And then Ethyl sorta lower her voice and look down and say, ‘Because Miss Fay go out at night a lot.’
And then she carry on, ‘And Miss Fay say it not her fault she have a lot of friends and it better than if she running ’round town with some jock. Well that word now, “jock”, really get Miss Cicely started on some long speech that she finish off by saying, You too busy fretting about your social standing when you should be saying to yourself the Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer .
‘And even in the middle of them arguing Miss Cicely will just stop and say something like, We pay all that money for your schooling and you can’t even stand up straight. Why you need to lean on the doorpost? And then she tell Miss Fay to act like she a respectable woman. Another time she say to her, Take your hands off your hips! What you think this is? You think you big enough now to be standing there akimbo scowling at me? And if Miss Fay interrupt her, Miss Cicely say, I am talking. I am talking to you here if you don’t mind .
‘But the worst time was when Miss Fay say that Mr Stanley run off to England just to get away from her, Miss Cicely that is.’
Ethyl talking so fast I have to put my hand up like a policeman say stop so as I can ask her who Stanley is because I got no idea who she talking ’bout.
‘Mr Stanley Miss Cicely’s firstborn.’
‘Miss Cicely got another child?’
‘Yes, sah. But Mr Henry not him father. I dunno who him papa except I hear Miss Fay say something ’bout Mr Johnson marrying Miss Cicely off to Mr Henry. And that make Miss Cicely vex ’cause she say, Mr Johnson was your grandfather, God rest his soul, and you will talk about him with a civil tongue in your head. He didn’t do nothing to you . So I dunno what all that about, except it seem like Mr Johnson Miss Cicely’s papa.’
‘So what ’bout Stanley going to England?’
‘Miss Fay say Mr Stanley run off to England to get away from Miss Cicely hounding him every day ’bout how he stupid and lazy and irresponsible, and how he never going ’mount to anything. And Miss Cicely say it not true, Mr Stanley go to join the Royal Air Force, to serve his Queen and country in a time of need. And Miss Fay say no, Mr Stanley sick and tired of Miss Cicely because no matter what he do Miss Cicely never forgive him for being as black as her.
‘The latest thing is a letter come from England for Miss Fay. It come from Mr Stanley and it say he can make arrangements for her to go there. She write a reply to him and she say she need a divorce so she can get the children from you, but the Church not going give it to her. I know it bad of me but I been taking the liberty to steam open the envelope when they come and when she give me the letter to take to the post office.’
Then she stop and she just sit there and look at me. And then she say, ‘I think that all I got to tell you right now, Mr Philip.’
So I say, ‘Thank you, Ethyl. You must be hungry you come here straight from work. Maybe you go get ’ but before I finish talk Hampton jump up and start mumble something and shake out him legs and brush down him shirt and pants, look like him trying to make an impression.
And then finally him say, ‘I can take Miss Ethyl for some dinner and drive her home after if that alright with you?’
I just look at him. And then I say, ‘Yah, man.’
After the two of them leave I lock up the shop and walk ’round to Matthews Lane. When I get there, there is a big commotion going on. Mui talking so fast I can’t make no sense outta what she saying. Ma trying to get her calm down when the telephone ring. It Clifton Brown.
‘I got Karl down here at the police station.’
‘What you got him doing down there?’
‘He get arrested by accident. I just trying to sort things out now and I bring him over the house in a hour or so.’
When Clifton turn up he got Xiuquan and two police constables with him that I never seen before. He say they young, they new to the neighbourhood, they didn’t know no better. They make a mistake. I reckon everything they do must be a mistake the two of them look so dimwitted. And with one of them so tall and the other one so short they just like Mutt and Jeff out on another one of them get-rich-quick scheme. I almost expect one of them to say ‘Oowah!’
But these two constables not no comic strip, because when they see Xiuquan lifting the bow and arrow outta the store they shout at him to stop, and when he start running, they chase him till they finally catch up with him halfway down Barry Street and they take him back to the station.
When I ask Xiuquan what him think he doing he say they frighten him when they start shout, and him just in a hurry to run back home.
So I say to him, ‘But you no pay for the things you take outta the shop?’
‘Pay? We never pay for anything. It was a gift. It is always a gift.’
‘So if it a gift how come yu start running when yu see the police coming?’
But before he get to answer Mui say, ‘Because you cannot always trust the police to understand your situation.’
I think to myself yes, she right. But I also know another Xiuquan that take off just like that when the police turn up.
Just then I look ’round and catch Zhang walking off up the yard to his room.
Clifton push the constables forward to come apologise to me, and they both tell me them sorry. They nuh know who Xiuquan is. They nuh know him my boy. Arresting him a mistake they regret and they promise it never happen again.
I tell them is OK, these things happen. No harm done. And I open some Red Stripes and pass them ’round. The constables sit down and drink the beer, and they smile at me, but I can tell they none too happy ’bout the whole situation.
Sun Tzu say, ‘ When without a previous understanding the enemy asks for a truce, he is plotting .’
23
West Kingston was like a powder keg just waiting for something to come put a match to it. So that day when Edward Seaga stand up at the hundredth anniversary of the Paul Bogle Uprising, and when the crowd start heckle him, an’ him say to them, ‘If they think they are bad I can bring the crowds of West Kingston. We can deal with them, in any way, at any time. It will be fire for fire. Blood for blood.’ Well that is when the mayhem really start up in earnest, and I wonder if it was a wise move for him to stop being a music promoter and become a politician. Not that all the shooting was Mr Seaga’s fault because it was going on long before that. I think the blood-for-blood thing just ease it up a notch.
Anyway, it was just like Gloria say to me. It was open warfare in the street. And this was 1965, just three years after Independence when we was out on them same streets parading and dancing and singing ’bout unity. Now everybody was just out there gunning down one another. It get so bad that one day they report that in a two-hour period on one West Kingston street they fire two thousand rounds of ammunition. How they work out a thing like that I dunno. I don’t even know how people can afford to buy so much gun and bullet. And how come they so happy to spend so much time and money just trying to gun down their neighbour.
I say to Judge Finley that it was exactly the sort of thing I worried we was headed for when Samuels take up with Louis DeFreitas, and how good it was that we stamp it out straight away. How good it was that we keep them guns outta Chinatown because I didn’t want nothing to do with what was going on.
And him say to me, ‘What about unity and being brothers in arms?’
‘This is not unity. Unity is when you gather together to face a common enemy. Who is the enemy in West Kingston?’
‘They think it is the man next door with the gun that is trying to kill them.’