Pao (10 page)

So a couple month later Sergeant Brown come to the meeting, and at the appointed moment Chin stand up on the platform and announce how pleased he is to have with us this evening ‘Sergeant Clifton Brown of the North Street police station who is going to talk to us about how his work controlling corruption in the downtown area is going to help the Chinese merchants’ community’. And we all clap our hands. I take Finley and Hampton with me as well because I reckon we all interested in seeing what this man look like and finding out what he got to say.

When Sergeant Brown stand up, me and Hampton just look at each other. Later on when I get introduced to him I put out my hand to shake and then I clasp both my hands ’round his. And I hold his hand a long time while I look him in the eye. And the longer I am holding his hand, and the longer I am looking him in the eye, the more he is realising that we have a bond now and I will be relying on him to fix any little problems we have. Because just the way we recognise him, is just the same way him recognise me.

When we walking home afterwards I say to Hampton, ‘How did Sergeant Brown seem to you that night we catch him in the alley with that bwoy?’

‘That not nuh bwoy, man.’

‘Sure it a bwoy.’

‘No, man. You make it sound like it a child. It a man alright and him young, but it nuh bwoy. You going give Judge Finley the wrong idea.’

‘Alright, how did Sergeant Brown seem to you the night we catch him in the alley with that
young man
?’ I say it like that for Hampton sake.

‘Calm.’

‘Calm, like him do it before.’

‘Yah man, like him do it plenty time before.’

‘I reckon a man in his position got to be desperate to go take a chance like that, eh? And if him so desperate, and him so calm, then I reckon it not the first time. And it not going be the last.’

I look at Finley. ‘What we need is someone to keep an eye on him. Someone he not going suspect. Someone maybe like a
young man
.’

And Finley say, ‘My wife got a nephew, Milton, his papa just get run down by a drunk Englishman driving reckless down Constant Spring Road, now Milton the head of the family with a mama and four children to keep.’

‘He know how to look after himself?’

‘Yah, man.’

‘Tell him to come see me.’

When Milton turn up the next day I see that he is nothing but a boy. And I think well I was only a boy myself when I start up in this business so maybe the situation not too bad. I reckon that he too young to be going picking up the money from Gloria. Them girls would make mincemeat outta him and relish every minute they spend making him blush all over his body. So that was definitely out. But you can’t pay a man to be doing nothing but follow Sergeant Brown day and night so I settle to let Milton do some driving – chicken and eggs and maybe drop off a few cigarettes, even though any half-conscious policeman would notice that this boy ain’t nearly old enough to be driving no van.

Still, and this is exactly the sort of thing Sergeant Brown need to be looking out for, those boys of his always happy to see that US dollar bill. They can make anything happen or not happen, disappear, come back, turn upside down when you flash them a few bills of old George Washington, or even better Mr Abraham Lincoln. And if things get really serious then you just pull out Mr Andrew Jackson for them. Because with the police, these is the faces you know you can always rely on.

So that was it even though I had a little worry in the back of my mind ’bout what Milton was letting himself in for with Clifton Brown. Especially because them little pouty lips and smooth skin make him look so young.

12

The Employment of Secret Agents

A couple months after we set Milton on Sergeant Brown’s tail Judge Finley come to Matthews Lane with Milton bringing a message that Sergeant Brown want to talk to me, so I say for him to come meet me over the Blue Lagoon but Finley say it more complicated than that because Milton got something to tell me.

So then this is when Milton step up and I look at him standing there almost like he hiding behind Finley and I say, ‘Come on then.’

Finley step aside and sorta push Milton forward with a little helping hand at his back.

‘I didn’t mean for it to happen. It just happen. Just like that.’

I just look at Finley because I can’t imagine how much time this nephew of his is going to take to tell me nothing.

‘Him jump me. Him just catch me by surprise.’

‘Who jump you, Milton?’

‘I was following him like you say. Sergeant Brown. And then I come ’round the corner and him jump me. And the next thing I know him grab my pants and rip it open and all the buttons just pop off and him drag them down and bend me over a barrel.’

By now Milton sweating and shaking and I getting ready to hear the worst.

‘Him bend me over the barrel and when I feel the full weight of him leaning down on top of me I thought Jesus Christ. It all happen so fast I just lay there waiting for it. And then him put his mouth right next to my ear and say, tell yu boss I want to see him.’

‘That is it? That is what you have to tell me? So when all this happen?’

‘Just two week after you tell me to go follow him.’

‘And all this long time go by and you no tell me?’ Then I say to Finley, ‘How long you know ’bout this?’

‘Just this morning him tell me. Milton too ’fraid to tell you. Him take fright ’bout what you going do to him for being so careless.’

‘He should take fright. What kind of stupid thing is that and then him no tell nobody ’bout it? Maybe Clifton Brown should have finish the job the bwoy such a jackass.’

But then I think about it and I think maybe it my fault anyway for sending a little bwoy to go trail a man like Clifton Brown. Maybe I should just count my blessings that nothing bad actually happen to him.

‘Go on,’ I say to him like to tell him to get outta the yard, and then just as he get to the gate I shout, ‘Go get yourself a belt to hold up your pants.’

When I finally go meet Clifton Brown he catch up in a dark corner in the Blue Lagoon playing with a Red Stripe like he don’t really mean to be drinking it. When him look up at me him seem sorta sour so I just sit down and tell the barman to bring me a beer.

‘How come you no pay me no mind with the message I send you?’

‘I here nuh?’

‘And it take you all this long time to come see me after I done talk to that bwoy of yours weeks ago?’

I think to myself you rough up my bwoy and frighten him half to death. So maybe that your idea of a joke but it don’t mean I owe you no explanation so I just say, ‘I here now so tell me what you want.’

‘That bwoy of yours busy following me all night and all day he is driving chickens and cigarettes all over town. And apart from it all being stolen goods you and me both know that bwoy not got no driving licence.’

‘Driving licence! Is that what you worried ’bout?’ And I just throw my head back and laugh. ‘I can’t believe you drive all the way over here to talk to me ’bout Milton driving licence. You really telling me yu not got nothing better to do than that?’

‘I can throw his arse in jail, yu know. And yours as well with all this navy liquor and gambling and whore houses yu running.’

‘My arse in jail? And what going happen to your arse when I get through telling everything I know ’bout you and them bwoys you taking down the alley? Whose arse you think they going be interested in then?’

Clifton start play with the beer bottle turning it round in his hand like he studying every inch of the label. Then he say, ‘It don’t have to be like this, yu know. We have a opportunity here to help each other.’

I look at him and I think to myself OK he got a point because us helping each other was what this was all about in the first place anyway. That was why I set Milton on his tail to get some leverage. So what it matter if it him making me a offer instead of the other way round? Sun Tzu say, ‘
When the envoys speak in apologetic terms the enemy wishes a respite
.’

So I say to him, ‘If it was anybody else but me catch you with that bwoy in that alley that night they would have cut off your cock and beat you so bad they would have leave you for dead.’

But he don’t say nothing.

I sit back and look at him because it suddenly dawn on me what a hard life Clifton making for himself and what a dangerous place Jamaica is for a man like him.

‘So what you want to do, Clifton?’

And he lay out his terms, what protection he providing, how much cut he want, and I say yes because it all seem reasonable enough. But what I realise is that all Clifton really want is to be with some people who know what he is and not looking to knife him over it. Clifton lonely and him buying himself some friends. So I say to him to forget ’bout the beer and I tell the barman to bring us a bottle of Appleton.

By the time I leave the Blue Lagoon I was feeling good. Good enough to want to go to Chinatown and see if I could pick up something to make Fay feel better. Because although she stop crying well over six months now all I hear from Ma is how Fay moody and lazy. And how she just sit still and silent and won’t do nothing to help out. Not that she is there in Matthews Lane that much because in truth Fay spend half her time up in New Kingston running back to her papa’s house any time she fancy. But Ma don’t care ’bout all that. All Ma tell me is how Fay idle, she won’t fry a few fritters or pick the duck feathers for the pillows. She won’t even do a bit of cooking. Nothing. According to Ma, Fay still waiting for some housemaid to make her bed and tidy up the place, and put the food on the table in front of her, and clear up when she finish eat because her whole life Fay never even do so much as pick up a chopstick, not even to feed herself, because Miss Cicely always have them use a knife and fork, English style. Fay don’t even know how to pick up the rice bowl. And I know this bit is true because I see her every day outta the corner of my eye staring at me like she would rather starve to death than put the bowl to her mouth. It get so bad I had to go buy a fork, just the one, so now she can sit there dainty taking all night to eat a bowl of rice.

Ma say Fay try to get Miss Tilly run ’round after her but she, Ma, put a stop to that: ‘Tilly here to help me make a living not play maid to you.’ That is what she tell Fay. So now Fay don’t even bother to say good morning or good evening to Tilly because, to her, Tilly don’t exist.

I say to Ma that maybe she could try talk to Fay, in English because she don’t seem to understand that Fay Chinese not too good.

‘Me talk English? She no Chinese girl? She talk Chinese.’

And I say, ‘No, Ma. You talk English plenty good enough when you talking to Tilly. Just try do the same thing with Fay.’

But Ma not doing it. She clicking and clucking with her tongue and she crashing ’round the kitchen complaining ’bout Fay all the time but never a word will she say to Fay unless it outta some sort of spite.

I say to Fay maybe she can try do something with Ma.

‘Do you have a suggestion?’

‘I dunno, Fay. What do women do together? There must be something you can do? Maybe you go shopping or you show her how to arrange the flowers in the vase so nice like you do?’

Fay just sit there and look at me and I know exactly what she thinking because I can’t see Ma going shopping with her neither, and as far as flower arranging I think my mother would sooner chop up the flowers and cook them.

‘Well maybe you can try wash a few pots or something.’

So I am standing in the shop and it is a jade ring that catch my eye. Dark green jade sitting on a 22-carat-gold band, and I buy it. I have them wrap the box in some soft green tissue paper and put a bow on it. And even though this is not the first time I try sweeten Fay with something like this I feel uplifted. That maybe this time I might manage to get something she find some favour with because I think she really been trying her best to get along in the house with Ma and I know it not easy.

All the way back to Matthews Lane there is a spring in my step, with this jade ring in my pocket rubbing against my thigh feeling like a nice shiny big red apple for the teacher. Not that I know anything ’bout apples and teachers but I seen enough American movies to know how good it feel when you got a thing like that you going give to somebody.

But when I get back to Matthews Lane Fay not there, Ma say she gone back to her father’s. And I don’t know why, but this time I just see red. Maybe it was because the ring was sitting there in my pocket. And I just run out the house and jump in the car.

All the time I am driving with my hand down on the horn I can see in my mind’s eye the signs on the highway that say ‘Undertakers Love Overtakers’. Even when I hit Cross Roads I just ignore the sign that say ‘Careful Drivers Stop at Red Lights’ and just press my foot on the gas and keep going. When I get to Lady Musgrave Road I turn into the driveway so fast I can smell the rubber the tyres is leaving on the road.

But it is just the same thing. The housemaid Ethyl come out to tell me that Fay not there. She gone out with her sister Daphne. I think Ethyl feel sorry for me just standing there like that because she tell me to sit down on the veranda and offer to bring me a glass of lemonade. But it is not lemonade I want, so she bring me a glass of Appleton.