When the bottom falls ou.., p.16
When the Bottom Falls Out, page 16
“He calling to blackmail me ’cause he know my name not Roberta. Roberta is my sister name. I come to Canada with a passport in her name.”
He’s silent. Stunned. “Does your sister know?”
She nods. “Before, no. But now I sure she know.”
“So why you came to Canada in your sister’s name?”
She tells him the story about her involvement with Larry and her imprisonment, and explains that with a criminal record it would have been impossible to get residency status.
He feels the anger mounting. He gets up, walks to the living room and comes back. “So who’s this man that’s calling you?”
“He name Punta.”
“How he found out? “
“She starts to sob again.”
This time he doesn’t feel sympathetic. He’s annoyed. He walks again to the living room and comes back.
“Okay. What other secrets you have to tell me?”
She says nothing.
“DO YOU HAVE ANY MORE SECRETS TO TELL ME?”
She nods and holds her head down.
“Okay. Talk. Tell me.”
“I have two children in Jamaica. Their father is the same man that cause me to go to jail. They gun him down nine years ago. Punta is Bridget boyfriend. She find out about the passport and tell him, and he tell everybody, and now he know he can use it to shake me down.”
He sits down. He’s cold. He feels the freeze in the tips of his fingers. Tranquille. Tranquille. Tranquille. Calme-toi, Olivier.13 His mother’s voice comes to him as it did in his childhood.
“I didn’t want to deceive you, Olivier. I didn’t want to. I was planning to tell you everything. But I was waiting till I get citizenship. I should o’ never gone back to Jamaica. That was my big mistake.”
“You have two daughters in Jamaica! What are you saying?”
And then he remembers The Joy Luck Club in which a woman said she left her two daughters on the road in order to save her own life. He’d told himself later that it was cinema, fiction, not real life. The war in Bosnia was going on when he saw that film. It was the first time he’d spent time reflecting on the cruel things humans do to one another. He returns to the issue at hand.
They sit in silence for a long time. It gets dark, and he gets up from the table and turns the light on. He walks over to the side of the table where she’s sitting, puts an arm under hers. “You must be tired. Come, get some rest.”
He gently leads her into the bedroom and seats her on the bed. He leaves, heads to the liquor cabinet, and pours himself a drink. He goes to the linen closet for a duvet and a pillow. He’ll sleep on the sofa. Hopefully in the morning his head will clear and he will be able to think. He goes to the bathroom and brushes his teeth. He pauses at the bedroom door and listens for her breathing. He doesn’t hear it. She’s not asleep. He doesn’t bother to go into the bedroom for his pyjamas. His underclothes will be enough. He stretches out on the sofa and hopes sleep comes. At one point he hears his mother’s voice echoing in his head : «Celui sans pêchés, c’est lui seul qui tienne le droit de lancer des pierres.» 14 And he remembers that if Serge had pressed criminal charges, he wouldn’t have the job he has today. Worse yet if the blow had killed or maimed him. He goes to the bedroom. Benita’s eyes are on him. He puts a hand on hers. “You made some foolish decisions, but I understand. I made some too in my youth but I was luckier than you. Try to get some sleep. Tomorrow we’ll try to figure something out.”
3 Goddamit! You’re not staying for the wake! Shit! Olivier you’re too spiteful. It’s Saturday. What’s the hurry?”
4 Cripple, stupid, cretin, jerk.
5 “You’re worse than a faggot.”
6 “What did he do?”
7 “I beg you, Sir, don’t call the police.”
8 “Try, Sir. Please. Try. He’s young, hasty , and impulsive. Give him a second chance.”
9 “Thank you, Sir. God bless you, Sir.”
10 “Are you sure?”
11 A nigger plan (any project that’s doomed to fail).
12 “Marriage first. Sex after. Not before.”
13 “Calm yourself. Calm yourself. Calm yourself, Olivier.”
14 Only the sinless person has the right to stone sinners.
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank my publisher Nurjehan Aziz for supporting my creative endeavours and her contributions to Canada’s multicultural literature; M G Vassanji for his astute editing; Rudolph Coleman and the wonderful residents of Hopkins Village, Belize for the inspiration that led to the writing of “Garifuna”; and the members of Ilona Martonfi’s writing group who’ve offered valuable critiques of my work.
Some of these stories were previously published in slightly altered versions: “Guilty and Innocent” (with the title “Death of a Murderess”), in Matatu; “Glimpses into the Higginsons’ Closet,” in Wadabagei; “The Headmaster’s Visit,” in Kola; and “Emory,” in Beyond Sangre Grande: Caribbean Writing Today, Ed. Cyril Dabydeen, 2011.
Nigel Thomas was born in St Vincent. He attended university in Montreal and for ten years was a teacher with the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal, before joining the faculty at Laval University, Quebec, from where he recently retired. His published works include the novels Behind the Face of Winter and Return to Arcadia, and the short-story collection, Lives, Whole and Otherwise. He received the Homage to Artists award from Laval University in 2013.
H. Nigel Thomas, When the Bottom Falls Out
