Saturday, 27th.
I've never seen something so deviously prime. The one day I show up there's a birthday party going on in the yard. If not the street because any kid's party is mainly for the adults.
I haven't been to Whitehouse, Westmoreland for the past ten or eleven years, since I was like thirteen. It happened due to a bad experience and lies they all directed at me.
I believe I was in seventh grade at the time, came here for Christmas holidays and had to sleep with the rest of my cousins in one room, on one mattress. The problem being that someone is always peeing the bed and they say it's me, though we all woke up drenched in someone else bodily fluid. On the last night I stayed up packed my things, slept on the carpet. When we got up that morning it's by my aunty who was upset that I was on the floor. Then low and behold, they all realised that I'm in the same outfit yet they are the ones drenched. I left the very same day because they had me taking the big mattress out back and when the neighbors kids saw, they knew what happened. Why should I get called Piss Bed, when I wasn't the one doing it.
Then when they came to my house in Bickersteth, they had rooms for their own privacy and protective plastic on the beds. Not to mention a laundry room with a range of bed sets to change every night. Thous the name Béyu and not the old Kayra that I was once know as.
Getting off the phone with Zyair, I looked outside to see the crowd of people watching the Range Rover pulls up by the gate. I looked over at Ruth and sighted. "I'll be back to let you know what's going on."
She nods and I got my purse off the console, put my protective bracelet on with a little lipstick shaped taser attached to it. Opening the door and stepping out.
The cool winds mixed with the little salty air relaxed me a bit. It's a whole different feeling from the blasted heat in Kingston. I definitely worst miss it.
I closed the door and held my purse tightly underneath my arm. The gate was already opened when I walked in, ignoring every soul who just stared and it would make no sense to greet anyone when the music is so loud and I knew no one.
I passed where kids playing in front of the tables set up with birthday items. Dodging the little dirty hands and clothes, making my way up to the house.
Seated on the bottom varandah of the now two storey house was a crowd of older women. They all stared at me but one stood out, mommy's mother.
Shilpa Ahuja. Brown skinny full Indian, shorter than I am yet she was mighty to stand there when she realized who I was.
"Good afternoon." I greeted.
"Good afternoon dear..." They replied and I smiled at grandma who just looks at me with a little smile that she could muster.
"Grandma Shilpa." I waved and she gestured for me to come hug her which I did.
Shi still smell like cinnamon and pastries.
"My grandbaby, ohh!" She rocked me from side to side. "You look just like my Prianka when she was pregnant with you."
Laughing at the joke that I took that has, she pulled away and looked up at me as she held my face. This woman shook her head, an habit we all got from her and her Indian roots. "You look good grandma."
"I know and thank you." She smiled, then went ahead to introduce me to her church friends.
Grandma came from a Hindu background but rebelled to her parents and left there home in Negril to be with Grandpa here in Whitehouse. She's now an Seventh Day Adventist. Almost like how Mami left when Grandpa didn't want a man from all the way up in the German community of Seaford town to take his daughter away. It's a generation thing as I'm sure that daddy wouldn't want me leaving home to live with any man, now he has no control over me.
She didn't let me rest for the next few minutes, introducing me to Dick, Kit, Tom, Pam, Hilary and Harry. I just smiled, waved, shook hands, received hugs and compliments as I go.
I met the rest of my family, from the ones I know to the ones I don't. Then I met the birthday boy, the son of my cousin who used to pee the bed. I put a five thousand dollar bill in his hand and he ran off broadcasting it to everyone.
My aunty stayed around the pot making soup but here I was surrounded by people who needed an handout. I needed that too.
I was texting Ruth when Indiana came over with my cousins around my age group. A majority of them and reflect on my memories as to why I was hated in the first place. My lighter brown skin, thanks to daddy. An also from Daddy's side of the family, I got extra ass to fit with my Indian curves.
Mih is a fine piece a gyal. Me, Béyu.
"Mih did a wonder a who fah big Range Rover park up outta gate." She admitted as I gave the girls a awkward hug and fake smile that I try to make look or seems real enough.
Mih need fih stop duh this.
"A nuh mine still."
"Yuh husband nuh come?" She inquired, they were all looking around now.
"Husband?" I looked at them shocked. "Ya mek him fool yuh. It's a likkle promise ring and a nuh nothin'serious."
She looks embarrassed and looks down at my finger. "But dih ring did look different?"
"Nuh trust man yuh ere. Him all tormented and get it changed. He's not my husband or mih fiancé, we're only dating." I let them know since grandma was close by and listening.
She even came over and looked at the ring.
"It's an engagement ring, mih dear." She tells me. "Engagement and promise is the same thing. That man wants more than dating."
"Suh weh him deh!" Indiana kept asking.
"Kingston."
"Ehh. Rich girl get a rich man." SuSu blurted and that's where I snapped.
"Big girl, how mih fih rich and a call center me still a work. A straight nine to five, pay check to paycheck mih a survive on. If me nuh do overtime or meet commission then dog nyam my supper. Bills fih pay, groceries and feminine products fih buy and if mih one shoes have a hole mih go need a new one. An fih a deal wid racist white people five or six days per week would a mash up my mentality. A mussi Mami prayers a work cause a nuh man a mine mih either. Him just a mek mih enjoy the likkle vacation mih tek cause mih almost mad out at work from all the stress. Don't judge the book by its cover, mih love."
Mih nuh love none a unnu. Mek mih guh wid Grandma.
I didn't want to stay for the rest of the party so I returned to the vehicle and take the envelopes that I had for different persons.
Grandma got the most and I have to let the old woman know that it's my savings and it's not to be given to the church or anyone else. She could use it on groceries, bills, gas or to buy herself something nice.
But then I almost regret it when I see my disgusting uncle circling around her when I was leaving and I returned to say what's on my mind.
"Grandma, as much as yuh use to tell Mami not to fatten fowl fih mongoose. It me a remind yuh, and remember who have yuh back when nothing nah gwaan."
"But a who deh bleach out gyal ya a call mongoose." My drunkard uncle hissed as he glared at me.
Seet deh. Dem all hate mih likkle colour while mih woulda want the extra melanin like dem. See how people wicked.
"Mike, gwaan back up a dih shop nuh..." Grandma suggested but he kept pushing.
All I did was held the taser dangling from my bracelet.
"When lass yuh come bout ya likkle gyal. Yuh abandoned wih like yuh mumma fih a whoring solder..."
"What wih fih come here fah? You is nobody Mike. You don't live in this yard but come a torment everybody after people show up. Yuh want some a dih solder whoring money, what yuh prefer, Jamaican, Canadian, U.S or English pound? Mih throw mih corn, mih neva call nuh fowl." I argued back that even the music cuts and people were listening in.
"Si mih a beg yuh nothin'. A mih fada yaad dis..."
"Yet yuh name neva deh inna dih will when him pass away. God bless him soul because him duh a right thing fih nuh lef scraps give yuh. Try remember a who fah property yuh a kotch pan since the same woman with a whoring solder give yuh it fih stay pan. Don't threaten mih Mike, same blood inna Grandpa inna me and mih nuh fraid fih call pon a truck load a solder fih come tek yuh offa it." I warned.
"Kayra, nuh mind him. It alright mih dear, come go up before it late..." Grandma told me and I smile at her.
All she love sorry fih maga dwag. Mih nuh stop hear how mih a hold har up fih tek har money or even the pot a food when hungry tek him.
Worst how dih money mommy send through Indiana him grab up and tek from the old woman.
"Tink yuh know man fih a come diss mih inna my place." He continues.
"Mike, stop e noise and gwaan home." His elder sister shouts as she came around from the side of the house with her other siblings.
All dem fih nuh chat. Mek dih germs have access fih still come through.
"Weh ya duh in ya by the way. Nobody invite yuh." Debbie frowned. Otherwise from Mami, Debbie and Mike are known to fight like puss and dog.
"A mih fada yaad dis. Unno a all the same thing. Whore out like deh bleach out one yah and har mada." He points at me.
Hot fih mih. Him a mussi dih son. Den come bun mih.
"Suh yuh nuh wah come whore out wid wih. One man alone give wih real diamond ring put pah finger and mek wih a drive big whip. Yuh nuh want a man tu, since yuh jealous a dih whole female population?" I remarked, getting him angrier by that insult that had people around us laughing.
He pounced on me, going in to box me across the face but it only touched my shoulder. Hard. I went in with my taser to his sweaty wet neck and let him have it. When he fell on the ground, I didn't mind the people who stepped away in fright.
"Eric Fisher neva teach yuh nuh fih put yuh dutty hand pah nuh woman, eh pussyhole!" I hissed, sending a hard kick to his stomach before someone pulled me away from him.
He laid there shaking and whimpering from the pain.
"Think mih nuh hear how yuh a duh mih grandmother over the money she get from Mami everytime." I moved again to kick his face but only my foot heel granges his nose since I got snatched again.
"Fucka yuh!" Someone yelled.
"A dih same whoring father yuh a come disrespect a him teach mih how fih fight. Stand up nuh. Since a woman strength alone you have. Den yuh bright fih a all com style my mada like a nuh she put yuh up inna dih same old rotten dung house har fada build long time give har. Seems yuh forget dih position mih big bredda have at the station. Witness deh yah eno shit face, next time you see me down here is either yuh fih sign yuh faith or fund yuh cremation. Mih and mummy nuh come bout ya' suh because a you and couple others a dih reason fih dat. Wih neva tell nobody fih siddung dung ya inna Whitehouse and hold grudges ova other people success when dem can find dem own. Ya bad man Mike, mih nuh know me but me obviously know you and your location. Watch yuh back, yuh ere dat. Count yuh days cause the next time yuh touch grandma yah lose both a hand and a ears."
I let the taser come to life and it made the person holding me let go. Those that we close stepped away.
"Until next time, grandma." She came and hugged me and to let others hear, I made this comment. "Next pay mih collect, yuh get a stronger bolt taser than what mih have."