As I walked with the
Reverend to his Range Rover which was parked away from the gate the woman, who
had stationed herself and her children under a tree across the road shouted out,
'Lady I was not stoning your dogs or your house! I was just trying to get a few
mangoes off your tree for my children!' I ignored her because every yard on the
avenue all had heavily laden mango trees. Some of the trees had branches
overhanging the fences of the homes, you could just easily reach up and pick
the fruit from the sidewalk. But no, this woman had to come and stone the mango
tree in my home. When I reached the Range Rover Reverend Julian opened the back
door and I entered the vehicle, he made sure I was seated comfortably and then
he closed the door. He then went around the front of the vehicle and sat in the
passenger side and turned towards me. When I looked at him enquiringly he said
we would not want for people to think we were more than church associates.
Anyway, he said, he really wanted to know why I was refusing to help this woman
and her children. I looked him squarely in his eyes and told him that I was
under no obligation to help them. They had passed so many homes to get to mine.
My home was the second to last on a street that had 25 homes on either side,
why me? Reverend then trumped the card that everyone uses when they can’t win
an argument with me. He said, ‘but you are a Christian Ma’am!’ I said but so
are you! He said, ‘you have so much space in your home you can easily put them
up’ I retorted so does the church! You can put them in the Caretaker’s
quarters. He asked where would the Caretaker go? I said oh please Reverend
Julian, everyone knows that the Caretaker has been living with Sister Molly for
years and is hardly ever there. He then said it would not be wise for the woman
to be there while he worked at the church in the days because not only would
the children make noises and disturb him but his wife would feel insecure around
someone looking like the woman. I laughed because the woman, despite having
four children with another on the way, seemed to have been well endowed with
breasts and butt. She was also beautiful with smooth skin and long flowing hair
that clearly was not weaved. She seemed to be of Indian heritage and knowing
Reverend’s wife I could see how she would be intimidated by the woman’s looks
as pregnant as she was. Reverend’s wife always looked me up and down whenever I
attended church and she would hang on to him tightly as if she thought I was
going to abduct him. Poor thing I used to say in my mind. I am sorry Reverend
Julian, I cannot allow her to stay in my house, I said. Did she tell you that she was
from Spanish Town? I let her into my house and then the rest of her family will
come with the same sob story about gunmen terrorizing them and want to join her
here. Next thing the gunmen follow them here and there is a shootout on my
premises! Or she gets comfortable and wants to stay forever with 5 children
running up and down my yard, climbing my trees and eating my East Indian and
Bombay mangoes! No way Reverend Julian, no way Jose! The Reverend took off his
glasses, used his handkerchief to clean the lens and then put them on back and
said that the woman did tell him that they were from Spanish Town, but as the
good Book had asked, ‘Can anything good come from Nazareth?’ he is now asking
me if I didn’t think that anything good could come from Spanish Town? I
squirmed uneasily in the back of the vehicle, wondering if he knew any of my
family history, after all he has only been at the church for 15 years. What
could he know about my family? I shrugged off the feeling of unease because it
was still my job to secure my border.
SadaBlue...
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