Katani's Jamaican Holiday (8 page)

Then, a big surprise came for everyone. “We have another very important visitor,” the pastor announced, “who has made a generous contribution to our expansion fund. Will you stand up, Mr. Biggs?”
The
Mr. Biggs?! I heard Grandma’s sharp intake of breath. The church clapped loudly as he stood up with his back to us, and I angled my head to try to get a better look at him. He was a thin, tall man and looked very imposing in a light brown suit.

When he finally turned around to face us, it was my turn to gasp. It was the same tall man in the cowboy hat I had seen in the airport! Had he been spying on us? What a nerve that man had, trying to get the secret of Banana Bliss. I saw
Grandma Ruby had on her Queen of England look, which made me put my head up as well.

The choir began singing again, and I tried to forget about Mr. Biggs and Banana Bliss and the cowboy hat, instead, focusing on the music. Olivia had some solo parts. I was so proud. That girl had a voice as big as Texas! When the choir did a number that was accompanied by congo drums, they sang the chorus in the patois to a reggae beat:

I had no idea what they were singing, but the choir had the whole church rocking and singing together. There was a standing ovation and loud applause at the end. Afterward, we had to greet a lot of family friends and church folk. When I met Sister Lyn, I understood what Olivia meant. She was very old, bent over, even, but that woman could talk. She asked how long we were staying, then told Grandma everything she needed to see and do while she was in Jamaica. I could barely conceal my smile at hearing someone else ordering my grandma around.

I thought I was going to have to pick my jaw up off the floor when suddenly Mr. Biggs marched over to us. Did he really think we’d talk to him after everything he’d been trying to pull? But then, even more surprising, Grandma acknowledged his greeting in the most polite manner.

“How do you like Jamaica?” he asked in a hearty voice.

“It’s beautiful,” Grandma replied coolly. “Everything is perfectly lovely.”

I covered my mouth and suppressed a giggle. Grandma
Ruby sounded like some fancy Englishwoman.

He bent toward her and lowered his voice, but I could still hear what he said.

“If you really come to help Faith, your only choice is to advise her to sell the bakery to me. She is getting too old and shaky. She knows she can’t keep it open much longer, so she may as well sell it now. You know, I’m offering her a very fair price…a very nice price. I am a fair businessman, after all.”

For once, Grandma was speechless. Before she could recover, he bowed to her, put on his cowboy hat, and walked away. Because of his height and size he was already conspicuous. The cowboy hat was a bit much. If I were his fashion adviser I’d say,
Mr. Biggs, lose the hat
.

“Did you hear that?” Grandma asked me. Her eyes narrowed, and I knew that her fighting spirit was up. “We’ll see about that, Mr. Big Man,” she said softly.

J
ust then, I saw Olivia beckoning to me from where she stood with a group of her friends. As I neared them, I heard a girl’s spiteful voice saying, “So the barrel come. You get new blouse and headband.”

The speaker and another girl put their heads together and started whispering and giggling.

Oh, no
, I thought. Another set of Queens of Mean, just like Anna and Joline at Abigail Adams Junior High. Were they, like,
everywhere
?

Olivia just smiled at them, then she put her hand inside her collar to pull out the necklace and make them even more envious. Her face went pale. She turned to the side and patted the rest of her blouse frantically. Where was it?

My heart began to sink. She beckoned me to follow her and, when we were out of earshot, she said in a very frightened voice, “I can’t find it. What will I do? It loss!”

“You’re sure?” I asked. I also patted her skirt just to
see if the necklace had slipped off and gotten stuck in her clothes.

“What I gwine do?” she wailed softly. “If Daddy ever finds out…”

I was beginning to panic also. “Let’s think,” I said. “When was the last time you felt it?”

“I don’t know.” She looked like she’d just lost her best friend. We were quiet for a minute, then she snapped her fingers. “It must have dropped off when I bent down and Ol’ Madda Bird’s dog chased us away.”

“Oh, my gosh!” I exclaimed. “That must be what the dog was doing! When we were running away, I looked back and saw him sniffing something in the road.”

“Oh, no! Suppose he mash it up!”

“Let’s go look.”

“We can’t just go like that. It will look suspicious. Let me think,” she told me, and began pacing in a circle.

I tried to look around calmly, but I was feeling guilty. Maybe I should have tried harder to stop her. I felt even worse when I remembered that I was the one who had fastened the necklace. Maybe I hadn’t fastened it correctly, and that’s why it fell off. I wished the BSG were here. We could put our heads together and figure out what to do. What a mess!

“I got it,” Olivia exclaimed, interrupting my thoughts. “Daddy has to stay back to secure the offering. He is the church treasurer. I’ll tell him you want to send an e-mail to your friends, and we’ll get the bakery key from Cousin Selvin and go on before them. Most of the people gone already, so we can peep into Ol’ Madda Bird’s yard and see if the necklace is there. It must be there! If someone had
picked it up on the road, they would have announced it in church.”

All I wanted to do was go home, put on my bathing suit, and go lounge on the beach. I was not cut out to be an FBI agent looking on a Caribbean island for lost necklaces, let alone a special family heirloom.

We lingered on the road before Ol’ Madda Bird’s house, peeking over the fence, trying to spot the necklace. Suddenly Olivia grabbed my hand. “See it there. Right on the top step. The sun shining on it. Oh, no! How’re we going to get it?”

I noticed the “we” and my heart sank even further. Just then a couple walking from the church reached us.

“Something wrong, girls?” the man asked.

“Oh no, Brother Percy,” Olivia answered quickly. “My cousin Katani come from America was just admiring the birds.”

That girl could give Maeve an acting lesson or two. She was a natural.

When the couple was gone, Olivia breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m sorry about the lie,” she said, looking up as if she was praying, “but I’m desperate.”

Ol’ Madda Bird was not on her veranda, but the dog came out through the open front door. It didn’t bark but stood looking at us, cocking its head from one side to the other, then it went and stood over the necklace as if to say,
Gotcha!
We knew we didn’t stand a chance trying to enter the yard to retrieve the necklace without making a huge stink, so we just walked by like we were minding our own business. I thought I heard an old woman laughing, but when I turned around, there was no one on the veranda. First Mr. Biggs. Now Ol’ Madda Bird. My trip to Jamaica was turning out to be more than a beach vacation, that’s for sure.

As we came out of the bakery we saw a blue SUV parked a little way down the road. Precious, who worked in the bakery, was beside it talking with the driver, and I suddenly realized that the man behind the wheel was Mr. Biggs. Now, why would Mr. Biggs be talking to Precious? Olivia was so worried, she didn’t seem to have noticed anything. Precious got in the car and they drove off right before Grandma and the others came around the bend. This was seriously suspicious.

When we were back in the van, everybody started complimenting Olivia on her singing, but they must have noticed how subdued she was. Once or twice I saw her father looking at her closely. The whole situation was so tense I wanted to bite my nails into little stubs, but I resisted and tried to act cool. Good thing I have a lot of practice with that sort of thing.

Back home, Olivia and I changed into casual clothes and ate lunch. We were going to the hospital to visit Aunt Faith and take some of the rice and peas and chicken to her. Grandma Ruby took one of the Banana Bliss breads she had baked for Aunt Faith to taste. I noticed her fidgeting with the container she put the bread in, trying to make it just right. She seemed really nervous about what Aunt Faith would think of her bread. I opened my mouth to tell her about Mr. Biggs and Precious, but then shut it again—I didn’t want her to have to worry about anything else.

A
n old woman was seated beside Aunt Faith’s bed when we reached her.

“My goodness. I was just saying that you were all too busy to come out,” Aunt Faith commented, but she seemed delighted by our visit.

She introduced the woman as Miss Gertie, her friend who lived in Montego Bay. “What I tell you,” she said to Miss Gertie. “See, Katani and Olivia are almost the same height. And them favor each other too.”

Olivia and I looked at each other as we barely contained our laughter. Although we were both tall, Olivia and I were as different as the red beans and gungu peas Enid sometimes cooked.

“I think I’m prettier, though, don’t you think, Aunt?” Olivia joked.

Everyone had a good laugh at Olivia’s fresh remark. I gave her a pinch and told her, “Payback will occur later.”

Miss Gertie made way for Grandma Ruby to sit beside Aunt Faith, who held on to Grandma’s hand as if she would
never let go. Grandma gave her a slice of the Banana Bliss she had baked—her first attempt. Everyone waited to see Aunt Faith’s response. There was silence for a few tense moments. From the look on her face, I could tell that Grandma was feeling almost like a student waiting to get back her final exam.

Aunt Faith finished chewing and nodded slowly. “It’s okay, Ruby,” she pronounced. “Perhaps—a tups overdone. Maybe you should take it out five minutes earlier. I forgot to tell you that the timer is sometimes erratic. I more or less can judge it. But is all right.” She smiled and patted Grandma Ruby’s hand. I figured she had got a B, maybe a B+ for her test. I knew she was disappointed. Nothing less than an A would do for Ruby Fields.

Just then the nurse came over to tell us that we were too many visitors at once. Some of us would have to wait outside and take turns visiting. Lots of other patients had visitors too, and the ward did look pretty crowded.

Olivia and I were glad to escape. Miss Gertie had been there for some time, so she said good-bye too. So we left Grandma Ruby, Cousin Cecil, and Selvin with Aunt Faith. I was pretty sure they were going to be discussing Banana Bliss business.

Beware of Dog

Outside, Olivia began pacing. “Katani,” she pleaded, “we have to sneak out tonight and get that necklace.”

“Sneak out!” I shouted. “I can’t sneak out. Grandma Ruby will kill me!”

“Shhh!” she warned me as she looked around. There were only a couple of boys kicking a soccer ball on the grass.

“Olivia, we’re not in a spy movie.” Although I
was
beginning to wonder, what with lost necklaces, secret ingredients, and a suspicious man in a funny hat.

“Well, Miss America, you got a better idea?” I thought that maybe I should talk to my grandma now, but I knew Olivia would freak out if I suggested it. I didn’t have another idea, so I told her okay.

She looked at her watch. “Let’s go back inside and get the old people to leave.” She whispered to me that she had made a plan. “Listen…when the others go to bed, we’ll slip out and go to Ol’ Madda Bird’s house and get the necklace.”

“What about the dog?” I asked.

She shrugged. “I have a plan for him, too,” she said.

I didn’t like the sound of that at all. I hated situations like this. I didn’t even like to watch them in the movies. I was always the one screaming, “Don’t go into the house,” and then I would keep my hands over my eyes until all the danger was past.

Well, at least Olivia had a plan. I liked plans. I was known as the organizational queen of the BSG back home. Plans made me feel like everything was in control. But was everything really in control here?

We got back home by nightfall and ate some fried fish and bammy, this flat cassava bread that everyone eats in Jamaica.
Where’s the pizza?
I wanted to ask. Then we cleaned up in the kitchen and went to sit on the veranda, where Cousin Cecil was getting ready to continue the River Mumma story.

When we got outside, Olivia was fidgety. She was focused only on how to get back the necklace. But I was secretly relieved. Not only did I want to hear the rest of the story, but I was not excited about sneaking out to go wandering around in Jamaica at night. Olivia’s plan was wigging me out.

As soon as we were all settled and comfortable on the veranda, Cousin Cecil started. “Now where was I?”

“Orrin had found the River Mumma’s comb and was planning to sell it,” Selvin replied, before anybody else could. He was as eager as the rest of us to hear the end of the story.

I could hardly believe this was Cousin Cecil telling the story. He was telling it with so much expression and passion, it pulled us all into the tale.

Suddenly, Cousin Cecil’s voice changed, and he sounded more like a schoolteacher. “That’s the Moneague Lake, in St. Ann’s Parish, the source of which nobody can explain. It rises and disappears underground as it pleases. But if you are brave enough to stand on the banks on a night when it has risen, you will hear loud splashes and the voices of a young man and a woman laughing as they play together in that dark, mysterious water.”

Cousin Cecil stopped speaking, and there was silence for a while. I was thinking that this would make a really good movie. I could see the river princess now, all sparkly and beautiful.

“Good one, Dad,” Olivia complimented her father.

“You just made that up?” Selvin’s voice sounded as if he couldn’t quite believe it.

“Of course.” Cousin Cecil gave a brief laugh.

“I don’t like how it ended,” Selvin pronounced.

“What did you expect to happen?” Cousin Cecil asked.

Olivia chimed in, “Well, she could have used her magic to give him some treasure and the Old River Mumma could have turned her into woman so they could live happily ever after.” I kind of agreed with her. That would have been a better ending.

Grandma laughed. “You are all too locked into happily ever after endings. But who says they couldn’t be happy as a lake giving pleasure to people, providing food and water for all the lovely citizens of Jamaica?”

“I am glad you appreciate the moral of my story, Ruby,” Cousin Cecil said with a laugh.

Olivia and I shook our heads. Who could be happy being turned into water in a lake?

“Actually, many folktales are about the origins of things and places. This is as good a one as I have heard,” Grandma Ruby complimented Cousin Cecil.

“Thank you, my dear Ruby. I feel as if I just got an A for Language Arts.” The formerly grumpy Cousin Cecil laughed. “And now, bedtime! Ruby, you have an early start, and the children are both going to school.” Was it my imagination, or was he beginning to sound a bit more friendly? “No staying up to chat, or anything else,” he
warned, eyeing us almost as if he knew that we were planning something.

I cringed. I wanted to support Olivia, but I was uncomfortable about the whole plan. I wished I could tell Grandma, but how? I was sure that if we ’fessed up, she’d help us without ratting on us, but Olivia just would not agree. As we left the veranda, she made me swear for the third time not to tell anyone. There was no way out.

Olivia went on into her bedroom while I stopped and said good night to Grandma Ruby. When I walked into the bedroom Olivia was sitting on her bed with her arms crossed, a scowl on her face. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Look!” she exclaimed, pointing to the window. A light rain had started. “We can’t go to Ol’ Madda Bird’s house now. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow night,” she pouted.

I felt like I had just received a “get out of jail free” card.