PART ONE

Maas John was ploughing his field when a grinning Jah Blood landed in front of him.

“Is today! You hear what me say? Is today! All this white man business going done!” Jah Blood’s fuzzy locks shook as he slashed his hand through the air for emphasis.

Maas John turned his back and continued digging.

Jah Blood frowned. “I and I a share I good fortune and you turn you back to the I. That is why Rasta can’t stay at this place. Too much plantacrocy around here.”

“Wah mek yu nuh leff mi alone?”

Jah Blood leaned forward and whispered. “Me dream last night.”

Maas John ignored him.

“If is so you a go behave me not talking to you.” Jah Blood folded his arms and scowled.

“Good! Den go bout yu business.”

Jah Blood threw his hands wide and smiled. “The dream was the clearest one yet. Me see meself with one bag a money and a bird come take me right out the field. The prophecy is foretold! I man see I future and I and I a go prepare for the things Jah and I talk about. You can come with me so the two a we can set up field in the Motherland like Jah say.”

“Yu smoking weed, bwoy?”

Jah Blood hissed his teeth, spun around on his heels and walked away, his locks trailing behind him.

“Damned idiot,” Maas John muttered as he watched Jah Blood walk across the field. Maas John moved to step to the next row. His foot accidentally landed in the hole he’d dug and he fell with a loud

whoomph!

Pain spiralled through Maas John’s ankle and shot up his leg. “Wooiii! Mi foot! Woiiii!” Maas John struggled to stand but fell when the pain took flight. “Jesus Christ!” Tears came to his eyes.

“Maas John! Maas John! Is what?” Jah Bood knelt by Maas John.

Gently, Jah Blood took Maas John’s leg and lifted the hem of his pants. Maas John shut his eyes tight, pursed his lips and crinkled his brow.

“You have to take off the shoe.”

“Doan—”

Jah Blood ripped the old brown leather shoe from Maas John’s foot.

Maas John muffled a cry against his arm and quickly wiped away a tear. Maas John waited a few beats till the throbbing was concentrated at his ankle and his breathing was under control.

Just then, a sound made them turn their heads to the east.

A plane was coming over the mountain. The sun glinted off it as it dipped and rose again, the sound of its engine lowering with each climb and rising with each dip.

Jah Blood shielded his eyes with his hand.

Maas John craned his neck to see. The nplane was one of those little ones they sometimes saw overhead on the way to Portland or Negril. Private, no doubt. Both men were speechless as they watched it suddenly come straight at them.

Jah Blood dropped and rolled.

Maas John threw his body back to lie flat, momentarily forgetting the pain. His eyes – now wide with fright – followed the plane as it swooped low.

Something fell from the plane and landed at the edge of the field, then the plane flew into the side of the mountain and exploded.

“Boxcover!” Jah Blood exclaimed.

“Jesus!” Maas John said.

“Mercy,” they both whispered.

They heard a rumbling and turned to see a police Jeep coming at them, whipping up dust as it drove across Maas John’s field. Jah Blood rushed off to the area where the bag had dropped. Maas John watched Jah Blood unzip the bag then shriek. Jah Blood did a little jig and began laughing. Then, as if remembering the approaching Jeep, he snatched the bag off the ground, ran to the mango tree, jumped on the low branch and disappeared.

Maas John struggled to get to his feet, and cursed when once again the pain prevented him from using his leg. Grabbing hold of the hoe, he used it as a crutch.

By the time Maas John reached where the Jeep was parked near the edge of the cliff, Jah Blood was back on the ground. Jah Blood looked at Maas John with a childish grin. “Is the dream, Maas John! Is the dream! Mi did tell you say a today it a go happen.” Jah Blood clamped his hand over his mouth and snickered. “Is one whole heap of US dollars in there!”

“Yu tink it real?” Maas John said in a hush. “Yu tink is drug money?”

“Of course it real! Is Selassie send me Africa money.”

“Yu ‘ave to gi it to di police.”

“I not giving this to no Babylon bwoy. After all, Selassie send I and I a blessing and I and I don’t think I should refuse it, lest the wrath of God come down on I and I. Who you know ever insult God by turning down him blessing?”

“Hush yu mouth! Yu hear dat?”

A helicopter zoomed in from the east, disappeared in the sun to reappear when it zigzagged away from the light. Soon there were two helicopters over Hunter’s District.

The helicopters landed and three officers alighted and walked towards Maas John and Jah Blood. One wore the familiar khaki and carried an eight-month pregnant belly. All the good wishes and desperation in the world couldn’t make him reach the gun hugging his side. Maas John figured he was the senior officer.

“You saw what happened?” The senior officer addressed Maas John.

“Yu mean di plane wat com ova deh so an crash ova deh so? Of course wi see whappen. Whappen is it nearly lik wi over.”

“What the two of you doing out here?”

“Is my field.”

One of the officers who’d come in the Jeep leaned close to the senior officer and whispered. The senior officer then turned to address Jah Blood. “What you was doing in the mango tree?”

“Is a better view of the fire. It spread all cross the side of the hill. One wing down the river bed.”

The senior officer signalled to the others on the periphery, and they dispersed.

“Going need to talk to you both, so don’t leave the area.” The officer nodded once and moved on.

Maas John and Jah Blood watched the law men watch the fire. There wasn’t much anyone could do about the flames burning across Hunter’s Mountain except try to pee on them. Hunter’s Mountain was one of the remotest areas around. The incline was a full 90 degrees with soft shrubs and grass and no sensible footholds. The fire would burn itself out or run out of dried leaves to consume.

“Come, Maas John. Come mek mi help you go back to the house. Put yu hand on mi shoulder.”

“Mi doan need yu help. Mi can walk.” But Maas John slung his arm around Jah Blood’s shoulder and didn’t protest when Jah Blood held him around the waist.

It took a long time for them to get to Maas John’s house. Maas John kept stopping to argue with Jah Blood about the bag of money, which he felt Jah Blood should return and which he said the police would surely find.

At the edge of the field, near the road, yellow tape was strung from one side to the next preventing community members from entering, including Maas John’s wife, Mavis, who was at the front of the group arguing with the policeman standing guard.

Maas John cringed when he saw Mavis. Jah Blood laughed. Mavis was wearing her tattered slippers and was dressed in an old Chinese robe. It was clear for all to see that Mavis wore no support up top. Maas John assumed Mavis had been in the bathroom when she heard the noise of the crash.

Once beyond the yellow tape, Mavis rushed to Maas John, kneeling to look at his foot. “Jesus, John! Is what happen? Is the plane do it?”

Jah Blood laughed. “Him twist him foot in the hole him dig.”

Mavis hissed her teeth.

Jah Blood told Mavis how they saw the plane drop out the sky and fly straight into Hunter’s Mountain. People nearby were paying keen attention to Jah Blood’s account of the incident. They asked questions, but eventually the officer told them they had to move on. Mavis made to challenge the officer, but Maas John tugged at her arm.

“Mavis, com mek wi go home. Lata yu can investigate.”

Mavis harrumphed, but carefully placed Maas John’s arm around her shoulder to walk on one side, while Jah Blood walked the other.

Mavis and Jah Blood deposited Maas John in the old wicker chair on the verandah. Mavis hurried inside while Jah Blood took a seat on the top step. They had a good view of the field and Hunter’s Mountain in the distance. They could make out the officers and see the smoke from the fire. The helicopters were still in the field. Maas John shook his head over the destruction of the crop and the work he had done.

“A go report dem to di Parish Council.”

“Waste of time that. You think them going do nothing?”

“Of course dem mus do some’n! Smaddy ’ave to pay for di damages.”

“You see, that is why we have to keep the bag. Is we payment for all the crop them mash up.”

“How

we com into dis? No you one pick up di bag an you one hide di bag?”

Jah Blood sucked his teeth. “You think them would ever find it? Them think everything burn up with the plane. The bag is ours and ours alone.” Jah Blood grinned. “Plus, me and you a go back to Africa and nobody not going know no better. Marcus Garvey say—”

“Marcus Garvey nuh say nutt’n. ’Im di waan go back a Africa but dat nuh mean say di whula yu must run go dere. Poor Africa cyaan even feed itself much less yu going dere to burden di people.”

“With all that money we could a buy a village or two and live like kings.”

“Rascal! Eediat! Get off mi veranda. Go back a Africa! Gwaan! Tek weh yuself! Ediat!” With each word, Maas John shoved Jah Blood until he slipped off the step and fell to the ground.

The front door swung open and banged against the wall. “Is what going on out here?” Arms akimbo, Mavis stepped onto the verandah. “What all the shouting for?”

“Imagine I and I a help this man and him behaving like is pay him a pay me.”

“I never see two people argue so yet.” Mavis shielded her eyes and stared out into the distance. “Yu think the pilot got out?”

Aloud she wondered if it was a ganja plane or some other sort of unscrupulous business. “I going check it out some more.” She proceeded down the step, then as an afterthought instructed Jah Blood to get ice water for Maas John’s foot. She hurried away.

It was sundown and Jah Blood had changed the ice water for Maas John several times. They’d quarrelled some more about the bag, ate dinner, drank beer and quarrelled some more until it was time for Jah Blood to go home to bed.

The next morning, a knock at the front door woke Maas John. He shuffled from the bedroom to the front door and opened it to find the senior officer from the day before. The officer said he needed to ask Maas John some questions regarding the crash. He wanted to know what Maas John saw.

“Weh yu mean? Di plane com ova di hill top, it nearly lik wi inna wi head an den it crash inna di mountain wey you come find the fiah.”

“That’s all?”

“No. Who go pay fi mi crop an who go plant back mi land?”

The officer cleared his throat. “We’ll get to that. Did you see anything else?”

Maas John took a seat. He stretched out his leg. His foot didn’t feel so bad now that he was off the bed. Twice in the night he’d had to sit up and hang it over the side of the bed to stop the throbbing. But Mavis rubbed something on it and now it felt much better. Pity he didn’t have something for the anxiety that was causing his heart to race under the officer’s scrutiny. It was as if the man knew something.

The officer leaned forward, his body tense and anxious. He tapped his finger on the table in a staccato rhythm. “But you sure you didn’t see anything else, Mr John?”

Maas John felt uneasy, but in a pleasant voice said, “If yu tell mi weh yu waan, mi will si it.”

The officer laughed. “You is something else. You and the Rastaman too smart.” He moved to the door and paused before opening it. “By the way, where yu friend, the Rastaman?”

“Is not mi frien’. Mi lease ’im piece a land but is not mi frien’.”

“I went by his house and him not there. If you see him, tell him I need to ask him a few questions.”

Maas John hobbled to the front door to show the officer out. As soon as the man was on the other side, Maas John closed the door and slumped against it.

Shortly after the officer left, Mavis woke and fixed breakfast – callaloo and salt fish with cocoa, grated and boiled with cinnamon sticks and sweetened with condensed milk. As usual, she set two plates and two enamel mugs. “Where Jah B?”

“Doan know.”

“How you mean, you don’t know? Him nuh come every morning like clockwork.”

“Den di clock nah wuk dis mawning.”

“Nuh bother with me! Mi just a say that every morning him come and this morning him not here and mi already fix the food which mi really don’t want to waste, so you better tell me what going on between the two a you. Nuh yu best friend?”

“Doan say dem tings!”

Mavis narrowed her eyes.

Maas John mumbled an apology.

“You and Jah B a toil the soil for years now. Yes, oonu quarrel but oonu eat together and oonu drink together. Yu don’t see is the son yu never have? What yu would a really do if Jah B leave yu? Who else but Jah B did a go help yu walk back to the house and soak yu foot in cold water like him a nurse? Not even me would a touch yu ugly foot much less wash it.”

“Mavis! Yu can say some’n like dat?”

Mavis laughed. “Hush up, man. Yu too miserable. Anyway, I going over him house to see what going on.”

A few minutes later Mavis rushed back into the house. “Him gone! Him gone! The door wide open and the chest a drawers and the closet empty! Jah B gone!”

CONCLUSION NEXT WEEK