you are going to tell me that this has nothing to do with you.’
‘I not telling you anything, Fay.’
‘I married you because I couldn’t stand to live with my mother any more. She thinks that I went to board at Immaculate so I could pretend to be white, but that wasn’t it. I went up there to get away from her. I couldn’t stand her pretensions, and I couldn’t stand looking at how ashamed she is of herself and of the life she thinks she would have had if she had not married my father; if she had not elevated herself from being the descendant of an ex-slave.
‘But believe me, I had no idea of the squalor you would expect me to live in. I didn’t even know that places like this existed. And then to bring children up in it? No self-respecting person would even call this place a house never mind a home.
‘And as for you, I have no idea what it is you think you are doing. But you are nothing but a dirty little crook. You are not smart. You are not powerful. You are just a sleazy little hoodlum who thinks he is a big shot because his pocket is stuffed full of money. Yang Pao, the big man of Chinatown. You and Louis DeFreitas make a good match. You belong together with your drugs, and guns and murder.’
‘I am not a drug dealer, and I don’t run no guns, and I didn’t murder nobody.’
‘Well with your little whores then. I think you are still running her, aren’t you? Your whore in East Kingston?’
I just get up and turn ’round and launch myself at her. I knock her down and we start fight. We rolling on the ground grabbing and pushing and trying to ease away so we can get some space to land a good punch. We twisting and kicking and scratching and biting and we got elbows and knees going in every direction.
Then suddenly I realise how long it is since I touch her. How long it been since I feel her warm body next to me. And then I can’t tell if I am pushing her away or pulling her towards me. She putting up a good fight either way. She surprise me how strong and agile she get. I even forget I fighting with a woman. I just trying to defend myself. I just trying to get outta this tangle in one piece.
Then outta the corner of my eye I see Xiuquan stand up by the gate and I realise she must have leave him in the car outside. Then I see Mui in her pyjamas stand on the step. And Hampton is shouting something and Ma is running down the yard with her arms waving in the air. In the middle of all of this commotion I manage to make some distance between me and Fay so now we standing up and I got her by the shoulder at arm’s length.
And that is when she spit in my face. And I let her go. And everything stop.
Xiuquan run up to her and grab her hand. And then she walk over to Mui and take her hand as well. So now she got both children one on each side. So I say to her, ‘What you think you doing?’
And she say to me, ‘You don’t think I am going to leave them here with you, do you?’
‘You not going anywhere with them children.’
‘What, so I can leave them here to grow up with pimps and whores, and thieves and thugs and murderers? So that one day maybe they become just like you? Is that what they should aspire to? To become just like Papa? Papa’s little boy and girl?’
That is when I slap her nasty face. But I regret it straight away because I didn’t want the children to be seeing me do a thing like that. And anyway, it come ’cross a bit too heavy because it leave my handprint like a big red mark on her left cheek just so.
And she start cry. So I reach in my pocket and pull out a handkerchief and offer it to her and she take it. And just for that small little moment when she take the kerchief from me and start mop her face she look soft and gentle at me like maybe she remember another time long ago at the Jamaica Inn when she take my handkerchief just like that.
And just as she let go of the children hand, Mui step ’cross and stand up next to me. And Xiuquan look at me like him dunno what to do. Or maybe him do, but he too ’fraid to do it, because him got a sorta longing look in his eye.
So I just say to her, ‘You a grown woman, Fay. You can do what you want, but the children staying here with me.’
She look at Zhang and Ma and Hampton standing there. And then she look at the children, and then at me, and she say, ‘This isn’t over.’ And she turn and walk outta the gate. I half expect Xiuquan to run after her, but he don’t. Him just stand there watching her back as she close the gate behind her.
22
One good thing come outta it anyway. Xiuquan and Mui finally start act like they brother and sister. Every day now they gone out the street somewhere together. They gone up the US navy base, or they fishing off the wharf, or they gone swimming with Hampton at Hellshire Beach or over Lime Cay. It a pleasure for me to see the two of them go down the street hand in hand even if they just go roam ’round town and come back.
It seem like we got a family. Tilly still come every day, Zhang got Round Chin and Tartan Socks, and sometime Judge Finley play dominoes. Ma got her mah-jongg friends three times a week. Every now and again she take the children to temple with her, and Zhang busy telling them the same stories him tell us when we young, ’bout the revolution and Sun Yat-sen and Mao Zedong, and the counter-revolutionary Chiang Kai-shek.
We settled now. We not got nobody disrupting the place coming in and out like she can’t make up her mind if she staying. I read the newspaper and I smoke a cigar which is a regular thing for me now when I feel relax and happy and content with life. Although I don’t do it over Gloria’s because she don’t like the smell.
I say to her, ‘This here is a real good Havana cigar. I would have thought you would like the smell of that,’ because more and more Gloria looking to Cuba and praising all the changes going on over there with education and health and employment.
I start take the children with me when I make the weekly pick-up ’round town on a Saturday. I introduce them to the shopkeepers and market traders; to people in grocery stores and laundries and pharmacies; hardware stores, barber’s; people who just stand on the street with me and talk and smile and bow their heads; and who happy to see me. People who want to make a fuss of Mui and Xiuquan, to give them gifts and pamper them, and tell Mui how beautiful she is like her mama and Xiuquan strong like his papa. I start teach them tai chi and I tell them that Yang Lu-Ch’an who founded and develop Yang-style tai chi during the Manchu dynasty was my great-grandfather. But Ma tell them it not true. We just share our name with the great master.
But Zhang don’t like it. He think that maybe them coming with me not such a good idea. So I remind him that he done the same thing when me and Xiuquan young and him say, ‘That long time back. Now maybe it set bad example.’
I not paying him no mind because I want the children to know Chinatown and Chinatown to know them. I want them to have run of the place just the same way it was for us when we young. Zhang say times changing, that it not the same as when he first come to Jamaica. Back then it was because Chin ask him, and he was doing a service.
‘Things different now. Everybody worried ’bout what legal and how they show taxman what they doing. People think different ’bout you protecting them. They think different ’bout favour they ask you. You not Uncle no more. You Mr Fixit. In old days they happy you call in to share a bowl of tea. Now you need appointment so they can clear all their fancy guests out the way before you turn up. Now they worried maybe one day you ask them do something for you. In old days they looking what to do for you before you ask.’
Maybe Zhang got a point. Anyway I think it time the children meet Gloria. Fay gone and who knows what going happen next. But Gloria no think it such a good idea because she dunno how I going explain to them who she is, and I say it no matter, we can just meet by accident. So that is what we plan to do. Me and the children going to be walking down King Street and stop outside Times Store just at the moment when Gloria step outta the shop like she been doing some shopping in there. And then everybody get introduce and we go get a ice cream together. And this place is good because it got a soda fountain right upstairs in there. Gloria not so keen on the plan but she go along with it anyway.
So Saturday come and I take the children with me on the weekly collection ’round Chinatown and afterwards I
