Seth and Samona

by Joanne Hyppolite

  “You should know about being different,” Papi said. “Remember last year when you had that ti neg ayisyen —the new Haitian boy in your class? The one that couldn’t speak English—Marcel?”

  “Marc.” I nodded. “Nobody liked him just ’cause they couldn’t talk to him. Samona helped me to teach him English.”

  “Different doesn’t mean bad. It just means different,” Papi said. “If Samona was like every other girl at school, would you notice her? If everybody had the same personality and behaved the same way then life would be very boring. Think about what life would be like with no Samona.”

  “Peaceful,” I said.

  Papi picked up the soccer ball and stood up. “Speaking of peace, let’s not go upstairs yet. Do you want to help me practice some soccer kicks at the park?”

  “Yeah,” I said quickly, and he winked at me. All of the relatives were getting on his nerves too. I jumped up and followed Papi.

  On Sunday, I woke up early cause Jean-Claude and Chantal were fighting again. It was a good thing the last of our relatives had gone home last night, ’cause they were yelling so loud they would have woken everybody up. Then I heard Manmi shouting at them and they got quiet fast. I rubbed my eyes and got out of bed ’cause there was no use going back to sleep now. We had to go to church every Sunday and I knew that soon Granmè would be knocking on the door telling me to get up and to go to my twalèt, which means “wash up!” I peeked through the blinds and saw it was raining outside. That meant we would drive to church. Manmi makes us walk when it’s nice out ’cause the church is only five blocks away. It takes us forever to get there ’cause Granmè walks so slow.

  I went to the closet to take out some of my only-wear-to-church clothes and I heard Jean-Claude slam into the room and throw himself on his bed. When I turned around, I saw that he was still in his blue striped pajamas and he was beating his fist in the pillow. All of a sudden, he stopped and turned over and put his hands behind his head.

  “Jerome again?” I said, not really expecting an answer. I wanted to talk to Jean-Claude about everything Chantal had said yesterday but I felt like I needed to talk to Chantal again just to make sure I had everything right. I was still having trouble understanding it all. Chantal didn’t want to be a nurse, didn’t want to do all the housework, didn’t want to marry a nice Haitian man and could be president of Haiti if she wanted to. I knew if I told Jean-Claude just like that, he would think I was as crazy as Samona Gemini.

  “Chantal doesn’t know what’s good for her. I could kill Jerome for all the trouble he’s making for her,” Jean-Claude said, his lips tight together.

  “Shouldn’t be too hard. He’s shorter than you,” I said, putting on my bathrobe and getting ready to go to the bathroom. “How are you gonna do it?” I didn’t believe Jean-Claude for one second. He’s always talking about how violence breeds violence and how black people need to stop beating each other up and stealing from each other. Jean-Claude would never do anything bad to another black person— even if they robbed him blind. He’d hunt them down and try to talk some sense into them. He always took the beggars on the street to get something to eat instead of giving them money so they wouldn’t spend it on drugs or spirits.

  Jean-Claude was quiet for a few minutes, then he sighed. “I have to go see Reggie.”

  Reggie? I frowned. “You don’t mean that, right, Jean-Claude?” Reggie was this gang member who hung around Roxbury Heights. He was only sixteen years old but he was as tall as Jean-Claude and had a big build and everybody was scared of him. You didn’t mess with Reggie. He’d been in jail twice already for stealing cars and holding up a store. People said he carried a gun with him all the time. Ever since he got out of jail the last time, he stayed out of trouble but made trouble for everybody else. Once in a while, Jean-Claude would go find Reggie and try to talk to him about the future and how he needed to change his ways. He even taught Reggie how to read. But it didn’t help any. Reggie likes Jean-Claude a lot and respects him but he hasn’t given up anything yet.

  Jean-Claude didn’t answer. He just kept his eyes shut and his hands behind his head. I went out into the hallway to find Chantal. Something must have happened for Jean-Claude to be talking about going to see Reggie.

  I knew Papi was already at work and I could hear Manmi in the kitchen. She was listening to a mass on the Haitian radio station and singing along with the choir in Kreyol. I hoped Granmè was in there too ’cause I didn’t feel like answering any of her morning questions. She asks me, Chantal and Jean-Claude every day if we brushed our teeth, combed our hair, put lotion on our face and legs and arms and if we prayed when we got up in the morning. Shell ask you those questions even if you’re still in your pajamas and she knows you haven’t even made it to the bathroom yet. Then she goes into our rooms to make sure we made the beds up ’cause we don’t have any maids in this house and that’s the first thing you do when you get up in the morning.

  Chantal’s door was closed. I put my ear against it but I couldn’t hear anything. I knocked softly.

  “Chantal, it’s me.”

  I still didn’t hear anything, so I tried the door. It was locked. I knocked again. “Chantal, I need to talk to you.”

  “Go away.”

  “Chantal, what’s going on?” I asked as quietly as I could so Manmi couldn’t hear me from the kitchen.

  “Go away, Seth. It’s none of your business.” This time I heard Chantal’s voice crack and I knew she must be crying.

  “Please, Chantal, it’s important,” I started to say when I heard Jean-Claude coming out of our room. I turned around and I saw he was already dressed and was sneaking out the front door.

  I ran up behind him just before the door shut. “Jean-Claude, where are you going? We gotta go to church—”

  Jean-Claude pushed me back inside and held his finger up to his lips. “Shhh! You don’t know anything, okay? I’ve got some things I’ve got to take care of.”

  “Reggie?” I asked in a whisper. “And Jerome?”

  “Yeah.” Jean-Claude nodded. “Don’t tell Manmi. You know she’ll just get upset.”

  Then he ran down the hallway to the stairway entrance and was gone.

  I closed the door and leaned against it. All I could think about was how Jean-Claude didn’t like Jerome and how he was going to see Reggie. There was gonna be trouble. I ran back to Chantal’s room and knocked on the door hard.

  “Chantal, you gotta let me in—Jean-Claude’s about to do something crazy,” I said, breathing hard and fast.

  After a couple of seconds I heard the lock turning, and then Chantal was standing in the doorway. Her eyes were red and her hair was all tangled up. She pulled me into the room and locked the door again.

  I told her about what Jean-Claude had said about Reggie and how he had left all angry, and she just stood there, looking confused.

  “What are you talking about, Seth? Jean-Claude would never kill anyone.”

  “That’s what he said—”

  “Why? That’s crazy. He really said that? Maybe you misunderstood him, Seth.”

  Chantal looked even more upset than when I’d come in. “I don’t know what’s going on but you better find him, Seth. I need to talk to him about Jerome. I know I can’t keep sneaking around Manmi and Papi and I’m tired of fighting with Jean-Claude—”

  Before I could ask any more questions, Granmè started banging on the door, promising to beat the person who’d locked her out of her own room.

  I patted Chantal’s shoulder again and unlocked the door.

  Granmè burst into the room, already dressed for church and asking questions left and right. Why wasn’t I dressed for church? Where was Jean-Claude? Why was the door locked? Why was Chantal crying?

  “I have to get ready for church, Granmè,” I said quickly. “Chantal doesn’t feel so good. I don’t think she can go to church. I don’t know where Jean-Claude is.” I backed out of the room.

  I left before she could ask any more quest
ions and hurried to the bathroom to take my shower. I had to think fast. I was remembering what Samona had told me once about wishing she had kept a better watch out for her brother Anthony. Even though she was just a little kid at the time, Samona thought she could have helped Anthony stay out of trouble. Reggie was trouble too and I knew I had to help Jean-Claude before he ended up like Anthony. If Jerome was working at 7-Eleven, that would mean Jean-Claude would need to get a ride there since it was off the highway. Reggie had a car but it would take Jean-Claude time to find him. Reggie was always in hiding just in case the police were looking for him. It usually took Jean-Claude a couple of hours to track Reggie down. That meant I had some time.

  I kept thinking as I put on my clothes for church. I could hear Manmi and Granmè talking in the kitchen. They were upset because Jean-Claude had sneaked out of the house before church. Then I heard Manmi go down the hallway to Chantal’s room and I knew she would be even more upset that Chantal wasn’t going to church. I thought about sneaking out too but that would make everybody worry even more.

  I stood in front of the mirror and brushed my hair. My face still looked dry so I put some more lotion on it automatically. I was glad my face didn’t show how worried I was on the inside.

  Manmi knocked on the door and came into the room. She looked real pretty all dressed up for church. She had on a long yellow dress and high heels so she looked taller. She came up behind me in the mirror and I could see the worry in her eyes.

  “Seth, Dou-dou, what happened to Jean-Claude?” she asked quietly.

  I looked away from her in the mirror and tried to think of what to tell her. I knew I couldn’t lie to Manmi. She could always tell. But I couldn’t tell her the truth either. “I don’t know, Manmi. I saw him going out the door. He said he had to take care of something.”

  “You don’t know where he was going?” Manmi’s voice was soft with accents and concern.

  I shook my head and I could see she could tell I wasn’t telling the whole truth, so I decided to tell her a little more. “I think he went over to have one of his talks with Reggie.”

  Manmi looked relieved. “What about church? Jean-Claude and I are going to talk when he gets home. He may be a god out in those streets but in here he’s a boy in trouble. Even God rests on Sunday.”

  I nodded and tried to smile.

  “Are you ready? It’s time to go.” Manmi pushed me toward the door. “I am going to stay with Chantal and wait here for Jean-Claude. You go with Granmè. Ask her if she put anything into the food last night. There’s something wrong with everybody in this house this morning.”

  It took us only five minutes to get to church. I was quiet the whole ride while I thought of what I could do. I couldn’t get out of going to church but I could sneak out of Sunday school class and get back before the mass was over. I had to get over to the Zion Baptist Church where Samona’s family went. The one person I knew who could find Reggie was Samona’s brother Anthony, ’cause he used to be best friends with Reggie a long time ago.

  I followed Granmè up the aisle when we got inside. We were early. Mrs. Volcy was playing the organ and the music filled the church. I looked at the altar. My friend Gerard and his older brother Patrick were going around lighting candles. They were dressed in the black and white robes that all the altar boys wear. I was glad Manmi wasn’t with us ’cause she wants me to be an altar boy more than anything else in the world. Finally, I saw Enrie and Tant Cherise sitting in one of the pews. That was just what I was looking for.

  I whispered to Granmè that I was going downstairs to the Sunday school class and that after that I would sit with Enrie for mass. I knew that she would be fine because she was sitting next to her friend Madame Germaine.

  I went downstairs toward the church basement and went out one of the side doors instead. I stepped outside slowly. It was still drizzling. I wondered if God was going to strike me down for lying in church to Granmè and skipping out on the service to top it all off. But I had to find Jean-Claude. I had an hour and a half to get back before the service was over. I started running as fast as I could. I knew I could get to the Zion Baptist Church in fifteen minutes. And if everything turned out all right, I would go to confession and tell Father Dieujuste all about it.

  The Zion Baptist Church was packed full. There were two rows of people who couldn’t get seats just standing in the back near the doors. I didn’t know how I was gonna find Samona and her family with all those people in there. I looked up at the front of the church. There was a big gospel choir sitting off to the side of the church in white robes. The other thing I noticed was that it sure was a lot noisier in this church than it was in St. Angela’s. It was always real quiet in our church. You could hear every sneeze, every cough, and know who was getting whacked for not behaving. In this church there were people standing up and rocking side to side and calling out to the preacher. Everybody was fanning themselves and nodding. I could see the preacher standing in front of a microphone and waving his arms in the air. I stared at him for a minute before I realized what was different. It wasn’t a him, it was a her. Girls can’t be preachers—at least not in the Catholic Church. I was so surprised, I forgot about looking for Samona and started listening to the preacher instead.

  “You’ve got to believe it in your heart. And yes, you’ve got to believe it in your souls! Look around you, my people, and see what I’m talking about!” The preacher was rocking back and forth, pointing here and there.

  I followed one of the preacher’s motions and found myself staring at Samona Gemini herself.

  She was sitting halfway down the middle in a black dress and fanning herself. Leticia and Anthony were sitting beside her but I didn’t see Nigel or Mrs. Gemini anywhere. Then I remembered they sang in the gospel choir.

  I walked up the aisle as quick as I could, hoping no one would start thinking that I was there to testify or anything. Samona had told me about the testifying and getting saved that went on in Baptist churches. When I got to Samona’s aisle, I pushed in and sat down right next to her.

  “What are you doing here?” Samona whispered, crossing her arms in front of her and looking like she was going to take it upon herself to throw me out personally.

  “Look, Samona, just be quiet and listen. Jean-Claude’s in trouble,” I said, then I spilled out the whole story to her in fast whispers.

  Samona’s eyes got bigger by the second and as soon as I finished she was tugging on Anthony’s sleeve and Leticia’s dress and ordering them to follow her. Then she marched us right out of the Zion Baptist Church, right in front of everybody, with her chin up in the air like she was daring anybody to say something about it.

  As soon as Leticia and Anthony knew what was going on, they both started talking at once.

  “Seth, are you sure about this man? He said he wants to kill somebody? This doesn’t sound like J.C.” Anthony looked at me long and hard. I could see the scar on the side of his cheek standing out. He was dark like Samona, the same color as chocolate, but his scar was black.

  “Chantal couldn’t tell you if anything was wrong?” Leticia asked. She let out a long sigh and twirled one of her long braids. “This is crazy. Jean-Claude wouldn’t snap like this. You know where you can find Reggie, Tone?”

  Anthony nodded. “I got an idea. This all sounds too weird for Jean-Claude but if you’re right, Seth, it could be too late already. I sure hope Jean-Claude keeps his cool until I can find him.”

  “I’m going with you,” I said, without looking at either one of them. “He’s my brother.”

  Anthony looked at me for a second and then nodded.

  “You take the car. I’m going over to your house to check on Chantal,” Leticia said, already walking away.

  Anthony started walking toward his car but stopped when he saw Samona was following us. “Oh no, Samona. You’re not going anywhere.”

  “I’m going with you,” Samona said, opening her mouth for the first time since we stepped outside.

&
nbsp; “Naw—you’re not,” Anthony snorted. “Where I’m goin’ ain’t no place for little girls.”

  “Good. ’cause ain’t no little girls here,” Samona snapped back, putting her hands on her hips. She was making that face that meant there was no use arguing with her.

  Anthony sighed, then shrugged his shoulders. I could see he was trying not to smile. “Fine. But you stayin’ in the car—with Seth.”

  Samona and I looked at each other and nodded. It was better than nothing. The only person who could help me find Jean-Claude was Anthony.

  Both of us got into the front seat of Anthony’s red sports car.

  “Where are we going?” Samona asked when Anthony started driving.

  “Close to Field’s corner, over by the old movie theater,” Anthony said. He was racing the car down Blue Hill Avenue. I knew Papi would kill me if he knew I was in a car driving this fast with Anthony. “Last I hear, Reggie was staying with this honey he was seeing, Monique.”

  After a few minutes, Anthony finally slowed down and parked. “Y’all are gonna stay in the car until I come back out.”

  Samona and I shook our heads and looked out the window. Anthony had parked on the street in front of an old brick building. It looked like it used to be an apartment building but all the windows were broken and there was trash all over the sidewalk. It was a dump.

  Samona and I watched Anthony walk up the stairs and go inside.

  “Maybe Jean-Claude’s still there,” Samona said.

  “Maybe.” I shrugged, trying to act like I wasn’t worried. I turned my head back to watch the building some more. Maybe Jean-Claude hadn’t even gotten there yet. I looked up and down the street, hoping to see him.

  “Wait,” I heard Samona say. She was looking across the street. “That’s Reggie over there!”

  I turned around fast and saw Reggie going down the alley next to the house across the street. It had to be Reggie. Nobody else would be wearing that long black leather coat and purple hat. “Let’s go.”