‘When Henry finally left he bought himself a grocery store in Ocho Rios, with the money he saved on the plantation and the gold from his mother.’
By this time I starting to feel the heat myself and my arm getting tired like it going drop off. Ethyl must have read my mind from the kitchen because right then the door open and she come in with a jug of ice-cold lemonade. I rest down the fan and I pour out two glass for me and Miss Cicely. Then Ethyl start point to the tray that the jug and the glasses sitting on, and I see a drinking straw laying there. She carry on pointing but I dunno what she mean, so eventually she just lean over and pick up the straw and stick it in the glass. So when I hold out the glass to Miss Cicely, and she reach out with her hand and steady it, I just hold the straw firm so she can find it with her mouth and suck. Next thing I hear is the click of the door as Ethyl close it behind her.
‘My mother ran off to Panama with another man and left me with him, my father, Mr Johnson. That’s how come I was there with him. Then along came Henry, and he showed me the first bit of kindness I experienced in my life. Henry Wong was the sweetest, gentlest man. A kinder man you could never meet. So when Mr Johnson told Henry that I was pregnant and I needed someone to care for me Henry just said yes. In truth, Mr Johnson talked him into it. He told Henry that now he had his shop doing so well he needed a wife. And pretty soon, because of my condition, he would have a whole family, and that was good for him. And when Henry asked him why he wasn’t going to be looking after me any more Mr Johnson said, “I don’t want a life with no baby running under my feet.” And when Henry asked him who the father of the baby was Mr Johnson just said, “Don’t you be worrying yourself ’bout that. I know the man concerned and he won’t be bothering you none.” Actually, I think Henry just felt sorry for me and thought that since he wasn’t planning on marrying anybody else he might as well marry me. I think that is how it was. Years later he got a woman in Ocho Rios. He thought I didn’t know, but I did. I just chose not to say anything about it, that was all.’
And then I think Miss Cicely start to cry even though I didn’t see no tears. It was just something ’bout how her mood change, how it sort of dip down. Or maybe she just start to cry inside.
‘When the baby came I decided to give him the same name as Mr Johnson, Stanley. So every time Mr Johnson came to sit at our table, he would look at Stanley and be reminded of the terrible thing he had done to me.’
I see a few beads of sweat appear on Miss Cicely’s forehead so I pick up the fan again and start make some breeze ’round her.
‘I suppose I worried that Stanley and Kenneth would turn out to be like him, Mr Johnson, even though Henry is Kenneth’s father. I worried that they had bad blood from him, through me, and they would turn out to be bad men. But more than that, they would turn out to be bad black men, and they would end up proving white people right, because that is the other thing a mother always has to be mindful of. So I was always on the lookout for any sign of Mr Johnson’s badness. I watched out for it. I warned Stanley and Kenneth against it. I tried to make up for it with my afternoon tea and Victoria sponge. And I called on Almighty God when I got frightened that we were going to give white people any reason to believe that they were right about us being wicked heathens. And that applied to the girls as well, that is why I spent so much time fighting with Fay. I can see that now.’
Miss Cicely’s funeral surprise me. Not because the church was so full, I sorta expected that, but because people had come from all over the island to pay their last respects.
There was people from Ocho Rios, who remember Miss Cicely from when Henry open his first shop and she used to spend Saturday mornings giving away food to the poor. There was people from Port Maria, where Miss Cicely’s mother come from, that she used to write letters to and, from time to time, send money to help ease their way. There was people from Montego Bay and Port Antonio that she meet through her various church gatherings and there was a whole load of Methodist ministers from all over the island.
Plus, there was the people I expected to see, the well-off of Kingston, or what was left of them anyway.
Fay didn’t come though. But that didn’t surprise me none, since there was no love lost between the two of them. Karl I knew for sure wouldn’t bother with it, but I sorta half fancy that maybe Mui would make the journey. But she didn’t.
A few days after the funeral Daphne call me to say she want to see me ’bout Miss Cicely’s will. When I go up to Lady Musgrave Road she sitting on the veranda with a bottle of Appleton by her side. When I walk up to her, she pour me a drink, but it look like she not drinking nothing herself. She tell me that Miss Cicely leave me all the supermarkets and wholesalers and wine merchants. And that she leave the house and contents, and a pile of money in the bank, to split between her and Fay.
I look at Daphne how tired she seem. Like her whole body sagging. Not that she big, because she is a trim woman. It more like the weight of her misery dragging her down. And then I think to myself that in all the years I know her, I never actually take her in before. But now I see she got a kind face. It sad, but it gentle and it sorta caring. Daphne would be the one to look after yu, even if every day yu would want to say to her ‘lively up yourself nuh’.
‘I feel honoured that Miss Cicely think so highly of me.’
‘It didn’t surprise me. She was always very fond of you, Pao, you must have known that. And in any case, you are the one who has been working so hard all of these years to make those businesses a success. It is only fair after all.’
I didn’t say nothing. I just wait because she look like maybe there was something else she want to say. Or maybe something she want me to say to her. A kind of wish that she was holding her breath for. But I wasn’t saying nothing. I still not forgive her for the business over Stanley’s address.
Daphne start up again, ‘I have no problem with any of that. My problem is that all of the money is in Jamaican dollars, and even if I manage to get a good price for this house there will be sizeable taxes and difficulties in getting the money off the island.’
‘What yu mean off the island?’
‘I want to go to England to be with Fay.’
She surprise me but then I think, well she not got nothing here anyway. So I say OK and I arrange to take the house off Daphne and have all the money change into US dollars. And then Margy move it to London and convert it to sterling. I give Daphne a good rate as well, better than the bank, and I didn’t keep no commission for myself. I reckon it was the least I could do for Fay.
Daphne so happy when she get to London and look in her bank account she ring me straight away to say thank you. Just before she hang up the telephone I say, ‘Say hello to Fay for me.’
It wasn’t till after Daphne leave Jamaica that Ethyl tell me that the first time I go visit Miss Cicely after she take sick, Daphne had the whole house in a state of excitement. She had the maids dusting and sweeping, and washing and scrubbing every inch of every ornament, every lamp and shade, every table, chair, sideboard, bedstead, wardrobe, dressing table, windowsill, skirting board, window shutter, wooden floor. Every toilet, sink and bathtub. Every cupboard door, glass pane, veranda rail and balustrade. Every doorknob and hinge. Every photo frame, picture and wall hanging. There was that much to do.