It is Labour Day. But instead of working on a project or heading to beach, in keeping with tradition, approximately 200 persons gather at a house in St Elizabeth.

They wanted to see for themselves what so many have been talking about for weeks — the torment of one family by a ‘duppy’.

They came in chartered buses, from as far as Kingston, Annotto Bay in St Mary, Montego Bay, Bull Savannah and adjoining communities to sit on blocks, stones, half-finished buildings, waiting patiently for action.

A vendor seized the moment, walking through the crowd selling biscuits, cheez trix, Schweppes and white rum complete with ice. Within an hour, her goods were sold out, her transparent plastic bag bulging with her earnings. Happy with the sales, she sent for more goods.

“Rum! Rum! You can’t go in without you drink some rum!” she shouted. “No duppy can’t lick yuh if you drink or rub up with rum.”

Whether persons believed that story or just enjoyed the taste of the alcohol, a number of them held plastic cups with rum on ice.

“How nothing not happening?” some questioned anxiously.

“Mi can’t come from so far and nutten nuh happen,” others said in high spirits. “Mek we drink some rum and go in the house go see what a gwaan.”

A sharp sound sent a number of persons jumping to their feet in an attempt to flee the scene. But loud laughter erupted after people realised that it was only a piece of zinc disturbed by one of the watchers that had caused the sound. So anxious and tense was the atmosphere that any sound brought a question and the shout of “duppy!”.

But while those on the outside were enjoying and capitalising on the situation, the five occupants of the house, which included a girl aged 12, had nothing to smile about.

Later in the day, one man who identified himself as a son-in-law to the owners, said that the house is stoned constantly and items inside destroyed and burnt without the perpetrator being seen.

“You don’t see who stoning the house, the house is burnt and you don’t see who burning it. That is what is going on,” he said, as he sat beside his mother-in-law under a tree.

“It throw bottle, it throw crockery, anything it can catch and you don’t see who is throwing it or where it is coming from,” he said. “Anytime a day, anytime a night. Anytime it feel to do it, it do it. I’m here 24/7 so I see what is going on.”

But, he said, the cause still remains a mystery.

“It’s a puzzle, and if we knew what is the puzzle then we would solve the problem,” he said.

According to the man, the damage to the three-bedroom house over the past month was running at more than $2.5 million.

Last Thursday when the Jamaica Observer team went to the house, the father was seen on the side of the dirt road leading to his home with his daughter who was applying vinegar to a bleeding cut on his head.

Their intention, he told the Observer, was to get to the hospital for treatment, however, no one wanted to take them in their vehicles.

The cause of the cut?

He had just been hit by a rock, could not say from where it came.

The man, aged over 70, stood trying his best to hide from the mid-day sun.

“Right now, nobody nuh want even carry we in the vehicle go doctor. Nobody nuh seh make them help we,” he fumed.

But that was not his only complaint.

“Everyday people a come and them nuh say bwoy, mek them carry one shirt come give you or anything fi eat. Look there now, everything in the house burn up, and nothing,” he said.

The family say they have been tormented by a mysterious fire within the house, which has left them with only the clothes on their backs, nowhere to sleep and a house bare of furniture.

“Everything bun up,” he said, cursing to himself. “Mattresses bun up, clothes bun up, settee bun up and nobody nuh seh help,” he said, hissing his teeth and heading back inside the house with his daughter in tow.

His wife remained sitting on a plastic chair on the dirt track beside her son-in-law who tried to keep the crowd away from her.

By now, a large crowd had converged at the front and sides of the house. Some in straw hats and sunglasses, waiting patiently.

“Mi and mi son in the van and the van drive off,” the 70-year-old, known in the community as ‘Ms Desna’, said quietly.

“Mi know mi hand clean, mi nuh know a wah do mi so,” she said in a hushed tone. “Mi know mi and mi husband hand clean.”

Asked whether she could say the same for her daughter, the woman chuckled.

“The hands are clean until we get the mystery solved,” her son-in-law interjected before suggesting that the events are affecting his mother-in-law.

“She is 70 years old, she suffers from high blood pressure, high cholesterol and had a heart attack, so put yourself in her position and see how you would feel,” he said.

“Wi want help, everything burn up out of the house and everything mash up. All the glass them mash out,” she said.

“Pot knock off of the stove so we can’t cook. We nuh eat. Dem fraid to go bathe. We nuh sleep. We have to sit up and try sleep. No mattress. No settee. See all mi shoes dem gone, she said pointing to a worn-out pair of slippers on her feet.

The elderly women, who said she is a Christian, offered that what was needed was for Christians to visit and pray.

“It can’t be anybody weak. They have to be strong,” she said. “It need some real Holy Ghost people.”

Ms Desna has lived in the community all her life, She has occupied her present home 60 of those 70 years. She has been married for 47 years.

Ms Desna said that leaving the community and staying with family members is not an option as family are fearful that something similar will happen at their homes.

Sebert, one of the sons, also asked for help from the number of persons who come there daily.

“We want help from the church to come in. It don’t make sense we talk and nothing nah go on. We not getting any help because we nuh see nobody a come in come do nothing at all. I want to get the thing out the house completely. We want prayer from the church. People to pray out the house,” Sebert said. “Because we see people coming here but is the same problems we having everyday. It has been happening for one month and four days.”

He admitted that the stories circulating about the burning of the mattresses and other items in the house, and occupants getting hit by stones and pieces of blocks, are true.

“This morning, rock fling and buss up mi old man head,” Sebert said, the fatigue in his voice evident. “We want help to see if we can see where this really a come from. Because nuff people come and say ‘dillarance’ and seh this and seh that but we nuh have no proof seh is dillarance to pay no money nowhere. So we would directly like to know where it a come from,” he said.

“That is the problem, ’cause mi nuh really know what can cause dem yah something yah. This is the first time I am seeing something like this. We put it out there but we not getting the assistance we need. We need help,” he said.

“To what I see a gwaan right now, I feel life could be lost out of it because is pure head injury and so,” the son said. “Bwoy, the Bible tell you seh nothing nuh too hard fi God, enuh, so you have to just believe in the Almighty. ‘Cause if man send this come yah and God seh enough is enough, it can move. Because a one month and four days we a go through this thing,” he reiterated.

“Right now, mi can’t eat because mi already stress out. Right yah now mi don’t know what to do. Because right now is not that I couldn’t move, I can move, but mi don’t want to leave mi parents dem, you understand?” he asked. “Mi deh here and see all mi mother get push down a ground, mi see all them things deh. Mi don’t know what to do. When mi deh here and see all them things deh, them things deh get mi weak out.”

Despite becoming a spectacle for many, Sebert said that the family is getting support from the community, but because of the stone-throwing, he tries to keep his distance from the house.

As a farmer, he has stopped going to his field because he has to stay close to the house to help.

“Things getting serious more and more. Only God alone can help this situation. And it a get worse and worse. We just need to know where it coming from,” Sebert said.

According to one neighbour, despite the scepticism of many, what she has been seeing over the month is abnormal.

“What I see not normal,” she said. “Stove burn out, fridge drop down in the house, TV burn up, mattress burn up. They cooking and when they turn round pot gone and they find it outside. They seasoning up meat and by they turn around the meat throw down at the doorway and look like it cook,” the neighbour said.

“One preacher man come, and when him go in him car the car just going round in circles, just a go round in circle. And him saying ‘a me drive this ,enuh, mi not coming out’ and then it drive off wid him and go down the road go stop. No, things nuh normal. Me witness that,” the woman said.

Another said she has witnessed blows being administered.

“The father — is him get some lick down there; lamp, chair, anything them ketch them use lick. And the daughter, a she a get the lick them!” the woman said, explaining that she believes the blows were being delivered by ghosts. “They not even allowing them to bathe and so. For days them in one suit of clothes and they can’t bathe. So they go in the bathroom to bathe, rock stone would kill them! Food a throw way, grocery a throw way, everything a throw way.”

One man added: “If you go there and sound like you siding with the family you get lick to! You have to sound like you backing evil if you go there. It may sound funny, but is true.”

Last Thursday afternoon, Richard Parchment, the member of parliament for South East St Elizabeth, visited in the family, bearing three bags of groceries.

“I don’t know what is happening. I just heard about it and I was here two weeks ago and I promised to take back some things to mommy, so here I am,” Parchment told the Observer.

“I hear that things start happening again, so I come to see what is happening, to be told what is happening and to lend our support,” he said. “I am not a scientist, I am not a magician, I am not a preacher, but I just want to come and be with the family as the political representative.”

Regarding the destruction of property, Parchment said that he planned to do a number of things to try to rectify the situation.

“We plan on assisting them. We brought some groceries for the time being and we want to assess the situation to see what we can do to help them out,” he said. “These are poor people in need and a lot of people taking advantage of them. A lot of lies being told, a lot of stories being made up and we want to dispel some or the rumours and deal with it. If there are paranormal activities happening here, we want to see for ourselves. I have been hearing, I have not observed anything.

“I see some signs of fires here. I don’t know how it come. I hear that people get licks, I don’t know how they get hit, but we are here to assist them to get back their lives in order and as you can see, a whole spectacle is being made of the situation while these people suffer and we want to ensure that their lives return to normal as soon as possible,” Parchment said.