The Wrong Way to Wright

Chapter 7

“Oh Lord, Glenda,” Marva said to her long-time friend over the phone the next Sunday evening. “I so glad you back from America. So much go on while you away, girl, I dunno where to begin. I can’t believe things could happen like this in barely six weeks, but listen—Desi got married! . . .

“No, no. She young, younger than him, she in her thirties. Looks real good though, I didn’t think she was as old as that. Her name Aya Daniels. Well, was Daniels . . .

“It happen too quick for me to tell you before you gone. He turn up early one afternoon saying he bringing his wife to live with him soon and need me to give the place a good cleaning. So I ask, ‘What wife you talking ’bout? You can’t mean the ex, Sherrie?’ So he tell me it the woman he should’a married ever since and wouldn’t say no more. He real happy, singing and moving things ‘round his room . . .

“I keep trying to find out, but he won’t give me no name. Even the boys dunno, he only just tell them too. They say they seen her before and know her a little . . .

“So I getting real worried now, Glenda. Desi ain’t got no luck with women at-all, at-all. He hate marriage so much that I can’t believe he actually done it with someone no one know a thing ’bout . . .

“Yes, I know he been messing with that girl from his shop, but that ain’t serious. He done closed that up and fire her now that she threatening him so. Then Junior step in and take his father’s place, if you know what I mean, and things seem quiet for now. Dunno how the Missus would take that if she know! Desi know how to play his cards though. He transfer the office to his home garage. He extend it well beyond the ackee trees now. Double the size from before. And the Missus handle all the office work so he saving some money. And he need it too ’cause she can’t be cheap!

“So, I been saying I worried ’bout this girl coming in and taking over. Junior not much interested in anything but sexing and don’t mind his father getting a permanent supply. Carlton don’t take on much ’bout nothing but his studies, and he know he don’t got long to put up with her so he not bothered. And Ricky seem to think she gonna be the momma he never had. It had me scrubbing and scraping so hard I thought I’d wear through the walls. The house had to be perfect since I sure she would find any excuse to get rid a me.

“So, she turn up the next weekend, just married, and I see her. Not what I expect, but I remember her mother from when she visited last year, and she a lot like her. Brown-skinned and busty the way he like, with tiny dreadlocks down her back. Her lipstick too dark for her mouth though. And she always got silver bangles on her right hand, three earrings in her ears, and lots a silver rings on her middle fingers that don’t go at all with her wedding ring.

“She even got muscles! She like yoga and eats healthy. No macaroni pie for the Missus! She like all that Western food I dunno much ’bout . . .

“She come with lots a new things he bought her for sure. None too expensive though. She dress simple nuff. Only jeans or those khaki pants. Everything in cream or tan or black. She don’t wear no other colours. Every time in those fedora hats like you daddy used to wear too. And Glenda, the ring real simple. I’d’a thought she’d go for something more flashy, but you hardly see it. She real like that, not wanting to stand out. Keeping back or out the way. Like she don’t want anyone to notice. But I see everything! She keep to her room or the cabin out back, which Desi make into a studio for her. She always in there type-typing some book. She only come out to the TV room when she think no one ’round . . .

“I have to say, she trying now with the boys, but she not much interested in motherhood. She even tell me so. She don’t want no kids. Me knowing Desi, there ain’t no other way to go. She gonna have a battle on her hands . . .

“Funny you ask, I ain’t so sure if she love Desi really. He adore her though. Aya this and Aya that. He always talking her name. He whipped sure nuff. I found out some things ’bout her though. The Missus born here and raised up in Canada. Her family come every summer and stay down the south coast. You know some a the Daniels down there, right? . . . Yeah, them that live by the rum shop. She got an uncle real high up in government too, that minister on the news in those flashy tops all the time. Remember, Desi come up with him. He was real close to the Missus’s father too . . . Yes-yes, that’s right. That her grandmother who brung him up . . .

“Ooh, Glenda, you terrible! Desi sure do like them young. To me it seem more like he had the mother though. She constantly calling here after him when he come back and he’d take the calls in his room. For what? She don’t call ’round here no more though! . . .

“It seem the Missus did well at school and was working and doing okay, but there’s some trouble over a man and the mother told her to go stay by her sister up there in Jackson for a while. You know, she up here as soon as they got back from their honeymoon talking nonsense ’bout things she know nothing ’bout. Her name Beatrice, more like Bee-yotch! . . .

“All right, all right, I gettin’ to it, Glenda! So, she come up here for a few months and end up staying. The mother didn’t expect that, and figured she’d come back soon nuff. Not likely now she married. She had a good job down by that big hotel over the cliff until she quit as soon as she become a Franklyn . . .

“Oh no, Desi want her to. He don’t want his wife working for no one. He got airs now that he got that contract to do the wiring for that fancy mall. He working day and night to get it all done on time, but his boys work well and it coming off good. He gonna be rich nuff if he keep getting that kinda work . . .

“Oh yeah, he see the Missus nuff for her. She don’t complain. She happiest by herself. He looking thin though, like he not eating nuff. I keep warning him he has to take care a himself or the sickness will come back, but he say he will rest when the project finish.

“Back to the wedding from outta nowhere though. They been seen together a few times in the months before, but it didn’t look like anything. He scoop her right outta her auntie’s place anyhow. No one could believe it when they come back married. They didn’t tell or invite anyone. No one even knew they were together—and I don’t think they were neither. I just can’t figure why she marry him like that. None a her family happy ’bout it . . . 

“True-true. None a his women’s family ever cared for him much. But this one practically family! I haven’t soused out the true story, but I gonna get it, Glenda. Something not right ’bout this. He happy nuff though. And she settled in fine now, even if her auntie still making trouble.

“She make me real vex when she bring up my Lucinda. She outta order on that, and confusing the Missus’s head. The poor girl didn’t know if she coming or going. She tried to act like she knew it all, but she breathing so hard it clear she didn’t. She real sharp when Desi got home, so they must’a had it out. It all smoothed over by the time I come the next morning. I dunno how he do it. Well, I sure he gave it to her real nice all night so she wouldn’t be thinking ’bout no other women. She as sweet as pie and he happy again. His eyes all big and loving like a puppy looking at her. He thinks he so lucky. We’ll have to see . . .

“Anyway, I figure I need to check her out proper, so we have a talk later and she seem all right, for now. They always start that way, then they get to treating me like a slave sure nuff. She not what I thought though. I can’t put my finger on it. She smart and good looking and could get any man ’bout here. Dunno why she go for Desi ’cause she don’t love him, I can tell. I’ll have to see what she really wants . . .

“She stay out the way and even helps me, which a first. She don’t seem to have much friends ’cause no one really calls for her. She talks mostly on the computer to people overseas and locks herself up in the cabin, type-typing.”

“The Missus already got the Franklyn books organized so she don’t spend long dealing with them. She answers the business line and sets up orders, but she mostly has her time to herself. She does everything real quick-quick, it gives me a headache. Always rushing. Makes me wonder what she thinks gonna catch her.

“She real clean and tidy though. Real organized too. She even cook for herself and the rest a the family now and then. She asked me to show her Desi’s favourites so she can make them, but I haven’t got ’round to it yet. She real friendly to me though. Like she want me to be her buddy . . .

“Me? No, I ain’t worried ’bout that lady. I been round too long to let anyone put me out. She gotta have a weakness, everybody got one. I’ll find it out. You see, she just acting. The Missus ain’t being her real self yet. My eye will be on her, and when I catch her, she won’t be able to get rid a me! . . .

“Too right! Men so foolish. Thinking with their crotch! If it money she want, she may get it this time ’cause the cash be rolling in. Desi owns the house now too. He didn’t have her sign any papers neither. That’s why he buying up everything in sight for her and working himself into an early grave. As you say, he pay now or he pay later . . .

“No, my mother and me still not agreeing. She like to work me like a dog when I get home. ‘Marva, do this. Marva, get that! Marva, you not doing it right. Marva, why can’t you act right? Marva, Marva, Marva!’ She driving me crazy. Glenda, girl, the other night she couldn’t get her medication down her throat and I hoped she would choke on it. I asked the Lord to forgive me, but I want her out my life. She make it a misery.

“None a her men come ’round much anymore neither so it just me. Serves her right, losing her leg and foot to diabetes! Always supping on sugar. One night she coughing so much she lost her voice and I finally get a good night’s sleep! She vexed that she on her way out and won’t be able to torture me no more. So she holding on with her few real teeth to stick ‘round. I hope she go soon . . .

“Oh yes, I do mean it. You know how hard it’s been, Glenda. I ain’t never really been her child, just her servant. Use me to get support from the government or her men. Taking money supposed to be for my school fees for her drinks and smokes. That ain’t right. That ain’t right.

“You always telling me she dunno no better and to forgive her. How come no one knows much ’bout her family? On this small island? What, she just sprung up out the ground? I know my father bought her this shack, but he didn’t know her real name. She paint herself up and wear those red wigs so no one’d recognize her, but one day the truth’ll out. Every now and then she slip out her backcountry sayings and think I don’t notice. She think she smart . . .

“I dunno why you keep asking why I so angry. Me? She not worth it. Truth is I wanna know. I deserve to know my people. All my life I walking ’bout here and could be passing them on the street and wouldn’t know it. Just ’cause she hate her family, she take mine away from me. And I know she hate them, she always tell me how wutless they are. That I should be happy to have a mother like her. Me?

“She used to be so pretty, and now looking as ugly as she truly is. Taking other people’s men between her legs instead a getting herself a proper family. I could’a had a decent life . . .

“No, Glenda. You wrong ’bout that. The past not over and done with if it living in me every day. And I gotta deal with her and act like I give a damn when I don’t. You keep telling me to let it go, let it go. That easy for you to say. You was brung up right. You had you mother and father and grandparents with aunties and uncles. You got dozens a cousins. You family loved you and told you all the time. They took up for you so you never had to fend for yourself . . .

“No, I not getting myself all worked up again. Me? You the only one who nice to me back in school. You didn’t make fun a me. Even when I had to stop going you still checked up on me, so you is the family I never had, but don’t push me. You can’t act like what been done to me ain’t been done . . .

“Yes, I know the Lord, so stop reminding me. I do my duty. I make sure she eats and sleeps and shits on time. I do that. When most every night I don’t even wanna come in the door. I could just keep walking . . .

“Wha’? Who you fooling? I don’t need no man at my age. I damn near sixty! I don’t need anyone else messing up my head or my bed, thank you! I too ol’ to get myself a fine husband like you got. But I good, girl. I good . . .

“Once she dead, I wanna fix up the house proper and sell it. I don’t wanna live here no more . . .

“And do what? I dunno. Desi got a lot a space and I’d like to live there full time. He never wanted it, but I getting older now and I think the Missus would go for it in time. When she get pregnant, I’ll use it to my advantage . . .

“Come live with you? I don’t need you looking over everything I do! I know you feel lonely now you kids grown and gone overseas and Marshall always on the golf course, but you don’t want me hanging ’round . . .

“You son getting married? Oh, Glenda, how nice. To that girl he went to school with? . . .

“’Course I’ll be at the wedding! . . .

“Stop being like that, she a lovely girl who respectful. She never done you nothing! You should be happy he like girls at all, unlike our Carlton. The boy as much a woman as could be. Desi blind to it, he don’t wanna see. Even the Missus asking me questions to find out. I dunno what Carlton gonna do. I sure Junior know, and he don’t like it ’cause it looks badly on him. It good he going to England. It can’t come soon nuff ’cause if his father knew what I saw him doing with his ‘friend,’ he’d have a conniption . . .

“Oh no, Desi dunno. He praise Carlton to the sky. He always call him the best. Desi too busy with his women and his business to look too much at his children. He keep them with him ’cause his own father was never ’round. I don’t think he even know them really.

“Carlton’s mess gonna catch up with him sooner or later. And I love the boy anyhow, so I not telling what I know. That the Lord’s business. I don’t want him to lose his family. I know too well how that feels . . .

“Well, yes, I told you, but that don’t count. The Lord shouldn’t’a made me so nosy! But you right, the Franklyns my family too. I seen them through a lot a things and they count on me. Can always depend on Marva. ‘Marva, where this? Marva, where that?’ They nearly died when I gone with you that time on that trip to Miami. Oh Lord! They beg me to never leave again . . .

“Yes! Yes! When we got so drunk and so sick. I never been so sick! You so malicious! I dunno what I’d do without you, Glenda. I miss you like crazy when you gone. I had no one to talk to. It was so hard to keep it in so long, so forgive me for letting it all out. I got lonely. No one know me like you do, and if anything ever happened to you . . .

“Now, don’t talk like that. You gonna live long. You only got a little sugar. Just stay on you medication and stop coming off and on. We got a lot a living yet, girl, you wait and see. At least you retired and don’t have to be working long hours like me. At least you secure. I don’t grudge you none as I secure with the Lord. He gonna take care a me. He gonna right all the wrongs done me . . .

“No, I ain’t feeling sorry for myself. The Missus make me see that Desi the only decent man in my life. She figure I love him. Me?

“Even though he complains I move too slow and sit ’round as soon as they leave. I don’t sit near as long as he say! And that time he nearly caught me sleeping in his bed! Oh Lordy! I so lucky Ricky come in the house so loud and wake me in time . . .

“So what if I get my own groceries with the household money? I live there most a the time anyway, you! I don’t take more than I deserve, just my tip! . . .

“I do my work when I get ’round to it. They can’t say it’s dirty, not that . . .

“He don’t mind me using the phone to make my calls. I gotta keep up with what going on. He got a business line then, didn’t he? . . .

“Stop talking ’bout those things and laughing at me. I make up for everything. Whatever he lost by me, I make sure he make back. So don’t you talk . . .

“I don’t love him like that, I got him figured. I’m ’bout the only one. He can’t help himself. He keep setting out to do right with the wrong person. He just don’t see what’s as plain as day when it come to it. Whether it ’cause he don’t wanna see it—like Carlton—is beyond me.

“The Missus is the best one, though, by far. She reasonable. She don’t want more than her share. But let’s see if he keeps his dick in check, that where the problem is. I don’t sense the fireworks in the bedroom with her either. She not trying to get him alone to get at him all the time like the others. Maybe she playing innocent for now, but I waiting for her . . .

“All right, Glenda, I hear you yawning. I’ll let you go now I done talked you ear off. I so glad you made it back safely. I miss this bad! . . .

“No, I ain’t working tomorrow. The Franklyns gonna be home all day as Desi finally taking time off. I’d love to be there to know what go on. I’m sure he’ll just be sleeping and she’ll be off type-typing . . .

“Good night, then. I done talk.”