The Highflyers

The Highflyers

a short story

by Austin Mitchell

I knew Tony Dillow. That was when we lived in Allman Town in Central Kingston. He was a taxi driver and sometimes coming home from shows at Carib Cinema I would take his taxi home.

Tony had a sister, Charmaine, and my friend, Bobby Chew, used to be friendly with her. I was at a café on Port Royal Street when I spotted this waitress who I thought looked familiar. There were quite a few cafes and bars dotting the water front, going all the way up to Slipe Road and over to Rae Town. Kingston had really changed. There were so many cars on the streets and people were moving freely about. At this time of night five years ago you would only find a fraction of the population now on the streets.

I ordered a cup of coffee and a cinammon roll. I was parked on the other side of the street from the cafe. The waitress brought my order and I wasn’t mistaken, it was Charmaine.

“Hi, Charmaine, remember me, Danny Walters?”

For a moment, she looked me over without a sign of recognition. Then suddenly she shouted.

“Danny Walters, I can’t believe it. It’s been so long.”

We shared a short hug.

“How long has it been, Danny?”

“About ten years.”

“Gosh, it’s so good to see you,” she said.

“Charmaine, I want to see Tony.”

She knitted her brows.

“I can’t talk to you now, Danny. Maybe later or you can give me your number so that I can call you.”

I gave her my number and took hers before she left to continue her work.

I was staying at the Hill View Hotel on upper Orange Street. It was a small hotel. I could have gone to others, Downtown or more Uptown but I had chosen it because of the view it offered.

After I finished my cinnamon roll and had my coffee I went back to my car and decided to go over to Port Royal and pick up Avrill Jones, my steady girlfriend these days.

We went a bar on East Queen Street. It was owned by a fat man, Max Deslandes.

I ordered a gin and tonic and a canei for Avrill.

“So how’s it going, Danny, sold any records yet?” Max asked as he served us our drinks.

“I’m still looking for a producer, Max. Know anybody I can trust?”

“How about Tony Dillow? He has one of the biggest studios on the island.”

“I’ve heard about him, can’t say what I’ve hear is favorable.”

“I don’t think he could try anything with you, Danny.”

“If he knew me good enough, he’d think twice before he tried anything with me, Max.”

I didn’t want to let anybody know that I knew Tony.

Max went back to serving his other customers and I and Avrill had some more drinks before leaving to go to Reasons’ Night Club in New Kingston.

We left Reasons about one thirty that morning and I dropped Avrill home before returning to the Hill View.

I was disappointed that Charmaine hadn’t called me. I decided that I would call her in the morning.

I had spent five years in England before I got booted for overstaying my time. My friends had always been encouraging me to get married to get my stay but maybe I’d been through too many women before I met Janey Upshaw, the only one of them I felt like marrying. But I had met her two months before I was sent packing.

We still called each other but I just didn’t feel like living as a second class citizen any longer. Since I’d returned and seen the changes to the Downtown, Kingston landscape I just didn’t feel like moving again. I mean I hadn’t seen the rest of the country but if developments were like those that had taken place in Kingston then I didn’t have anything to worry about.

I had some tapes that I wanted Tony to hear. I had voiced them since I came home.

I woke up at seven thirty that morning. I did my usual early morning chores before going down for breakfast.

As I ate my ackee and saltfish, fried breadfruit and dumplings that morning and then drank my coffee, I knew that it wouldn’t last much longer if I didn’t start making some money soon. I had mostly been fooling around music while I was in England although I’d never scored big. While out here I’d been living on the royalty checks they’d been sending me but I needed to make a name in my homeland.

I decided that I would stop by the Tom Redcam library to look up old friends. I bought copies of the two morning dailies and returned to my room to read them. There wasn’t much in the headlines and I didn’t read any further.

I put through a call to Charmaine and got her voice mail and thought that maybe she didn’t want to talk to me. I left a message telling her to call me. Avrill would be at work in her bank on King Street. I had promised to take her to lunch today. She had come over from Port Royal on the ferry.

I had driven by the train station several times and had even stopped and gone into the depot and marveled at the modern trains they were using. Trains were now going to both ends of the island. I had told Avrill that I wanted us to take a train ride to Portland and Montego Bay.

My watch was telling me that it was a few minutes past nine o’clock. I immediately left for the library. I parked my car in the visitor’s parking lot and made for the reading room. I doubted if I would see any of my old friends here today.

Teddy Kirlew was a tall man of Indian descent whom I had met at the library. I had gotten to know him through my friends, Cliff Dillon and Denton Garwood. The last I heard was that Cliff had been shot dead in New York.

Cliff had been working as a security guard at a jewelry store. Gunmen invaded the store and Cliff and his fellow security guard had challenged them. The other guard escaped with injuries to his right shoulder and legs.

Cliff had met a girl, Leanne Barnaby, at the library and had a short intense love affair with her. Leanne’s boyfriend was in the States. Leanne had pledged her love to Cliff but Cliff was suspicious about her and even more so when she told him that she was going up to visit her boyfriend. The boyfriend couldn’t travel on his visa which he had messed up a couple of years ago so he had sent one of his friends to marry her a year or so ago. This was the guy who came to Jamaica for her and whom she identified to Cliff as a friend of her boyfriend. It was only after she went up and wrote Cliff a letter that he realized the truth and was devastated.

As I sat in the reading room looking around to see if there were any faces I saw that I could remember, only a man called Deans and a woman called Desline were familiar to me. Deans worked at the baggage counter and Desline was sometimes at the desk in the reading room. I doubted if either of them would remember me. I had brought the morning dailies with me and as I went through them again I thought of Cliff.

For many days Cliff sat in the reading room staring into space then he got the bright idea that he could get to the States through a penpal. He got hold of the evening papers which had a lot of such advertisements and sent off dozens of letters seeking female penpals in the United States. Most of us thought he was wasting his time but not Cliff. Six months and maybe a hundred letters later and Cliff had hit the jackpot. Apparently this young Jamaican girl, Darla Lecky, had gone to the States ten years ago. She was now in her early twenties and her first boyfriend, an American guy had gotten himself in trouble with the law and was in prison doing time. Darla’s mother was suspicious of African-American men. Her experience with them had not been good as they seemed to want women to support them. She had therefore encouraged Darla to try and get a boyfriend from back home and so Darla had put in an advertisement seeking a male penpal and Cliff had responded. She asked him to send his photograph and liked what she saw. They talked on the phone and Cliff talked to her mother and finally Darla came out, got engaged to Cliff and six months later Cliff was in the States. They got married immediately and Cliff got a job and three months later they were able to rent an apartment and Darla became pregnant.

It was Carlton Grant, who had informed me of Cliff’s death. I met him at a cocktail party where he seemed to know all the big money people. He also told me that he had won ninety five million dollars in the local lottery, had bought a house in an upscale neighborhood and had invested the rest in several investment houses. He was very close to Cliff and to people who knew him. However I met Teddy Kirlew in Cross Roads sometimes later and he confirmed Cliff’s death but rubbished Carlton’s lottery winning claim.

I wondered where Teddy was now then I remembered the hotel I was staying in was built on the premises where he previously worked. When I last saw him in Cross Roads three months ago I didn’t ask him where he was working now.

I wondered where Delores Malcolm, Petal Service and Norlene Reece were. They were three girls who had been on the cocktail circuit with us.

The cocktail circuit as I remembered it was people putting on events in the evenings where food and drinks were freely available. They tended to be put on by art galleries and companies putting out new products or it could be a book launch. Petal, Delores and Norlene were reluctant to attend these events and I thought at the time they may have felt that we looked upon them as being irresponsible.

I had finished looking over the papers and been through several old magazines. I had been to the cooler several times before I decided to drive up to Papine and looked around. Nobody else had come into the reading room that I knew by the time I got into my car and drove out.

Avrill and I decided to have lunch at a restaurant on Harbor Street. I knew she wasn’t pleased with me just living in a hotel off my royalty checks.

“I’m going to take up Max’s suggestion and get in touch with this guy, Tony Dillow,” I told her as we started eating our food.

Avrill was of average height and was a beautiful girl.

“Why don’t you get a job, Danny? At least it would help to pay your bills. How long are you going to continue living in that hotel?”

“My royalty checks are helping me to foot those bills and as soon as I see Tony Dillow, I know that things will start look up for me,”

“I’ve heard that this guy is a pretty rough character.”

“You know that he can’t be too rough for me to handle.”

She didn’t say anything more and we continued to eat in silence. When we were finished I paid the bill and walked her back to the bank.

I went back to my car and just as I opened the door my cell phone rang. It was Charmaine. She told me that Tony was staying at the Giles Hotel on East Street. She gave me his number. She also told me that she had given Tony my number.

I asked her about Bobby Chew but she told me that they had broken up about three years ago. He was living in Portland and managing a guest house down there. Their only child, a boy was living with her and attending school in Kingston.

I knew the Giles was the same twenty-five room hotel as the Hill View. Well Tony’s income would allow him to live in a hotel. Most of these hotels in Kingston got tourist s who were visiting the stomping ground of the great reggae icons of the past. I had met several of them even at the Hill View who marveled at the achievements of these men and women from such humble backgrounds.

I didn’t want to call Tony and talk to him, I wanted to meet him in person. I felt things would be better that way. Charmaine had told me of a bar on Maxfield Avenue where he would normally hang out with his friends in the evenings after work. Normally I would go for Avrill and we would go someplace to have dinner, then we’d head to a club and she would either stay by me or I’d drop her home. But I made sure to tell her to catch the ferry home as I had some business meetings planned for later in the evening.

About six o’clock I set out for the bar on Maxfield Avenue. I parked my car nearby, locked it up and went inside. I ordered a beer and found a seat on one of the high stools. They were a half a dozen men inside the bar drinking an assortment of liquors. A man and a woman were seated at a small table having a conversation. One beer later and I saw several high end vehicles pull up in front of the bar. Four men and three women came out of the vehicles and came into the bar. Tony Dillow was with a short girl. She was extremely beautiful with her hair cane-rowed. Tony wasn’t much taller than her and his head was bald. I stood up as he came into the bar and went over to meet him.

“Tony, don’t you remember me from Allman Town?” I asked and held out my hand.

His girl and the rest of his friends had gotten seats inside the bar and were waiting on him. Apparently Tony would do the ordering.

For a moment he seemed nonplussed then he shouted.

“Danny Walters, Charmaine told me that you were back in the island,” he said shaking my hand vigorously. “Have a drink on me, Danny.”

He introduced me to the rest of his crowd then ordered drinks for them and himself. I told him I wanted to talk to him privately and we went outside.

“So how is it going, Danny? Are you back in the island for good or just out here on a vacation?” he asked as we sat on a concrete bench.

“I’m back for good, didn’t like it too much over there. I have some tapes that I want you to hear. I did some work over there, mostly reggae, don’t think they got any airplay out here.”

“What name did you go by?”

“Just my own name, I did some shows over there but I’m out here now. I’ve learned a lot. Feel like this is my only chance. I want you to help me, Tony.”

“See that tall guy with flat top haircut. He’s my manager. If he listens to those tapes and says they’re good I have to go by what he says. If he says they’re no good then tough luck. You have the tapes with you?”

I told him that I had them in my car and I went for them and gave them to him.

“Tomorrow I’ll let him listen to them. Then I’ll probably call you on Thursday and tell you what he says,” Tony said as we went into the bar. I had two more beers all the time looking over Tony’s crowd.

His manager was a guy in his late twenties. I knew that like me Tony was in his early thirties. I wondered if he was putting one over me. Maybe he was the guy who made all the decisions but he was just using Jason Hastings as a fall guy. But I’d find out fast. Tony should know that back in those days I was a tough guy. I was never one of those boys who ran errands for the big men or carried their guns. They chose to leave me alone.

He should know that those five years in the States had toughened me even more and then there was those five in England.

When I left Tony and his friends were still drinking. I felt good as I looked and saw the number of persons on the street and the number of establishments that were opened and doing business at this time of the evening, especially in this part of the city.

I stopped at a cafeteria on Lyndhurst Road and bought a dinner and decided to eat in there and then. I was half way through my dinner when I looked up and saw Dunstan Patrick. I wondered what Dunstan was doing in this area. He saw me and came over.

“You’re back in Jamaica now, Danny?’

I motioned him to a seat and he sat down. He still hadn’t ordered anything.

“So what are you doing in this area, Dunstan?”

“I teach at a nearby school. I just stopped by to get a soda.”

Dunstan was a very short man, probably a few years older than I. I wondered how he got this teaching job. He had several subjects but he had been kicked out of so many universities and teacher training colleges that I wondered just what he was up to these days.

“Teddy told me that you were out here. I suppose you’ve heard about Cliff?” he asked.

I told him I’d heard about Cliff. I asked him where Teddy was working now and he said he was a janitor over by the Bayliss Hotel on Mountain View Avenue. The day I’d seen him he’d taken a taxi going in that direction. Dunstan got his soda and left but not before telling me that the cocktail circuit was still active.

Food and drinks used to flow on the circuit and at one time Dunstan depended on it solely for his survival. I don’t even know how he could get a teaching job in these areas, he was so laid back but maybe just like the communities the people had changed. For a fact Dunstan so frequented the hotels, art galleries and such places looking for the latest free feast that he was banned from several venues. He was attending one of the universities and surviving off the circuit and I warned him that he needed at least three meals a day but he ignored my warning. He didn’t make it past the first year most times.

I paid my bill and left and decided I’d stop by Max and get a bottle and go to my room. I decided to phone Avrill after twelve o’clock as the cell phone network I was using gave you free calls after midnight.

I woke up early the next morning. I had a radio in my room and a television set. I understood that there were a lot more radio stations down here now and one or two more television stations. I had cable in my room and I watched some of the channels though I can’t say what they were showing interested me. I had run the dial on my radio, trying to pick up any familiar voices but with no luck so far. I noticed that most of the airwaves were packed with a lot of talk shows. I went down for breakfast and went to get the morning papers. I noticed that I was not interested in local news and maybe it would take sometime for me to get used to the fact that I was going nowhere. I was determined to stay here until my hair was gray.

I bought the morning dailies but once again didn’t get past the headlines and I thought that maybe I’d better get some foreign papers. Maybe after I’d reject those I could start accepting the local news. I remember the bookstore in New Kingston that sold those papers.

Avrill would take the ferry this morning. I was due to meet her for dinner later on this evening.

I had copies of the tapes I’d given to Tony. I wondered if it would not have been a good thing to give him a copy of the records I had selling in England. I decided that the next time I saw him I would give them to him.

I went and bought the papers I needed and then went over to the library. As I sat reading the foreign papers into the room walked Delores Malcolm. She came right over to me.

“Danny Walters, I didn’t know you were back in Jamaica,” she remarked as we embraced each other.

“Delores, it’s been so long, so take a seat and you can fill be in on the happenings around here,” I told her.

She was dressed in jeans and a shirt. Delores was of medium height. She had put on some weight and was probably in her early thirties.

She took a seat. I noticed that she had several books.

“Fancy seeing you out here, none of the guys or girls come here any more. Most of them have finished studying and have moved on. You remember Petal and Denton, well they migrated. Norlene got married and moved to Montego Bay. We still call each other and she had twin boys. You know that Cliff’s dead and what more can I tell you. Maybe I’d better ask how you’re doing before you ask me.”

“I’m doing all right. I’m living at the Hill View Hotel on Upper Orange Street. I’m still doing music. I had some songs when I was over in England. I’m seeing a girl from over Port Royal.”

She told me that she was staying at the Drummond Court Hotel on Old Hope Road until she found permanent accommodation. She was doing the finals of some English Accountancy Examinations. She had a car, was not married but had one child which was in the country with her mother.

I left Delores to her studies and continued reading my papers. Avrill came to have dinner with me and we went out to a nightclub. We brought several bottles up to our room.

For two weeks I didn’t hear anything from Tony. He must have thrown away the tapes I’d given him. I used the number he’d given me but all I got was his voice mail. I tried calling Charmaine but with no luck. I drove by the bar where I’d met him and his friends and even stopped to have a few drinks but he never showed up.

I had paid for my hotel a month in advance but had only a couple of weeks to go before I had to pay again or look new lodgings and I didn’t want to move as I was comfortable where I was.

Then that Thursday morning I got a call from Jason Hastings. He told me that Tony wanted to see me down at the studio. I took the tapes of the songs I had playing in England with me.

Jason ushered me into Tony’s spacious office. The short girl I’d seen with Tony that evening was also there. He introduced her as his secretary, Jacquine Stelstar. Jason took a seat in one of the chairs facing Tony, I took another.

“We liked the tapes, Danny. Jason said he liked the material. The delay in getting in touch with you is because we wanted several other experts who we work with to hear them. They all agree that it’s good stuff,” he said.

“I was sort of worried that you’d thrown them away and I wouldn’t hear from you again,” I told him.

“Shame on you, Danny, if they were no good I would have gotten in touch with you and told you so.”

They told me that they wanted me to start voicing from Monday. Their in-house band would do the backing. I agreed and went back home to get ready. I left the tapes of the songs I had selling in Britain with Tony and he said he would listen to them.

I spent the next week voicing the songs then Tony told me to go home and they would get in touch with me. So I went home. I knew I’d been in trouble if I didn’t get a positive word from Tony. I had opened a foreign currency account at one of the banks and deposited my checks in them. But the bank kept taking some sort of a fee out of all the checks I got plus it took so long for them to clear the checks that sometimes it was frustrating. I didn’t have a local savings account but I knew that was the way to go but that was if I got a break in the music business. I longed to get one of those cards where you’d just push it in and collect your money. I didn’t want a credit card as I’d been burned by that once and didn’t want a repeat.

As I made it back to my room that afternoon I saw a woman in the hotel’s lobby. It was Jacqueline Stelstar, Tony’s supposed secretary. She said she wanted to talk to me.

“I’m not Tony’s secretary or his girlfriend. I’m just a friend of his but I hate how he does business and treats people,” she told me as we sat on the small couch in my room.

I was surprised that she should be telling me all these things.

“Well he told me that you were his secretary. There was no reason why I shouldn’t believe him. But now you are saying that nothing could be further from the truth,” I said.

“Tony is planning to double-cross you. He’s going to get somebody else to do your songs. Somebody whom he can control and give some crumbs to,” she said and I jumped up in anger.

“He isn’t damned crazy. He knows I wouldn’t stand for that. Listen, I’ve known Tony for years. We went to the same school. We grew up together.”

“Look, I only came to tell you what I know. If Tony finds out that I told you anything he’d kill me. Jason Hastings and the rest of the guys you see around him are just bodyguards.”

I’d suspected something like that. With so many bodyguards I don’t know how I’d get through to Tony.

“I won’t go to Tony with your story. I’m just going to wait and see what happens. If it’s as you say then they’re going to know that I’m the wrong guy to fool around.”

“Most of the people who deal with Tony always use a manager. He can’t try any of those things with those guys.”

I knew what she meant. It seems that I was inexperienced in the music business by not using a manager to deal with Tony.

“As I said I knew Tony so I don’t expect him to behave like you said he plans to do.”

We stood there looking at each other. I thanked her for coming and saw her out and went back to my room wondering about my next move.

Two weeks went by and I heard nothing from Tony. My rent became due and I had to borrow the money from Avrill. My relationship with Avrill was on a downward slope. I mean I was still getting the checks but they were coming through so infrequently that I could no longer rely on them. I didn’t want to let any of my relatives know that I was desperately short of cash.

I ran into Dunstan Patrick and Teddy Kirlew again but they were hopeless cases. I knew I couldn’t borrow any more money from Avrill. Then I heard one of my songs being played on the radio. It was sung by a girl called Daneica and I almost hit the roof. I grabbed by cell phone and called Tony’s number but all I got was his voice mail. I swore to God that I was going to kill him and I didn’t need a gun.

I drove to the studio but the guard refused to let me in. I went back to the bar on Maxfield Avenue but neither he nor his crew came there. I staked out the Giles Hotel but he never showed up. I called Jacqueline Stelstar and told her about the song and she told me that she had head two more bring sung by a youth named Dextrous. She told me that Tony had moved to the Drummond Court Hotel. It was the same hotel where Delores lived. She also told me that he now frequented a bar on South Camp Road. Apparently Tony had left a very big bill at the bar on Maxfield Avenue. She gave me the name and address of the bar on South Camp Road.

I arrived on South Camp Road after six that evening. These places held so many memories for me as my former school was just up the road. I parked my car some places down from the bar. I walked up to the bar and ordered a beer. I choose a section of the bar where an incoming patron could not instantly spot me. I was half way through my beer when three vehicles drove up and stopped in front of the bar. All the passengers came out of the vehicles and sure enough it was Tony and his crew. I allowed them to enter and do their ordering before I spoke out.

“Ton, I want to talk to you,” I shouted and stood up.

Tony showed no surprise at seeing me. I knew he was armed and so were most of his crew. It was naïve of me to confront him alone, now I know why some of those entertainers walk around with such large crews.

“Danny, I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for days now. Buddy Reed, he’s our expert and he recommend that we used somebody else to sing the songs but you’ll get paid as the owner of the songs,” he said.

“So what happened to my voice. You are lying; you don’t intend to give me anything. You didn’t use me because you want to cut me out of my earnings,” I shouted in defiance.

“I’m going to do the best I can for you, Danny. You’ll soon get some money,” he told me.

“I don’t want any money from you, Tony. I should never have come to you. You’re a blasted crook,” I shouted and stormed out of the bar.

The next day I got in touch with Ainsley Walters, a lawyer I’d known. Jacqueline came with me and told Ainsley that she saw when I gave Tony the tapes. Ainsley told me that I could look another producer. Maurice Bryan was the producer and he liked the songs immediately. I got a check from Tony’s company but it was nothing and Maurice told me that the songs were ready for air play.

A month later I heard from a very angry Tony. He asked me why I was playing my songs sung as originals when his songs were the originals. I told him he was wrong. He told me that he would sue and I told him to try.

The songs by Tony’s artists were soon pulled and although none of my songs became hits, Maurice encouraged me to do some more songs. I repaid Avrill but I continued to live at the Hill View. I told her that I’d probably have to have one or two albums out there before I’d think of moving from the Hill View and starting a family with her. She seemed to believe that I’d make it and has decided to stick around with me. The End.