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Chapter 6
Neo
The silence filled the night as I sat still in Uncle’s ‘new’ black SUV and waited for some action. Neeky was behind the wheel while Uncle drove shotgun. The last few days had proven to be uneventful, yet informative. Word from the Kings was that Rusty Cock would be in town tonight, where he was meeting a prominent politician at home.
Last night we met with Uncle’s Kings on Morrison Street in Spanish Town, the capital of St. Catherine. Uncle named the men the Kingston Kings, but they controlled more than just Kingston. It seemed that these men originated from several parishes but resided mainly in the old capital. Uncle’s intention was to clean up the crime in the city to make it safe again, especially for women. However, Jamaicans saw men like Uncle as Dons, gang leaders, and crime bosses.
Men such as Uncle Robert were the common enemy of the politicians who wanted their bad men to rule the city. They pretended they were fighting crime, when they were the perpetrators. Take for instance Rusty Cock and the man he was going to meet. This politician worked in the Ministry of National Security as the assistant to the Minister of Security.
“Look,” Neeky whispered, drawing my attention to the gate of the single-story family unit in Cherry Gardens.
We were parked two gates down in front of a house whose owner had been paid earlier that day to overlook the SUV. The kings had done their research to see who the supporters were of the affiliated political party, and had found that Mr. Myers was not. Mr. Myers strongly believed that the political man was sleeping with his wife. At the end of the street another vehicle with three of uncle’s men waited for instructions.
The gate was silver and gold, and the short driveway led to a carport with a white door. The verandah had silver gratings or iron bars, known as ‘grills’. These were the typical protection for Jamaican houses. The outside lights were turned off, and the verandah was shrouded in darkness. We could make out a light on in the living room through the slits between the blades if the redwood window.
Apparently, the gate was electronically operated as it opened to allow a white Toyota motor car to enter. The garage door yawned and swallowed the car as we watched the door closed. When I checked the time that the car entered, it was twelve minutes after midnight. We weren’t sure who were in the car, so we decided to wait and see if there was any activity on the property.
For fifteen minutes we waited and was about to drive off when the car which had entered pulled out. The outside lights suddenly came on after the car disappeared down the street, and a man in his mid-sixties came outside to smoke. Uncle sent the signal to the other team which would follow the car. In the meantime, we kept a watch on the man with the cigarette. After putting out the first cigarette, he spoke on his cell phone for about three minutes before lighting another.
He was there about another eight minutes before heading back inside. We waited about another five minutes before driving off. The Kings were on the Toyota’s tail and updated us where they were.
Uncle put the phone on speaker mode when contacting the Kings. “What the location”
“They heading to Riverton City.”
“Be careful,” he told them. “You know the area well enough to be cautious.”
“Yes, Boss.”
“Keep us updated.” He then hung up the call and turned to me. “Something’s going down.”
I didn’t know Jamaica well, and this new place Uncle was talking about he’d never mentioned before. “Where is this Riverton City?”
“It’s the city dump, but many people choose to live there. They have made it a community.”
I scrunched my face in confusion. “They live in the dump?”
“Well, technically, they live in houses in the area that was designated for the disposal of garbage. This way, they have easy access to whatever is disposed of.”
“But why?” I knew I sounded stupid for asking, but it took me a while to process this information.
“People live off some of the things that are thrown away. Clothing, food, furniture … some of it is pretty decent.”
As we drove towards the Riverton City community, I was struck with how desperate people must be to live this way. Neeky who had been silent this whole time, snuck a look at me in the rear-view mirror. I couldn’t read her eyes, but they must have been judging me for my reaction. I turned away to look out the window and remembered one of the reasons my brother loved coming here. He mentioned giving free health care and food to the less fortunate. He also helped to build a school, and a health care center during his travels.
This made me feel so useless all these years. I spent my youth having fun and chasing women, while my brother lived to serve others. My parents were no different as lately they spent a great amount of time with the foundation my mother founded in my brother’s name. It was a well-deserved honor that I wished I had given more attention to.
“You’re pretty quiet back there,” Uncle pointed out.
I glanced in the mirror and made eye contact with Neeky. Her eyes were soft as she looked at me and I knew she wasn’t judging me.
“I wanna make a difference, like Nino.”
“You will,” Uncle declared. “But now, you smell that?”
I almost gagged from the stench of which I couldn’t relate. “What the hell is that?”
“Welcome to Riverton City, my boy.”
