The Night Lovers by Ausin Mitchell - HTML preview

Chapter One

Commercial farmer, Greg Dixon, could still remember what Sue Harper shouted at him at Keswick High school that day, nearly five years ago.

“Greg Dixon, you’re a fool and I’ll never talk to you again.”

It all began because one of his friends had told him that he had seen her and another boy coming from the Hill View hotel last evening. Without asking any questions, he had confronted the boy, who had denied it. Not believing him, he had confronted her, and they had a parting of the ways. Both of them had said some strong words to each other. She had been crying. They had been friends since grade nine and went everywhere together. In grade eleven, they became intimate when they managed to save up enough money to rent a room at that same hotel one Saturday evening. He had to put it down that he had been tricked, but up to now he couldn’t understand why. The boy who had done it never benefited because he never became her boyfriend. He had tried to reconcile with her, but it had failed. She left soon after that to join her father in the United States.

After leaving high school, he went to study at the College of Agriculture in Portland. When he returned home, he decided to become a commercial farmer. He rented lands in both St. Catherine and St. Mary. He was supplying the canteens at both the primary and high school in Keswick. He supplied several supermarkets and hotels with produce from his farm.

***

Linda Brown was the supervisor of the canteen at the primary school. The first time he saw her, he thought she looked fashionable. She was dressed in a long-sleeve white blouse and a black skirt. She was a petite woman and looked to be in her middle twenties.

“Mr. Dixon, how nice to see you. It’s the first time I’m meeting you. All the other times you’ve sent one of your workers with the stuff. Now you’ve come yourself. I always wondered when I was going to meet you.”

“Now that I’ve met you, the guys told me that I have to meet you and I’m glad I did. You’re so beautiful.”

She laughed and said.

“And you look so handsome and well groomed.”

It was his turn to laugh. He turned to her and said.

“Could I have your number?”

But she shook her head.

“I have a very jealous boyfriend. He doesn’t like when I take calls from anybody, especially other men.”

“We’d be just casual friends.”

“I’d have to think about it.”

***

About two weeks later, she said to him.

“I heard about you and Dahlia Chance, Georgia Kirlew and Sue Harper.”

“I was seeing both Sue and Dahlia. Georgia and I were nothing more than good friends.”

“I knew why you and Sue broke up. Why did you and Dahlia break up?”

“Her old boyfriend was now driving a car and she was living in Kingston. I guess that’s the reason.”

“I heard that you have a baby mother, named Deanne.”

“Yes, she has a son for me, but we’re not seeing each other again.”

At fetes, parties and socials, he would go, and he and she would dance together. They soon started a relationship. She had ditched her old boyfriend, Sammy. Two months into the relationship, he started coming around again.

“Why is Sammy here?”

“I don’t know, I never invited him.”

She went to dance with him, further infuriating Greg.

“What’s really going on here?”

“He’s my old boyfriend. I’m not willing to give him up.”

He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He stormed off, jumped into his pickup and drove home. The next day she called him.

“Greg, I’m sorry, I hope you’ll understand.”

“Did you ever leave him?”

He tried calling her, but only got her voice mail. A week later she called him.

“Greg, I’m sorry, but he and I have been seeing each other for too long for me to give him up like that.”

“I understand Linda, I guess I was wrong to want you to get rid of him like that.”

“I’m glad that you understand, and you can always call me, and we’ll talk,” she told him and ended the call.

***

A month later it was the end of the summer term. She didn’t return for the new school year. He understood that she was at a new school in Portmore.

***

Merryll Dacres was the local nurse at the health center in Keswick. She was in her early thirties and the mother of three children, two girls and one boy, all pre-teens. They didn’t live at the two-bedroom house adjoining the health center as the roof was in some amount of disrepair. He had met her once or twice. She was a tall, copper colored woman. She had big, but firm breasts, a narrow waist, but wide hips. She and her children were standing outside the health center one evening apparently waiting for a taxi when he saw them. He offered her a ride home to Norris, two miles away, which she accepted.

“Winston promised to pick us up two hours ago. I think he might have gone to one of his women’s houses and forgotten about us.”

“I didn’t know he was like that.”

“These young girls in Keswick, Norris, Leeds and Lobbans are so wild. They’re willing to sleep with any man for money. The amount of them, I have to beat, to leave him alone. I heard that the Keswick back road is worse than the Portmore one. Even girls from Kingston and Spanish Town come over. Sometimes they even fight over the men.”

He had heard those stories but didn’t know if they were true.

“Greg, what happened to you? I heard that you and Linda broke up.”

“After we started seeing each other, she said she wasn’t willing to give up her boyfriend, Sammy. I had always suspected that she was still along with him and so we broke up.”

They had reached her gate now and he stopped the pickup. She gave the children the keys to go and open up for her.

“I heard that you have a baby mother, Deanne and another girl, Harlene, fighting over you now. Is any of that true?”

“Deanne and I broke up a while back and Harlene and I have just started talking. It was while I was on my third semester break that she got pregnant for me.”

“I like you, Greg, but put ten years on my age and I could almost be your mother. I started having my children late. Winston is trying to get a job in Cayman as an education officer. If he gets through, it will mean uprooting my children and settling in a different country for I don’t know how long. I’ll see you around,” she said and went into her house.

***

The next Friday evening they were talking outside her gate after he had again dropped her and her children home.

“Winston is going away for two weeks. He’s trying to nail down a job down there. I’ll be here all by myself. Don’t you want to come and stay with me?”

“But you’ll have your children as company.”

“That’s not that kind of company I mean. Anyway, I don’t want you to leave your girlfriends for me.”

She came out of the pickup and went into her house.

***.

By Monday he understood that Winston had left for the Cayman Islands. She called him that evening.

“Winston has gone away as I was telling you. Would you like to have dinner with me up at the River Road hotel this Wednesday evening?”

“What time shall I come?”

“Say about seven o’clock.”