Mother Country by Donald Hinds

Author:Donald Hinds
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Employment
ISBN: 9781910553091
Publisher: Hansib Publications

He finished reading the letter and stood staring at the piece of paper, as if he expected it to become a mirror whereby he could communicate with his sister. He had no idea how long he stood. He became conscious that Rosita had her arms around him.

“You’re crying,” she said, and she too began to cry.

“Lord, how I must have hurt Mama. She must think I blamed her. Perhaps I do blame her. Had she not taken up with Bullah Cameron the three of us would have been OK. We didn’t want anybody else. We could have made it. What did she see in him, anyway?”

“Stop it,” she kissed him softly on the cheek where the salty tears had left streaks. “If this is what you really think, then you’re not alone. It’s what everyone thinks, Gody Ivo, Head teacher Frazer, the Reverend Carr, people who don’t dislike her. These are people who really like her, and even me who loves her nearly as much as I love you.” She loosened her arms and walked away.

“You love me, your brother, more than you love your mother?” he asked.

“She’s my mother, and for that I respect and love her. You are my brother and my best friend. For that I trust and love you. The worst time of my life was the years since you’ve been away here in England with me out there in Jamaica. I was so lost. You’re at once my father, my brother and the great love of my life. Does that shock you?”

“Flattered.”

“I said that once to a girlfriend of mine at Wilberforce. She was shocked. She thought I was confessing to incest. She said she could never put her arms around her brother. It sounds as if she was afraid of him. Anyway back to what I was saying. I never could understand what my mother saw in Bullah, but I love my sisters and my little brother. You will too once you get to know them.”

“I’ve paid so little attention to Bullah’s children that sometimes they could be distant relations. I can’t even remember their birthdays.”

“I’ll remind you. The next one coming up will be Hector’s in July. Look, you have a calendar; I’ll write them on it. In descending order of age, not birthdays, first comes Juanita who’s fifteen, call her Anita or Neeta. Next comes Hector, he’ll be fourteen in July; next is Dona who is twelve and very pretty; and does she know it? Ana is ten and last of all, and I really mean it, is Teresa, who’s three. I pray they’re not thinking of making any more babies and that Teresa is what Jamaicans call the ‘washbelly’, for Mama gets thinner and thinner after every birth. Another one and she’ll die. Poor Mama. She could have done better. Sometimes I thought he must have raped her and when she found she was pregnant, with that Catholic upbringing, she gave in to him.”

“Don’t you ever think there’s a perverse god

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