by Sam Selvon
‘And what about Tanty?’
‘Well you know how old your Tanty getting, Tolroy, is a shame to leave she alone to dead in Kingston with nobody to look after she.’
‘Oh God ma, why you bring all these people with you?’ Tolroy start to shiver with a kind of fright.
‘Ah, you see what I tell you?’ Tanty say to the mother, ‘you see how ungrateful he is? I would go back to Jamaica right now,’ and she make as if she going back inside the train.
‘Tolroy,’ Ma say, ‘you remember when you was a little boy how you used to live at Tanty and she used to mind you and send you to school and give you tea and bake in the evening? You remember them days? When Tanty give you shoes to wear and pants to put on your backside? How you expect me to leave Tanty behind when all the family going England?’
‘But ma you don’t know what you put yourself in,’ Tolroy start to argue right there on the platform, and people watching them. A porter pushing a trolley say: ‘Come on there, out of the way,’ and he nearly bounce up Tanty, who was looking all about in the station with she eyes open wide.
‘Look at trouble here!’ Tanty say. ‘Mister, you best hads mind what you doing, yes. If you touch me with that thing I call a policeman for you.’
Tolroy pull all the family out of the way, and they stand up there arguing, for Tolroy ain’t catch himself yet, he can’t realise that all these people on his hands, in London, in the grim winter, and no place to go to stay.
The reporter fellar see this small crowd and he figure that it look like a family and he might get a good story from them why so much Jamaican coming to London, so he went up to Tanty and say: ‘Excuse me, lady, I am from the Echo. Is this your first trip to England?’
‘Don’t tell that man nothing,’ Tolroy growl.
‘Why you so prejudice?’ Tanty say. ‘The gentleman ask me a good question, why I shouldn’t answer?’ And she turn to the reporter and say, ‘Yes mister, is my first trip.’
‘Have you any relatives here? Are you going to live in London?’
‘Well my nephew Tolroy here in this country a long time, and so he send for the rest of the family to come and live with him. Not so Tolroy?’
But Tolroy gone to help Lewis and Agnes find their luggage.
‘Tolroy is a good boy,’ Tanty say, ‘I mind him since he was small -’
‘Yes,’ the reporter say, ‘but can you tell me why so many people are leaving Jamaica and coming to England?’
‘Is the same thing I say.’ Tanty say excited, ‘I tell all of them who coming, ‘Why all you leaving the country to go to England? Over there it so cold that only white people does live there.” But they say that it have more work in England, and better pay. And to tell you the truth, when I hear that Tolroy getting five pound a week, I had to agree.’
‘Tell me madam, what will you do in London?’
‘Who me?’ Tanty look around as if the reporter talking to somebody else. ‘Why. I come to look after the family. All of them was coming, so I had to come too, to look after them. Who will cook and wash the clothes and clean the house?’
This time so, Ma pulling Tanty hand to make she stop talking, but Tanty only shaking off the hand.
‘What happening to you?’ Tanty tell Ma. ‘You can’t see this gentleman from the newspapers come to meet we by the station? We have to show that we have good manners, you know.’
‘May I take your picture?’ the reporter ask.
‘He want to take photo,’ Tanty nudge Ma. ‘Where all the children? Tolroy, Agnes, Lewis,’ she calling out as if she calling out in a backyard in Jamaica, ‘all you come and take photo, children. The mister want a snapshot.’
‘One of you alone will be quite sufficient,’ the reporter say.
‘What!’ Tanty say, ‘you can’t take me alone. You have to take the whole family.’ And she went to round up the rest.
Now Tolroy don’t want to have no part in this business but Tanty insisting so much that not so make a bigger scene – people standing up and watching them – he went and stand by Ma with a sulky face.
‘Wait a minute,’ Tanty tell the reporter when he was ready, and she begin to open up the cardboard box right there on the platform, and she take out a straw hat with a wide brim and put it on she head. ‘I ready now,’ she say, posing with the family.
‘I hope you don’t find our weather too cold for you,’ the reporter say maliciously when he was going.
The next day when the Echo appear it had a picture, and under the picture write: Now, Jamaican Families Come to Britain.
While all this confusion happening Moses was killing himself with laugh, but as all the people begin to go away and he can’t see this Henry Oliver – at least nobody ain’t broach him – he was just making up his mind to go home when he spot a test straggling up from the bottom of the train as if he did fall asleep and not know the train reach Waterloo.
And in truth is that what happen to Henry, and though he tell some fellars in the carriage to wake him up when they reach London, in the hustlement of getting off the train nobody remember Henry and a guard had was to wake him up.
Moses watch Henry coming up the platform, and he have a feeling that this couldn’t be the fellar that he come to meet, for the test have on a old grey tropical suit and a pair of watchekong and no overcoat or muffler or gloves or anything for the cold, so Moses sure is some test who living in London a long, long time and accustom to the beast winter. Even so, he really had to feel the fellar, for as the evening advancing it getting colder and colder and Moses stamping he foot as he stand up there.
The fellar, as soon as he see Moses, walk straight up to him and say, ‘Ah, I bet you is Moses!’
Moses say, ‘Yes.’
‘Ah,’ Henry say, looking about the desolate station as if he in an exhibition hall on a pleasant summer evening. ‘Frank did say you would come to meet me in Waterloo. My name Henry Oliver.’
‘You not feeling cold, old man?’ Moses say, eyeing the specimen with amazement, for he himself have on long wool underwear and a heavy fireman coat that he pick up in Portobello Road.
‘No,’ Henry say, looking surprise. ‘This is the way the weather does be in the winter? It not so bad, man. In fact I feeling a little warm.’
‘Jesus Christ,’ Moses say. ‘What happen to you, you sick or something?’
‘Who, me? Sick? Ha-ha, you making joke!’
Moses watch the specimen again suspiciously.
‘You must be have on bags of wool under that suit,’ he say. ‘You can’t fool a old test like me.’
‘What you making so much fuss about?’ Henry say, opening his shirt to show bare skin underneath. ‘This is a nice climate, boy. You feeling cold?’
‘Take it easy,’ Moses say, deciding to wait and see how things would develop with this strange character. ‘Get your luggage and we will go. Tonight you could stay by me, but tomorrow I might shift from my room and go upstairs, and I will see if I could fix up with the landlord for you to take my room.’
‘Whenever you ready,’ Henry say.
‘Where your luggage?’
‘What luggage? I ain’t have any. I figure is no sense to load up myself with a set of things. When I start a work I will buy some things.’
Now Moses is a veteran, who living in this country for a long time, and he meet all sorts of people and do all sorts of things, but he never thought the day would come when a fellar would land up from the sunny tropics on a powerful winter evening wearing a tropical suit and saying that he ain’t have no luggage.
‘You mean you come from Trinidad with nothing?’
‘Well the old toothbrush always in the pocket,’ Henry pat the jacket pocket, ‘and I have on a pair of pyjamas. Don’t worry, I will get fix up as soon as I start to work.’
‘You does smoke?’
‘Yes. You have any on you now? I finish my last packet on the train.’
‘You mean to say you come off the ship with no cigarettes? You don’t know they does a
llow you to land with two hundred, and that it have fellars who manage to come with five-six hundred? You don’t know how cigarettes expensive like hell in this country? Nobody tell you anything at all about London? Frank ain’t give you some tips before you leave Trinidad?’
‘Oh, he tell me a lot of things, but you know how them fellars always like to exaggerate, and I only listen to him halfway.’
‘You does drink?’
‘Yes.’
‘You mean to say you come off the ship with no rum? You don’t know they does allow you to land with two bottles, and some of the boys does manage to come ashore with four or five, getting other people who ain’t have none to bring it for them? You know how much a bottle of rum does cost in London?’
‘How much?’
‘Thirty seven and six.’
‘How much that is in Trinidad money?’
‘Only about ten dollars.’
Henry whistle phew.
‘You bring any money?’ Moses went on, for by this time he not even sure it ain’t a dream he dreaming and he would wake up in bed and laugh at it.
‘I have three pounds,’ Henry say defensively. ‘But ease me up with the questions old man, I tired after that long journey.’
‘Is five pounds you could land with, you know.’
‘Yes, but I get in a wapee game on board with some of the fellars and lose two. Boy it had a wapee test on board –’
‘All right Sir Galahad,’ Moses say. ‘Take it easy. London will do for you before long. Come, we will catch the tube as you ain’t have any luggage.’
Thus it was that Henry Oliver Esquire, alias Sir Galahad, descend on London to swell the population by one, and eight and a half months later it had a Galahad junior in Ladbroke Grove and all them English people stopping in the road and admiring the baby curly hair when the mother pushing it in the pram as she go shopping for rations.
‘The only thing,’ Galahad say when they was in the tube going to the Water, ‘is that I find when I talk smoke coming out my mouth.’
‘Is so it is in this country,’ Moses say. ‘Sometimes the words freeze and you have to melt it to hear the talk.’
‘That is a old, old one,’ Galahad say. ‘So this is the underground train I hear so much about?’
‘Yes,’ Moses say. Moses make up his mind to treat Galahad in a special way because he behaving as if he think he back home in Port of Spain or something. Still, he had to admit that it look as if Galahad have a lot of guts, the way how he getting on, the way how he land without any luggage, and Moses still amaze how he standing the cold without no winter clothes.
Galahad say: ‘I find the train stopping often. Why is that?’
‘Ask London Transport,’ Moses say.
‘Which part you living?’ Galahad say.
‘In the Water. Bayswater to you until you living in the city for at least two years.’
‘Why they call it Bayswater? Is a bay? It have water?’
‘Take it easy,’ Moses say. ‘You can’t learn everything the first day you land. And you might notice we don’t talk much in the tube because it making too much noise and you have to raise your voice.’
‘How fast we going?’
‘If you must talk tell me about Frank,’ Moses say. ‘He get married yet? It had a girl in St James used to write him every week when he was up here.’
When they get to the Water Galahad want to stand up and look at everything, though it ain’t have anything to look at, but Moses hurry him home because the fog like it getting thicker and it making cold too bad.
Sir Galahad look around in Moses room.
‘You have a small room, man,’ he say.
‘You will get a better one for yourself,’ Moses say.
‘What is that in the corner?’
‘A gas fire. I better put it on. You have a shilling change on you?’ Moses have shilling, but he have a feeling that if he don’t tap the Galahad early he would never be able to do it later on.
Galahad hand Moses a shilling and watch him put it in the slot in the meter and light the gas.
First thing Galahad say is: ‘You can’t put in a piece of lead shape like a shilling instead? Frank say he used to do that.’
‘Take it easy,’ Moses say, ‘all these questions you asking is good questions, but you will find out for yourself before long.’
‘That small fire does keep the room warm?’
‘Yes,’ Moses say, ‘but if I get the room I expect upstairs you could stay here and you wouldn’t need to put it on, seeing that winter is like high noon to you.’
Moses heat up a pot of rice and peas and they eat. Moses keeping quiet because he don’t want to crank up the old Galahad who look as if he like to talk a lot. But when they finish eating he get in a better mood and he decide to make the position clear.
‘Listen,’ he say, ‘you can stay here tonight – you will have to sleep on them two chairs. But tomorrow, if the landlord don’t agree for you to have this room, you will have to find a place. And also you have to look for work. I not saying you is a ants, but it have enough ants already in London. Though the boys does have to get up and hustle a lot, still every man on his own. It ain’t have no s— over here like “both of we is Trinidadians and we must help out one another.” You going to meet a lot of fellars from home who don’t even want to talk to you, because they have matters on the mind. So the sooner you get settled the better for you. London not like Port of Spain. Don’t ask plenty questions, and you will find out a lot. I don’t usually talk to fellars like this, but I take a fancy for you, my blood take you. Tell me, what you used to do before you come?’
‘I was working Point-a-Pierre in the oilfields,’ Galahad say.
‘Where you used to live?’
‘Down south, San Fernando, in Mucurapo Street.’
‘Eh-heh! You know Mahal?’
Mahal was a mad Indian fellar who used to go around town playing as if he driving car, putting in gear and stepping on the x and making hand signals and blowing horn.
‘But how you mean? Everybody know Mahal!’
‘He must be catching arse with the new type of gear it have on them cars now!’ Moses laugh.
Galahad laugh. ‘He still driving old-model.’
‘And how about Palace Theatre? Is still there? Boy, when I was there the film used to burst every minute.’
. ‘Yes man, the Palace still there, but they showing a set of Indian pictures now to make money.’
‘I hear they build-over the market, is true?’
And old Moses start to get nostalgic now that he have a friend who just arrive from Trinidad, and the two of them talk a long time, until they feel sleepy.
Galahad put the two chair together and fall asleep right away. Moses watch him, and take a blanket off the bed and throw on him. But Galahad throw it back and ask Moses how he could sleep with blanket when it so hot.
‘I think you best hads see a doctor tomorrow first thing,’ Moses say. ‘Something must be wrong with you.’
But Galahad was snoring already.
The next morning Moses get up about half-past nine and wash face and scrub teeth and comb hair, and still Galahad was sleeping, with a smile on his face.
Moses shake him rough. ‘Get up man,’ he say, ‘is time to go and look for work. This is not a holiday camp.’
Galahad yawn and stretch. ‘What you bending down so near the fire for and shivering like that?’
Moses glare. ‘All right,’ he say, ‘don’t over-play it, so you don’t feel cold, so all right, take it easy.’
‘I never thought my first morning in London would be like this,’ Galahad say as he comb his hair.
‘What you thought? That you would wake up in the Savoy?’
It have a kind of fellar who does never like people to think that they unaccustomed to anything, or that they are strangers in a place, or that they don’t know where they going. They would never ask you how to get to Linden Gardens or if number 49 does go down High Street
Ken. From the very beginning they out to give you the impression that they hep, that they on the ball, that nobody could tie them up.
Sir Galahad was a fellar like that, and he was trying hard to give Moses the feeling that everything all right, that he could take care of himself, that he don’t want help for anything. So that same morning when they finish eating Moses tell him that he would go with him to help him find a work, but Galahad say: ‘Don’t worry man, I will make out for myself.’
‘You don’t know this place boy,’ Moses say. ‘Work not so easy to get as you think.’
‘Don’t worry with the old man,’ Galahad say, ‘he will take care of things.’
‘Well,’ Moses say, ‘I must say you have guts, and perhaps you doing the best thing, for you can’t learn no better way than by going around on your own. I could save you some trouble by telling you where to go and where not to go, but I won’t bother. But take a little advice, old man. Go and see about a work first, because supposing you get one far from the Water, it won’t make no sense to take this room, you will have to try and get one near the work.’
Galahad know that Moses talking good talk, but he don’t want him to feel that he want any help from him. When he was leaving Trinidad and Frank tell him a friend would meet him at Waterloo, Galahad say why the hell you bother with that for? But Frank tell him it all well and good to play boldface in a small place like Trinidad, but when he land in London it would be different, and he would be sure to need a friend there.
While Galahad sit there not saying anything Moses went on: ‘Listen, I know fellars like you, you know. You try to fool people that you know everything, then when you get lash you come bawling.’
‘All right mister London,’ Galahad say, ‘you been here for a long time, what you would advice me as a newcomer to do?’
‘I would advice you to hustle a passage back home to Trinidad today,’ Moses say, ‘but I know you would never want to do that. So what I will tell you is this: take it easy. It had a time when I was first here, when it only had a few West Indians in London, and things used to go good enough. These days, spades all over the place, and every shipload is big news, and the English people don’t like the boys coming to England to work and live.’
