Ancil“Break what ice? It have no ice here. This is the Caribbean,” Kyle Keegan scoffed.
“I — I — I.” It was the first time that I heard Kate stutter or slur her speech in any way. She was usually very precise and direct with her words, but not this time. She was probably for the first time since I met her, at a loss for words.
“She meant it figuratively,” I said.
“Stupid Americans,” Kyle Keegan said.
“Maybe we should find somebody else,” I said to Kate softly.
“The least we could do is try,” Kate whispered.
Kate got a bit closer to Kyle Keegan who was now seemingly back in his zone staring at the ocean. “Can you just hear me out for one second?”
Kyle Keegan didn’t respond or even react.
“Well, I’m going to speak anyway. You don’t need to respond, just listen,” Kate insisted.
Kyle Keegan then turned and walked away briskly.
“Hey!” Kate shouted as he walked away.
She proceeded to follow after him but I held her back and said, “I’ll handle this.” I followed after Kyle Keegan grabbing him by his arm which had quite a lot of muscle.
“Boy, you looking for a slap or what?!” Kyle Keegan exclaimed.
“Right now your book cover is really fucked up but I don’t want to be that guy who judges books by their fucked up covers. I’ve made that mistake enough in the past and I don’t want to make it again. I strongly believe that your story is way better than your cover and I’m willing to explore it for the sake of my girl even if means getting slapped in the face, or punched, or kicked in the gut.”
Kyle Keegan looked at me for a while seeming somewhat intrigued “You willing to do all that for your girl?”
“And more.”
“You know what,” Kyle Keegan started, nodding his head with his lips pursed. “I could respect that, I really could respect that.”
“You can?” I asked, surprised.
“Yeah man. I was the same way with my wife, till that bitch leave my ass.”
“Why did she leave you?” I asked.
“Let we talk about this over some drinks and your girl could tell me whatever she want to tell me.”
“Umm, sure.” His sudden hospitality was weird but understandable. I assumed he found me relatable.
I told Kate and we both followed him to his car, after calling Kyle of course. Kyle told us that he was at the mall with Juliet and that they would have taken a while since they got caught up buying Christmas gifts and whatnot. He seemed rather thrilled at Juliet’s engagement in the buying process; so thrilled that he didn’t even care that we were getting into a car with a strange man.
I must admit, I was a bit suspicious of Kyle Keegan at first especially after he started driving into lonely woods and in scary neighborhoods where bareback people looking all thuggish with nappy hair and sagging pants stood at the sides of the streets just looking at us as we passed. But I’m going to cut the suspense short by saying, Kyle Keegan had no intentions of harming us. He drove us directly to his home which was quite a surprise to me because I thought he was taking us to a bar since he kept saying that he was taking us for a drink. But so it goes.
His house was run down and old which seemed to be the trend for the kind of places Kate and I found ourselves in since we went broke. The house was made entirely out of red bricks and smelt like feet; dirty feet.
“Daddy daddy daddy!” A little boy ran into the living room all jolly and excited as Kate and I sat down.
“You come back from by grandma already?” Kyle Keegan asked his son who looked about nine years old.
“Yeah, grandma was not feeling good.”
“Oh ok. Well daddy have some company. Go bring some of the Scotch Whisky for me in the fridge and some cups nah,” Kyle Keegan said to his son.
The little boy then scampered off to the kitchen and Kyle Keegan sat down in the living room which was basically a couple of sofas surrounding a wooden table and a small television.
“What’s his name?” Kate asked.
“Clinton.”
“He seems happy, you must be a great dad,” Kate said.
“He happy now. He wasn’t always like that nah. He mother just up and leave without even saying goodbye. He take it hard for a while but he eventually get over it.”
“Why did she leave?” I asked. Clinton came in the room with a bottle of Scotch Whiskey and four cups one inside the other, placed it on the table then skipped away.
