AncilWhile preparing the drinks Kyle Keegan finally answered, “I don’t know nah. I just wake up one morning and she was gone. All she stuff was gone too. She eh even say goodbye or nothing.”
“How long ago was that?” Kate asked.
“About four years ago. I never see or hear from she again since then.” Kyle Keegan shared the cups around and started pouring the drink. “I rel take it to heart and thing eh but I is a big man. I don’t cry over these bitches. I too big for that kind of shit. But Clinton rel cry for he mommy. Rel cry.” I understood ‘rel’ to mean really and by the affirmed look on Kate’s face, she understood the same thing.
“That’s so sad,” Kate said.
“Don’t judge a book by its cover. He looking happy but he had hard times too. And I think that that’s how it is with most people. Most people have a sad story no matter how happy they looking. Life just have a way of fucking you in the ass, you know what I mean?” Kyle Keegan said.
“Oh I know exactly what you mean,” Kate affirmed.
“But you see, I’s a man who not going to let a little prick in the ass stop me from taking care of my little boy or living my life and being happy.”
“Interesting analogy,” I commented.
“But why were you so mean to us back at the cannons?” Kate asked.
“Stress you know. Is rel stress and the last thing I wanted was some stupid tourists asking me a bunch of questions about Tobago like if I’s some tour guide or something.”
“Well we’re not really tourists and we had no intentions of asking you about Tobago,” I said.
“So what allyuh wanted?” Kyle Keegan asked.
“I wanted to tell you about my mother,” Kate said.
“Your mother?” Kyle Keegan asked, sounding slightly confused.
“Yes,” Kate said.
“She gorgeous like you?” Kyle Keegan asked.
“Yes. She is very beautiful but she is dead.”
“Huh,” Kyle Keegan said sounding somewhat disappointed in her answer. “So why-“
“One of my mother’s dreams in life was to fly to Tobago and find the most beautiful man she could find and live with him for the rest of her life. But she died before she could accomplish it so I’m trying to honor her death by-“
“Finding that Tobago man and telling him all about your mother,” Kyle Keegan interrupted, finishing Kate’s sentence.
“Yes,” Kate smiled.
“Well, I honored,” Kyle Keegan said, leaning back and taking a sip of his drink. “I all ears.”
“Well,” Kate started, glancing at me then back at Kyle Keegan. “Karen was a Scorpio and she loved books. All kinds of books, from sci-fi to romance to thrillers…”
Kate and I spent the rest of the day at Kyle Keegan’s house where Kate spent hours talking about her mom. Kyle Keegan seemed really intrigued by what Kate had to say about her mother who seemed absolutely nothing like her father. She had been loving, caring, and generous but somewhat of a push over which was probably why she was taken advantage of not only by Vince but by her friends and family too. She was the typical “yes” woman who tried to make everyone in her life happy. Everyone except herself. She struggled with depression for most of her life and even though she tried to hide it Kate knew. Her mom’s suicide was on account of depression but also on account of her love-hate relationship with her abusive husband. Right before she overdosed on Meth and antidepressants Karen left a note to Kate but it was ripped to pieces by Vince before Kate got to read it. The only living person who read the contents of the letter was Vince but he never told Kate or anyone what was on it. Kate said that she thought a lot about the letter and what her mom wrote on it, expressing her interest in the content. She kept asking her father to tell her what was on it but he never did. He just never did.
The Tobago trip ended the same way it started; on the same day. Kyle Keegan dropped us back at Fort King George at around 7 pm and from there we met up with Kyle and Juliet and got the next boat trip back to Port of Spain.
The next few days at the shelter were relatively quiet as all the children were under strict guidance by Tanty Mavis to study for their Christmas exams. Kate helped Juliet a bit with her school work but the majority of the day she spent with me, which was good. Kate and I were the only people under the age of 20 who weren’t studying. Some children tried playing but Tanty Mavis quickly sent them back to work. She took exam time very seriously but who can blame her? Education is key.
Everything was pretty chill at the shelter but not on one particular day. One particular day was the opposite of chill. Kate and I were on our bed caught up in our own worlds. Kate sat up on the bed leaning back on the head-rest reading another Trinikid book which was called Folks Of Lore. I had never read it but Kate was so into it that I wanted to.
Folks Of Lore was one of Trinikid’s late releases after The Midnight Robber, Jumbie Island and Jumbie World. I, on the hand, was just lying on the bed throwing a tennis ball at the ceiling and catching it.
“This Trinikid person really knows how to enthrall me. He really gets me,” Kate said, in the small gap between reading the book and turning the page. “I really wish I knew him or at least his real name.”
“Yeah,” I said, focusing more on catching the tennis ball than responding to Kate’s comment. “I think he writes a couple of books with his real name. Books that focus more on real life themes and issues,” I said, still throwing the ball to the air and catching it. “But for some reason his real name eludes me right now. I think it’s something like Hansel, Axil, Anil”
“I wonder why he calls himself Trinikid.”
I stopped throwing the ball in the air, sat up and said, “I happen to know the answer to this. It’s a play on words that most people never noticed until he actually said it on his blog.”
“Explain,” Kate said.
“Well, he’s from Trinidad and the word Trinidad has the word dad at the end, you know, like father. So he replaced the word dad with the word kid since he’s a son of the soil and whatnot.”
“But then……” Kate started before Timothy came into the room and cut her off by saying, “Kate, Ron, allyuh have a visitor outside.”
Kate looked at me confused but I shrugged in response with my lips pursed. I was just as clueless and baffled by the identity of the visitor.
We followed Timothy to the front galvanized area where Tanty Mavis stood talking to a chubby man who I noticed right away. It was Vince. I knew Kate noticed him too because her face went to stone.
“Why are you here?” Kate asked.
Vince greeted her with a smile that seemed somewhat genuine. Somewhat. “I came to take my daughter home.”
“What, so you can rape her again?” I snarled.
“I’m a different man now,” Vince said.
“Bullshit!!!” Kate shouted.
Tanty Mavis stood in between the argument, standing a bit to the side but she didn’t say anything. She just listened, turning her head to the person talking.
More and more people made their way out to the front and simply stood there without intervention but I considered them all back up of some sort.
“It’s true. I’ve realized that I’ve been wrong and I want to start over with you. I want to be a better dad. The least you could do is give me a chance to.”
“I would have believed you if you hadn’t said that a million times before,” Kate said.
“I mean it this time.”
“Come on Ron,” Kate said, grabbing me by my hand and pulling me back inside.
“Wait!” Vince shouted. “I have Karen’s note!”
