Jamdown

Chapter 14

Terry Arden

I watched the passing houses as the van strolled through the neighborhood with casual regard. 

“You know how my thing’ set. You good still enuh. A just through Ashley kept bothering me to come see you. So me drop her off. I am picking her up tomorrow if that is okay?” said Caroline, my ex-girlfriend.

That was great for me I supposed. I watched Ashley whipping her clasped hands across the seating in the back while blowing raspberries. “That alright. How’s life?”

“Nothing much.” Her voice carried a flatness to it. 

“Anyways, I will take care of her until then. Just call me more time, you know, you kina surprise me.” Or she just wanted to avoid me which made sense.

Caroline replied, sparking some white noise. “You usually always home. So I nuh need to call you.”

“Yeeeah, things change. Me busy on the road, so yeah.”

“Since when are you so busy?”

I wagged my head in confusion at that question. “Always?” 

“So you say…” I felt the scorn on her tongue. My lips curled as I swallowed the anger.

I clenched my jaw back and fought the urge to call her out on her bad assumptions about me. She still thought I was a lazy bum.  “Yeah, still, call me,” I answered with much intonation to hide my frustrations. 

Her next response oozed an uncaring flourish. “Next time I will.”

Part of me had to ask. “You have my number?”

A pause, then she said, “Yeah. Don’t think so. This is your number right?”

I twisted my lips in frustration. She deleted my number?! I held in the annoyance and said in as normal a voice I could manage. “Yes, it is.”

“Yeah man, alright, I’ll call you later.” 

“Sure.” I held the bridge of my nose and sighed silently. The perils of being a baby father, I hated it. We were childhood sweethearts and now we barely talked to each other beyond anything concerning Ashley.

I was happy with that now, because I lost all my love for her. Things were lost in translation when you desired something that had no desire to be anywhere near you. I needed to understand that. 

In a way, it took me a long time to grow up. My father and mother were not the types to make a fuss over me. That allowed me some freedom which I exploited to my demise. 

We reached Baker’s shop and Ashley jumped out of the van. Benedict and I moved into the shop. We waved at her daughter as Miss Baker gave us a nod of the head and went around the back. She got the stuff and brought it around to the front where me and Benedict dawdled.

Tiredness plagued my bones from the angst of waking up. 

Tanya-Gay asked, “How you guys doing?”

I shrugged. “Better than yesterday.” 

Benedict laughed. “If only yesterday was good.”

“What, a man can be positive can he not?” I asked.

Benedict laughed again.

Tanya-Gay said, “You never seemed like the positive type to me.”

I made a face at her with a twisted grin. “How so?”

Ashley stepped in. 

Tanya-Gay’s eyes widened and her face lit up. “Heeey! Wha gwan?!”

Ashley looked up and said, “Nothing.”