Sleepless Nights in the Hills by Ausin Mitchell - HTML preview

Chapter Two

Friday night Mark attended a party in St. Mary with Tena. It was being kept at a friend’s house. They were dancing together.

“I want to come and spend a weekend with you.”

“I told you that I live with a woman.”

“So, what am I to you, some side chick?”

“I thought you said that your mother quarrels when you sleep out.”

“You’re just trying to find excuses. She knows that I’m seeing you, so why would she quarrel if I told her I was going to spend a weekend with you?”

“That woman just stays with me sometimes. I’ll tell her to stay at her house any weekend you want to come.”

They left and went to the Excell hotel to sleep before he took her home. He came home Saturday afternoon. He was surprised to find it raining in that part of St. Catherine as he hadn’t seen any in St. Mary.

***

“Mark, do you have a woman in St. Mary?” Hazel asked.

They were on the veranda sitting in some plastic chairs.

“I told you that whenever I stay over there it’s my relatives I’m staying with.”

“You can go on talking. I wasn’t born yesterday. Why were my calls all going to voice mail?”

“My phone needed charging, that’s why.”

“Your woman, Rhea and I just finished quarrelling.”

“You two are always at each other.”

“I want to know what has she got that I don’t have, that you can’t let her go?”

“She’s just a good friend of mine. Sure, I sleep with her sometimes, but you are my woman.”

“She says that she’s your real woman. She told me about some of the things you did with her.”

“Don’t believe everything that she tells you.”

That night Mark and Hazel attended a party being kept in Keswick. He was surprised when Rhea turned up with Jake Eason. He and Hazel were dancing when she saw him looking in their direction.

“Why are you looking like that? I told you that he was her man.”

“I told you that I’m not in a relationship with her.”

“You told me that you were sleeping with her, and she admitted to sleeping with you.”

They continued dancing together to several genres of music. He bought food and drinks and they sat and had it.

“I know that Jake is her man. She was just sleeping with you to see what she could get.”

“I’m not paying her to sleep with me.”

“She has a lot of money. Both he and you are paying her for services rendered.”

They resumed dancing again. Later they went home to sleep.

***

David and Leta were also at the party and were dancing together.

“Everywhere we go and you see Mark it’s like you can’t stop staring at him. I think you want to return to him.”

“You know that’s not true. I’m not in love with him. Ever since he returned, I’ve told you that I don’t want him back.”

She knew that David had other women. One of his women, Gail Dyer, was at the party, but he hadn’t danced with her. She would have prevented that from happening. She remembered when he got Lovette pregnant three years ago. It caused a scandal in the community as she was married to sand miner, Val Elliot. They continued dancing together. He went and bought food and drinks and they sat and consumed it. As she sat eating and drinking, she knew she was caught in a trap. If she left him and went to Mark, it would be like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. She would be fighting Hazel and Rhea plus the woman he had in St. Mary for him. She knew that David had other women besides Lovett and Gail. She dreaded the thought that sooner or later she would have to choose between these two men. They resumed dancing. With all David talking about going back to Mark he knew their secret and that there was no return. At thirty years of age, she was still a beautiful woman. She was of brown complexion. She was tall, with a narrow waist and wide hips. Many of her and Mark’s mutual friends had struggled to understand why he had left his beauty queen fiance to do a business marriage in America.

***

Sunday afternoon, Mark called Rhea.

“What were you doing at the party last night with Jake?”

“I was only there with him because he invited me.”

“What kind of foolishness is that? You just turned up at a party because he invited you. So, you would have gone with any man under the same pretext?”

“You were gone out with Hazel. You didn’t even ask me if I wanted to go out too.”

“Does he and you have something going on?”

“No, we’re just good friends.”

“If I ever suspect that you’re seeing him, I’ll just stop talking to you,” he said and ended the call.

***

In the evening he went over to Rhea’s house in Norris, two miles away. He was still not satisfied about her explanation as to why she came to the party with Jake. They were sitting on her veranda in some plastic chairs.

“I’m asking you again, are you sleeping with him?”

“Of course not, I told you that I was at home, bored as hell. He asked me to go with him and I did.”

“Did you sleep with him last night?”

“You asked me already and I told you no. I don’t know why you’re asking me all these questions. It’s Hazel who is spreading rumors about me. What about Leta? I heard on the grapevine that you’re going back to her.”

“She and David seem to be happily married although he’s keeping other women with her, but she doesn’t want to admit it. I’ve made attempts to help her with my daughter, Debbie, but she has rejected them.”

“I know about him and Lovett and Gail, but I’ve seen him driving around the village with other women in his car.”

***

Monday afternoon, Leta was about to leave school when her cell phone rang. Hazel was on the line.

“Is it true that you want to leave David for Mark?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t want him back. You and Rhea are fighting over him, but you can keep him,” she said and ended the call.

***

Half an hour later, Rhea called her.

“Leta, why don’t you give Mark a break? From he returned home you’ve been after him to come back to you. You had him ten years ago and lost him. He’s mine now, so please leave him alone and stay with your husband. You had better think twice before you look in his direction.”

“I’m not looking him again. I had him once and you should ask him why he left me? So why should I go back to him? You should be concerning yourself with Hazel. You and she are engaged in a battle royal over him. Why should I get involved?”

***

Leta had just finished quarrelling with Rhea when Lovette called her.

“Why don’t you leave David and go back to Mark like you’ve always wanted? I know what you were trying to do. You were trying to prevent David from dancing with me. I’m along with him and you can’t stop that again.”

“It’s not only him you’re sleeping with, but every available man in Keswick and surrounding comunities.”

“Yes, I’m sleeping with every man that I can find. But you behave like an angel in front of David, but behind him you’re sleeping around.”

“Lovette, name one man apart from Mark and David with whom I’ve been associated.”

“I know what I’m talking about. What about you and Carl Dacres? Even now David still believes that you gave him a jacket.”

“Carl can’t tell you anything about me because we were only good friends.”

“One day the truth will come out. I just hope the shock won’t be too much for him.”

“Lovett, I wasn’t part of the agreement for you to leave your husband for David and I was to leave him for Mark. I didn’t know a thing about it until I heard that you were pregnant for him so don’t blame me for what is happening to you now.”

“Nothing is happening to me now. I live somewhere and I’m working. I drive my own car and my husband, Val, supports his children.”

“Well, you won’t get me to leave David, so that you can have him, goodbye,” Leta told her and ended the call.