Timeline: Evening, Thursday 19th April.
Story so Far: Greg and Jess have had a good response to their first proposition for the sale of their first trade item and received a promising response from Elias MacKendrick Stores. All they need now is a reliably and qualified elecrician to fit it at a reasonable price after sale and they will have their first successful sale.
They have driven to Whitewater to meet Ali, an electrician and have just pulled up outside the condo where he lives and are sitting in the truck watching a group of kids playing a game in the front yard.
At Whitewater:
The group of kids had stopped playing their game to sit on the ground looking at Greg and Jess with big, wondering eyes. A black boy, about 6-years old, broke from the group to rush towards them with open arms, calling Jess’s name,
‘Jess, Jess.’
He ran right into Jess who gathered him up high above his head and twirled around a couple of times as he acknowledged the youngster’s call ‘Hi Jasper, you doing good?’
Greg saw Jess’s face light up like a lamp as he revolved with the youngster. The front door in the middle of the condo opened and a powerfully built Afro-American with a three-day stubble on his face filled the doorway. He pushed back the fly screen with unnecessary force and watched them suspiciously. His expression was severe with no sign of welcome. Jess put Jasper down on the ground. The youngster eagerly grabbed Jess by the hand in his excitement and pulled him towards the group of kids sat in a circle in the dirt.
‘You gonna play farmyards with us Jess?’ Jasper pleaded, and turned to the other kids to announce, ‘Jess is here. He’s gonna play with us’
Greg stood back to enjoy the happy scene, aware that the man in the doorway was studying him from a distance. Greg assumed this was Jasper’s father. The man came out of the doorway and with a loose-limbed ease seemed to float towards them; some of the hostility had left his face now that he recognized Jess, although his suspicion of the stranger remained palpable.
Jasper shook Jess’s arm. ‘Come on Jess,’ he begged, ‘you can look after the cows in the field over there.’
Jasper pointed to a patch of dirt the kids had ringed with stones to make a toy farm field; inside were six red glass marbles that they were using for cows. The scene took Greg right back to his own early school days when kids let their imagination run and they made their own toys and fun out of anything they could get hold of. He felt at home here and smiled at the tall man who now stood in front of him with his head to one side and his thumbs stuck under bright red suspenders holding up his threadbare, faded jeans and dug into the shoulders of his wifebeater.
The man spoke sharply to Jasper. ‘Not now Jasper, leave Jess be, go play by yourselves.’
‘Ahh Pa!’ ‘
‘Go on now and do as I say, or do you want to feel the flat of my hand across your butt?’
Jasper sauntered off in sullen disappointment to rejoin his little gang.
The man now spoke to Jess, but his eyes never left Greg’s face.
‘What brings you out this way Jess, not trouble I hope?’ The man smiled, revealing strong, white teeth. Greg judged Jasper’s dad to be about 6’4” and 240 pounds with no visible fat about his body. The man’s eyes now flashed between Jess and Greg asking the unspoken question, ‘tell me who is the dude, Jess?’
Jess stepped forward to shake hands and make the introduction.
‘Hi Mr. Ali, good to see you again. This is Mr. Mitchell. He’s from England, come here to do business in Bamptonville. I’m working for him.’
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The 'Cousins'
General FictionEnglishman Greg Mitchell has served only two Gods in his lifetime- Making Money and Himself. Now at 35 years of age and after his second divorce and loss of his business he faces a future with no family or friends- he does have some money in the ban...
