Here Comes the Sun(89)

Thandi burns with rage, her face twitching from the hard slap of Jullette’s words. She thinks of Jullette parading around with that man in high heels and a skirt too short. Thandi was sure Jullette had seen her too. “You acted like yuh neva saw me at Sea Breeze when you were with that man, yuh client.”

“Whatever, Thandi,” Jullette says. “Who are you for me to waste my time wid? I learn to mek money to survive. Is long time me an’ me brothers surviving on our own. But you wouldn’t know dem t’ings. If it was you, yuh woulda end up dead. So don’t yuh dare judge me.”

Thandi hisses like a rattlesnake: “I might be sheltered, but at least I’m not a whore.” It’s a stone thrown too far. Thandi claps her hands over her mouth as soon as she says it.

“Yuh think yuh betta than me?” Jullette asks Thandi, her voice still measured but quieter now. Her eyes reveal something nasty and reptilian. “Well, ah have news for yuh. Look in di damn mirror. No apple nuh fall too far from di tree.”

“What yuh mean by that?” Thandi asks.

“Tell me where yuh get money fah yuh schoolbooks an’ fah yuh school fee. Yuh suh wrapped up in yuh own world dat yuh believe anyt’ing people tell yuh. Yuh probably believe dat di likkle scrap Delores an’ Margot mek can put togethah to sen’ yuh to dat school. Yuh really t’ink likkle chicken-feed money can afford dat deh school, Thandi?”

“I got a scholarship.”

“Ha!” Jullette laughs. “Yuh neva realize dat a scholarship is for a year? Ministry of Education nuh dat generous, m’dear. Is di empire dat fund yuh precious scholarship.”

“What yuh talking about?” Thandi asks.

“Yuh sistah, Margot, eva tell yuh what she do fi mek ends meet?” she asks Thandi instead.

The last person Thandi wants to talk about is Margot. “She works at Palm Star Resort. Has been there for eleven years,” Thandi says, swallowing.

“Jus’ ask har again,” Jullette says, narrowing her eyes. “Ask her where she get extra money from fah yuh school fee, the nice clothes she wear, the money she just put down on the villa in Lagoons.”

“She just got promoted as hotel general manager,” Thandi says through her teeth. Jullette doesn’t know what she’s talking about.

“Next time yuh see Margot, ask her who help her to get dat promotion,” Jullette says, with that nasty reptile look in her eyes. “Bettah yet, ask her how many of those big-money man she sleep wid. Ask ’bout her empire. Ask har about the girls she owns. Yuh sistah, Margot, is more of a whore than I will ever be. She’s the biggest pimp on di North Coast. Yuh sistah sell out River Bank. She’s di one who g’wan manage dat hotel dey destroying River Bank to build.”

Jullette sneers when she sees Thandi slump as though physically wounded. “Ask yuh sista, she’ll tell yuh. An’ yuh know what she tell the girls weh work fah har? Girls like me? Yuh know what she tell anyone who would listen? She tell dem seh it’s all fah her sister, who g’wan be a doctor. Her precious, perfect Thandi, who can do no wrong. Her dainty, stuck-up Thandi, who, in my opinion, will one day kick dirt in har face as soon as she reach somewhere, because she wouldn’t want to associate wid har own color.”

“Enough!” Thandi clamps her hands over her ears. She stoops down, resting on her haunches as though cowering from the sun. She cannot let Jullette see the shame that reddens her face. “What yuh get from telling me this?” Thandi asks Jullette, raising her head to meet her eyes. “How much bettah yuh feel from letting all this off yuh chest?” Jullette seems taken aback by this question. Thandi sees a glint of her former friend—the one who stood up for her on the playground when they were girls in primary school. Jullette is breathing heavily from the exchange, her chest rising and falling under her loose dress, as though she’s struggling to maintain her hardness. Very slowly her shoulders lower as though melting in the sun. In a soft voice she says, “Thandi, some people run. Some people mek up fantasy to deny or forget. While some people stan’ up an’ face di storm, whicheva direction it blow. Ah was hoping dat yuh would come outta yuh fantasy one day. I neva mean to say it like dat.”

“You meant every word.”

“Forget ah said anyt’ing. Jus’ do what’s best, Thandi, an’ leave us alone. Yuh done cost my brother a lot already.”

“I love him.”

Jullette says nothing at first, allowing Thandi’s professed love for Charles to linger like the smell of breadfruit roasting in the yard. The dark soot carries in the breeze and thickens the air. Jullette cocks her head to the side. “Then ah want yuh to do something fah me.”

“Whatever you want.”

“I want you to jus’ let him be. Is fah di bettah. Yuh only going to lead him on an’ destroy him.”

Jullette walks off and heads toward the house. Thandi follows her, but stops when Jullette slams the mesh door in her face.

“Is he here? Charles! Charles!” Thandi calls out.

“He’s not here. Jus’ leave us alone.”

Thandi begins to bang on the door. “Please, I won’t leave until you tell me where he is.” The neighbors are looking at her, but she doesn’t care. She wants Charles to remind her that she has the capacity to love and be loved despite where or what she comes from. They can run away together and make a new life. The familiar ache dissipates and in its place is a violent instinct to throw herself against the door until it breaks. She takes gulps of breath between sobs. She bangs and bangs, feeling as though she’s in a dream where she’s screaming without making a sound, or like she’s moving but is really stuck to the ground. She’s Thandi, the one who would make it. The scholarship girl who would make everything better for her family. As graceful as a skirt tail blowing in the wind. Now here she is, banging down the door of a boarded-up house of a prostitute in search of a street boy.