‘The whole night? What the two a yu going do all night?’
Auntie, she don’t say nothing. She just happy she going catch some breeze on the north coast. Marcia is the only one that seem like she concerned.
‘Yu sure yu going be all right? Yu want me to stay?’
‘No Marcia, what would I want yu to stay for? I invite him over because yu all going to Ocho Rios.’
She look at me like she cyan figure out what going on.
‘What is it yu see in him?’ I not got no answer for her because I cyan explain that Yang Pao not what everybody think he is. I not got the words to describe his tai chi hands and the pleasure I see in his eyes when he look at me.
When he turn up I realise I knew he would come. He stand in the doorway all showered and scrubbed, with the smell of the Old Spice coming off him and a smile on his face like somebody who was expecting something but they didn’t know what it was.
He come inside and I tek him into the living room and he sit down on the sofa sorta prim.
‘Nice room. I never sit in here before.’
‘Yu want a drink?’
‘What, a real drink?’
So I nod my head.
‘Maybe a Red Stripe.’
I go fetch the bottle outta the fridge. When I come back I pour the beer into a glass and remember how the first time I see him he was sitting there with the beer bottle in his hand. He tek the glass from me and sip. And then with his other hand he wipe the sweat from his brow and pass his fingers through his hair.
And right then, it suddenly dawn on me. Yang Pao never do this before. He busy wheeling and dealing and putting the fear a God into whoever he want to, strutting like a lord all over town, but he never been with a woman.
So it was me that had to tek off his clothes. And me that had to stroke his face and rub his arms and shoulders and chest, and gently squeeze the muscle that was under my fingertips. It was me that had to caress his lips. It was me that had to take him.
Afterwards he lay there on his back still and silent. And then he turn over and rest himself on my breast with his head buried in my neck. I reach out and wrap both my arms ’round him and hold him close.
I think about every other time I see him. How he so self-contained and in charge, like he a island. And I realise that Yang Pao never let himself feel anything. He just do the next thing, and the next, and the next. That is his refuge, his hiding place. Right up until now because that is when I hear the soft snivelling and feel his body forcing itself to hold back the tears that was welling up inside a him. But he couldn’t do it. And in the end he decide to let himself go. I just keep my arms tight ’round him and let him do what he needed to. And when he start to slow down I reach out to the side table and grab a Kleenex and give it to him. And he blow and wipe his nose.
He raise himself up and look at me.
‘Is all right,’ I say to him. And I stroke his head of beautiful soft hair.
‘Yu know why I suddenly stop coming to the house?’
‘Why?’
‘Because I didn’t know what to do with how I was feeling for yu. It nuh seem like the way a man should be feeling ’bout a woman in this kinda situation. But no matter how much I try stop think about yu I couldn’t do it. It was even interfering with my work. And then that time I come here few Fridays back and nuh say nothing to yu, it was because I was trying to harden my heart against yu. That is why I just stand there and tek the money from yu like that. But it didn’t work. So when I bump into yu outside Times Store last week it was a blessing to me because I didn’t know how I was going to face yu after what I done.’
‘Yu didn’t do nothing Pao. Yu just had some feelings. It happen to everybody. It was new to yu that was all.’ And I stroke his smooth, smooth back. ‘Yu not as alone in this world as yu think.’
He smile. But it was a different smile. This smile didn’t have no question in it.
When Sybil come back from Ocho Rios she say to me if I know what I am doing.
‘How yu mean?’
‘Like maybe yu forget what this is?’ She pause and then she say, ‘This is a business, Gloria. It not no courtship. And there not nobody in this house giving it away for free.’
I hear what she saying so the next time I see him I tell him that we have to put things on a business basis.
‘Yu mean yu want me to pay?’
I don’t say nothing at first because what my head tell me and what my heart feel is two completely different things.
‘Pao, I am what I am.’
He look at me quizzical and then he say, ‘If that is what yu want.’ But even then there was sadness in his eyes.
After that he was coming regular, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoon and then Friday evening when he come to pick up the protection money. That was his business. My business was awkward, like a shadow that fall across us everytime he turn his back and put the money on the table, and me waiting ’til he was long gone before I pick it up. It injure us even though I know it was the right thing. I didn’t want nobody getting any fancy ideas ’bout what was going on. Not Sybil and Beryl because all the money we mek go into the same pot. Not him. And especially not me.
‘The Chinaman.’
‘What Chinaman Auntie? Yu mean Yang Pao?’
‘Yu think I nuh know him di way him coming here all these months? No, I mean di other one. Di one yu work for in di grocery store.’
‘Yu mean Mr Ho?’
‘Me nuh know what him call. Me just know him turn up here two, three hours back looking fi yu, saying him need to ask yu something.’
The next day I go down to Barry Street to see what Mr Ho want. But when he see me come through the shop door he rush over and push me back out into the street like he worried somebody going see me. And then he whisper, ‘I come see you. When?’
So I say, ‘Tomorrow, three o’clock.’
‘Good, good,’ and he hurry back inside.
‘Lynette never have baby. I give cousin job but the baby thing just a lie. Then they in shop with things going missing off shelf and out back and money take from drawer. So in end I fire them. But they come back. They come back every day. They just open door and walk in and start serve customers like they still work for me. Even after I stop pay them wages. No matter, because they taking what they want from shop anyway to fill their bellies and feed their whole family. And the money, they just tek it.’
Mr Ho sweating and curling up his hat in his hand. And all the time he sitting there so far on the edge of the chair I think his backside going slide off and slap on the hard tile floor.
‘They do all this little little because they not trying bankrupt me. They want me going on year after year so they can keep on and on. Take more and more. And they know if they do it too bad shop going shut down and they won’t get nothing at all and they nuh want that.’
‘Yu nuh go to the police Mr Ho?’
‘It Chinatown! Who go police?’
Mr Ho fretting like some cornered mouse just before the cat pounce on it.
‘What mek yu come see me Mr Ho?’ He nuh say nothing. He just look at the floor.
‘The thing is, Gloria, it get worse. It one thing me going year after year with everything just trickling away. But now Lynette and cousin want me give them shop. Sign it over to them just like that.’
‘What yu talking ’bout? What mek them think yu would do a thing like that?’
‘Well, Gloria, they got some man, and these man they following wife and daughters every time they go to store, to school, the Chinese Athletic Club; when they visit family, the herbalist, the temple. Everywhere. Any time I not with them. They doing this for weeks and now they start say dirty, nasty things and open up girly magazine to show picture and say this what going happen to you. Wife and daughters very frighten. And Lynette say this going on ’til I give her shop. That is what she say. And she say if anything happen to family it my fault for being so stubborn.’
I cyan believe what Mr Ho telling me. I suspect all along that Lynette was a thief but this is something else. It so wicked yu cyan even begin to imagine that somebody could think of a thing like that.
‘But what yu going do Mr Ho if yu nuh want go to the police?’
‘Even if I could go, what I going tell police? That I got two women working in shop for no wages? And how I going explain what going on with these man?’
‘How yu think I can help yu?’ Mr Ho sit there quiet like he turning over in his mind what he want to say to me.
And then he say, ‘I think Uncle can help.’
‘Yu mean Yang Pao?’
‘You know him, Gloria. You can ask him for me.’
‘Why yu nuh ask him yourself??’ Mr Ho wring his hands some more and start swallow hard and lick his lips like his mouth all of a sudden dry up.
‘I not pay protection.’
‘Yu nuh pay it?’
‘Times is hard, Gloria. I not got the extra money what with everything going on with Lynette and cousin taking away every little scrap profit. I just not see my way to do it. So I say to him that I nuh want to pay it.’
‘And what he say to yu?’
‘He say if you nuh pay insurance you can’t make no claim if anything happen. And him and the other two just turn and walk out. That was maybe two year back, and I never see nothing of him since.’
‘Yu know if yu pay him in the first place none a this would a happen.’
‘Yes, that was mistake. But I think if you ask him for me maybe he take some pity.’
The man got a calamity. That is for sure and I feel sorry for him. But more than that, I worried for his wife and daughters. No woman should have to go through a thing like that. So I say to him, ‘I will ask him. I cyan mek yu no promise ’bout what he going to say, but I will talk to him and try mek him see how much yu need him help.’
Mr Ho shoot outta the chair and start bowing and bending ’til he almost on his knees holding on to the hem of my skirt and whispering like he praying to me, ‘Thank you, Gloria. Thank you.’
‘No. Ho mek up his mind long time back. It done. It over. Let him go find somebody else to fix his problem.’
‘Who he going find?’
‘I dunno. All I know is it not nothing to do with me.’
I can feel my shoulders sagging. Right out there in the street under the shade of the big Bombay mango tree in the front of the house.
‘Pao, he got nobody else to turn to.’
He let out one a them hefty puff-out-yu-cheek breath he like to.
‘What I should do it for, Gloria? Ho say he going pay?’
‘I already tell yu, Lynette robbing the man blind. What he going pay yu wid? If he could a do it he would a pay yu years back. Now he got this situation and is only you can help him.’
He think on it and then he reach in his pocket for the car key and start walk off.
‘I don’t like it, Gloria. I don’t want people thinking they can mek a fool outta me and then come bawling to you when they want.’ He open the car door and rest his hand on top of it. ‘This not the way yu do business, getting some woman mix up in the middle a it.’
And then he get in the car and slam the door and drive off. I stand in the sun on the sidewalk and watch the tail of the blue and white Chevy disappear ’round the corner and then I go back inside and pour myself a drink. I got no idea if he going do anything but I reckon I do my best. I do what I tell Mr Ho, so at least I keep my word.
Next day I go down to the wine merchant to talk to Henry ’bout money because it seem like maybe we got a chance to expand the business. But when I get there he gone to Ocho Rios and not coming back for another week. So the bwoy tell me anyway. And right as I turn ’round to leave a woman step through the door and the bwoy say, ‘Good afternoon, Miss Fay.’
It stop me in my track. I look at her and I think so here you are. I never imagine I would ever meet yu. Never mind run into yu just like that outta the blue. I transfix. She tall like her papa and she slim. She not curvy like me. She got on a beautiful frock with some pretty little yellow flowers in the pattern and it hang so yu know that it musta come off the sewing machine of one of the most expensive dressmakers in town. Even the fabric itself tell yu how much that dress cost. It was elegant, that is what it was. Simple and stylish. It was class. And her standing there with her light skin that she shading under her regal wide-brim hat. I couldn’t understand how Henry could possibly look at her and think of me. I was nothing like Fay Wong.
‘Come sit yuself down, Miss Fay.’ And the bwoy pull out a stool and dust it off with a rag for her. ‘Let me fetch yu something cool to drink and then yu can tell me what yu want.’
She sit down and the bwoy rush out the back. When he come back he carrying a jug of lemonade with the ice cubes rattling in it. I dawdle. I picking up this bottle and that like I cyan mek up my mind what it is I am after.
She reach in her purse for a piece a paper and unfold it. And then she pass it to him. ‘I made a list, Alvin.’
What is her voice like? It is like something smooth. Something even and rounded, softened at the edges. Almost like the wrinkle-hand English woman on a Saturday morning, excepting it definitely Jamaican. It got the tone and rhythm of a island born.