“I was on the island for four months before we met. If I was on this campaign as you say, why did it take me so long to meet her again?”
“I think you’re still in love with her. How long were you together?”
“About a year and I got over her a long time ago.”
“So why did you give up so much to get back at her by dating me and those two girls?”
Linton was silent.
“When I looked back, I realized a lot of things. Her ex-fiance was the tall guy we saw at Bobbette Greene’s wedding as I’ve said before. That guy was also Bobbette’s lover. It all doesn’t add up. If you want, you can call me again, but that won’t make me change my mind,” she said as both of them ended the call.
***
Thursday evening Rick went down to stay with Celia. Her mother greeted him pleasantly, but then went to her room. They went clubbing and partied the night away.
***
Stewart took April to Corners, there he saw Brad and Jenna. Morgana was at Bob’s entertainment complex. Glen and Bev went to Solid Mix.
***
After his talk with Melanie, Linton decided to leave the crew. He wasn’t thinking of looking a new girlfriend. He was thinking of re-migrating. He no longer felt safe in Jamaica, especially after his experience with Stan Lubsy. He saw Flavia and Kedija around. Both had new boyfriends. He had seen Flavia out with Kenton Woods, a young insurance executive. Kedija had returned to Caple although he was still abroad, but they soon had a bitter quarrel apparently over her relationship with him and so they had broken up permanently and she was now seeing Alwyn Murphy, a thirty year old warehouse manager. It seemed to him that Caple had gone back on his word because he remembered after she left him that she had told him that he had forgiven her over her affair with him. He and Wanda had started corresponding with each other a few weeks ago. Wanda was begging him to return. She had changed her image with a new hairstyle and was wearing more fashionable clothes these days. She told him that he should tell her what to do, should she move on or wait on him? He sipped some more of his drink. Surprisingly, he didn’t feel a bit jealous as he saw the lovely girls being paraded around the club by some of his former crew members. He wondered where Morgana was now. He now knew the guy she had returned to be with. It was the same guy who had been at Bobbette’s wedding and had danced with her. When Melanie had first mentioned him, try as he might he couldn’t remember the guy, but now seeing him again in person he remembered him. Melanie had said that he was Bobbette’s ex-lover and he remembered her telling him of her problems with her two boyfriends. Maybe he had been one of them and her husband the other.
He could swear that it was the same guy Bobbette had said was her insurance agent that day he had taken her to lunch at Jenny’s Kitchen. Now he was in the nightclub with a strikingly good looking girl and he had learned that the girl’s name was April and she was the same girl he had brought to the wedding.
He took no pleasure that Morgana’s sojourn to be with her former boyfriend had ended in failure. He had given no thoughts to romancing her again and Melanie’s theory that he was still in love with her was all wrong. He didn’t see how he could still be in love with Morgana when he had been in a relationship with four other women since they broke up.
He had actually met her at a nightclub when she had been introduced to him by a female cousin of his. She had been impressed with his dancing skills and suave personality. He had pressed her for her mobile phone number, but she had refused. He had done some investigations and learned
that she was nearing the end of a Master’s degree course in finance. After she completed her degree she would be working with a relative for a year before returning home. He had gotten her number and called her, but she had been very feisty and wanted to know how he had gotten her number. Then the same cousin told him of a party at which Morgana was certain to be and he had presented himself there. He didn’t approach her until two hours before the party was scheduled to end. They had danced, chatted, then danced again.
They had then started dating. She was impressed with his car, his fashionable apartment. He was a skillful lover and was soon showing her the type of loving her inexperienced boyfriend back home couldn’t do. She had confessed to him that she had only been with one man before him so she didn’t have a lot of experience. She told him that they had broken up as her boyfriend had another girl. He had introduced her to the crew.
Morgana seemed to fit in with the crew. She was fashionable and simply stunning. Several crew members had congratulated him for finding such a woman. He knew that some crew members tried to outdo other members. Maybe it was a fancy car, or clothes or the jewelry, but most times it was the woman. Linton had never seen any of them turning up with a woman, who was as glamorous as Morgana.
For almost a year he and she were the talk of the town. Several friends told him not to lose her. Others encouraged
him to marry her. He knew of one or two crew members, who had tried to cut in on him, but with Morgana they had another guess coming. Then out of the blue she had dropped him.
He had felt hurt to the extent of threatening her. He had to go back to Wanda. Wanda was a good girl, but on the drab side. Several male crew members wanted to know what he had done with Morgana. If he was no longer dating her would he be angry with them if they tried to date her. He didn’t know if any of them had tried to date her, but if they did, they had come up empty handed.
Linton asked the waiter for another drink. He saw Delta Logan coming over with her boyfriend, Ewan Chuck. Delta was a senior financial analyst at the agency. Both of them greeted him and told him that they were leaving. Of course she didn’t know as yet that he had resigned from the agency.
Linton left for home soon after and he was steady on his feet.
***
Selwyn was a medium sized guy. His hair was cut low and at twenty seven he wasn’t packing any excess fat. Those six years in America had made him realize that he was missing something in his life. He knew that it was a wife and that had to be Jenna. He was now returning to Jamaica to claim her. He collected his baggage and made for his cousin, Cassius Whitehorne’s car. He would stay at the family home tonight before going to look for Jenna tomorrow.
***
After they left the nightclub Brad wanted to sleep with her, but Jenna refused, complaining that she was tired and wanted to sleep. He dropped her home and she made sure that Jaimie and Kailen were safely tucked in bed before she went to her own room to prepare for bed when her house phone rang. Selwyn was on the line and Jenna’s heart skipped a beat.
“How’s my darling doing?” he asked her.
“Selwyn, is that you? When did you arrive and where are you now?’
“I came in this evening and I’m staying at the family home, but I’m coming to see you tomorrow, baby.”
“I want to see the boy. We should let him know that I’m his father. We should be a family. That’s what’s destroying this country, lack of family values. I can’t bear the thought of my boy growing up not knowing his real father.”
“Selwyn, not so fast, we have a lot of things to discuss. For one, you’re seeing somebody else and I’m also in that same situation. We need to reconcile those facts.”
“As I see it, Jaimie is the important person in our lives right now. I would be willing to sacrifice a lot of things for him and I think you should too.”
“I love him with all my heart, but as I said we need to have a very long discussion. I don’t want to make any mistakes. I’ve told myself that when you return to Jamaica I had some very hard decisions to make. I’m willing to make them, but I have to know where you stand first.”
“As you said, we have to have a very long talk and that’s precisely why I came out. We’re talking as if we aren’t married. I mean we’ve never lived as man and wife because of the intervening circumstances, but after we have that talk we can decide where we go from there.”
“So what time are you coming to look for me?”
“I’ll come tomorrow evening at around seven thirty.”
“Okay, I’ll see you then,” she said and hung up.
Even as she hung up Jenna knew that things were coming up to a finale. Soon she would have to decide on her relationship with Brad. She had to consider that Brad was an Uptown man while she was a Midtown girl at best a country girl. She had to consider if there was any future in their relationship. Would he dump her like he did Dania? Selwyn had a woman over there. She had to find out how strong the relationship was. How could he want to get back into her life after all those years away? What about Robert and how would he and Bobbette react when they realized that Jaimie wasn’t Robert’s son? Jenna went to bed with all these things on her mind.
***
Friday evening Brad phoned Jenna about going out, but she said that she couldn’t make it. It was after five o’clock
and he was walking past Morgana’s office and realized that she was still inside. He popped inside as the door was open. Morgana was dressed in jeans and a white blouse that barely hid her cleavage.
“I thought you would be off partying? What are you doing in the office at this time of the evening?”
“I could say the same thing about you,” Morgana retorted as Brad took a seat in one of the visitor’s chairs.
“Since I asked you first, you’ll have to go before me.”
“For one thing I don’t have a boyfriend.”
Brad didn’t want to sound crude as he knew the difficulties she was having with Stewart.
“Some guys have all the luck and don’t know it,” he remarked to which Morgana didn’t reply.
“You know I’m talking about Stewart. So have you broken off with him officially?”
“I am about to return his ring to him, but you know all about me and Stewart. So how’s everything between you and Jenna?”
“I can hardly get a date with her these days.”
Morgana looked at him still trying to come to terms with what she was hearing.
“I think she means well, Brad. She loves you, you should try not to lose her. Maybe it’s up to you to find out what’s up with her,” Morgana
advised.
“I’ll do that, but where are you off to tonight?”
“Some of my friends invited me to Corners. I might go home and change and come to see if I can find a guy.”
“For a girl like you, that shouldn’t be too difficult.”
“There are all the wrong types out there, but unfortunately for me I can’t stick to the evil I know any more.”
“I’m off Morgana, maybe if I see you at Corners I’ll buy you a drink,” Brad told her and left.
Ten minutes later Morgana left for home not sure if she would be coming on the road again.
***
Rick was driving home that evening. He had returned from the country in the morning. After they left the nightclub they had gone home and spent the rest of the night making love. He had to cancel the lunch date he had with Dorine. He had told her one day next week as he had to go down to Celia this weekend. He was going home to pack some clothes before heading out. He didn’t know why he hadn’t done it from this morning, but then he had been too tired after his love feast with Celia. He was driving on Corona Avenue when suddenly a car came out of Beecher Drive. Rick had to jam down hard on his brakes to avoid a collision. He knew that only a few vehicles drove on this road because of the many potholes. For a moment Rick wondered if this was accidental or deliberate. He knew that he hadn’t touched the other vehicle or else he would have felt the impact. The man had only driven a few meters before stopping and coming over to Rick.
Rick parked the car and got out.
“You’re, Rick, it’s a long time I’ve wanted to do you something. My name is Teddy and I’ve warned you to leave my woman alone,” the man said as he backed out a rachet knife and came at Rick.
As the man bore down on him, Rick backed away. He didn’t know what this man’s intention was, but he wasn’t going to stand here and get cut up. On the other hand he wasn’t going to run. Teddy slashed at Rick but missed as Rick moved away.
“When I’m finished cutting you up, Celia won’t recognize you. If you promise to leave her, I won’t bother to cut you up,” Teddy said as he rushed down on Rick, slashing at him and ripping his shirt, raking him on his left hand and blood spurted from the wound.
Rick backed away as Teddy came forward. Teddy rushed at Rick again, but as he slashed, Rick grabbed his knife-hand and twisted it and Teddy punched him in his face. Rick grimaced from the blow and his nose started to bleed, but he held on to Teddy’s hand. Teddy tried to trip him, but Rick held firm knowing that if he let go Teddy would cut him to pieces.
Teddy’s hands were muscular and looked powerful but Rick knew that he was stronger than him. Rick knew he couldn’t use the boxing lessons he’d learnt in college against a
man with a knife. Finally, Rick thought he was bringing Teddy’s hand down. Teddy fought to maintain control of the knife, but Rick was forcing his hand down and finally he twisted Teddy’s wrist and the knife fell out. As the weapon fell to the ground Rick kicked it away and as Teddy dived for it, Rick kicked him in his side and he fell. As Teddy lay prostrate on the ground Rick took up the knife shut and pocketed it. Teddy got up and rushed Rick and Rick punched him in his belly and he fell. Again Teddy gathered his wind and came in fast at Rick who took a glancing blow to the shoulder but delivered a hook to Teddy’s belly and a chop to his neck, which felled him again. Teddy lay flat on his back and Rick wanting to finish matters quickly without giving him a chance to regain his strength, drew him up off the ground. Rick slapped him across his face and Teddy spat blood and staggered and Rick came in fast delivering uppercuts to Teddy’s midsection. Teddy collapsed on the ground and lay still. He had to tell him about Celia or be beaten to a pulp, Rick thought.
Rick went to his car for his towel to wipe his sweating face and the blood from his nose which had stopped bleeding and made for Teddy again. He would show this guy that he was no idiot, who could be messed around with.
Teddy seeing Rick approaching and fearing that he was in for more punishment from a man he had underestimated, got groggily to his feet and jumped into the nearby bushes aware that Rick wouldn’t pursue him in there.
Rick watched him go realizing that Teddy was a coward, who was probably depending on his knife to scare him. He had gotten a big surprise. He went and let out the air out of the tires of Teddy’s car. He then went to his car and drove off intent on reporting it at the Constant Spring Police Station. Rick was aware that all the information he had was the man’s first name and his license plate number, but he could have been driving a stolen car which he doubted. In any case if the police showed any interest they would be able to find the car before Teddy could have it removed. It would be better to report it because if he didn’t and Teddy did he would be in trouble.
Surprisingly it took the police only a couple of minutes to trace the car to one Steadman Pryce, but by the time they got to where the fight had taken place the car had been removed. The Corporal assigned to the case said that if Teddy didn’t report the incident by the following day they would issue a warrant for his arrest so Rick left it at that.
When he reached home he realized that his cell phone had been turned off. He checked his mailbox. Celia had been trying to get him all evening. She had also left some messages on the house phone. Rick went and took a bath and made some sandwiches. After he had eaten he took up his cell phone to call her when it started ringing.
Rick pressed the call button. Celia was on the line.
“Rick, aren’t you coming down again?”
“It surprises me that you should ask that. Maybe you’re expecting Teddy. Don’t bother to tell me that you don’t know him because he just came to fight me.”
Celia nearly dropped the phone.
“What did you say?”
“You heard what I said. Come on, don’t pretend.
Rick heard her sighing.
“I know him, but it’s not what you think. We used to go out, I have to admit that but he was too possessive and I stopped talking to him. It all happened when you were away. Then when we were having those quarrels over Bev, I sought out his help but I never went to bed with him. You’ve got to believe me, darling.”
“All I believe is that you were two timing me. He was threatening to mark up my face for me with his knife if I didn’t leave you.”
“He’s crazy, that’s all I can say,” Celia said as she heard Rick almost choking to speak to her.
“Try telling him that and maybe you can warn him not to ever mess with me. If he tries anything again, I’m going to punch him silly,” Rick threatened before ending the call.
Celia sat down in her chair wringing her hands in frustration. She didn’t have a number for Teddy to call and curse him off and tell him to leave Rick alone. She had erased all his numbers from her phone when she moved back home as she didn’t want to hear from him again. She was due to pick up her mother from church anytime now. She needed to speak to someone. She would call Dania when she returned home. In the meantime it would take a lot of resolve on her part to mend fences with Rick. She got up and began turning off the lights as she prepared to leave. Rick had beaten up Teddy, who for all his boasting had been found wanting. Celia was proud of Rick for Teddy was a coward as far as she was concerned.