((ring…ring….ring) (caller ID… its Marshall calling!))
“Marshall, mi bredda … whaa gwan?”
Hey Bill. What time should I be at the airport?
“Plane doesn’t land until 12:05 so 12:30 – 1:00 is cris”
I will be there about 11:30 okay?
((laughing)) “Marshall, mi fren. The plane will still be in the air and you don’t need to be early, okay?”
I don’t want to miss you. I will be early!
“Okay. Mi bredda”
The conversation goes back and forth for a couple of minutes until his credit cuts out. I slowly put down the phone and looked aimlessly out the window of my little office. My emotions are ping-ponging around in my heart and in my head. I miss Jamaica. I miss Accompong Town and I miss… no, LOVE Marshall. I am trying to wrap my mind around that feeling. In my life I have only truly “loved” two people; my first wife (the second was more like “lust” lol.) and the second is my faithful friend, Marshall whom I love like my blood brother.
We met in Accompong Town a little more than 24 years ago under some unusual circumstances. I brazenly entered Accompong Town without permission from the Colonel and that, in those days, was not something easily tolerated. When Marshall took my arm and escorted me to the Colonel’s office, I was suddenly terrified and exhilarated at the same time. Colonel Martin Luther Wright questioned and interviewed me in front of a gathered group of the town’s residents peering through the open windows and door. Apparently satisfied with my answers and stated intentions, he turned to Marshall and told him I was allowed to “come and go from Accompong Town whenever I chose … I could stay as long as I wanted” and finally, “I was his responsibility”. An order he took very seriously.
For those next 24 years, I have traveled the length and breadth of Jamaica with Marshall as my guide and (if needed) protector. His presence was not as a bodyguard but as an intervener who could easily steer his way through possible problems like an Indy car driver avoids an accident. We traveled through Trenchtown, Tivoli Gardens, Old Hope Road, Morant Bay everywhere and anywhere we wanted to go with an easiness that belied my “plexion” and “affaren” difference.
((knock on the window)) I am suddenly brought back to “bizzaro reality” where I function as a front desk clerk. I mechanically explain the rules and take the IDs and money before giving them a receipt and a key to go to their appointed room.
Leaning back in my chair, I put on my headset and select “Peter Tosh Live” at maximum volume. I close my eyes and imagine myself on my verandah at my house in Accompong Town knowing that all dreams can become reality.
Peace and Guidance
