Games People Play

Chapter 9|| GPP

Xiomara Hendrix
(zee (o)-ma-ra)

Trench Town...Every time I come back here, I realized what I escaped and I'm grateful for that.

Even though my family wasn't rich. Compared to some of the people I grew up with, we were blessed. Both of my parents worked hard to take care of my siblings and I.

My father took over  my grandfather's ital cook shop, my mother used to be a bartender at a bar close to the cook shop until my father sent her back to school to become a teacher. When she got pregnant with Xion she stopped going to teacher's college to become a stay at home mother.

Now I feel it's my duty to take care of them. I see all the sacrifices they made to provide for us.

"Good body Patience" she slaps me upside my head with the newspaper she had a rolled in her hand.

"Yuh fi have manners, don't feel like cause yaah big woman yah guh pass yuh place."

"Lady how u suh miserable you caah tek joke"

"Don't run nuh joke wid me. Run joke wid yuh puppa."

"Xion deh work?" I asked.

"Yes sah."

"Good morning mom" Dominique greets waking in with the grocery bags.

"Morning sir." She gives him a tight lipped smile. "Weh you been up to these days?" she asks him.

He sighs "deh yah enuh just come fi drop har off and since me de pon the road me just ago deal wid sumn."

"Tink yuh did aguh stay" mommy replied.

"No man, a sumn me a put off fi a while Weh need fi deal wid."

"It betta yuh gwaan now before it get too late" she urges him even though it's just 10:00 am. The woman awful essi.

"Natty vice  nuh deh bout? he asked referring to my father.

"Him deh some weh bout the place"

"Alright hail him up fimmi."

"Hmmhh"

"Lata, call me when yuh ready Xi." He directs the last part to me,

"Yea"

As soon as he left, me and mommy start chat him

"him finally get one work mommy."

"God is good..." she's says attempting to 'pack' out the grocery. "Selassie!" she interrupts our conversation to call my little brother.

"Yeah" he answers with a sigh.

"The likkle one dem always get weh wid wull epp. If me eva ansa yuh 'yeah', yuh woulda box me inna mi mouth" I say.

"Yeah who?" She shouts.

"Yes mommy"

"Come put weh the grocery dem bou u caah guh school cause u nuh feel good" he frowns and move towards them.

He must have just realized that I was here his frown turn upside down and he excitedly said "Pookie!"

Patience tell me seh wen I was about three, mi pick up fowl shit and almost eat it, from that day till now dem call me pookie.

"Pookie u bring sumn fi me ?" Selassie asked eagerly.

"Yes guh look in a d small black bag you see 3 Bakkle a roll on that a fi u"

His frowned from earlier deepen

"As soon as you done Gwan go bade and rub it under u fronzy arm" my mom urges him.

"You know me might haffi bring him down a docta beckford down eh road me never have no green arm problem with u nor Xion."

"Da boy de even graduated medical school mommy?"

"Me not even know but, it betta me bring him down de than have you puppa a rub aloe Vera underneath him arm day and night"

We both laughed.

"Anyways back to you, wah kind a work Mr. Uptown him get?" she asks

I just realize I didn't ask him "I didn't ask, me just relieve say  him  finally get  something to do"

"That shoulda be the first question you ask but it tek  him long enough. Bwoii sometimes me fret if me raise Unu too soft."

"Mommy, don't say that. Mi just waah know seh mi neva give up pon him, memba him malice him parents fi me enuh"

"Sometime we blind to certain things all in the name a love. Yuh can stay deh use that and waste yuh life you young. We put yuh thru university fi betta yuh life.  People  used to tell mi leff yuh fada alone till him get me pregnant. I waah tump miself when mi find out. Mi did have big dreams. But mi put dem aside fi tek care a unuh. Mi nuh regret unuh or yuh fadda though."

They have been together since she was 18 and he was 24.

He's a real Rasta, deeply rooted in his beliefs while my mother was a menace. Sometimes I wonder how they managed to stay together all these years because of how different they are.

I've watch them raising three kids, supporting each other and have fun together even in difficult times.

Do I see myself with Dominique in this way? I don't know Sometime I feel like I'm holding on by a thread.

"Mi nuh waah nobody tek nuh step wid unuh. Mi aguh beg yuh one ting, don't mek we sacrifices guh to waste." she continues. " me can lead Unu to the water but me caah force Unu fi drink it even doh sometime me want push Unu head down de and Mek Unu drink it"

"Lwad mommy how you stay suh" I laughed at her comment.

"But seriously mommy the sacrifices you guys made for me won't go to waste."

"Yuh daddy suppose to inna room, yuh can guh seh hello"

"How him itch up inna the room and him favourite de here." I said.

As I was about to make my way to their room he appeared in the kitchen.

"Good morning daddy, look pon you hair patience a treat you good?" I ask.

"All your madda know how fi duh a stress me out and gimmie more grey hair"

"Suh who else yuh wah fi give yuh dem?" she asks.

"Yuh drink the medicine weh mi mek. It will clear up the fiboils inna yuh belly."

"The what daddy?" I don't think I was hearing him right.

"The fiboils, weh she determined fi duh surgery fi tek out"

"Hey don't mek me reach a ground in here." It felt like my stomach was caving in to how hard I was laughing. "It name fibroids daddy and she has to do the surgery to remove it"

"Yuh suh eager fi guh under knife. Weh doctor can duh weh the earthly medicine cah duh? The naturals foods cure everything"

She hisses her teeth and fans him off "Ros, don't start wid dis again. I am going to do the surgery." 

To how he was behaving you would've though she was getting a BBL.

"It's painful, yuh see and know that." She tells him and he just walks away. He was never one to argue, my mother is the one with fire on her tongue.

"Damn natty head man" I hid my laughter.

"A your baby daddy" I whispered under my breath not loud enough for her to hear.

"Weh yuh seh?"

"Nothing" I said quickly.