Like they say, every story got two sides.
And sometimes the second side don’t follow a straight path like the first. Sometimes the second side can move into darker trails and emotions swirling shadow light shadow light…
One night this week we had a blackout. Auntie M. phone.
“Y’all in darkness too?” she say.
“Grrr, yes,” I say. “Oh, Uncle J. been telling me ‘bout Arjun. He say he ain’t a bad fella…”
Now, Auntie M. is a cool, easy-goin’ seventy-year-old lady; she don’t look, walk or talk old. But this time, she sniff with scorn and say, “Hhm! Arrrjuuun? He good? Hhm. He not nobody to talk about. He bad. He does use drugs…”
“Drugs?” I ask. “I thought Uncle J. say rum…”
“Ahhh, rum, drugs, everything,” she say. “He does thief people things, they breadfruit from they tree, anything he hand ketch, he does thief and sell. One day he thief a neighbour shoes. The neighbour put two clap on he behind with a stick. He run! He never thief from there again. He bring back the shoes but the neighbour scorn and refuse to take them back.”
I had to laugh. I say, “Welllll, you know how druggies stay. They thief anything to sell to buy drugs and rum...”
Auntie M. continue with she song, she voice had the same hard edge, he not nobody to talk about and he not nice, he unreliable.
I say, “Unreliable people can’t be nice?”
She say, “I does give him food…anytime I see him passing, I call to him, ask him if he want something to eat. I does tell he, go pick you leaf…”
“Leaf?” I ask.
She say, “He does pick a big water-lily leaf, I wash it and full it with food. One time I pack he up with beef curry and rice. And do you know, if I want him to do something for me, he never turn up? I see he over at neighbour house one day. I say, neighbour, tell Arjun I got a job for he, me yard need cleaning. I wait and wait and that scamp never turn up. And I would pay him! I am not taking free work!”
She sound so vex, I try to console she. “That is the trouble with drug people, Auntie M. All they do is take, take, take.”
She voice change a li’l bit. “One day, I hear Yasmeen quarrelling, telling he, ‘only when you want something you does come around here.’ I tell she, nooo, when you giving somebody something, don’t say anything bad to them. What the right hand give, the left hand mustn’t take away. If you gon quarrel on he when you giving, don’t give.”
She voice get more soft. “I did know he grandmother, she was me friend. But ow, mini-bus knock she down and kill she, how me cryyy. He come from good, good family. He real name is Balram. But he tell people he is a star like Arjun Rampal, I don’t know if he see a film or what. He been in jail.”
That one stop me. “Jail?!?”
“Yyyes. He stepfather rape he sister and he beat the man and he go to jail for that,” she say.
“That is terrible! And the stepfather ain’t go to jail?”
“No.”
How it happen?!?”
“He mother come to live in town with she second husband, she first husband die. She bring Arjun and he sister with them, and the step-father rape the girl. A long time this happen, some years back. He say is true.”
“What happen to the sister?” I ask.
“She all over the place, wild, wild, with plenty man,” Auntie M. say.
I ain’t bother to explain what does happen to young girls when this sort of thing happen to them. I ask, “And the mother still with that man?!?”
Auntie M. say, “She can’t help it.”
“She can’t help it?!? The man rape she young daughter and she stay with he?”
“Yes, suppose you poor? And you don’t have anywhere else to go?” Auntie M. say.
“Aaah, don’t give me that,” I say. “Plenty mothers see they husband do all kinda bad things to they daughters and they don’t say a word because they want stay with the man!”
“That is true,” Auntie M. say.
We pause, sinking in we own thoughts, then I say, “Uncle J. tell me Arjun does have dreams that make he sooo happy!”
Auntie M. drop in one dose o’ reality. “Happy? Heh. Heh. He tell me he dream how he fall in a pit o’ mud and the mud cover he and he feel dirty, dirty. Must be he mind and all that drugs and rum that got he dreaming so. But he is a good-lookin’ fella y’know, when he bathe and dress up, if you see how he does look nice nice nice.”
I had to protest. “Aww, c’mon Auntie M. He is NOT good-looking.”
“Yyyes, he nice looking. If you does see he in he sun-shades and new shirt that them girls give he.”
“Girls?”
“Them girls from the area, when they come to visit from Abroad…they does give he sun-shades and shirt and so…he does proper look nice.”
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