MICHAEL REX
I wonder if anyone can really feel fulfilled selling coconut. Feel something. Every time the box truck come round here, Adamo see me and shout, “Goliath!” out the window before him cousin pull into the parking space. Of course, my name is David, but him find pleasure in calling me that because mi taller than him. The sun not here fully yet. We in Mobay, it still black-grey, a little blue with orange and pink swashes and a peaking yellow spot. Cold. Before the hotel ask them to dress properly, them used to do the work shirtless and I could see what I come out here to see. Now, I settle for the neck and breast through the loose collar and the breeze that balloon him shirt when him jump out the seat. Is not just coconut, is cane too. The three of them get to hauling everything from out of the truck to our trolley them. The resort start serving breakfast at eight and so everything have to happen at this hour. I want my bed. I want this too though.
Mi volunteer fi come out here with Mister Pinero when we have food deliveries because I want to be helpful. Did apply and audition to work here as singer but them find someone else; still the manager lady that see mi say she like mi, say mi handsome and polite and she like that, and say them have position for kitchen boy, bartender and housekeeper so I pick this. Figure say if I work hard enough, be helpful and try learn everything good good then mi can ask to be apprentice chef under Mister Pinero or Mister Weiss. Mister Pinero come from Cuba. Him white and fattish but not like the farriner them that come, fi him white kinda off. Him strong though. Nuff hair and beard and two strong hairy hand. I like when we brush pass. I don’t think I ever see more than his head or his hands. Is a man that don’t talk much except for when you in him kitchen doing foolishness and him nudge you one side and say, “te dije que eso no era así. A ver, suelta!” Other than that him quiet and nice. Him call me, “Pájaro”. That’s him nickname for me. Sound like the van. Him don’t talk English good but one time him tell me that him have two son like me – but one of them not him son? – back in Cuba. I guess that’s why him don’t mind the company.
When them hauling out the coconut and cane, usually Adamo is the one that goes up into the truck and stretch the things to him cousin them. Cousin them a twin but you can see one did get a cut pon him chin and Adamo tell mi is drop him drop out a mango tree and get it. Sometime the cousin them father come instead of one of them, but always Adamo. “Adamo” get the name from him big Adam’s Apple it seem. Before him work with him uncle, him did mawga and you coulda see it sticking out a him neck like bird beak. Him thick up and muscley now but him keep the name. I wonder how it feel to cover him neck with mi hand. Maybe if I press it, something will happen. Something will pop out a him and say hi. Maybe it kill him, maybe it kill me. Mine is small – too small for something to happen.
When him was telling me the story, it was a morning like this and afterwards, I go for soda for all of them. Him uncle is a Rasta like the rest of them but don’t drink soda. Him “ital”. The rest of them always take it when him don’t come though. When the uncle don’t come, him will stop and talk to me for even half hour while him cousin them stay in the truck or go talk to a housekeeper or two or go back to sleep in the truck. It’s always something. Them give trouble in the kitchen too but Mister Weiss not here to see it and Mister Pinero don’t care.
Adamo is so sexy. Actually, all of them nice to look at but Adamo have a walk bout him. It no fiery and explosive like them, it calm and him just glide. Adamo. Adamo. Adamo. Every time mi ask for him real name, him don’t tell me. Him tell me that Adamo is enough. When mi insist, him say, “Adam come before David so show your elder some respect,” and him laugh. Him cousin them was there too and them laughed at me. Fuck him, two a we a nineteen. Him cousin them a twenty-one. I know them have a big sister and a mother. Them house is near the property so mi always see them walking and driving by from time to time. The truck come every two days so I get to see him. The workers stay here at the hotel unless we get leave and we usually get it every six weeks for a week, if we want, but we have to go home. Mi never yet go home because I don’t have one any more. When it burn down, Mama and Sharma go live with Aunty June and they don’t have room since Sharma have to sleep on the settee. Plus mi don’t like Aunty June and her spoil pickney them so mi stay here and work. I just work less in that week so it feel like mi taking back mi personal time.
When him ready, Adamo pop through the hole in the fence after him cross the bush between the resort and him house. I guess all of that is him yard, technically. Them not to do it but them camp somewhere no one can stay and see them.. Six week ago, during delivery, him pull mi aside and ask for my shirt. I was confused. Him explain that if him have a shirt, then him can pose like one of the worker and get drinks and maybe even food, or if him can’t do that then him can come closer to the resort and find me and ask me for it.
“I will get in trouble for that. I can’t do that.”
“No one will find out is you.”
“What if they see me talking to you.”
“Nobody watching who you talking to, bredrin.”
The “bredrin” cut me. This is actually how I find out that them come through the fence all the while. Mi start wonder if mi should report it. Then mi start to wonder if is them why so much things round the place go missing and not light-finger tourist and careless tourist who think everything come easy and everything free or think them little money can buy the world. Mi start wonder if I can follow him back through the hole and I start to wonder why him never tell me bout the hole sooner. Mi start wonder a lot of things that could happen and now the time just start fi feel wasted.
“Tell me exactly what you and your cousins plan to do. It’ll only work if I stay informed?”
“Why? ya informa?” him smile, I freeze, him continue, “and why you can’t talk patwa? You can’t talk patwa?”
“I can talk patwa!”
“It don’t sound real,” him laugh at me again and I wait to burst his bubble.
“Them changing the uniform next month so it don’t make sense I give you this one.”
“Fine. Mi can wait couple week,” him nod. Him inhale fast again, and again.
When we walk back from round the corner, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed. When him drag mi there, mi think something big was going to happen, or something small. Him lean gence the wall and pull me close after him check if anyone was looking and then him ask mi foolishness. Mi heart sink.
Today I have the shirt for him. Unlike the first set, these ones boring. Is just one colour with the resort’s logo and the sleeve them white. The last one was a blend a the sky with the silhouette a palm trees. Everybody get five set and mi carry one and the matching pants in a scandal bag for him to put on. When the twin them gone inside with Mr. Pinero and the trolley them, mi follow him inside the truck back and give him the bag. Him take the bag by squeezing him fingers between mine and then him look inside. Without another word, him take off the white shirt and then zip down him jeans. It drop. A heat shoot up mi leg and then mi think, “I shouldn’t stand up so close. Somebody might see this and think something”. I step out the truck and turn round to be at eye level wih him orange brief and is one big hole in it. I want so desperately fi the sun come up and shine a light in here, because mi need fi see what that hole want to show me. It put there for me – Muss! And then him raise him left leg and slip it into the pants. Him do the same with the right but before it go up, the waistband bump at the crotch and him have to carry it over.
Him say to me, “Mi surprise the pants tight and you so tall, but you skinny too so it make sense.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Take mi number and mi tell you anytime we a come over so we don’t get you in a trouble.”
“That’s kool.”
Mi want an excuse fi get him number for months now and I was glad for it… but all mi can think bout is the shirt and the pants. I want them back. I think I want it to juice out whatever sweat from the work him do just now with the cane juicer in the kitchen. Mi want fi keep it in a perfume bottle to spray on myself. When him ready fi change back, him turn roun and I turn too. I go back to the kitchen door and him come back out the truck without any shirt and the sun is up a little more. This time you can feel the heat all around and the thick gray start fade and look more orange. Him and the twin them jump into the truck and right as him pull out a the spot, with the windows them still up, mi see a text pon the phone that say, “today”.
Untitled 3 from the Tropical Cyberpunk series by Edward Akintola Hubbard
At 3 o’clock I see another text that say, “we coming up now,” and I take my break. Is Mister Weiss this evenin and him running everybody ragged, a grind and beat we out like dog. Before mi slip out, I pass one of the moving tables with the food and scrape some sandwich and meat and cake cubes. Enough for three. I’m just going to see them and leave them alone. I am a friend – barely – and nothing more and I need to remember that. This can get me in trouble and I need to remember that too. And what mi really know bout him either? Where him parents deh? How come him a rasta and mi see him sneak and eat some jerk pork when him think no one looking? I walk down past the water slide them and the pool house and go through a red, wood fence that not fencing off anything because is just for decoration. Before mi close the fence gate, is him that on the other side with a grin and him take the bag before mi say nothing. The empty section of the beach behind him.
“Big up yuhself, G.”
“Sure. No problem. Happy to help,” with a straight face.
Mocking me, “No problem, Happy to help. You too sweet, man. Man will grab you weh!”
“Mmhm,” as mi bite mi lip and turn round.
“Hold on nuh…” him rifle through the bag that could feed ten, and not three like mi plan, “couldn’t get some drinks too?”
The audacity. The audacity and the laugh that always follow it, that always make mi ready to open up to whatever him could ask me for.
“Make mi go back for some?”
“Wait make me gi dem yute ya this first. Mi want follow you.”
I watch him sprint to a corner, down to where the real, tall fence almost touch the water but turn right, out a sight, and him come back in five minutes. Halfway, I see him stop run and walk back up. Strapping and strong, foot kicking through the sand. Why him wear the uniform and no shoes? Some a him locs look burnt orange. Him not as light as him cousin them but him no dark like me either. It balance and him walk like him have perfect balance. Mi want to unbalance him. Just run and jump on him, but that don’t make sense. Him come back to mi and say “forward nuh” and go through the door like him know where him going.
“Some drinks in the pool house fridge for staff. I can get three of those.”
“Wah you going drink then?”
“Wah you mean?” I never stopped to consider it.
“You not coming? That’s why we come a you break time. Why you bring so much food then?
“For you.”
“No man, forward… yeah,” him nod.
I stop, walk, stop, walk, stop, walk. I stop to feel better sense, feel the white angel pon mi shoulder – and nothing. Nothing was making me say “no” to him. Without a word, mi give him two a the drinks to hold and follow him back outside the pool house, back through the fence, down the sand. Him talking the whole time and mi juss saying “mhmm. yeah. mhmm”. Mi neck feel like something touching me and mi look back five time before we reach the corner and we don’t see nobody.
“Them mussi gone up back a yard,” him turn to me and stop. Then start again.
We walk farther long the fence and we get to the hole. More like a cut. Is an L in the fence that look like somebody cut it so – probably one a them. Him hold it up like a curtain and wait for me to walk through, “watch you step”. When him come through him take the lead again and we stomp through the sand mix with stick mix with grass mix with broad, brown leaf, then we get to a stone and some concrete. The house. Everything still smell like the sea, in fact, it smell more like the sea. One fowl stand up pon another big stone and one on the ground underneath.
“We this. Uncle them live up there in the bigger house,” him point, “Him and daddy build that one before them build daddy own. Daddy bury over deh so.”
“Oh. Where’s your mother?”
“Englan.”
“Oh,” we walk through the door and no one is there.
In here nice. Not what me expect a man-cave to look like. Clean and nice. Nice furniture. Like anybody granny yard. It new but it feel like somebody live here long time and maybe a family. Mi see a plaque pon a shelf with a picture of him getting it beside it.
KING’S BRIDGE HIGH SCHOOL
TAYLOR AWARD for the HIGHEST GRADE in CAPE APPLIED MATHEMATICS
presented to
ONEIL KAIFFIONG OWARU
So that a him real name. It so African. Mi never know say him so bright. Damn. Mi kinda jealous. Why him never go University. Mi would ah go. Him sit down on the settee before me and me sit down pon the next end.
“You like in here?” as soon as mi sit down him get up back and go to the kitchen.
“Yeah it’s nice.”
“Most a this come from my house before we rent it out.” Him return with two cup and sit down.
“Why didn’t you stay at your own house?”
“It too far from here and we have to be on the road early. Plus is too much fi mi one angle.”
“Mhmm”
“Yeah we rent it out now. Uncle say when mi married mi can get it back.”
“Suppose him give you cousin them instead?”
“Two a them have big house already. Matthew own don’t finish yet though. We still a work. Uncle say the same thing to them. Have to married first.”
“Ok. At least him nah rob you,” mi a nod like mi know nothing.
“You want marry me?” him smile.
Mi could a jump pon him. Right here, right now. Him know that? Why him would ah ask that. Mi upset now. Mi funny to him? Is that? What if mi say –. Him shift from him corner and now him squeeze gence me and drape him arm over mi shoulder. Before mi can budge him kiss me pon the cheek, near mi lip.
“Battyman!” him cousin come through the door and go straight to the kitchen with a bag.
Mi jump up and go fi put on mi slippers. Mi have to run again. Run again. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. Tired fi run. WHY MI MEK THIS HAPPEN AGAIN? Him hold mi hand and say “Chill man, chill.” Him draw mi back down and mi start fight him fi get up but him stronger and him hold mi gence him.
“Let mi go!”
Him hold mi two hand them tighter gence mi own pelvis with one hand, and him elbow on my right breast a bar mi. Him look pon mi serious now,
“Mi seh chill, yute,” him stare pon mi.
Him cousin them a stare too. And then one sit where Adamo was and the other one sit pon the chair.
“‘Damo, pass the lighter nuh?”
I see Oniel – no, mi prefer Adamo – Adamo take it up and give him. Mi still feel mi heart bout fi tear through mi shirt. And them rolling the spliff them. And before I know it, him arm round me again and mi a sink into him side. Them a talk and mi start to notice that him smell so nice. And him locs in mi face and the hair under him arm soft and the hair pon him arm soft and them just talking while mi under him, like them don’t see.
“Yo yute,” Matthew break from the others and turn to mi, “thanks fi the food”
The other, “Real ting mi G.”
“No problem.”
Adam turn and kiss mi pon mi forehead. It feel heavy pon mi, like a lead stamp. I wonder if mi too quiet and I break out a this and ask them bout the weed and them tell me say them father grow it.
Later the same night mi a stare up in a space while mi two roommate them a snore. The moon a come through the top a the window because the curtain rod too low. Mi a think bout him…mi nuh stop all now. Mi not even bathe when mi come back because I never want fi lose the smell. Thank God. Mi can smell him now. Smell under him arm. Smell when mi a drop asleep pon him lap pon the orange hole. Feel the flesh from the hole touch mi face. Feel the flesh stiff and relax again because mi a talk to him and him a talk to me and none a wi a look pon each other but is fine. And then mi turn and see him chin. Feel the heat from him belly through mi ears and catch the pump from him chest – from all the way down there. It so loud in a mi head now and it taking over. Like the sound a the wave a crash. And mi a float in a him sound. When you stay in a the sea long enough, you body keep the sway.
