Gloria (12 page)
Alvin study the list and then he say, ‘Yes, Miss Fay, this all fine.’ He wait a minute before he raise his eyes to her. ‘Mr Henry say this going be some big-big birthday party for Miss Daphne. He say yu inviting half a Kingston. Yu sista going love it.’
But Fay not even listening to him because all she say is, ‘You think my choice of champagne worthy of the occasion?’
And he just say, ‘Yes. Perfect choice, Miss Fay.’
She drink two sip of the lemonade that Alvin pour for her and then she stand up. She pick up her purse off the counter and turn to him and say, ‘So everything is fine for next Saturday then?’
‘Yes, all is good. I will get these things together for yu and deliver dem up to Lady Musgrave Road middle a di week so to mek sure all is in good time. Everything will be perfect, Miss Fay, trust me.’
She nod her head at him and start walk toward the door. Alvin rush round quick to mek sure he get there before her so he can open it and stand back for her to pass. Just as she stepping out she turn her head and look at me like it is the first time she notice me there. She look me up and down and then she smile. But it not the sorta smile that leave yu feeling good. It the sorta smile where yu could almost hear her thinking to herself, ‘You poor thing.’ It leave a sour taste in yu mouth and a sinking feeling in yu heart.
Almost two week later Henry come by the house to find out what I want because Alvin tell him I was down the shop. He walk in the house and go straight to the liquor and pour himself a drink.
I never see Henry tek no drink before so I say, ‘You all right?’
And he say yes just before he down the rum in one gulp and slap the empty glass on the table so hard I think the thing would a break.
‘Yu sure yu all right?’
Henry straighten himself up.
‘Yu party go OK?’ He seem like he got no idea what I am talking about, and I think to myself if yu don’t know then I sure don’t need to be telling you.
‘You mean Daphne birthday?’ So I nod. ‘If one thing make Fay happy is throw party.’ I wait because I can see Henry got plenty more to say.
‘At least when she doing that she not arguing with her mother.’
‘I see her in the shop the other day. She beautiful, Henry. Gorgeous.’
He nuh say nothing at first, and then he turn to me with a face so tender I never see before. ‘You also beautiful, Gloria.’ It shock me because Henry not the sorta man to say something like that to a woman. Henry talk business, that is what Henry do. Or Henry talk like papa. But this thing, this is new. And then almost like he embarrass himself he pick up the glass and walk ’cross the room and start pour himself another drink.
‘What happen to yu? Yu fight wid somebody?’
‘You nuh need hear all this, Gloria. A man in a house of women is a very difficult thing. Women not argue like men. Women fuss and find fault. Then they want you say who right and who wrong. So you in middle with one pull you this way and other one pull you that way. And all that happen is you tear in half.’ He stop like he think he already say too much. And then he say, ‘What business you want talk?’
So I tell him. Sybil got a friend that she think maybe interested in lending money as well. She nuh tell her nothing too much but she sound her out and say it seem promising.
‘Too much people know make problem.’
‘What she got to know? All she do is make a introduction here and there. Collect her share and that is that. She don’t need to know nothing more than that.’ Henry thinking on it so I say, ‘Excepting if I increase the business then I want increase my share as well. Make you and me real partners. Fifty-fifty.’
‘Fifty-fifty, Gloria? How you come to that?’
‘Henry yu not doing nothing apart from putting in the money and turning a good profit. Yu don’t have to deal wid these people. Yu don’t have to worry ’bout collecting. Yu don’t have to try mek Trevor understand what yu want him to do. Yu don’t have to keep check on who yu can trust. Yu don’t even have to keep count. I doing everything for us. You give me money, I give yu more back. Yu nuh think that is worth half??’
‘Where you learn think and talk like that? That is Gloria Campbell business woman talking. But is it wise business woman? Or is it just business woman with ideas too big for self??’
‘Yu think I am over-reaching?’
‘I think you smart, Gloria. Mean what you say. But can you do it without causing too much waves? Not draw so much attention wrong people start take interest?’
‘I can do it Henry. And the more money I make, the more money you going make.’
He stare at me long and hard and then he say, ‘Fifty per cent mean you the one make sure this thing not turn out bad.’
‘I understand that.’
I tell them what Henry got to say and everybody happy. Sybil say we got to set up a meeting with the two a them and she going come.
‘What two?’
‘Is two a dem over deh.’
‘Yu tell me is one friend.’
‘One friend. But is two a dem over deh.’
So all right. She know them. Beryl say she nuh care, she got better things to do. But Marcia say she going come and I have to tell her we cyan all be traipsing over there like we a mob. Is only the two a them, so two a us is plenty. Marcia not teking no for an answer. She say she my sista and she want to play her full part.
‘This not no game Marcia. Nobody playing nothing. Me and Sybil can go see to this. It is a piece a business that is all.’
But Marcia talk-talk while Sybil roll her eyes and light a cigarette and Beryl tek herself off to go do something she think more interesting than sidung here listening to Marcia explain why she think it so important that she go. So in the end I cyan tek it no more and I say gwaan, come.
We go meet these two women over the house in Passmore Town. It simple and tidy with a dirt yard out front that somebody just get through sweeping because yu can still see the lines the hard broom leave behind. We sit down on the veranda on some hard plastic pretend wicker chair that got a back shape like a fan, and they bring out some cold oversweet sorrel.
Sybil introduce everybody and tell them that we going put up the money and manage it so all they have to do is act like a go-between in sending the people direct to us. That they not going have to handle no actual money as such. We going do all a that. All they doing is putting one person in touch wid another person. Simple as that. And we see to everything else.
Sybil friend sitting there plump and satisfied. ‘So what we get for our trouble?’
‘Ten per cent a the interest.’
‘Ten per cent!’ The two a them say it together at the same time. Surprise and vex. And then the little skinny one say, ‘That is it?’
So I say, ‘Yu not hardly doing nothing. How hard is it to say to a man, or woman come to that, I know somebody that can help yu? And then put one and two together. That is easy. Yu could do that in yu sleep.’
‘But you meking 90 per cent.’
‘We putting up the money. We taking the risk that maybe they skip town and nuh pay us back. We got to worry ’bout how the pounds, shillings and pence flowing this way and that. All you got to do is say, “Yes sir, help is on the way.” People feel relief when they hear that. They count you as a blessing. I am not a blessing to them. I am a woe. That is how you and me are different. And that is why you get 10 per cent and I get 90 per cent. Anyway, it is my money.’
She scratch her cheek with some long fingernail that the red varnish chipping on. The other one kiss her teeth and I look at Sybil so as to say, ‘What kinda friend yu call this?’
But even though they thinking on it and they surely want to, they cyan come up with any good reason why I should give them more. So I wait, and in the end I put them outta their misery.
‘OK, all right, I give yu twelve and a half.’
And they say yes. They feel they strike a bargain. They win the negotiations. And that is fine with me because before I go over there I had it in my mind that maybe I would have to give them fifteen, so everybody happy.
Sybil friend say we must have a drink to seal the deal and I say OK, so she go out back and come with a bottle and five glasses. She pour out the rum and we mek a toast.
‘To success in our new business.’ That is what she say and we clink the glasses and taste the nasty cheap thing that scorch yu mouth and burn yu throat on the way down. I reckon I cyan drink no more a this so I just hold the glass and swish the liquid round for as long as it seem decent and then I tell them we got to go. We shaking hands. It done. It over.
And then Marcia for no good reason just say, ‘You mind yu do this right now because the man don’t want no trouble.’ I cyan believe she do that. What she go open her mouth like that for?
So right away Fingernail say, ‘What man?’ And I can feel the whole thing spinning outta control. My mind not working fast enough to come up with no answer and I fraid Marcia going tek it on herself to tell them what she mean.
But thank God Sybil got her wits about her. ‘The man we got to chase down the bad debt.’ And the two a them seem to tek that even though I not convince Fingernail fully swallow it.
After we leave I say to Marcia, ‘What yu go say a thing like that for? Yu nuh know Henry Wong don’t want no association with this?’ But she don’t say nothing to me. She just carry on walk down the road to the tram stop and we ride the journey in silence.
Marcia never been the same since the business with the sailor. One minute she high as a kite and the next minute she land like a lead balloon to ground. And then for no reason, she up again. She start tek customers as well after the sailor thing, even though I beg her not to do it. But she not listening. All she doing is getting ready for the next man that she got running in and outta the house fast and furious. It don’t even seem like it a business to her. More like it a punishment she giving to herself. I talk to her but it nuh do no good. She just sit there and listen and afterwards she get up and walk off. Nobody know what to do with her, although some evenings I hear her in the room with Auntie making some muffled sound. Maybe she crying. I don’t know. She not showing none a this to me. All I see is the big smiling face one day, and the empty dead one the next. It mek me think that maybe she blame me for what happen to her. But Marcia a grown woman now, and in truth coming to this house was her idea. But maybe. Maybe if I done mek Mama do something ’bout Barrington Maxwell then none a this would have happen. But that wasn’t what I choose to do. And even now I think to myself how I never send word to Mama. How many letters I start write and never finish, ’til in the end I stop even trying to put pen to paper, because I couldn’t face telling her what happen to us. What I bring her favourite daughter, Marcia, to. The bottom a anybody’s idea of a decent life.
Pao go beat up the men prowling Mr Ho wife and daughters. Well, he send Hampton to go do it. Trevor say Lynette musta give up the men when Pao go talk to her at the shop because otherwise he don’t know how he would a find out who they was. Anyway, Hampton tek somebody wid him and the whole thing get outta hand. It turn into some big brawl right out in the open in North Parade and in the middle a it the police show up, because it was more like a riot with all sorta passing strangers deciding to go pitch in and exchange a few blows for themselves. It was a small wonder nobody get arrested, so Trevor say anyway, although some had to tek to hospital.
Next thing I know the police was knocking at the door asking questions ’bout how I connected to Mr Ho and what I know ’bout Lynette and what go on down the shop. I say I didn’t know nothing. I used to work in the shop years back that is all. But I don’t reckon the constable believe a word I am telling him because all the time he standing there his eyes roaming ’round the veranda and looking me up and down like he convince some kinda crime being committed only he dunno what it is.
And then he start mek like he want to step inside so I say to him, ‘Is there something else we can help yu with constable?’ And he just say no and put his hat back on his head and walk out the yard. When he get to the gate he stop and turn ’round and stare at me. And then he lower the latch and tek a last long look at the house like there is something in his mind he just can’t put his finger on it.
A week later the police come back, only this time is two a them and they not asking no questions ’bout Mr Ho. What they interested in is how I know Yang Pao.
‘Yang Pao?’
‘The Chinaman wid the shop in West Street. Yu know him?’
I know if I tell a lie it going come back to haunt me. So I say, ‘I hear a him.’
‘Yu hear a him? Yu nuh know him?’
‘Well, he sort of a friend of a friend.’ And as soon as I say it I know it was a big mistake, because there was no way I was going to mention Henry Wong’s name.
‘A friend of a friend?’
The first constable tek a deep breath. And then the other one say, ‘Miss, this man is up to all sorta mischief. Yu don’t want to be getting yuself into nuh hot water over him.’ And they look at me like they expecting some kinda confession.
‘I don’t understand what this is all about.’
‘Yu hear ’bout the brawl in North Parade last week? And a constable come ask yu ’bout it few days back?’
