No Tears for Sonya-Chapter Two

Chapter Two

 

             When they were back at work, Sonya
was

in deep
thoughts as she did her work. She knew that she had better keep away from the
police. She had never gone to jail, but had several close brushes with the law.

          When she reached home that evening
she didn’t immediately start looking after dinner but sat thinking.

           She remembered as a young teenager,

seeing her
mother  rushing out of the house and

running down
the road. One of her husband’s sisters, Elaine, had just stabbed another woman.
She later learned that they were fighting after the woman accused Elaine of
trying to steal her husband. The woman had cursed Elaine, and told her to leave
her man alone. Elaine had retaliated by stabbing her in her right shoulder.

            She remembered an incident that

happened when
she was still in high school. Her father was a marijuana farmer. One day a man
accused him of stealing his marijuana and nearly severed his left hand.

           She had few female friends as far as
she could remember. She kept mostly male friends. She found women to be too
difficult to deal with. Some of them could never keep a secret and if you had a
lover along with your real man they would be the one revealing your secrets.
She doubted if she would ever get married. She didn’t see herself being tied
down with a husband and babies.

             Both at primary and high school,
some of

her female teachers
had  been afraid of her and had reported
her to the principal for the simplest thing. As a result, she was repeatedly
punished. She took her punishment in stride. While other children cried their
eyes out she had no tears. No matter what the punishment was, she never shed a
single tear. As a result, even her mother and other family members said that
she was wicked.

            She had beaten up several girls and
a few boys in primary school.

            She still remembered the names of
the two girls she had beaten up in high school and the reasons she had done so.
The fights had been over boys. Hugh Allman and she had been friends since Grade
nine. Maxine Gray came to fight her for Hugh. She had given that girl a sound
beating.

            Marge Rodgers came to fight her
over Fabian Davis. That girl, had also received a good beating. After that she
changed boyfriends regularly and no girl came to fight her.

          She remembered an incident with her sister,

Marsha.
Shortly after leaving high school, Masha moved to Montego Bay to work in the
hotel sector. Two years later she got a call from her. She and two sisters were
in conflict over a guy. The two girls were planning to beat her up. She had
gone down there to help out Marsha.

            She was not at all impressed with
Odel Ford. He was short, ugly and walked with a slight limp as a result of a
motor vehicle accident in his youth. She thought that men must be short down
there for women to be fighting over Odel. She wouldn’t be caught dead with a
man with any form of disability.

          However, Marsha told her that he had
just passed some big banking examinations and was now driving a Pajero. He was
one of the top guys at his bank and was earning top dollars. He had just paid
down on a house in a new development just outside Montego Bay.

           She had worn thick leather slippers
that

day. She had
used it to beat the two sisters. They had fled the scene after she started
raining down blows on them.

          She had scoffed at reports a month
later

that the two
girls were planning to sue her.

***

          
Friday night she attended a wake at Chester’s house in Havendale.

           This was really a get together by his
friends to celebrate his life and times. As far as she knew the set up and
funeral were someway off as the autopsy on his body had not yet been done.

           She got involved in several domino
games. She only drank soup and kept away from any strong drinks. As far as she
observed all the staffers were there as well as several hardware merchants. There
were whispers around as to who had killed Chester but she kept her mouth shut.
She went into the house, greeted Delta, her three daughters and son and other
relatives and friends of Chester some of whom she knew.

***

           
That Monday when she reached home, she thought about Mickie again.
Marsha had advised her to report the loss of her gun. In a way she missed her
brother, Calvin. Calvin was an outside child. Her father was a teen when Calvin’s teenaged mother got pregnant for him. By the time he was seventeen years of age, Calvin was already a gunman, credited with
several murders, kidnappings among other crimes. Three years  ago, he had been cut down in a hail of police
bullets.

            If Calvin was around, she wouldn’t
have to worry. Mickie would never dare take any steps with her. Calvin was
always warning him to treat her right.

            She went to bed, still worried
about her missing gun. She wondered if the tears she was shedding was as a
result of her getting softer.

            Wednesday night she was watching
some boxing on television when a car drove up to her gate and stopped. She
wondered who it could be. Then there was a knock on the gate. She went outside.
It was Mickie!

           “What are you doing here, and where
were you all this time?”

            “Can I come inside? I don’t want
anybody to hear what I’m going to say to you.”

           “We don’t have any secrets that anybody
can’t hear about. I want to know where my gun is and why did you go into my
account?”

            She knew he had his gun on him. She
decided to let him inside. She didn’t want any of the neighbors hearing anything
they said to each other.

             Immediately they were inside the
house, she asked.

           “What were you doing in Montego
Bay?”

                “I was down there on business.
I heard about Chester’s murder.”

              “Did you take away my gun? Why
did you go into my account?”

             He was sitting in a couch opposite
her. She

felt like
running into the kitchen and grabbing one of her knives or machetes to arm
herself. She looked at the ice pick on a side table beside her.

           “What happen to your gun?”

          “You know what happened to it. When I

woke up on
Sunday morning, it was missing. The next thing I knew is that my boss is shot
dead.”

          “And you believe that I was the one
who killed him?”

          “Of course, you killed him. So why
did you run away to Montego Bay?”

          “I didn’t kill Chester. Maybe it was
you who

did it and is
now trying to pin the blame on me.”

            Suddenly she drew the ice pick and
rush at him. He sprang up and whipped out his gun.

          “Stab me with that ice pick and I’ll
be the last person you stab.”

            He came forward and twisted her
wrist and took away the ice pick.

         “You dirty fucker. You took away my
gun,

killed Chester
and is probably trying to put the blame on me.”

          “I didn’t kill Chester. Listen, I
told Carlos to try

and scare
him. I was only trying to protect you. I don’t know if he was the one who did
it.”

          “Did I tell you that I needed any
protection? So where is Carlos  now? How
much did you pay him?”

           “You’re going to do the paying. It
was you, he was protecting.”

          “I didn’t hire him to do anything. I
hope you

didn’t go
calling my name to him. I didn’t tell you that I wanted anybody to do anything
to Chester.”

          “You were just going to let him
continue running your life forever?”

           “I was getting on with my life.
Listen, as I said, don’t try to get me mixed up in Chester’s murder. I’m
innocent, I don’t know anything about his killing. As far as I’m concerned,
you’re in this alone. All I want is my gun. You can have the money, you stole
from my account. But everything is over between us.”

          She remembered the bank giving her
some stupid explanation as to how he managed to get into her account. She had
written a letter to the manager of that particular branch and was awaiting a
reply.

          “So that’s how you want it? Look on
the amount of things I’ve done for you and you just want to walk out on me like
that.”

         “What do you want me to do? Imagine
after you dropped me home Saturday night, you disappeared with my gun and
cleaned out one of my accounts.”

          Mickie looked at her.

         “I’m going, but I’m warning you
against putting out any hits on me.”

           Sonya had to laugh.

          “You’re completely useless to me. Why
would I put out a hit on you?”

          He stood up.

         “I don’t have your gun, but I’ll see
you around. I might just tell Carlos where you live.”

          “What! You wouldn’t dare.”

           But her words seemed to have fallen on
deaf ears as he simply walked out of the house and  drove away.

          She went back to watching television.
She realized that she should have ended her on again off again relationship
with him a long time ago. Several other guys had been after her and she
wondered why she had stuck with him. He was a good lover, but maybe it was
because he knew how to handle anybody she employed.

             She felt hungry and went for a
snack. As she had her supper she wondered what Mickie could have done with her
gun. After he dropped her home, they had a few drinks before she ushered him
out of the house. She wondered if he had put something in her  drink. She had to find the gun. She was
fearful that it could turn up as the weapon that was used to kill Chester.

 Austin's blog: stredwick.blogspot.com