The Trouble with the Mc Farlanes

The Trouble with the Mc Farlanes
a short story
by Austin Mitchell

From his hiding place Keeble Mc Farlane could see the blood coming from Mr. Notice’s forehead from the stone he had just thrown at him. He carefully made his way from his hiding place and onto a dirt track that would take him back on to the main road. It was he who had broken the bottles on the lonely road and Mr. Notice’s car had developed a puncture and as the man came out of his car to fix the tire he had thrown a stone straight at his face.
When Keeble reached the village square there was consternation as persons told him that a car had just taken Teacher Notice to the Spanish Town Hospital as somebody had hit him down with a stone.
Keeble stopped off in the square to get more news. His parents were never worried about the time he reached home.
He saw Delmar Eason and Lando Wright, his classmates and close friends.
“Somebody threw a stone and busted up Mr. Notice’s head. Was it you, Keeble?” Delmar asked.
They knew that there was no love lost between Keeble and Mr. Notice. Most of the demerits he had gotten this term had been from that teacher.
“It wasn’t me. I don’t have anything against him for giving me all those demerits,” Keeble explained.
“It should have been Mr. Lloyd whose head was busted up. I’m not sorry for Mr. Notice. He had it coming for wanting to get us kicked out of the school,” Lando Wright remarked as they walked to the taxi stand.
Keeble saw three Constables coming towards them. A police Sergeant and two policewomen were on the other side of the street.
“I can bet that it was one of you boys who threw the stone and busted up Mr. Notice’s head. Which one of you did it?” one of the Constables asked.
All three boys shook their heads in denial of the deed. Their bags and personnel were searched but nothing was found.
The Sergeant came over to them.
“You boys get a move on and go home. I have a feeling that it was one of you who threw that stone and injured Mr. Notice but we’ll find out who it was and lock him up,” he warned.

Keeble’s elder brother, Roland, was hurrying to meet his girlfriend and be introduced to some of her friends. Roland had heard a rumor that Carolyn was friendly with a guy attending her school. Roland had spent more years that he wanted to remember in Grade One at Eastwich All-Age School now Eastwich Primary and Junior High.
When Roland reached, he saw Carolyn and some girls. There was also an Indian guy he knew from his village who went to the same school with Carolyn.
“Meet Roland, my boyfriend, I was telling you girls and Delroy about,” Carolyn made the introductions to her friends.
There was snickering all around and Carolyn whirled around to look at the smirks on her friends’ faces.
“He’s Roland Mc Farlane, remember him Sophia, Marla, Delroy?” Marlene asked.
“Grandfather Time, of course I remember him. He never got out of Grade One,” Sophia said and laughed.
Carolyn felt as if her world was falling apart. She hadn’t known these things about Roland. If only he had a car, he could have just sped off with her, leaving his mockers in the dust.
Roland looked at the girls’ faces. He knew them all as only Delroy had never attended Eastwich.
“So what if I never finished school and they used to call me Grandfather Time. I have a good job now and I want to marry Carolyn as soon as she finishes up school,” he shouted at his mockers.
Tears were welling up in Carolyn’s eyes. She had enough and stalked off leaving her friends and Roland to continue shouting at each other. Suffice to say that Carolyn broke off her relationship with Roland two weeks later.

Keeble’s second brother Bindy also found himself in a bit of a tiff. Bindy worked at a Government corporation and there he met Collette Redway. She was a petite girl going on thirty years of age. Bindy had his own apartment in Twickenham Meadows, just out of Spanish Town. Collette had her own flat in
Portmore. They soon became intimate. Collette had already told Bindy that she had a child for a man, Les Scott. Collette knew that Les hadn’t given up on her and wanted them to be together again.
Bindy was at work one day when his telephone rang and he picked it up.
“Are you Bindy Mc Farlane?” the man asked.
“Who wants to know?”
“If you’re Bindy Mc Farlane then I’m warning you off my woman, Collette Redway. You’ve been trying to befriend her but I’m warning you that if you ever let me come to look for you, you’re going to be sorry.”
“I’m a licensed firearm holder, guy. You come near my workplace or home and I’ll let you feel how the bullets from a Magnum .45 feels,” Bindy warned.
Les laughed out loud.
“I think that’s just an empty boast and you don’t have a gun.”
The two men continued their verbal sparring for several weeks. Sometimes Bindy would be the caller while at other times it was Les. Caught in the middle, Collette was in a quandary. It was all over the office. Bindy had spread it.
But unknown to Bindy, Collette was still friendly with Les and wanted to leave him and return to Les.
“Far as I know Collette is still my woman. It’s you who is trying to get her back by calling and threatening me but you won’t get her back,” Les warned Bindy one day.
It was true what Les had said. Collette had left him after their six month’s romance. She had complained that he was mean. Bindy was not in the habit of giving women money. They were the ones who were always spending money on him and he was always the one who broke off the relationship when he got tired of a girl or her generosity had dried up. Collette seemed to be breaking new grounds as far as Bindy was concerned and he didn’t like that.
A month later on a Friday afternoon Bindy was accompanying Collette back from the canteen when a tall powerfully built man called out to her.
“Who’s that guy, Collette?”Bindy asked and when Collete didn’t answer he guessed that it was his nemesis, Les.
Bindy came to face the man. He didn’t know why he believed Les would be about Collette’s size but the man towered over him.
“Hey guy didn’t I tell you that I don’t want to see you around Collette,” Bindy shouted at Les and pushed his hand in his face in a threatening manner. Les slapped it away.
Bindy dipped his hand into his pocket as Les rushed at him and chucked him. Collette was screaming for them to stop fighting.
“You don’t have a gun, guy. You’ve been threatening me for months now.”
Les slapped Bindy’s face.
“You don’t frightening me, guy. Since she has left you and returned to me you’ve been threatening her. I’m warning you to leave her alone.”
Bindy saw that he couldn’t beat Les in hand to hand combat. He didn’t see anything on the well manicured lawn to throw at Les, Bindy took off his shoes (the heels were steel studded) and threw them at Les who ducked the missiles. He made for Bindy again. Bindy seeing that he had missed, sped off across the lawn for the safety of his office in his socks. All his colleagues and senior managers watched the spectacle, some in dismay, others in amusement. Bindy made it safely to his office. Les was barred from going after him and warned to leave the premises or the police would be called. Realizing that he had scored a victory, Les left the premises with one pair of Bindy’s shoes.
Suffice to say that Bindy and Collette were both suspended from their respective posts and given stern warnings. They were never on speaking terms again although they worked in the same department.

Keeble was going on sixteen when he heard about Bindy. The news had spread fast throughout the village. Keeble felt that both Bindy and Roland were stupid. Many of the teachers had expected him to be like Roland and he had heard snickers behind his back but as the kids realized how volatile he could be that stopped altogether.
Keeble was two months past his sixteenth birthday when an incident happened that marked him as the most violent of all his brothers.
Keeble’s mother was a higgler selling goods in the Coronation Market in Kingston. One of the sidemen on the bus had insulted her and she had boxed him. The side man had punched Miss Mabel and the woman had to seek medical attention at the nearby Kingston Public Hospital. The sideman had run off but caught the bus somewhere out of Kingston. On hearing the news Mass Silas, Miss Mabel’s husband, had waylaid the bus the next night and attacked Slim, the sideman. Slim’s colleagues rushed to his defence and beat up Silas. Keeble was hiding in the bushes and threw some rocks at the men fighting his father injuring Slim and two other men, Derek and Bignall. Stone, the bus driver and Nathan, the conductor pulled knives and set off through the bushes after Keeble. Keeble grabbed his machete and came at them swinging.
“I’m going to murder you guys for beating up my parents,” he shouted at them. He had his back to a wall. Both men had their knives pointed at him, ready to attack.
“You, you must kill somebody. Think I don’t know that it was you who busted up Mr. Notice’s head,” Stone said.
“I want chop off your head. I want chop up both of you,” Keeble warned.
Both men backed away. They still didn’t know why Keeble wasn’t at reform school, the amount of things he had been accused of.
Keeble watched them leave. He would catch Slim one of these days and he would kill him as well as Derek and Bignall.

The fracas ended up in court and wasn’t settled when Keeble’s sister, Bridget, got into a tiff herself.
Bridget was an assistant teacher at a primary school five miles away. Kenrick Barnaby, fresh out of teacher training college had taken a liking to her from the first day he started teaching at Waltersridge Primary and shortly thereafter they became lovers. Kenrick bought a car and he and Bridget would go all over the island in it. Bridget was comfortable with her position as an assistant teacher although Kenrick felt that she should go to training college and get qualified. Kenrick saw himself as a principal within a few years and even moving further up the education ladder and it simply wouldn’t do for his wife to be only an assistant teacher. Their relationship continued nevertheless.
Marjorie Hanson was a trained teacher and she had just finished her internship at Dawkins Pond Primary. She was walking home one day when Kenrick stopped and gave her a lift. They met several times after that until they started a relationship.
“Kenrick is it true that you’re seeing another woman in Dawkins Pond?” Bridget asked as he was driving her home one day.
“Which woman is that, Bridget?” Kenrick asked. “Far as I know you’re the only woman I’m seeing.”
“Her name is Marjorie Hanson and you’ve been seeing her, don’t lie to me,” Bridget replied.
“Whoever told you that I’m seeing any woman is lying,” Kenrick said as he reached her gate.
The argument continued inside the house. Three weeks later there was a party in Dawkins Pond. Bridget heard about it and wondered why Kenrick hadn’t told her anything about it. One of her cousins, Dahlia Stephens, came to tell her that she had seen Kenrick driving very fast with Marjorie in his car. They were obviously headed for the party in Dawkins Pond.
Bridget got dressed and grabbed a pair of scissors. She was going to fight Marjorie and make her leave her man alone. The took a taxi down to the party. There they saw Kenrick’s car and for a moment Bridget thought of puncturing the tires but decided against it.
Dahlia went inside first and saw Kenrick dancing with Marjorie.
“Kenrick, Bridget is outside and wants to talk to you,” Dahlia shouted above the beat of the music.
Kenrick behaved as if he hadn’t heard her. She went closer and spoke to him again before going outside to wait. She was Bridget’s first cousin and if there was trouble between the two women she wanted to be a part of it. Bridget could have made Keeble deal with Marjorie but Dahlia felt that she wanted to dish out any punishment herself. Finally the song ended and Kenrick came outside to confront Bridget.
“What’s the big idea of you following me here? I’m my own big man and can do as I please,” he shouted at her.
Marjorie had come outside now and Dahlia pointed her out to Bridget.
Bridget rushed up to her and pointed her finger in her face.
“Hey, girl, leave my man alone,” Bridget shouted.
Marjorie boxed her hand away.
“Take your hand out of my face, girl. Kenrick is my man and we are engaged to be married.” She flashed her engagement ring at a stunned Bridget.
“You are engaged to her and sleeping with me all this time, Kenrick,” Bridget shouted and rushed at him with her scissors.
Kenrick held her and tried to get the scissors away from her as Dahlia attacked Marjorie. Dahlia and Marjorie were wrestling with each other when a police car drove up and put an end to the hostilities. Marjorie brought charges against both Bridget and Dahlia but Kenrick didn’t prefer charges against Bridget nor her against him although their affair was over. Five months later Kenrick married Marjorie who had in the subsequent months dropped the charges against both Bridget and Dahlia.
Suffice to say that Bridget did some more subjects and got accepted into a teachers college. She is now married to one of her male batch mates. Dahlia migrated to the England a year after the incident.

All these incidents soured Keeble when he heard about them. He was seventeen when he left school and several terms he was only one demerit away from being expelled from the school. He soon got a job as a loader on a rival bus to the one his family previously had trouble with. He still harbored thoughts of taking his revenge on Slim, Derek and Bignall for beating up his parents.
He was seeing a girl from from a nearby district. He was coming from her house one Sunday evening when he saw Slim.
On seeing Keeble the man tried to run away but Keeble blocked his path. Slim pulled a knife and came at him. He essayed a stab at Keeble but he avoided it. Catching his breath, Slim came in slashing at Keeble.
“I’m going to cut you up into mincemeat, boy,” Slim threatened.
Keeble evaded Slim’s knife again and slashed him on his arm. Blood was now coming from the wound on Slims arm but the man was still intent on slashing up Keeble.
“You, Derek and Bignall beat up my father and I’m going to kill all three of you. You punched down my mother and for that you deserve to die,” Keeble warned as he dug his knife at Slims right eye but the man evaded the thrust.
They were fighting on a lonely dirt track and Keeble knew that he could kill Slim and throw the body over a nearby precipice. So as Slim stabbed at him again Keeble dummied a stab and left himself wide open and Slim seeing his opportunity rushed in and Keeble jumped to one side and put out his left foot and Slim fell rather clumsily and immediately Keeble was on him stabbing him in his left breast several times. Slim struggled several times while the blood oozed from the wounds in his chest. Keeble grabbed him by the feet and drew the mortally wounded man to the top of the precipice before pushing him over it. He came back to examine the ground on which they had been fighting but saw no blood and he threw away Slim’s knife into some bushes before going about his business.
Keeble disappeared from the district from that same day. When Slim didn’t turn up for work the next day, Monday, most of the bus crew thought that maybe he was just taking a day off but by the Tuesday they became worried. Keeble didn’t show up for work on Blue Eagle and it wasn’t until Wednesday that an alarm was raised and a search party arranged for both men and Slim’s decomposing body was found at the bottom of the ravine. His knife was found in the nearby bushes.
When the pathologist examined Slim’s body he said he had died from stab wounds to his heart and lungs. The police questioned Keeble’s relatives about his whereabouts.
Keeble went into hiding. He had heard that they had found Slim’s body and that the police were looking for him.

After Keeble killed Slim he picked up the gun and joined several gangs killing people regularly.
He returned to his village mostly at nights. He had robbed some men playing ludo one night. He wore a mask and then he killed a butcher and robbed his own bus and Slim’s bus on several occasions.
He was reading from a sheet of newspaper about Lando Wright. It was five years from the time he had killed Slim.
Lando was one of the brighter ones. Keeble couldn’t believe that Lando had gone bad even though he always wanted to be one of the bad boys, he was always keen to keep up with his studies. Lando had gotten mixed up in politics and at the end of the campaign he owned a gun. Lando had joined a gang and they had descended on Hanover and St. James like a firestorm, robbing, raping and looting.
The police had gone after them and most of the gang was either wiped out or captured but Lando escaped and returned to his village to terrorize his relatives for money and food. He then took off for St Mary but one of his uncles made his way to the nearest police station to alert the police that he was around. Units were sent from Spanish Town and Kingston and he was confronted in a deserted area in the parish and cut down.
Delmar Eason had moved to live in Ocho Rios and drove a tour bus down there. He had never got into any trouble as far as Keeble heard. Well good for Delmar. For here was he, sitting in on the planning of a major robbery that could net him enough money for him to spend at least three months not doing any work at all.
“Tomorrow about eleven o’clock we’ll hit him. He’ll be moving his payroll so that the workers get pay before two o’clock,” Brim told them.
Brim was a big, beefy man with a craggy face and in his late thirties.
“Most of these people send their money through the internet. Why is this man moving his money this way?” Keeble asked.
“His workers don’t trust him. They prefer to get the raw cash in their hands,” Mamby said. He was tall and in his late twenties.
Keeble opened another stout and started drinking.
Keeble took some more blows off the chillum pipe. Mamby was snorting up some more of the cocaine into his nostrils. Keeble never touched the stuff.
Women were in the house sleeping. Only Keeble didn’t keep a woman on the compound. He had a woman living off Moutain View Avenue and another in Kelvin, a little district in Clarendon. He had two baby mothers living in other parts of Kingston.
Brim was the leader of the gang and his woman, Hazel, was sleeping in the front room.
Brim would be riding the first motor cycle with Keeble as his pillion. Mamby would be riding the second bike with Bart as his pillion.
The men didn’t go to bed until after two o’clock that morning. They were up early with the women preparing breakfast. Of course Hazel was still asleep.
At eight o’clock they rode out. They reached the plaza and parked their bikes. The two riders stayed near their bikes while Keeble and Bart went to other parts of the plaza to watch the bank.
“He’s going into the bank. That’s the grey haired man in that yellow shirt,” Brim said over his cell phone to Keeble. “He came out of that blue Landrover.”
Keeble knew what he was to do. He was to grab the bag from the man and get on Brim’s motor cycle.
He saw Bart in his position watching the bank and Brim and Mamby on their motor cycles ready to get into action.
Keeble lit a cigarette when he saw another blue Land Rover enter the plaza and he wondered if Brim had made a mistake.
Suddenly there was the white haired man coming out of the bank and Keeble pulled his gun and ran over to the old man.
“Old man, let go this and you won’t get hurt,” he shouted pointing the gun at the man’s head and grabbing the bag away from him.
The old man grabbed bag away from Keeble and made a dash for his vehicle with Keeble and Bart chasing after him.
Keeble shot the man in the back and he fell and he scooped up the bag and jumped on Brims’s bike and they raced away. They were halfway out of the plaza when the other land rover man and two of the guards started shooting at them. Bart fell off Mamby’s bike but Keeble although shot in the shoulder managed to hold on to Brim’s bike but before they got to the exit a police vehicle drove up and blocked it. Brim spun around the bike and raced for the other exit he and Keeble firing at the other man and the guards. Bart hadn’t moved from being shot off Mamby’s motor cycle and Mamby was under his motor cycle which had overturned pinning him underneath.
Brim was shot in the forehead and Keeble jumped off the bike into a hail of bullets and collapsed into a heap on the plaza. The End.