France – Present Day

“I am getting tired of this, Mummy; I want to go home to Jamaica. I’ve been sweating my ass off for seven years in this kitchen and kissing so many butts I have a permanent chocolate moustache.”

“Jaden McNamara!”

Samantha released the air from her lungs slowly and then released a long sigh. Jaden could hear the wind whistling through the receiver.

“You have dreamed of owning your own gourmet restaurant for ever and you are extremely talented and young. Forget about the brown nosing that you have to do right now. Think about the positives. You recently got promoted to Sous Chef. Stick it out a while longer son and remember, if you want good for yourself, your nose must run. It’s an old saying in Jamaica, but it still applies to you wherever in the world you are.”

“Mummy you would not understand the pressure that I am under. I agree that I have grabbed the chances, worked hard and used my networking skills; but while Paris is glamorous and has provided me with the experience required to hone my skills to bring my dreams into reality, I really miss home and I need to return home to Jamaica.”

“Stop the whining, boy! It’s not Jamaica that you miss so much; it’s that girl. If you stayed in Jamaica, you would have been dead and buried. All that has happened is your fault. Your father lost his life and the family scattered, and over what? A little girl from the ghetto. Damn you, Jaden! Damn you!”

He could hear the pain in his mother's voice, but the ache in his chest was far greater and the words crept from his brown sugary lips,

“Mummy, some things you would just not understand.”

When he heard the dial tone, he realized that she had hung up on him. He sighed and hung up as well. He had been so caught up in their conversation that he didn’t notice that his friend Gustave had come into the room and was watching him throughout the entire episode.

“Shit, that did not end well,” he mumbled as he felt his heart sink into his chest. Each word his mother spoke felt as if it had been sinking deeper into his head.

“Jaden, why are you so troubled?” Gustave finally spoke, letting Jaden know

that he was not alone. He sipped his glass of white wine while he waited on him to answer.

“Gustave, it’s 11 p.m. on Saturday night and we are both tired after a long day; do you really have the time to listen to the Story of how I ended up in Paris, just barely escaping the clutches of the Gang in Spanish Town?"

“Jaden, you are my only friend in this city and I would love to hear your side of the story from beginning to end. After all, the night is young and we still have a full bottle of wine left. We are here on this roof top terrace with a full moon and the night is cool with very little wind. It’s so romantic, don’t you think so?”

“Gustave, how can I find this romantic? If it were Lisa up here with me now, sure it would be truly romantic; but with you it’s just two dudes hanging out and shooting the breeze.”

“What breeze, Jaden? There is no breeze at all; the night is almost still.

“It’s a saying from back home, Gustave, and you just would not understand.”

“So, if you are so home sick, Jaden, why did you leave home and that girl Lisa in the first place?”

“I had no real choice in where I was born or the schools I attended; how the hell could I be at fault because I grew up on Monk Street in Spanish Town, Jamaica? However, I was not fortunate enough to attend the high school that shared the same street where I lived. I, along with my three siblings, went to the upscale Catherine High School that was designated for children with financial means. Maybe if I had gone to the other high school, on my street, I would not have been in this mess. Yet, my very own mother is blaming me. They were the ones that lived in the wickedest city in the Western Hemisphere. By all means, she can blame me for making the mistake of studying at University of Papine, where I rediscovered the girl of my dreams.”

“Jaden, what do you mean by rediscover?” Gustave asked.

“Gus, I watched Lisa Ann Whitman almost every day walking past my yard on Monk Street to her high school down the street. She was diminutive, curvaceous and when she smiled, it seemed as if the entire place lit up brighter than the sun.”

“So, what took you so long to even say a word to this girl, Jaden? You had the charm and the charisma; and why are your eyes so glossy as you mentioned her name?”

Jaden took a sip of his wine, swirled it in his mouth, swallowed it slowly and looked up at the Parisian night sky and chuckled,

“It was not that easy, my friend; for almost 5 years I tried to build up the courage to say ‘hi’ but I was too shy and the freckles that were on my cheek did not provide the confidence for me to face my biggest fear.”

“What did you do, Jaden, to change the circumstances when you saw her on the campus of the University?”

“Well, I had gained about fifty pounds of muscle to my previously puny frame and I was determined that Lisa Whitman would not slip from me this time. She seemed to be an extremely popular girl being the girlfriend of the President of the Student Union. Her personality made her a hit with the men in addition to the fact that her face could launch a thousand ships. She was warm, genuine and welcoming not to mention how she looked in a pair of close fitting blue jeans pants that made my liver quiver.”

“Jaden, she sounds like trouble, already, I have read about the war a girl with a similar face caused and many people died,” Gustave replied.

“Gustave, you sound as if you are already jumping to conclusions; I really only want someone to listen and not comment.”

“Ok, Jaden you are a piece of shit then, but it’s your mouth and you have my ears, not my brain, chat away,” Gustave replied.

“Don’t sound so hurt, Gustave. I don’t want you to be bloody judgemental, only your honest opinion and hopefully I will be finished long before you’re finished with the bottle of wine.”

“Me? We are both drinking it remember and who knows the more you drink, the more you may remember and the more I will forget in the morning.”

“Very funny, Gustave, but it was just that I felt I never had a chance since she was always being stalked by Antonio Sharpe, the entrepreneur kingpin heir to his father’s fortune. I despised and hated him, It made me squirm every time I had the chance to say something to her, but felt the burn of Antonio's eyes in the back of my head, if I ventured too close to Lisa Ann. Frustration boiled in my blood as term after term passed and she did not even notice or realise that I was alive or even existed.

I became desperate as the freshman fete was approaching and the Student’s Union had the responsibility to plan and implement the social event. I had joined the Union and had been given the responsibility of public relations. Nobody knew that I secretly attended the Toastmasters club at the nearby University of the West Hampshire in order to build my self-confidence with being a public orator and learn the art of networking. There was no way in hell that I would have allowed my classmate at school to know that I was secretly taking classes elsewhere in order to develop my oratory skills. There was also the spinoff of being a regular visitor to the campus of the University of West Hampshire. It allowed me to practice and hone my skills in approaching girls thereby increasing my chances exponentially to land Lisa Ann as my girlfriend. I joined the gym used by the athletes and managed to bulk up all this time hiding my rippling muscles and abs.”

“So, you bulked up and fixed your crooked teeth just to impress a girl. Sounds sexy. Do you still have those muscles, Jaden and can I feel them and see them? And the morale of this story is what?” Gustave asked.

“Focus, Gustave, focus, the wine is getting to your head already.”

“Ok, Jaden, I will try,” Gustave said cheekily.

“It was my responsibility to solicit sponsors and schedule the entire programme. As I was in the process of finalising the script with the Master of Ceremony, I included my surprise component that I hid from Antonio. I wanted to catch Lisa’s attention and the last thing I needed was a flopped performance that would make me the laughing stock of the Union and by extension the school. I knew she would be in attendance and since Antonio was the creative genius on the council. I counted on that fact that Antonio wanted to control everything and he would be distracted with running a tight ship and therefore not have enough time to smother her. Even my little sister, Amy, conceded that her big brother was handsome and had morphed from an ugly duckling to a swan.

This made me feel proud but humbled based on the words of my harshest critic. So, my crush on Lisa had indeed made me feel better about myself and this was confirmed by the reaction of the huge crowd. When I entered the stage, there was such a roar from the girls, a shiver ran down my spine as I started to sing the piece I rehearsed in the shower several times. You could have heard a pin drop in the crowd. When I began to sing the first notes the shock on everyone’s faces changed to delight as I belted out the first verse of the popular song, Temperature. By the time I sang the line: “Girl for how the time cold I want to be keeping you warm mi have the right temperature," I was so in sync with the disc jockey that it sounded as if it was being sung by the original artist. The crowd was silent for all of 10 seconds as they did a double take and then the whole venue erupted in fake gun salutes and requests for ‘forwards’ as some still stood in awe. Most importantly that included Lisa as she stood there surprised and spellbound.

I watched her lips as she said to her friend Donna, “What the hell! Where did he come from all of a sudden? He is kind of cute. As a matter of fact, he is hot and he has a voice to match the face and the body"

“JMac! JMac! JMac!”

The shouts echoed throughout the crowd as if it were a chorus and it was encouraging me to fire up the crowd some more.

I liked the feeling it gave, but I was mindful of not coming across as being obnoxious and selfish. However, to show my vocal versatility a little Barry White should be the coup de grace and this time I did the chorus as well. Girls all around were fainting and those who were not fainting were mesmerised not only by the almost mirror image like sound,

However, I inserted some note changes so that it made it my own. Beads of sweat formed on my brow as the lights were bright and hot. I ripped open my shirt and the buttons flew in all directions revealing my wash board stomach and muscled chest. The olive tanned skin glistened in the lights against the back drop of the hairs on my chest that just seemed like hair on a week old baby. This drove the girls in the crowd wild and they rushed the stage in an effort to get a touch of me. At no time did I take my eyes off Lisa, because I wanted her to feel as if she were the only girl in the auditorium. Despite the pokes and prodding from Antonio, she was transfixed in one spot and I saw that Antonio was getting annoyed as if I had stolen the soul of his woman. Antonio had security escort me from the stage after a few young ladies made it on the stage and managed to hug me and they tore my shirt to shreds. For the next couple of weeks I received more digits and notes from both girls and some strange men that would just stand and smile and licked their lips when they saw me on campus.”

“So, did your plan work to get the attention of this girl, Lisa? I hope you got her number or even a chance to put in a word?”

“Somehow, I thought that I overdid what I was supposed to do to get the attention of the one girl, but two weeks after the show I had still not managed to get in a single word to her.”

Gustave laughed until the wine in his glass spilled its contents on the crotch of his grey slacks.

“How anticlimactic and disappointing! All of that sexiness on stage for nothing. I wish I was there to see it. Shit, I was planning to wear these pants back to work later and now it’s stained and ruined."

“Serves you right and calm down, Gustave, its only wine and it will not matter anyway, you are always smelly,” Jaden laughed as he looked at the moonlight glistening in Gustave's blue eyes.

"You can say anything you like, Jaden; at least you have a woman back home. I am still trying to get mine."

"Gus, I was determined that Friday the 13th would not pass and since it coincided with the council meeting, it meant that her shadow, Antonio would be occupied. I needed to do something that would hold her attention thereafter. So, I rehearsed and rehearsed my speech to a point that I could recite it in my sleep.

“Jaden, the things men do for women,” Gustave said sarcastically.

“You know, Gustave, even my family got in on the act too. I remember it as if it was yesterday.”

I gazed off into the distance as the years seemed to roll by and I was back at my parent’s kitchen table again in Jamaica.

Jamaica – Early 90’s

It was Friday morning and my mother Samantha started off by teasing me as she came up behind me and asked,

“Jaden, do you think you have enough words to approach Lisa now?”

“Mom, how do you know about Lisa?”

“We have known everything for years. You have been torturing yourself about that girl since high school. Anyway, you can’t help yourself, like father like son. Your father behaved the same way about me in high school and look what happened!”

I smiled at the thought of a home with children with Lisa and then my little sister chimed in and she said in a sing-song voice,

“Jaden is in love with Lisa, but he is a chicken.”

Then to add to the torment, she started to cluck and scratch like a chicken.

I doubled my fist and was about to throw a blow in jest, but remembered that my mother was right behind me. The house was normally full of laughter, fun and today would have been no exception and even my parents would join in on the fun teasing or just cracking up at the exploits of their three children. I was often the butt of the jokes and jeers, but I could take as much as I gave.

“Anyway, Jaden,” said my father, “just focus on your school work for now; all the girls will come later in life.”

“Daniel!” exclaimed Samantha, “do you remember what you were like at his age?”

“Yes! I surely do,” replied his father, “I was a horny toad chasing every stick with a dress until I broke my leg and met you at the hospital.”

France – Present Day

“Oops,” said Jaden as he passed gas.

Gustave pinched his nose and fanned his hand feverishly.

“Shit, Jaden, your fart surely smells awful, but I like the relationship that your family shared. I did not experience that growing up at my home. You Jamaicans seemed to have a lot of fun.”

“Yes, we enjoyed the times when we got the chance with Mom being a nurse and my father a Lecturer at the University of West Hampshire; they were like two ships passing in the nights sometimes. They had seemingly grown apart at times, but they both shared the common mantra that a family that prayed and ate together stayed together. The financial struggles were real and took its toll on the family, with me being in college and Jody and Nathaniel both in Prep School at the same time. I had the dream of finishing college and furthering my education in Paris and eventually owning a Gourmet Restaurant, but Father had no clue where the first cent would come from for me to leave home for further studies. A scholarship would be the only answer and for that I had to be active in college and maintain a steady 4.0 GPA.”

Talking about everything that led up to that day had stirred up all the feelings that I thought that I had buried long ago. Friday the 13th was the turning point in my life and everything started to go south. It is so vivid in my mind I remember my Father being in a very good mood despite his slip up with Mom earlier, but I knew my father would have Mom eating out of the palm of his hands in no time. The air conditioning in the car was so cold that the windows and half the windshield were frosted. I wondered if Daddy could actually see the road.

Jamaica – 1990’s

“Dad, can you see through the windshield?” I asked out of curiosity while trying not to show too much concern.

“Sure, J,” Daddy responded.

“It’s just that Mom told me to be your navigator and I can’t see a thing”.

“It’s ok, son. I have it covered. I like my AC cold like I like my women always chilled and on Ice”.

Instantly there was a loud bang under the car, as if it hit a crater in the road and the air bag in the steering column deployed followed by three of my father’s favourite swear words.

I was quite shaken up and inside there was a seed of annoyance at what I was sure was Dad’s fault. I shook my head, but could not show my disgust as we were just chatting about visibility and now it was obvious that my father did not have it under control, but this was no time to rub that in because he still had a lot of questions. For some reason, my father had taken the back road from Spanish Town instead of the usual highway and was acting very secretive. All of this flashed through my mind as the car shook and wobbled violently, even as my father wrestled with the steering wheel as he struggled to bring it under control. There was the load hissing sound that was coming from the back of the car as well and I saw a look of concern pass over my father’s face.

“I just don’t understand, all the tyres on the car are run flats, so what the hell,” he mumbled.

Alighting from the car after fighting the air bag, I heard three more expletives from my father. I tentatively pushed open the door and stepped out on the loose gravel and my sneakers slipped and I almost fell, but then I grabbed unto the door to save my balance. I saw what my father was swearing about. The tyres on the passenger side were flat.

“I was scammed at the tyre shop in Spanish Town, Jaden. There is no way in hell that genuine run flat tyres would have just deflated like this,” Dad said.

"Dad,” I whispered, “what are we going to do? It’s almost 7:45 a.m. and my class starts at 8:15 a.m.? There was a stern look in response to my question and then Dad chuckled,

“Yes, Jaden, you will get there in time to see Lisa and we both broke out laughing. Let me call your uncle Dominique to come and get you to school. Your uncle Dominique has a transport business with several cars and a full complement of drivers in the area that would be able to respond quickly and bring a tow truck as well.”

We felt quite lonely with the exception of the rustling of the cane and the distant horns on the highway. We were alone. I watched as my father loosened his tie and called both his office and Uncle Dom to advise them that he was running late and needed a ride and a tow truck respectively.

“Jaden, the driver and truck will be here in twenty minutes.”

There was still a look of anxiety on my father’s face as if time seemed to be standing still; after all, we were in the middle of nowhere. As if on cue, three men popped out of the cane piece clutching what appeared to be long sticks in their hands and walking in single file.

At a distance of about 1000 feet they seemed to be clad in blue and had been shouting from their direction. I got more concerned as my vision became clearer. I could see that the men were not carrying sticks as I had thought, but they had rifles in their hands and I could now hear what they were saying; the one nearest to me shouted,

“Don’t move or you dead!”

“Daddy, Daddy,” I whispered, “what are we going to do? My voice was shaky, but I controlled the tone. I knew my father carried a gun and knew how to use it, but it was the first time he had ever been in a position where he may have had to use it.

“Jaden, get to the front of the car and call the police on your phone now,” my father said in an authoritative tone. “We have been ambushed, Jaden. How did they know that I would be driving this route this morning?"

“What are you talking about, Dad?” I asked as I glanced up in the direction of the men and they were now at a trot with the rifles up in a firing position. I heard the report of the rifles and saw the driver side mirror on the car disintegrate within inches of my father. The other two rounds went through the back windshield and shattered the front windshield as well. My ears were still recovering from the first salvo when I heard the roar of the rifles a second time and this time the bullets tore into the asphalt at my father’s feet and in the right fender of the car. The cell phone fell from my hand that was shaking violently and I noticed that the front of my khaki pants was stained with urine. Surprisingly, my father was quiet and had taken a fighting stance and had placed himself in a position that the engine of the car was between the men and himself. I heard two successive bangs from my father’s Glock 17 and my ears rang and I could see my father’s lips moving but I could not hear anything.

We peeped in the direction of the men to observe that one had fallen to the ground, and the other two were kneeling on the ground beside him and muttering expletives. It was only then that I could finally hear what my father was saying as the ringing eased a bit.

“I got one!” he shouted with a gleam in his eye, and it occurred to me that my father seemed to be enjoying himself. But his expression changed to fear when he saw that the men were still coming forward.

The men’s posture had also changed as they realised that they had encountered someone that was able to defend himself and could shoot too.

"The one day I decided to take a chance and look for my special friend, this happens."

“What was that, Dad?” I asked.

“Nothing, Son!” he replied quickly.

I watched as the man lying on the soft shoulder in the murky water that ran alongside the road gasped for air and heard him calling for his mother. The two hollow point slugs had ripped into his right lung and he was losing a lot of blood and could not catch his breath. His two cronies knelt beside him, shaking him as two black John Crows circled overhead, their black feathers glistening in the morning sun as if their feathers had been oiled before leaving their perch. Their first meal of the day would have been the man bleeding out on the side of the road, if he did not get help soon.

I could hear them chatting and their voices carried over to where we were crouched.

“Old bwoy shat you, Breddrin. How come the boy shoot so good from such a distance and is only a handgun?”

“Dennis, should we run or go and kill the bwoy?” Mark asked.

I had never known my Father to be a coward until when he turned and asked,

“Jaden, should I pursue this to the end or wait until help comes? Surely someone would and should have heard the loud explosions and alerted the Police. Jaden have you been able to call the Police yet?”

“Nope. I could not remember the number Daddy.“

“Oh crap, Jaden, give me the phone you idiot,” Daddy replied

I was so damn frightened, scared and trembling, there was an eerie calm and not even the leaves of the cane rustled at the same time when my father said,

“Don't tell your mother about this, Jaden especially the part about how and why I diverted from my normal route.”

Within minutes the whole road was swarming with police and onlookers who seemed to have come out of nowhere. There was blood and shell casings in the vicinity of where the men were but no body. The investigator indicated that there was a blood trail and that they would notify the hospital to be on the alert. The shell casings were 7.62mm, the type used in Assault Rifles and they appeared to be AK 47 Rifles,

“You are a damn lucky man, Daniel McNamara,” the lead investigator said.

He was being supervised by my father’s friend on the force who was an Assistant Commissioner of Police and he assured Daddy that he would take the initial statements and other formal statements would be taken later, but for now he didn’t see a problem based on his experience especially if a body turns up. The weapon would be seized, tested and returned once the ruling was made, but in the meantime body guards would be assigned to the family at a marginal cost.

Although I was still quite shaken by the incident and the speed at which it all unfolded, I still wanted to go to school after changing my pants. My life could have been snuffed out for no apparent reason. I loved my father more that day than ever before.

When we got home, Mummy was crying and asking dad the typical questions.

“Why did you divert from your normal route off the Highway?”

“Sweetheart, it does not matter why I diverted. It only matters that both Jaden and myself are still here in one piece and alive.”

She hugged him as if it was their last hug ever and whispered in his ear,

”Next time you want to pick up one of your girl friends don’t take my son with you”.

He laughed and responded, “So how come you don’t congratulate me on my shooting skills. If I were in the army I would get a marksmanship medal. “Ok, you will get you medal tonight in bed when you shoot at the target you can’t afford to miss”.

France – Present Day

“Wow, Jaden, your story sounds like something out of a movie!” Gustave said with his eyes opened wide.

“Gustave, that was just the opening scene. I was told not to talk about the incident to anyone, but with Loop News the entire faculty knew about it by the time I arrived at school with my freshly minted body guard in tow. My inner circle of friends wanted to know the details, but of course I would not talk about the stained pants or how shaken I was. Sitting at the back of the lecture theatre, I felt the gentle touch and turned to see Lisa. I can still hear her voice…”

Jamaica – 1990’s

“Hi, Jaden!” she said, “Are you ok? I was worried about you based on what I had heard on the grapevine.”

I was speechless for a minute or two. I could not believe that she actually came over to me. We chatted for over an hour about the incident and it felt so comfortable talking to her as if we had been friends for ever. I felt so relaxed and as if several loads left off my shoulder. Lisa was so easy to talk to and the conversation flowed; I can still hear her laughter till this day. This was why Antonio had been so protective about Lisa, she was really genuine. We spoke about almost everything and it was as if the theatre was empty. We spoke about family, our dreams and aspirations upon completing college, If the incident had not taken place, I possibly would not have had the chance to exchange words with her. We made a connection and she gave me her number and I can still remember it even now.

France –present day

“So, Jaden out of one man’s pain comes another’s joy and out of death came life,” as Gustave’s face lit up.

Gustave’s voice snapped Jaden back to the present.

“Gustave, my boy until this day I had no idea that those words would come back to haunt the McNamara family.”