Pao

Then after some long time him say to me in that still voice he got, ‘I know you think that you are a bad person. But in this life good and evil are not always as clearly delineated as you think. Good people sometimes commit bad deeds. And bad consequences are sometimes unintended or unforeseen. Virtue does not reside in particular actions. It resides in the settled moral state of the individual.’ Then he stop and draw breath and say, ‘One thing I do know is that you can never come too late to redemption.’

I just walk out his room and slam his little door.

When I ask Mui ’bout it she say it true. She ask Father Michael not to tell me because she know it only make me vex and she really want carry on with it. She really like Father Michael, and then she say to me, ‘And Papa, there is really a lot to learn, you know.’

20

Manoeuvre

So right in the middle of all of us sitting there in the shop counting the money from the weekly pick-up, I got Samuels giving me some long political speech ’bout how bad everything getting in West Kingston. All ’bout unemployment and poverty; and how the people losing hope; and how they running outta patience; and how it all going lead to open warfare in the streets. And him telling me all of this as if I can’t see for myself how West Kingston busy dividing itself up. Like everybody don’t know that Trench Town belong to the People’s National Party and the Labour Party got Tivoli Gardens, and how all the rest of them fall. Every little township lining up to face off with next door, and this is Samuels’s explanation for why, even after I already tell him to stop it, he still busy selling guns in Chinatown.

So I say to him, ‘I tell you this before, and I going tell you again. West Kingston is West Kingston, and this is Chinatown.’

‘Yu nuh see what happen with the Chinese riots already?’

Well now this just make everybody stop. And them all turn ’round and look at me because they know how vex it make me the way people like to talk ’bout the Chinese riots . So I say to him, ‘Don’t say nothing to me ’bout no Chinese riot. There was no Chinese rioting. It was the Chinese that was catching hell, and Chinese shops burned and homes vandalise, and people harassed in the street.’

‘That is what I mean. The Chinaman got to protect himself.’

So right then I just jump outta my seat and grab Samuels in the collar with my left hand and make like a two- finger gun with my right hand and stick it in his temple and shout, ‘POW, POW.’ Real loud.

And then I sit down and I say to him, ‘How you like that for this Chinaman protecting himself? I expect one of your.365 Magnum sound a bit louder than that.’ But Samuels not paying me no mind, so I just say to him, ‘I don’t want you selling no more of Louis DeFreitas’s guns in Chinatown, you hear me?’

And he look at me and say, ‘What make you think they come from Louis DeFreitas?’

‘Don’t mess with me, man. I know where they come from. And I know DeFreitas getting them on special delivery straight from the CIA.’

‘Nobody know that. That is pure rumour.’

‘How you think all them guns getting on the island? You think the rude boys flying up to Miami and bringing them back shove in their hip pocket?’ Samuels just sit there and look at me so I say to him, ‘This here is a family. It not no posse with anybody looking to make themselves a reputation so that they can go sing a song and make a record ’bout it.’

I ask Zhang what him think because I know for sure Samuels not going do as I tell him to. Him making too much money with DeFreitas. And I don’t want no guns in Chinatown because the next thing is everybody going have to be going heavy every time they step out the yard. But the thing that really worrying me is that maybe this thing with Samuels is the way DeFreitas going find to creep into my territory.

Zhang say to me, ‘Sun Tzu say, “ What is difficult about manoeuvre is to make the devious route the most direct and to turn misfortune to advantage. Thus, march by an indirect route and divert the enemy by enticing him with a bait .” ’

Zhang say Sun Tzu also say, ‘ Those who excel in war first cultivate their own humanity and justice .’ So the first thing I do is start reclaim the neighbourhood. I have to make them so loyal to me they would never think of doing any kind of business with DeFreitas. I start visiting with people not just for the weekend pick-up, but in the middle of the week as well. Calling in sometimes just to share a bowl of tea with them; taking the time to ask ‘How is business?’ or ‘How is the family?’ On occasion I take a small gift for the baby or a present for the son or daughter’s wedding; I exchanging recipes and news of this week’s best buys. I taking part in the neighbourhood gossip ’bout Madame Huang’s daughter who make terrible pickle: ‘Never going to get a husband with pickle like that.’

I listening and I talking; I listening and I listening. I just taking the time and making a effort.

Then I get the boys go give a hand ’round the place, so they doing something useful, unloading a delivery truck, reorganising a warehouse, repainting a shop. Something practical so people can see the benefit. Pretty soon I am giving advice, people asking me to sort out them little disputes, I putting injustice to right. I not just fixing things behind closed doors no more. My authority is out in the open. I step out from under Zhang shadow.

Then I start ask people if they buy gun from Samuels. And it turn out that they do it because Samuels work for me and they think is what I want. So I tell them no. And I say to them, ‘We going put the gunrunners outta business.’

I tell them I will buy back any gun they buy from Samuels for twice the price they pay him for it. All I ask of them is that they broadcast the price they get from me and say it the same as what they pay Samuels in the first place. So pretty soon news going reach DeFreitas that Samuels holding out on him, and him not going like that.

I tell Judge Finley to arrange a meeting with DeFreitas and I pack up all the guns in a old crocus bag. A couple days later we take a slow drive to West Kingston, me, Judge Finley and Hampton. All the way there I thinking ’bout what Zhang tell me ’bout Sun Tzu and the devious route and enticing the enemy with a bait.

DeFreitas operate outta a three-storey wooden house on the edge of Tivoli Gardens. It got one of them plastic multicoloured beaded curtain thing hanging in the doorway that lead from the street into this dark, dingy little bar where them playing ‘My Boy Lollipop’ on the jukebox. Then a couple of his men take us up some rickety stairs to his office that on the first floor. All the way up there we squeezing past the traffic of women who live up the top floor and service the customers from the bar downstairs.

When we get in the room it empty apart from one straight-back chair and a large mahogany desk that DeFreitas sitting behind. He look like him been sitting there all morning trying to strike the right pose. Him look pale and sick, and he got this thin line above him lip I guess him must think is a moustache. Him men stand up behind him with them feet apart and them arms folded, like they think they going scare somebody.

DeFreitas nod him head and tell me to sit. So I do it. The place stink of stale sweat and beer and tobacco. It almost like it oozing outta the wall. Hampton put the sack of guns on the desk.

I look straight at DeFreitas and I say to him in the meekest voice I can muster, ‘I am offering these guns back to you because I don’t want any trouble. You have them. Sell them again anywhere you like, just not in Chinatown.’

DeFreitas just smirk at me. ‘And who you think you are that you can come here and tell me where to do my business?’

Sun Tzu say, ‘ Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance .’ So I say, ‘I am just a small businessman and you is a big man with the whole of West Kingston at your feet. I hoping you accept these guns as a gift. A sign of my respect. After all West Kingston is big and Chinatown is small. Your power is great and mine modest. So all I want to ask yu is if you could leave the Chinese to me.’

DeFreitas scrutinise me, then him eyes pass over the sack of guns. I can tell him thinking ’bout how much money he going make again the second time ’round. He stand up and start pace the room. He got a walking stick