Daphne had Edmond clear and spruce up the garden. Trim the lawn and tennis court. Cut back the bougainvillaea. Weed the rose beds. Sweep up the mangoes from under the tree. Cut hibiscus and red ginger for the vases in the house.
She had Ethyl throw open every window to give the house a good airing, and position two wicker armchairs next to each other on the veranda with one of them occasional table in between. And she had Ethyl place a ashtray and box of matches next to the cigars that she instruct Edmond to buy for her the day before.
She had them shop for oysters and she get them make fresh hot red-pepper sauce. She even have Edmond wash and polish the Wong maroon Mercedes so that it could stand proud and gleaming in the driveway.
Then she sit on the veranda, in Miss Cicely’s favourite chair, and wait. Ethyl tell me that Daphne wait there till the midday sun pass over. She wait till the afternoon shower come and gone. She wait till the smell of cool rain on hot grass fade and the sound of crickets begin to threaten. That was when I finally show up and the whole house breathe a mighty sigh of relief.
‘You don’t remember nothing ’bout it?’
‘No, Ethyl, I don’t. I remember I was later than I wanted to be, and I remember standing on the veranda steps with her asking me if I wanted to take some sorrel with her. But my arms was full of chocolates and grapenut ice cream for Miss Cicely and I didn’t want to stop. I just tell her I want to go straight through and she step aside so I could go into the house.’
And then with Ethyl telling me all of this, I cast my mind back to the morning I go take Daphne to the airport, and how she hug me so long and close I thought she wasn’t going let me go.
I sell the Wong house to a property developer who turn it into a nice little hotel with the swimming pool and tennis court and everything, even though they rip up the grass and put down a hard court because they didn’t want the expense of having to water it and tend it all the time in that heat.
I ask Gloria if she want the house before I sell it and she say no. And then she say to me, ‘What I would like is a little place on the north coast. Back off the road, in one of them little coves outside Ocho Rios where Esther can bring our grandchildren and we can be together and relax like a family.’
When we go up to Ochie to look for a house it turn out Gloria already know the place she want. It in a little cove, just like she describe it, with a private beach and a nice veranda looking out to sea. It small but it nice and fresh with the breeze blowing through it. And not only does Gloria know the exact house but the caretaker know her by name. It turn out that the house belong to Henry Wong. It still in his name even though him been dead all these years because nobody in Kingston don’t know nothing ’bout him owning it. So the sale complicated, but it Jamaica, so I pay the realtor and him fix things just fine. When I go sign the papers my mind reflect back to when Henry was laying sick in the Chinese Sanatorium and how Hampton tell me one day that he think him see Gloria up there and when I ask him who she visiting him say him dunno because him only see her in the car park. But I didn’t say nothing to Gloria because it seem to me that whatever happen between them was all a long time ago. And anyway, like Sun Tzu say, ‘ Do not linger in desolate ground .’
40
I get a phone call from Gloria. Esther have the baby and it a girl. ‘We have a beautiful granddaughter,’ she tell me.
When I go see Esther and the baby, Gloria is there and she look proud and beautiful. She look more beautiful than the baby, because in truth I never seen a beautiful baby. Them always look sorta wrinkled to me. Not that I seen that many babies, but anyway.
Esther look happy laying up there in the bed with the baby in her arms. And she ask me if I want to hold it, but I say no.
So she say, ‘Go on. Just hold her a little minute. She not going bite you.’
‘Bite me! What she going bite me with? No, man, I worried I going hurt her, she so little and frail.’
Then Gloria say, ‘She little but she not so frail. You ever think what she just done go through?’ And everybody laugh.
So Gloria sit me down, and take the baby off Esther and put her in my arms, and she arrange me so I got the baby safe and secure.
‘What you going call her?’ I ask.
Esther say, ‘Sunita.’
‘Sunita. Sunita.’ I repeat it to myself. And I look at this tiny little African, Chinese, Indian baby and I think to myself, Sunita, you are Jamaica. Out of the many, you are the one. And you won’t have no need to go back to Africa, or China, or India because this is where you belong, with your own identity and dignity. And I remember what Michael Manley say all them years ago, ‘We come too far, we’re not turning back now. We have a pride now. We have a place now. We have a mission now.’
While Esther and Gloria still inside, Rajinder take me out on the veranda and give me a cigar. And just as I taking my second puff him say to me, ‘There was something that I wanted to talk with you about.’
I look at him sorta quizzical, because all the time they been married me and him never had that much conversation to speak of. Rajinder is a university-educated man, we not got that much in common.
‘I’m sure you know from Esther that I got this job down at the docks some six months ago. It’s a good job, a good middle-management position. But the trouble is I have a problem with some of the dock workers.’ Him pause and look at me.
‘What kind of problem?’
He look behind him inside the house like him worried ’bout who going hear. Then him sorta whisper, ‘I talked to Esther about this and asked her if she thought you might be able to help but she wasn’t that keen.’
‘What kind of problem?’
‘There is a small group of dock workers who don’t ever seem to do any work. They are on the payroll, but actually they spend the whole day playing dominoes, and sending out for food and chatting with each other. That is when they are there, because half the time they don’t come. They just don’t turn up, but they are still paid as if they are there every day putting in a full day’s work. This means that the others have to carry their workload, but they accept it because they are afraid.’
‘I know what this is.’
‘I’ve tried talking to them but it doesn’t seem to do any good. I mean, obviously there are procedures for dealing with underperforming staff except I don’t think they would be that receptive. And then three weeks ago one of them physically threatened me with a knife.’
‘So you ’fraid for your life?’
‘I am afraid, yes. But I also think it is a bad situation and I don’t know what to do about it. And well, I guess I am just going on hearsay and reputation when I think that you might be able to help.’
Right then Gloria step out on to the veranda so I just say quietly to him, ‘Leave it with me.’
‘Is there something you can do about this? Esther is very reluctant about me even asking you. She thinks we should be able to handle it ourselves without getting you involved.’
I look at Rajinder and then at Gloria and she say to me, ‘Rajinder already talk to me ’bout this. Is me tell him that it OK to ask you.’
Next day I ask Finley to go find out what going on down the dock and when he come back it turn out to be just what I expect. It a little gang thing, the same way Kenneth Wong was drawing his wage from the supermarket all the time he was running errands for Louis DeFreitas. It a kind of double-income arrangement that work good for having something to declare on your tax return. And if the boss don’t like it, him suddenly find himself with a lot of union trouble.
‘But,’ Finley say to me, ‘this is the bit you going like. The little ringleader named DeFreitas.’