The Bet (Persaud Girl)

by Mott, Teisha

  “Mom, please…”

  “All right!” Dr Hansen conceded. “The subject of Nathan liking girls is officially closed. Mom, once again you have outdone yourself with lunch. What have you put on the fish this time?”

  Nathan was relieved that his mother and grandmother came off the topic of Andie. He listened to them chat with only half mind. The other half was in Kingston, wondering what sort of day Andie was having. He hoped she was missing him at least as much as he missed her. He imagined her sitting by the pool, counting the minutes until he came back. When the weekend was over, he would drive directly to Norbrook and take her into his arms…

  He came back to the present when his mother touched his shoulder.

  “You okay, baby?” She asked. “You looked so far away just now.”

  “I’m fine, Mom,” he said. And he meant it. At that moment, he was the best he could ever be.

  ***

  Nathan sat in the living room with his feet on the coffee table. One hand was in the bag of unsalted plantain chips he had found in the cupboard, and the other firmly clutching the television remote control.

  “This is life!” He thought.

  It was 6:15 in the evening. Grandma and Grandpa had gone back to church, his mother had gone back to the hospital and would not be home until after eight, and Joie was sleeping. She had been sleeping since lunch was over, and Nathan worried that she probably would be up all night, having slept so long in the afternoon. The house was quiet, and he had the TV remote all to himself. Nothing sensible was on, but Nathan was quite content watching the TV guide channel. ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’ with Andie MacDowell was about to start on HBO. Nathan’s mind instantly went to his Andie. He should give her a call. He reached over and grabbed the phone, and dialled her number. She picked up after two rings.

  “Nut house!” She greeted. “Andie speaking!”

  There was a lot of noise in the background. Nathan heard reggae music and happy girl chatting.

  “Hi pretty girl! You seem to be having a weekend’s worth of fun without me!” He commented.

  “Hello boo!” Andie sang. “How you doin’?”

  “Good, but I miss you,” Nathan confessed. “What’s going on there? Why the ruckus?”

  “Klao, Bianca and I have been hanging out all day,” Andie told him. “We were supposed to go see ‘Charlie’s Angels’ with Samantha and the twins, but Grandpa’s friend, Sushil Baghaloo, is having a yacht party and Grandpa wants to take us with him.”

  “In the night?” Nathan questioned.

  “In the night!” Andie confirmed. “Now Klao and Bee are hopping around trying to find ‘appropriate yacht party-wear’, and singing Karaoke. They’re great company, but I’ve been missing you like madness all day, too!”

  Nathan smiled. He was about to respond when he was interrupted by a little voice behind him, calling his name. He turned around to see a crushed looking Joie, clutching her rag doll, and sleepily rubbing her eyes.

  “Nathan, where are Grandma and Grandpa?”

  “Give me a sec, Andie,” Nathan said into the phone before turning back to Joie. “They’re gone back to church.”

  “They left me?” Joie cried. “Why they didn’t wake me up?”

  “Weren’t you tired?”

  “Yes, but I had to go back!” Joie explained piteously, half crying. “This evening after vespers they are showing ‘Chicken Run’ for all the children. All my friends are going to see it… Mommy said I could go. Now everybody left me. How am I going to get back? And look, the sun set, so vespers probably over, and the movie is going on without meeeee!”

  Nathan’s heart broke a little bit as he looked into his sister’s face. Her big brown eyes were swimming with tears. Her face was marked and creased from having slept too hard.

  “Tell you what. You go and put on your clothes. When I am finished on the phone, I will take you back to church.”

  “Are you going to stay with me?” She asked, sniffling.

  “Absolutely not!” Nathan declared vehemently. “All I am doing is dropping you off. Make sure you find Grandma and let her wait for you. Go change!”

  Joie scampered off, and Nathan turned back to the phone.

  “Is Joie alright?” Andie asked.

  “She’s fine,” Nathan assured her. “She’s just having a small panic attack because Grandma and Grandpa didn’t wake her to go back to church.”

  “She must really love Jesus!”

  “Yes, she does,” Nathan laughed. “But this evening I think it is more about wanting to see Chicken Run. They’re showing it tonight for all the children.”

  “Ah!” Andie commented. “Well at least she’s going to church and learning some good values. You taking her back?”

  “Yup! Then I’m coming back here to watch some TV and try not to think about all the fun you’ll be having – sailing and partying and the like with your grandparents and cousins and who knows who else, while I’m here counting down the minutes until I come back to you.”

  “You’re such a sap!” Andie said with a laugh. “But if you want, I’ll sit in the cabin of the yacht and be bored all evening.”

  “You’d better!” Nathan kidded. “And while you’re at it, don’t be looking at any of the yacht boys Mr Baghaloo has, in their tight white shorts and things.”

  “Trust me, Mr Baghaloo’s yacht boys look like refugees!” Andie told him. “You should be more worried about the wealthy, spoilt sons and grandsons of my grandparents’ friends who may very well be at the party tonight trying to get my attention. Some of them are really cute.”

  “But none as cute as me?”

  “Of course not!”

  Joie appeared in front of Nathan, dressed in blue jeans and a ‘Hello Kitty’ top. “Ready!” She announced.

  “You washed your face and brushed your teeth?” Nathan asked.

  Joie nodded.

  “So fast?” Nathan asked again.

  “I’m already late, Nathan!” Joie said, pulling on his jeans. “I don’t have time to brush my teeth one by one. C’mon! Hang up and let’s gooo!”

  “Alright! Chillax!” Nathan told her. He turned back to the telephone. “Andie, I’m going to take this child back to church before she has a heart attack. Forget all I said earlier, and have a great time. I’ll call you later, okay?”

  “Sure!” Andie said happily. “My regards to your family!”

  “I’ll be sure to pass them on,” Nathan said. “Bye, baby. Tell your family hello for me, too.”

  He hung up and looked into the face of a curious and annoyed Joie. “Baby?” She spat. “I thought I was your baby! And I can’t believe you are there chatting away to your girlfriend when I have important business at church!”

  Nathan looked at her squarely. “You want to bet I let you go back to your room and cry tonight when I tell you I’m not taking you anywhere after all?”

  “You wouldn’t dare!”

  “Try me!” Nathan said, picking up the remote, and his plantain chips once more.

  “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Joie said. “Can we please go now?”

  Nathan turned off the television and found his car keys. “Sometimes I wonder if you’re really only ten!” He commented, as he ushered her out the front door.

  “That’s because I grow with only big people!” Joie commented. “And by the way, you should not be watching TV and romancing girls on Sabbath.”

  ***

  Andie hung up the telephone, and turned to her cousins. “Nathan says hi!” She shouted over the music.

  “Is he having a good time at home?” Klao shouted back.

  Andie shrugged. “I suppose! He is taking his sister to church now!”

  “Church?” Bianca yelled. “I didn’t know Nathan went to church!”

  “He doesn’t!” Andie replied. �
�But his grandparents do. They’re Seventh Day Adventists!”

  “Does that mean that if you get married you’re going to have to raise your children Seventh Day Adventists?” Klao screamed.

  “What?”

  “I said…”

  Klao was cut off as Samantha entered through the bathroom door. “Are you three going to deafen the whole frigging house?” She shouted, heading directly to the CD player and turning it down.

  “Reggae music is best listened to loud!” Bianca explained.

  Samantha looked at her. “Do you realise that the only time I hear my sister is when you two are here?”

  “So?” Klao asked.

  “So, at times like these I prefer when you’re not!” Samantha flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Grandma and Grandpa are here. Hurry up and come down!” She exited the room the same way she had entered.

  “Like, whatever man!” Andie commented. She turned up the music once more, and took a lime green tank dress with front pockets from her closet. “I think I shall wear this one and wear my bathing suit under it.”

  “May as well wear your nightie!” Bianca commented. “That makes you look oblong. Why don’t you wear your coral mini skirt? That compliments your hair, and you look hot in it.”

  “What’s the point of looking hot when Nathan isn’t here to see me?” Andie said, smiling a little. “And I don’t want anybody ogling Nathan Hansen’s girlfriend!”

  “Give me a big break!” Klao guffawed “Do you have any idea how many Mobay girls are happy to see Anne Dru Persaud’s boyfriend home for the weekend? And I’m sure he will not mind any of them ogling him!”

  Andie remembered the conversation she had with Darrin earlier that week. She frowned. “Klao, can I ask you something?”

  “What?”

  “Have you ever heard anybody say anything bad about Nathan?”

  Klao stopped brushing her hair. “Anything like what?”

  “Like him being a player, and having a lot of girlfriends, and not calling them after he sleeps with them…”

  “Why you ask that?” Klao asked.

  “Darrin said that is how he used to operate at Cornwall,” Andie said. She sighed and sat on the bed. “And then you just said….”

  “I was just kidding!” Klao said. She sat next to Andie. “Nathan is a good looking guy, and he is cool and smart. I know that lots of girls used to flock him, but I don’t know what he did with them. I’ve never heard about him being a player or anything like that.”

  “But Darrin said…”

  “Who listens to Darrin ‘Don Juan’ Persaud?” Bianca asked. “His name has been called in every parish on the north coast, so he is a fine one to talk.”

  “The truth is, Andie,” Klao said. “Nathan’s friend, Jeremy, is the one that we hear about. He’s a real bastard, and a lot of times, people call Nathan’s name with his. People always say ‘show me your friends, and I’ll show you who you are’, but that has not been proven as far as Nathan is concerned. Don’t you trust him?”

  “I do,” Andie said. “But…”

  “Remember we were talking this morning about being ‘intimate’?” Bianca asked. “If you want to sleep with Nathan, you shouldn’t be having these questions, Andie!”

  Andie closed her eyes. Bianca was right. She shouldn’t have any questions about Nathan. She should trust him. She should believe when he said he cared about her. If sex was the most important thing to him, he would not have told her the things he told her on Thursday, and moreover, he would not have left after Christopher had barged in. He was hers, and she was his, and she had no reason to think that Nathan would use her and diss her as Darrin said.

  “You know something, Bee,” she said. “You are absolutely right. I trust Nathan, and I trust myself. I’m wearing my coral skirt and top, and a two piece underneath! And if any of the boys at Royal Jamaica say anything to me, I’ll let them know I’m spoken for.”

  “As long as you let them know I’m free!” Klao tied the back of her halter-top. “Let’s hurry up and get downstairs before Grandpa comes up and gets us.”

  ***

  Nathan pulled into the churchyard of Montego Bay Seventh Day Adventist Church. It was difficult to believe that church was over. The churchyard was filled with people who it seemed did not intend to go home. They congregated in groups laughing and chatting.

  Nathan pulled over and opened Joie’s door. “Go find Grandma or Grandpa and let them know you’re here,” he said. “See you later.”

  “Wait a minute,” Joie said. “You not coming with me to find them?”

  “Joie….”

  “Suppose they’re not here?” She asked. “Suppose just when I’m trying to find them, they leave? I’m little, Nathan. I have to stay with one responsible adult until I am turned over to another!” She looked at Nathan piteously.

  Nathan rolled his eyes and pulled into the nearest available parking spot. “Come, then! Hurry up!”

  He got out of the car behind Joie, who immediately scampered off. She spotted two of her friends. “Celia! Marie! The movie start yet?”

  “It’s going to start now!” Celia or Marie - Nathan had no idea which was which - replied excitedly. “How you come back so laaaate?” She looped her arm through Joie’s and began leading her away.

  “Joie…” Nathan began, following behind them.

  “You see my grandmother?” Joie asked suddenly remembering Nathan. “I have to tell her not to leave me!”

  “She ’round by where they playin’ dominoes!” The other little girl said. “But you can’t go now. The movie gwine start without yooooou!”

  Nathan wondered why every ten year old child in the world had to stretch the last word in their sentences.”

  “Nathan can you find Grandma for me?” Joie called over her shoulder. “Tell her not to leave me. Bye!”

  Nathan watched helplessly as his sister and her friends scampered off. Find his grandmother? He did not like the idea of wandering around the churchyard, to be pounced upon by his grandparents’ friends who would ask him why his hair was so long, and why he did not come to church. He decided to find Grandma Rita as quickly as possible and go back home.

  Nathan was in luck. As soon as he rounded the corner, he saw his grandmother talking to a bunch of women. He went over.

  “Hey Gran!” He greeted her. He politely acknowledged the other women. “I brought Joie back. She’s watching the movie with the other children. I’m heading back home now.”

  “Alright, dear,” Grandma said. “I have a committee meeting and your Grandfather not leaving the domino table anytime soon. We’ll wait for Joie.”

  Nathan walked slowly back to his car, pretending that he did not hear the women talking about him.

  “That’s Gina’s boy, Rita?” One was saying. “Lawd, him good looking eh…?”

  Nathan only smiled to himself. He was about to get into the car when someone pounced on him.

  “Hello! Are you leaving?”

  Nathan turned around and looked into the pretty, smiling face of a girl about his age or at most, a couple years older. She had dark skin, and wore her hair natural, and in twists. She was smiling, and showing off dimples as pronounced as his. He had no idea who she was, or why she was talking to him.

  “Um, yeah…” Nathan responded slowly.

  She laughed a little. “Sorry to pounce on you like this. I’m Maria. I saw you drop Joie off. You’re her brother, right? Sister Rita Nicholson’s grandson?”

  “Yes,” Nathan replied. “Nathan.”

  “I know,” Maria said, still smiling. “Joie talks about you all the time! I’m one of her Sabbath School teachers. She’s a very bright little girl.”

  “Thank you,” Nathan said, simply because he did not know what else to say. “I’ve gotta go, Maria. Nice to meet you.”

 
“Nathan, can’t you stay a little longer?” Maria asked, holding on to his car door. “The youth are having an open forum upstairs – discussion followed by cake and ice cream and snacks. It’s going to be good. Why don’t you drop in?”

  “I don’t think so…” Nathan began, but Maria cut him off.

  “Come man!” She said, closing his car door. “Joie says you’re very bright too. I’m sure you can add something to the discussion!”

  “Look,” Nathan said, trying to be firm but polite at the same time. “I really don’t want to…”

  “It will be fine!” Maria assured him, oblivious to the fact that Nathan had no interest in going to her open forum. “You can sit with me.”

  Nathan sighed as Maria led him away. Clearly, he would not be escaping her. He thought he may as well go with her, and try to sneak out after a few minutes. Maria took him to an airy upstairs room with a balcony. It was packed with teenagers and young adults who were laughing and chatting happily. As promised, a food station with cookies and cakes and all sorts of pastries and juices was set up at the rear of the room. One young man was at a keyboard synthesiser playing a jazz rendition of ‘I Surrender All’, while another followed on a bass guitar. Everyone seemed to be having a load of fun.

  “We’re going to start in about two minutes,” Maria said. “We’re just waiting on Pastor Rollins to get here.”

  “Pastor Rollins?” Nathan asked. “What kind of forum is this?”

  Maria laughed. “Don’t worry. It’s not a pre-baptism session or anything. Pastor Rollins is just coming to answer any question our moderator cannot handle. This is all just good fun. Relax. Make yourself at home.”

  That was impossible, Nathan thought as he looked around. He knew no one. Everyone was in a group except him. He thought about Andie, and wished he could astral project himself to Sushil Baghaloo’s yacht, and spend the evening with her. Anything, even hanging out with Jeremy, would be better than hanging out with these church people.

  “Yo, bro’! It’s the ’fro patro’!” Someone clapped Nathan on the shoulder. He looked around at two guys around his age. They were as tall as he was, and sported afros that were heading towards the ceiling. Nathan thought he might have seen them before, perhaps when he had worked the previous summer at SDC.