40
I get a phone call from Gloria. Esther have the baby and it a girl. ‘We have a beautiful granddaughter,’ she tell me.
When I go see Esther and the baby, Gloria is there and she look proud and beautiful. She look more beautiful than the baby, because in truth I never seen a beautiful baby. Them always look sorta wrinkled to me. Not that I seen that many babies, but anyway.
Esther look happy laying up there in the bed with the baby in her arms. And she ask me if I want to hold it, but I say no.
So she say, ‘Go on. Just hold her a little minute. She not going bite you.’
‘Bite me! What she going bite me with? No, man, I worried I going hurt her, she so little and frail.’
Then Gloria say, ‘She little but she not so frail. You ever think what she just done go through?’ And everybody laugh.
So Gloria sit me down, and take the baby off Esther and put her in my arms, and she arrange me so I got the baby safe and secure.
‘What you going call her?’ I ask.
Esther say, ‘Sunita.’
‘Sunita. Sunita.’ I repeat it to myself. And I look at this tiny little African, Chinese, Indian baby and I think to myself, Sunita, you are Jamaica. Out of the many, you are the one. And you won’t have no need to go back to Africa, or China, or India because this is where you belong, with your own identity and dignity. And I remember what Michael Manley say all them years ago, ‘We come too far, we’re not turning back now. We have a pride now. We have a place now. We have a mission now.’
While Esther and Gloria still inside, Rajinder take me out on the veranda and give me a cigar. And just as I taking my second puff him say to me, ‘There was something that I wanted to talk with you about.’
I look at him sorta quizzical, because all the time they been married me and him never had that much conversation to speak of. Rajinder is a university-educated man, we not got that much in common.
‘I’m sure you know from Esther that I got this job down at the docks some six months ago. It’s a good job, a good middle-management position. But the trouble is I have a problem with some of the dock workers.’ Him pause and look at me.
‘What kind of problem?’
He look behind him inside the house like him worried ’bout who going hear. Then him sorta whisper, ‘I talked to Esther about this and asked her if she thought you might be able to help but she wasn’t that keen.’
‘What kind of problem?’
‘There is a small group of dock workers who don’t ever seem to do any work. They are on the payroll, but actually they spend the whole day playing dominoes, and sending out for food and chatting with each other. That is when they are there, because half the time they don’t come. They just don’t turn up, but they are still paid as if they are there every day putting in a full day’s work. This means that the others have to carry their workload, but they accept it because they are afraid.’
‘I know what this is.’
‘I’ve tried talking to them but it doesn’t seem to do any good. I mean, obviously there are procedures for dealing with underperforming staff except I don’t think they would be that receptive. And then three weeks ago one of them physically threatened me with a knife.’
‘So you ’fraid for your life?’
‘I am afraid, yes. But I also think it is a bad situation and I don’t know what to do about it. And well, I guess I am just going on hearsay and reputation when I think that you might be able to help.’
Right then Gloria step out on to the veranda so I just say quietly to him, ‘Leave it with me.’
‘Is there something you can do about this? Esther is very reluctant about me even asking you. She thinks we should be able to handle it ourselves without getting you involved.’
I look at Rajinder and then at Gloria and she say to me, ‘Rajinder already talk to me ’bout this. Is me tell him that it OK to ask you.’
Next day I ask Finley to go find out what going on down the dock and when he come back it turn out to be just what I expect. It a little gang thing, the same way Kenneth Wong was drawing his wage from the supermarket all the time he was running errands for Louis DeFreitas. It a kind of double-income arrangement that work good for having something to declare on your tax return. And if the boss don’t like it, him suddenly find himself with a lot of union trouble.
‘But,’ Finley say to me, ‘this is the bit you going like. The little ringleader named DeFreitas.’
‘DeFreitas?’
‘Yah, man. Anthony, they call him Tony for short.’
‘So who would he be?’
‘Louis DeFreitas’s nephew.’
I give this a lot of thought before I go do anything. I think about what Zhang would say to me if he was still here. I think about what Zhang must have said to Mr Chin all that long time the two of them sit up the top of the yard at Matthews Lane talking ’bout Merleen and the baby. I think about Sun Tzu, and what he would have to say about a situation like this. And I decide that both Zhang and Sun Tzu would say, ‘
And then I think to myself sure enough Sun Tzu right ’bout all these things, but maybe life not just a matter of strategy. Maybe it about something more than that, or something different anyway; something different from just ducking and weaving and manoeuvring; something that got more to do with what Zhang say ’bout benevolence and sincerity, humanity and courage.
And then I think ’bout the time I had with Gloria when Hampton and Ethyl go up to Oracabessa. And when I was listening to Zhang and Ma talking into all hours of the night. And all the time I have with Michael. And I start think that maybe there is something an individual can do that make a difference.
I ring Louis DeFreitas and ask him to come meet me at the fried-fish and bammy shack over Port Royal that Michael love so much. It is a place of peace to me, a place of calm beauty, and reasonableness. It is a place where men can talk from their hearts and not have to strike a pose or take a position.
When Louis come over there he look relieved to be catching a bit of cool breeze instead of being trapped in the still heat of West Kingston like he is used to. His face look pale and puffy. And he got his thinning hair slick back. Maybe he even look a little like he stooping. Not straight and upright like he was in the old days. And he been losing weight as well.
I say, ‘I want to thank you for coming.’ Him just look at me and nod his head. The waitress put down the food in front of us and rush back inside to the air conditioning.
‘I have a little problem, Louis, and I think you can help me with it.’
DeFreitas look at me, but him still no say nothing. He just fix on the fish and start to eat.
‘We did a lot of things and we said a lot of things in our youth. And I don’t know ’bout you, but there was some of them I wish I hadn’t done. I wish I had thought better of. But look at us now, we old men you and me.’
DeFreitas look at me for the first time like maybe he just start listen to me.
‘I got no fight with you, Louis. You use Samuels to sell your guns in my neighbourhood and I didn’t say nothing. I give you back the guns and I even give you Samuels.’
‘And you get to keep Chinatown in a fair exchange.’
‘Yes. I get to keep Chinatown and I not grumbling ’bout that.’
DeFreitas ease back.
‘Then what happen to Samuels happen to him. And I didn’t say nothing. I didn’t say nothing even after you send Mrs Samuels to me to look out for. Even though you and I both know that was really your responsibility what with
