A Dying Quest by Austin Mitchell - HTML preview

A Dying Quest

by

Austin Mitchell

 

Sophia shouted as she heard the gunshots and saw Ricky stagger back into the room and fall. She heard running footsteps and knew that his attackers were running away.

“Ricky, Ricky!” she called out.

There was no sound and Sophia switched on the lights. Her son and the baby girl were crying. There was blood all over Ricky and Sophia started to shout.

“They’ve killed Ricky, murder, they’ve killed Ricky.”

Neighbors rushed to her assistance.

“Sophia, Sophia, what happened?”

“Jesus Christ, they’ve killed Ricky.”

“I don’t know what happened. I heard a knocking on the door. I told him that he shouldn’t open it, but he never paid me any mind. Just as he opened the door, I heard the gunshots. Then I saw him stagger back into the room and I started shouting.”

                        ***

“Your name is Stenneth Rhoomes and you are Sophia’s first baby father. Then it’s you who killed the man. He took away Sophia from you?” Sergeant Reid asked.

“Imagine, they just shot the woman’s baby father. You are one of her baby fathers and you are on the scene of the crime with a gun. You were going to kill the man who is dead or Sophia?” Corporal Bilton wanted to know.

      “What are you doing with this gun?” Sergeant Reid inquired.

“A man begged me to hold it for him.”

“You heard that, Bilton. So you are not a gunman then?” Sergeant Reid asked.

“What was the man’s name who gave you the gun to hold?” Bilton put in.

Stenneth went dumb.

“You know what I feel, Bilton. It was the two of them who were supposed to murder the man, but the other man couldn’t wait on him.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t somebody else he was going to stick up.”

“A man just begged me to hold his gun for him,” Stenneth insisted.

“You are imagining things. You are under arrest for illegal possession of firearm,” Sergeant Reid told him.

***

Sophia cried that day when Ricky was buried. She was to cry at Stenneth’s trial as he was sentenced to ten years in prison. Her second baby father was dead and her first baby father was in prison. A year later she took up with a man by the name of Bradley West.

She was six months pregnant when she received a note.

‘Time is longer than rope.’

She decided to ignore the note.

Her first child with Bradley, a boy, was three months old when she received another note.

‘You are living with a bad man.’

Again she ignored this note. She really didn’t know what work Bradley did, except that he was at the racetrack nearly every day. He told her not to worry. He always had plenty of money. He told her that he was a security consultant. He did a lot of undercover work. Sophia had to depend on him for the maintenance of her three children. Three years after Stennet went to prison, she had her second child for Bradley, which was a girl.

***

They were at home one Friday night when Bradley said.

“Sophia, the guy, Stenneth, will soon come out of prison. I don’t want you to have anything to do with him.”

“I have a child for him. If he comes and want to see him, I can’t stop him.”

“Suppose he wants to be friends with you again?”

“I left Stenneth and was along with Ricky before he died. I just feel that it was he who killed him.”

“Lots of people feel that way too. Anyway, he still has a couple more years to go.”

“I’m sorry that up to now they haven’t found out who killed Ricky.”

“Nobody but Stenneth did it. He was trying to hide the gun, but the police caught him with it.”

“The police said no shots were fired out of the gun they caught him with.”

“He could have hidden it.”

They had moved and were living about five miles from where the tragedy of Ricky’s murder took place.

Bradley refrained from telling Sophia that he had been getting messages. The last one read.

‘I soon come a road.’

***

“Stenneth will soon come out. You know that it was he who killed Ricky. I hear that he still loves Sophia and that he’s swearing after you,” a man called English told Bradley one day.

“I am not afraid of Stenneth. Every night I sleep with my gun. If he sends men after me, I’m ready for them.”

***

Sophia was at home one day when there was a knock on the grill. It was Ricky’s father, Gilroy.

“Mister Gilroy, what are you doing up here?”

From Ricky died, his family had treated her like a stranger.

“The man that you live with now, did you know him before you met Ricky?”

Sophia turned the question around in her mind.

“What kind of question is that, Mister Gilroy?”

Mister Gilroy got up.

“Up to now the police haven’t found out who killed my son. They say it’s not Stenneth who did it. Yet they found him there with a gun. He knows who killed Ricky but he doesn’t want to talk.”

“Mister Gilroy, I don’t know what to say. Even though I live with a next man and have children for him, I still miss Ricky. But I can tell you that it was after Rickey died that I met Bradley.”

“I am not stopping until I find out who murdered my son.”

After Mister Gilroy left Sophia began to think. Stenneth would want to come and look for his son whenever he came out of prison. She couldn’t stop that nor could the police. Bradley wouldn’t want him near the house. She feared that something bad was going to happen.

From her high school days guys had been fussing with each other over her. She remembered what happened when she was in Grade Ten. Delroy Jones had burst Patrick Hugh’s head with a bottle after he saw her talking to him. She couldn’t believe it as she and Delroy were not even friends. He had tried to befriend her but she had told him that he was too quiet. Her parents had been furious with her and wanted to send her to a different school. She and Stenneth became friends in Grade Eleven. They were always quarrelling because of the rumors being spread by her enemies that she was sleeping around. In the last term in Grade Eleven she got pregnant for Stenneth. She did her exams as the pregnancy hadn’t begun to show. She didn’t graduate, and couldn’t go on to sixth form.

She was virtually ostracized by her parents and other relatives. She had to go and live at Stenneth’s parent’s home until she had her baby. Then she heard the rumors about him and other women. Nerine Darby came to fight her over him. They had rolled each other on the ground until neighbors parted them. They both had cuts and bruises all over their bodies and had to seek medical attention. Nerine sued her for assault, but she countersued her and the judge asked them to compromise the case.

When she left Stenneth, she didn’t have anywhere to go but Ricky took her in. He was probably five years or so older than her and had built this one bedroom house on his parent’s property. Stenneth had warned her that he wanted her back, so any man she went to live with was only baiting up himself.

Sophia looked at herself in the mirror. She was still beautiful with long curly hair. Her only job had been as a basic school teacher when she was living with Ricky. From Ricky died, she never worked again. She was fully dependent on Bradley to support her and the children. Suppose something should happen to him how would she manage to support herself and four children?

When Bradley came home that evening she brought up the subject.

“I would like to go back to school to finish up my schooling.”

“How many subjects do you have?”

“Five but I don’t have English or Mathematics. If I get those subjects I could go to teacher’s college.”

“So how are the children going to manage?”

“My mother says that she will pick them up in the evenings for me.”

“All right, I will give you the money then.”

Sophia finished up her subjects, but Bradley refused to help her get into teacher’s college. She was wringing her hands, wondering where she would get the money from. She had passed the entrance test for college. Then out of the blue an uncle in the United States agreed to help her.

Sophia felt that maybe Bradley believed that she was going to leave him when she finished college. She knew that several men didn’t want any educated women around them. Bradley, as far as she knew had only finished high school and didn’t have any subjects. She knew that her parents didn’t like him and were always questioning her about him. She told them that he was from another district, two miles away from where they lived.

She had just started her second year in college when she got pregnant again. She managed to have her baby, a boy and complete her courses with the help of several of her classmates despite Bradley’s misgivings that she should give up college for the baby.

She got a teaching job six months after leaving college. It was three miles away, but Bradley refused to take her in the mornings. She had to take a minibus and then a taxi.

Two years later, Stenneth was released from prison. He came to look for her a month later. Sophia had to think that he looked none the worse. He talked to his son. Sophia was glad that she hadn’t told Denton where he was all this time and the little boy never asked.

When Bradley came home, she told him about the visit. She and he were not on good terms because of his meanness towards her. She had secretly done an operation to prevent herself from getting pregnant again. She also felt frustrated at his refusal to marry her.

“So as soon as he comes out of prison, he has to come and look for you. I suppose you were glad to see him.”

“I told you that if he wants to come and look for his son I’m not going to stop him.”

“You and he will soon start sleeping together again.”

“Bradley, stop it!” she cried and fled to her room.

Three months later, she was surprised when she was waiting for a taxi, who should pull up at her gate but Stenneth.

He dropped her and the children home, occasionally since then. He told her that he had a woman in Old Harbour. One evening just as Stenneth’s taxi drove off Bradley drove up.

“I knew it. So you have gone back to him?”

“Bradley, are you crazy? Every time I ride in Stennet’s taxi I pay him. You think I could be with him again and I don’t know if he was the one who killed Ricky.”

On Monday of the next week after school was over she

was waiting for a taxi when Stenneth drove up. She wanted to refuse the ride but decided to go with him. She had actually waved him on but he insisted on taking her home. On the way home he took out some money for their son. She wanted to refuse, but he insisted that she take it.

As they drew up to her gate Bradley came up from another direction. He jumped out of the car and rushed over to Stenneth’s car. Stenneth hadn’t come out of his car.

“Hey guy, I told you to keep away from my woman.”

Stenneth came out of his car and faced off with Bradley.

“You can’t stop me from talking to her, guy. She has a

child for me, you remember that.”

“Go to hell, Stenneth. Next time you won’t be getting off this easily,” Bradley warned and jumped into his car and sped off.

Stenneth and Sophia were left in the dust that his car tires

had kicked up.

“What the hell’s the matter with that guy?”

“I don’t know. I guess I will just have to stop taking your taxi.”

“Maybe he’ll behave that way to just about any male taxi driver,” Stenneth stated and drove off.

Sophia wasn’t sure if what Stenneth said was true. She knew that it was only him Bradley was having a problem with. She also remembered that she hadn’t paid Stenneth. She would do so the next time she saw him.

That night she and Bradley had a big quarrel. He threatened to lock her and the children out of the house and she dared him. All the children except Denton were crying. Bradley didn’t stay at the house that night. She suspected that he had probably spent the night with one of his women.

That night Ricky dreamt her. It was like he was telling her to keep away from both Stenneth and Bradley. She woke up in a cold sweat that morning. She reached work late as she refused Stenneth’s offer to take her.

She and Bradley quarrelled that night and he again left to sleep out. She was now prepared to leave him.

“You want to go back to that old murderer, Stenneth? I know that’s what you want to do.”

“I could never go back to Stenneth and I still don’t know if it was he who killed Ricky.”

By the next week she had moved back home. She

refused to take any rides from Stenneth.

She was at school one Friday evening a month later,

when she got an urgent phone call. The caller, a man, refused to tell her the reason for the call.

She took a taxi down to the Spanish Town Hospital. She saw several cars parked on the hospital compound.

As she came out of the taxi, her mother came and held her.

“Stenneth and Bradley shot it out and Bradley killed him.”

A policeman came out to them.

“Bradley wants to talk to you.”

***

“It was Stenneth who killed Ricky. He wanted me to go with him, but I refused.”

Sophia fell on the floor crying. The next thing she knew was that she was in a bed in the hospital.

“You fainted,” her mother told her. “They decided to keep you here under observation. The children are okay. Jacinth came to help me.”

Jacinth was Sophia’s youngest sister. Sophia had two other sisters, all younger than her. She didn’t have any brothers.

“Where’s Bradley?”

“He’s still in hospital. He got shot on his left shoulder.”

“Mummy, I’m sorry for everything that’s happened,” Sophia told her mother and bust into tears.

***

At the trial, Bradley was freed as he had shot Stennet in self-defense.

He came around wanting them to make up, but Sophia refused. She was still confused as to how Ricky had died.

Bradley came around again. This time he threatened to take away the children and she dared him. He then told her that any man she took up would be looking for trouble with him.

A year later, she moved to Montego Bay with her children. She didn’t tell Bradley where she was going. She was confident that her relatives wouldn’t tell him either. She is presently seeing a police officer. This man is a divorcee and both of them are taking their time in developing the relationship.

Bradley lost his life when he transported some men to do a robbery. He was shot dead in a high speed car chase.

One weekend three months later, Sophia was visiting her parents. She had taken the children to look for them. She met a man named Willie Jarman. He was a middle aged construction worker from her district. He proceeded to tell her that he had overheard Stenneth and Bradley planning Ricky’s murder.

“ Stenneth paid Bradley to kill Ricky. I don’t know why he was there with a gun. He probably wanted to kill Bradley or if Bradley missed, kill Ricky himself.”

According to him, he hadn’t want to say anything while both men were still alive. She remembered the notes she used to receive. When she put it all together, it seems possible that was what really happened, Sophia thought. But with both men now dead, she will never learn the truth about what really happened. The End.