Chapter 5

Previous chapters here:  1, 2, 3, 4

“It ain’t look like he comin,” Achaia says to herself.   Her hands shake as she packs her clothes in cushion covers and paper-brown bags. Maybe she can get away with this impulse, this unsettling decision to leave Comrade and the children.

“He must be up in dat bitch ass. I cyar believe dis man goin call my child after dat whore.”  Even though Francesca, Achaia’s grandmother’s name, was the name on the birth certificate everyone called Achaia’s and Comrade’s first daughter by the name of Comrade’s mistress, Serena.

“Well, she could have him. I done see enough trouble with dat man. Wary! Wake up yuh sisters. Help dem put on deir clothes quick before yuh fadder come home. He go take care of all yuh good. Is only all yuh and he self he does study.”

They walk across the dark road. She’s expecting Comrade to come any minute now, stopping her from running away to her aunt’s, Lady Moore, place in Port-of -Spain. She sees no one appearing through the darkness.  She wraps baby Joshua safely between her arms and a blue blanket. Njeri hangs onto the tail of her dress, as Wary holds Serena’s hand walking ahead. They stop by the neighbor Bianca’s house. The lights are on. Achaia yells,  “Bianca!”, but no one answers. Desperately, she cries again, “Bianca! Bianca!”  Still no one answers, but the lights are on.  Bianca had agreed earlier in the day to look after the children while Achaia made her escape to Port of Spain.

She sluggishly falls to the ground and begins to cry. The children surround her, displaying their guilt for eating earlier that evening.  The KLIM powdered milk mixed with granulated sugar.

“He promise to take care of meh,” she sobs. “He go make tings all right. I so stupid to believe him. Ah should-ah just leave and go like Auntie say before all dis.”  She says waving her hands at the children.  “Ah cyar leave all yuh now, is all yuh ah stayin for.”

∞

In the family bible, her full name is printed, Bertha Achaia Sharp, but everyone calls her Achaia. It suits her better. The name itself meant grief and trouble, and she knew about grief and trouble so well she could hold in the pain, stand and continue working.

She was born in Mount George, Tobago, and spent most of her youth there before she was sent to live with her grandmother’s sister, Lady Moore in Trinidad. She is the first out of fifteen children of Njeri’s grandmother, Hilda Romeo.

I never had ah home. I never had a home dat is why I stay and put up with yuh fadder shit. Is because ah all yuh, ah stay.

Hilda couldn’t marry my fadder, Rupert Sharp, because he raped her. Is only out of shame and obligation she keep me. But Rupert did love Hilda. And seein dat she intended on havin me, he proposed, but she refused him. Dat didn’t stop Rupert from comin around lookin for Hilda. Some years later, when I was still ah baby, Rupert died of some kind of complications, sugar or something. I never really knew my fadder. I just knew of him.

I was nine when yuh grandmother was pregnant with yuh Uncle Augustus, and she decided to marry Keith Romeo. The only problem with dat was he didn’t want me to live with dem. Yuh grandmother ask she people if dey could take me in for awhile. At least until she could work someting out with Keith. But he didn’t want me to spend one more night under deir roof. It was like he couldn’t stand de sight of me. So, when ah come home from school, ah find all my clothes scattered across de front yard, and Keith sittin in de verandah with a cutlass in he hand, sayin, “Hilda ah doh want dat blasted child in meh house or else I’ll kill she. You better not step into dis yard if you want to live girl.” Some days after, ah started to shake real bad and ah tought dat ah was possessed by de Devil. But it was just bad nerves.  I’ll never forget the scorn in Keith eyes.

Meh own mother kick meh out. Ah was movin from house to house, from school to school until meh grandmother took me in and ah stay with her until she passed on. I was fifteen when Lady Moore, yuh grandmother sister, send for me.

Because of de movin around, ah never finished school and de only skill ah had was workin in ah store. Sellin. Dat is probably the first ting ah learn. Checkin money. Yeah, because ah use to work in meh grandmother’s parlor after school and on de weekends.

When ah started livin with Lady Moore, she tell meh dat ah had to help meh self. Ah was workin at Diamonds, the fabric store on High Street. It was at Diamonds dat ah meet Comrade.

At first I wasn’t interested in Comrade, but after de encouragement from Lady Moore, ah started to feel for him. Lady More was impressed by Comrade, because one ting, yuh fadder could talk. If anyting else dat man know is how to persuade people and he always have he self lookin like he could buy de world. Lady Moore at first tought dat he woulda make ah good man, but when she see where dis good man was comin from–how poor he family was–she tell meh ah should end it. Lady Moore did tell meh dat. She say dat Comrade would always be tied down by his family, but by den it was too late. I was already two months pregnant with Wary.

Yeah I was still ah young girl when ah had Wary. Ah was nineteen and yuh fadder was twenty two when we married. Lady Moore pleaded with meh to stay with her. But ah felt like ah had no other choice. I felt like ah had to say yes. In partin, Lady Moore said to me, “Mark my words Achaia, Comrade would always have to take care of his six brothers, four sisters, and his mother and father. He will never have time for you.” And believe it like we is God’s children, what she say is true.