The Other Side of Paradise: A Memoir by Chin Staceyann

Author:Chin, Staceyann [Chin, Staceyann]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 2009-03-29T00:00:00+00:00

Part II

God Helps Those Who Help Themselves

I know that if I want to get out of Paradise I have to find a way to go to high school. If I end up at a secondary school I will be stuck doing needlework and home economics, with no chance of ever getting a college education. But high schools cost money and my mother has not sent one penny since she went away almost two years ago.

Andy says that since I am almost eleven years old, I am old enough to get a man to pay for me to attend Mount Alvernia. I want to ask Delano if his father could help me, but since we never speak when we pass each other on the street, I don’t know if that makes any sense. The most he will do is wave. I am so worried about the money, I can’t sleep at night. Finally, I ask the school secretary if I can just have a word with Sister Cecile. As soon as the door closes behind me in the office, I burst into tears.

“Come, come, now. There is nothing that cannot be solved with the Blessed Virgin and our Lord and Savior. What is the matter, my child?” Sister Cecile’s voice is clear and kind.

“Sister, I want to go to high school, but I don’t have any money! My father is rich, but he is never going to come and save me. My mother doesn’t remember that she has any children, and the boys who live in my auntie’s house are trying to rape me every day! I have to go to high school, Sister Cecile!”

Sister Cecile’s yellow wrinkled face is still while she listens. She tells me she can’t do much today, but if I pass my Common Entrance the nuns might have a word with my father for me.

After school I go back to the store to visit Uncle Desmond. He smiles when he sees me. “Come in, come in, man. Come meet your two cousins. Lief and April, this is Stacey, Uncle Junior’s daughter. April, take her round the back and show her where oonu like to climb up.”

Lief, who is eight or so years old, nods at me and then disappears. April is a pretty little girl of about six years old wearing the white uniform of Mount Alvernia Prep School. “Come on, Stacey.” She takes me by the hand and drags me past my father’s office to the stack of mattresses in the back.

“Okay, just hold on to the plastic covering and pull yourself up to the top. And try not to tear the plastic. People don’t like to buy mattresses that are not covered.”

After much huffing and groaning, we settle onto the crackling plastic-covered stack of mattresses. April digs into her pocket and pulls out a handful of coolie plums. She hands me half of the small tart fruits and looks me up and down. “So you are my cousin, then?”

“I don’t know.”

“What you mean, you don’t know? Is either you are my cousin or you not.

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