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She rolled her eyes at me. “They not cooking ackee and saltfish.”
“You wanna bet?”
“Yuh not going into the people’s kitchen today, yuh hear me?”
“Can’t I just…?”
“If yuh think yuh bad, gwaan no. Do it.”
I held up my hands in surrender. “Alright ma’am. We can stop on our way back to get breaky.”
“The two of you bicker like children,” Uncle said, shaking his head. “Come. Joe is in this room.”
Mass Joe was sitting on a chair beside his bed. His face brightened as we entered, his smile toothless. Although the man was blind, his eyes seemed to bore through me. He beckoned me over and I went over to him. Uncle left us to go talk to someone in the adjoining room while Neeky stood by the door. The room smelled of stale urine and dirty socks. I took a seat on the bed with rumbled sheets, taking his hand in mine.
“Hi, I’m Neo. You wanted to see me?”
“Yuh must a wonder why this old man wanted to see yuh,” he said, his voice cracking. “I must tell yuh plain and straight. I think yuh might be my great grandson.”
I thought Mass Joe might be losing his marbles and I decided that patience was the best remedy for an old mind. “What makes you think that?”
“Many years ago, yuh great grandmother was my girlfriend. She was fifteen at the time when she migrated to another parish. I was also a kid, we were both attending school. I heard later that she had a baby boy, but I was a coward.”
“Oh, my mother’s father?” He nodded and I continued. “So, you never confirmed it this was true or not? I mean, that if he was your child.”
“Back then, I was a coward. Her father was a policeman. I feared the man.”
“I understand. Thanks for telling me, but you’re still not sure if I’m your great grandkid.”
“It doesn’t matter now that I’m dying. What I really want to tell you is this,” he stopped and blinked, asking me if there was someone there. I told him that my girlfriend was there, and he ask to see her as well.
She eased from the door frame and closed the door behind her before walking over. She came to stand next to me. “I’m here Mass Joe.”
He pulled his hand away from me and felt for Neeky’s until he found it. “My girl, I so sorry I was a coward who couldn’t tell yuh what happened to yuh parents. All me life I afraid a everything, especially wicked people.”
“Don’t worry about it, Mass Joe.”
“No, I worry about it, especially now me time soon come. Yuh father was a good man, not giving in to the wickedness of those that snuffed out his life.”
Her brows knitted fiercely. “You know exactly what happened and why?”
“I know everything me dear. I was just afraid a di gang leader. Him have a habit fi kill anybody who rat him out.”
“Can you tell me why they were killed?”
“I have a spot I always go meet a girl who go to the same church yuh parents went to. I normally wait behind the big East Indian mango tree until she come round the corner. That night she never come church, so I was about to leave when I see Rusty and him man dem cut the throat of a woman, and throw her in a car trunk. Him never see me, but you parents were coming round the corner same time.”
Neeky’s eyes opened wide. “They saw the murder?”
Joe shook his head. “I don’t think so. But Rusty must have, because that night they killed your parents. I know it was Rusty because the girl I was seeing lived next door to you. I went there that night and saw Rusty and gang leaving your house.”
Neeky stepped back, withdrawing her hand from Mass Joes. “My parents were killed for a crime they probably didn’t witness.”
Mass Joe turned to me. “Yuh going get that damn murderer, right? The streets need to be clean of people like him.”
“Don’t you worry Mass Joe, that’s what I’m here for. We’ll get that scumbag and his minions.”
