Pao by Kerry Young Page B

bed and me kneeling on the hard wooden floor in front of her.
    I take a finger and I wipe a few strands of hair away from her eyes because they wet and stuck to her face. And she let me do it which I know is a good sign. So I say, ‘What we going to do, eh?’
    ‘Why did you marry me, Pao?’ And that is when the wave of shame wash over me because I didn’t have no proper answer for her.
    ‘You married me because my father is Henry Wong. Isn’t that the truth? Honestly?’
    I reckon the least I can do is face how ugly my own intention was so I say, ‘Yes. Yes it the truth. That is how it start, Fay, but that not how it is now, not since the honeymoon. When we was at the hotel I see a different side of you. You must admit yourself we cross a bridge that week you and me. Don’t tell me it didn’t mean nothing to you.’ And I take her hands in mine.
    She let me stay there kneeling down holding her hand and then she say to me, ‘I can’t live like this, Pao. Can’t you see that you and this house are the punishment my mother picked out for me? This is the suffering she wants me to have for the rest of my life.’
    ‘What suffering?’
    ‘The same suffering that I had as a child when she used to beat and starve me and lock me in the music room and take the key with her when she went to church.’
    I can’t believe what Fay is saying to me. Not that I think she lying but I can’t believe that Miss Cicely carry on like this.
    ‘What she beat you for?’
    ‘For always being too much of one thing and never enough of another.’
    I can’t understand what she saying to me so I just kneel there and look at her, how serious she is ’bout this like she under some kinda obeah spell that she can’t do nothing ’bout.
    ‘It don’t have to be like that, you know. We don’t have to just sit back and let Miss Cicely decide what kinda life we going have together.’
    Fay don’t say nothing to me, but the next day she stop crying and when I come home from work I see she been out the yard to go get some flowers from the market that she arrange in the vase in the bedroom where it look real pretty.

11
    Weather
    Then Finley tell me that the police get themselves a new sergeant from Montego Bay. They put him in the North Street police station to help fight corruption, which I think is rich because half my money going to the police to make sure them look the other way. So anyway I say to him, ‘Maybe we should go meet this sergeant,’ but Finley not sure if that is such a good idea.
    ‘What you going say to him anyway?’
    ‘Maybe we just say hello, and wish him well with him duties, which most likely him going have to start right there in the police station,’ and we laugh. ‘Well, after all them sending him after us so the least we can do is shake the man’s hand.’ So Finley say he will think on it. Sun Tzu say, ‘ By weather I mean the interaction of natural forces; the effects of winter’s cold and summer’s heat, and the conduct of military operations in accordance with the seasons .’
    A week later Finley’s big idea is to get Round One Chin to invite Sergeant Brown to address the Wholesale Provision Merchants’ Association. Chin not sure if he too happy ’bout it because even though he think maybe it a good idea to hear what Sergeant Brown got to say, he nervous ’bout getting involved with the police. He say everybody happy paying the protection and keeping Chinatown business in Chinatown. He say we don’t need to be inviting no outsiders to start interfering with us. We can handle everything ourselves just like we been doing since Zhang get here all them years back. So I have to say to him it alright, we not going do nothing but listen to the man for a few minutes.
    So a couple month later Sergeant Brown come to the meeting, and at the appointed moment Chin stand up on the platform and announce how pleased he is to have with us this evening ‘Sergeant Clifton Brown of the North Street police station