Chapter 2

Facing The Music 

The following weekend Sabrina woke me up teasing me that my boyfriend is at the door for me. I rushed to the restroom to get tidied. I put on my house clothes and hurried out.

It was only my best friend Dewayne that greeted me at the door. My big expectation was dimmed just like that and I yelled at my sister who was in the kitchen. She only laughs me off.

He asked me if I wanted to come outside and play netball while he and his friends played a little basketball. Then after that, we would run a boat. I told him netball was my sister's game and her ears perked up saying she would love to play, already jumping up and down saying she was ready to go. She heard her two favorite things, netball, and food.

She left Selena to finish washing up the plates and grabbed my hand and we ran to the field. While we were there girls that we knew in the community came out to play with us.

Sabrina was so loud every time I missed a shot she made it a big deal. “You cah just shut up?” I yelled at her, “And who play netball with earrings anyways.” When I said that she took them out and handed them to me. “Yeah, but wah bout yuh nails?” I said.

One by one she took them all off. They were pressed on nails then she put them in my hands, “Yeah but wah bout-” I continued.

“Look stop try mek sense out ah nonsense yuh cah mek dem know everything.” Sabrina stopped me.

The game ended up turning into the girls telling us that lately, they have heard that two girls from the community have gone missing.

Some people think they ran off with a man or they just got tired of getting mistreated by their families. While we were talking we saw two police jeeps coming around the corner driving slowly and suddenly stopped. The vehicle behind them only had a flashing light on it. When they all exited out I noticed the man that didn't have on a uniform but it was clear that he was with them. He looks in his mid-thirties and had on a durag and wore a chain with a crucifix. I leaned over and asked his name, Tamekia said, "Who dah man deh, girl yuh nuh know dah good looking man name Mr. Jones, Derek Jones. Him work wid di narcotics division. Look like dem start sell drugs again to di likkle yute dem. Dem catch Miss Pam son weh day too nuh.”

Apparently, they were selling snow white in our community, so far I only knew one person who did that but that was brown man Joe, who is also called Brownie who sells me weed. He only sells it in small quantities though. His cover-up is a little shop and he sells mostly browning, hence the name Brownie.

Soon it was lunchtime and we were getting hungry. So we went to the store and we went over to Dewayne's house and cooked. We had fried chicken, white rice, vegetables, and boiled crabs. I cooked the rice and you wouldn’t believe that I almost burned the whole pot. I was busy on my phone and hardly paid attention to it.

I was googling about the incident with the girls that went missing recently.

Sabrina then, who wanted to make me pay for burning the bottom of the rice, scraped out all the bun bun into my plate.

So I made sure to sprinkle a lot of salt and peppers onto her plate when she wasn’t looking. I laughed when she started choking and had to run to the pipe to wash it out.

I got up early the next morning to go sell downtown. While my sisters were still snoring in their beds. Early birds get the worm they say.

I walked alongside the hand cart man while he carried my stuff in the box. When we reached, before he even unload the cart he stretched out his hand to me. I asked, “Is what?”

“Me money.” I rolled my eyes at him. And turn to take up my box.

“Watch yah, hey gyal yuh nuh hear me chat to yuh.” I am annoyed now. I turned and asked who he was talking to.

“No yuh me a chat to gyal ah $350 yuh fi gimme.” I laughed.

“Wait deh me nuh pay yuh yesterday and me gi yuh a whole ah 100 and ginger beer?” I asked.

“Yeah dat a yesterday, today ah tiday fork up eh money slavery done long time.” He said with his hand out.

I reached into my bag and took out a hundred dollars and he hit it out of my hand. “Hey gyal yuh know who yuh ah joke wid. Yuh see all you mine ah tek sin thing and box off yuh ugly face. I bet yuh say yuh have fi run weh leff town wid yuh liver spot white face.”

I walked over to him angry now my heart racing wondering if he would really try to attack me, “Hey bowy ah really me yuh ah stop wid, ah mi gun man yuh me call come up yah and shoot yuh?!” I exclaim. No one was really around so if he tried anything I would have to use my ice pick.

“Bill nuh yuh cah tek ah joke.” He said, trying to fake a smile.

“Excuse yuh and yuh will never see me ah talk to yuh again me rather carry mi things pin mi neck bone.” I said.

I then heard the sound of a police car and grabbed my box and some of the snacks and stuffed it in my bag and ran and hid. Before I knew it I was on top of a store until Mr. Chin called out to me to get down as they opened.

That night me, my sisters and my best friend Diamond, and their friends went to a costume dance. We dressed up like the players in among us. I was in pink of course, I was having fun and dancing until I saw David came in with another girl. I instantly got jealous. I just couldn't handle seeing him with someone else. My heart was racing and my chest got tight. I decided that I wasn't going to ruin the night so I started to smoke and drink to try to distract myself. I probably was overdoing it. I went to a corner by myself and started wondering if he was stalking me. How unfortunate. I started coughing and I jumped on top of this old parked van and danced to the music.

I was dancing and singing then looked up to the moon and swore I could hear Buju Banton singing brown skin girl to me. Then suddenly I saw a Goku nimbus cloud float towards me and I lay down on my stomach on it and floated away. My heart started to slow down, everyone around me started to move in slow motion and my breathing got deep.

It's like suddenly the music is drowned out by the loud thumping of my heart beating out of my chest. Suddenly the night got bright as day and a smile crossed my face. I was so scared that I was about to scream but I felt so heavy on the light cloud. Not even a single word could escape the empty void of my mouth. I started to cry, then suddenly instead of tears flowing two black snakes flowed and slithered out of my eyes. Then I saw Diamond and she fed me an apple, she was smiling so much. She looked like Eve in the garden of Eden.  She hopped on my cloud and we floated away over to where beautiful trees and bushes with pretty flowers were. After she finished feeding me the apple she pushed her finger down my throat and a rainbow flowed out of my mouth.

To be fair I was just puking in the bushes, but I like to think that I was puking out a pretty rainbow.

I probably should lay off from doing that for a while. I don't want to tell you what I was actually doing.

David didn’t even pay attention to the girl he carried when he saw that I got sick he made fun of me with his other friends.