Reverend
Julian was reclining in my favorite chair on the verandah. Ricky laughed when
he saw the reaction on my face when I saw the Reverend in my chair. He knew me too well. I
always said to him that if I catch a puss or a dog in my chair that’s their last
day on earth! He helped me with my bags to the verandah and as he turned to leave I reminded him to pick me up at the same time the next morning. I mounted the steps to the verandah. The
Reverend had his eyes closed and seemed to be taking a nap. I was tiptoeing
past him when he said, “Not because my eyes are closed it means that I am
sleeping!” He laughed, as if he had said something funny. I was not amused and I
looked at him steadily. He sat up in the chair and wiped his face with his
handkerchief. I wondered why he was sweating so much. Reverend Julian began to
apologize for what he heard had happened. Obviously Maud and Cassie had filled him in. He kept saying how sorry he was and if anything had
happened to me he would not be able to forgive himself. I reminded him that I
was always
safe in my home and had never had any problems until Cassie and her
children became a nuisance and if he had not begged me to keep them I would
never have a situation like what took place. He admitted that he had made an
error in judgment but he was just carrying out his Christian duty. I screamed
inwardly when he said that. It was as if he was trying to say that I wasn’t being
Christian like! He was sweating profusely and as I was about to invite him inside
the house where he could enjoy the coolness of the air conditioner he
stood up and said that he could not stay for very long because he had to go and
visit one of his parishioners whose son had died earlier in the day. I sat down
on the bench and asked him what was the name of the person who died. When he
said ‘Rajah’ I was not surprised. When I told him that Rajah was
the person who had tried to extort Cassie and threatened to kill her Reverend Julian fell
back into the chair in shock. “Are you sure?" he asked. "Not Mrs. Barnaby-Williams nice
nice son that graduated from University!” he exclaimed. I knew Mrs. Barnaby-Williams, she was
that nice little old lady who used to play the organ at church and taught Sunday School before she had a stroke and was unable to attend services anymore. I was equally
shocked! I always heard about her son who had done very well in school but I had
never met him. I assured Reverend Julian that it was Rajah and he was not the nice person that everyone believed he was. I told him all that Ricky had told me, how Rajah was the second in
command of the notorious TreTre Gang that was famous for carrying out extortion and
killing persons in cold blood when their demands were not met. Reverend Julian kept saying ‘oh my God’ over
and over, covering his eyes as if he was trying to shut out the reality that
Rajah was a monster! He said he was the one who baptized Rajah
when he was about eight months old and he never forgot how Rajah cried and
squirmed when the ‘holy water’ was sprinkled on him and how Rajah bit him on his finger!
Reverend Julian wiped his face once again and said he had to go. He sighed and
said he did not know how he would be able to look Mrs. Barnaby-Williams in her
eyes with this newfound knowledge he had about Rajah. I felt sorry for him.
Poor Reverend Julian, it’s not easy being you, I said to myself. He took up his
briefcase and with drooping shoulders he walked off the verandah and made his way through the gate. I watched him as he got into
his jeep and drove off. It was only as I called out to Maud to come and lock
the gate that I realized that the Reverend and I had not discussed what we were
going to do about Cassie and her children. Darn it! I wondered if Reverend
Julian had pulled a fast one on me! I stomped angrily into the house. Maud was
trying to get my attention but I ignored her completely. I slammed the door
only to hear her knocking on it. When I shouted, “What!” she said I had left my
bags, including my purse, on the verandah. I opened the door, took them from
her and grunted my thanks and closed back the door. I heard her walking away,
sniffling, but I did not care. I was too angry. These darn migrants were giving me a headache! I went into my bedroom to change
from my work clothes and to have a shower. After my shower I put on my favorite
house dress and then went to the kitchen to eat my dinner, which I knew Maud would have prepared and left in the oven to keep warm. I ate, washed the plate,
took a cup of ginger tea and excelsior crackers to my room and settled down to
read Charmaine's diaries. I could not believe I was down to the final two of all the diaries! True to her word, Charmaine did not
have a sweet sixteen party. No amount of begging or cajoling by Grandpa Wharbucks and
Florence could get her to change her mind. She also kept the vow she made to
keep her fake friends at school at a distance. She no longer met with them after class to have the usual chitchats and as for Cedric, he had given up trying to get her attention and only spoke to her when the Teacher put them in the same group when they had to work on a project. Charmaine wanted to become a Veterinarian when she grew up so she immersed herself in doing research on the subject and asking the Veterinarian who visited the estate to check on the animals a lot of questions. Her next two years on the estate were
very eventful. Charmaine convinced her Grandfather to buy goats for rearing and told him that she would be responsible for them. She was also helping with the births of the calves on the estate,
and even though she hated the sight of blood, and the slaughtering of the cows,
she loved watching the butchers while they carried out their work.
Charmaine wrote that she had taken it upon herself to name all the cows and when she knew that it was their time
to be slaughtered she would go and comfort them the night before. Her
Grandfather told her she was being silly and she must not get too attached to
the cows because they were being raised for food. I laughed. Stanley Wharbucks was
a sensible man!
One day, about two weeks before her eighteenth birthday, while
Charmaine was watching the slaughter of the cow that she had named Daisy, there
was a loud commotion that seemed to be coming from the main house. Stanley
Wharbucks was screaming at the top of his lungs! “Over my dead body! How dare
you show your face here! Get off my property!” Then there was the sound of a gunshot! Charmaine and the butchers ran towards the main house in fright!
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