The Trouble with the Mc Farlanes -excerpt from a short story by Austin Mitchell

The Trouble with the Mc Farlanes

a short story

by Austin Mitchell

          From his hiding place Keeble Mc Farlane could see the blood coming from Mr. Notice’s forehead from the stone he had just thrown at him. He carefully made his way from his hiding place and onto a dirt track that would take him back onto the main road. It was he who had broken the bottles on the lonely road. Mr. Notice’s car had developed a puncture and as the man came out of his car to fix the tire, Keeble had thrown the big stone straight at his face.

            When Keeble reached the village square there was consternation as persons told him that a car had just taken Teacher Notice to the Spanish Town Hospital as somebody had hit him down with a stone.

            Keeble stopped off in the square to get more news. His parents were never worried about the time he reached home.

            He saw Delmar Eason and Lando Wright, his classmates.

            “Somebody threw a stone and busted up Mr. Notice’s head. Was it you, Keeble?” Delmar asked.

            They knew that there was no love lost between Keeble and Mr. Notice. Most of the demerits he had gotten this term had been from Mr. Notice.

            “I wasn’t me. I don’t have anything against him for giving me all those demerits,” Keeble explained.

            “It should have been Mr. Lloyd, whose head was busted up. I’m not sorry for Mr. Notice. He had it coming for wanting to get us kicked out of the school,” Lando Wright remarked as they walked to the taxi stand.

            Keeble saw three Constables coming towards them. A police Sergeant and two policewomen were on the other side of the road.

            “I can bet that it was one of you boys who threw the stone and busted up Mr. Notice’s head. Which one of you did it?” one of the Constables asked.

            All three boys shook their heads in denial of the deed. Their bags and personnel were searched but nothing was found.

            The Sergeant came over to them.

            “You boys get a move on and go home. I have a feeling that it was one of you who threw that stone and injured Mr. Notice but we’ll find out who it was and lock him up,”he warned.

                                                            ***

            Keeble’s elder brother, Roland, was hurrying to meet his girlfriend and be introduced to some of her friends. Roland had heard a rumor that Carolyn was friendly with a guy attending her school. Roland had spent more years that he wanted to remember in Grade One at Eastwich All-Age School, now Eastwich Primary and Junior High.

            When Roland reached he saw Carolyn and some girls. There was also an Indian guy he knew from his village who went to the same school as Carolyn.

            “Meet Roland, my boyfriend, I was telling you girls and Delroy about,” Carolyn made to introduce him to her friends.

            There was snickering all around and Carolyn whirled around to look at the smirks on her friends’ faces.

            “He’s Roland Mc Farlane, remember him Sophia, Marla and Delroy?” Marlene asked.

            “Grandfather Time, of course I remember him. He never got out of Grade One,” Sophia said, cruelly.

            Carolyn felt as if her world was falling apart. She hadn’t known these things about Roland. If only he had a car, he could have just sped off with her, leaving his mockers in the dust.

            Roland looked at the girls’ faces. He knew them all as only Delroy had never attended Eastwich.

            “So what if I never finished school and they used to call me Grandfather Time. I have a good job now and I want to marry Carolyn as soon as she finishes up school.”

            Tears were welling up in Carolyn’s eyes. She had enough and stalked off, leaving her friends and Roland to continue shouting at each other. Suffice to say that Carolyn broke off her relationship with Roland two weeks later.

***

            Keeble’s second brother, Bindy, also found himself in a bit of a tiff. Bindy worked at a Government corporation and there he met Collette Redway. She was a petite girl of brown complexion and going on thirty years of age. Bindy had his own apartment in Twickenham Meadows and Collette had her own flat in Patrick City. They soon became intimate. Collette had already told Bindy that she had a child for a man, Les Scott. Les hadn’t given up on Collette and wanted them to be together again.

            Bindy was at work one day when his telephone rang and he picked it up.

            “Are you Bindy Mc Farlane?” the man asked.

            “Who wants to know?” Bindy asked.

            “If you’re Bindy Mc Farlane then I’m warning you off my woman, Collette Redway. You’ve been trying to befriend her, but I’m warning you that if you ever let me come to look for you, you’re going to be sorry,” Les warned.

            “I’m a licensed firearm holder, guy. You come near my workplace or home and I’ll let you feel how the bullets from a Magnum 45 feels,” Bindy warned.

            Les laughed out loud.

            “I think that’s just an empty boast and you don’t have a gun.”

            The two men continued their verbal sparring for several weeks. Sometimes Bindy would be the caller while at other times it was Les. Caught in the middle, Collette was in a quandary. It was all over the office. Bindy had spread it.

            But unknown to Bindy, Collette was still friendly with Les and wanted to leave him and return to Les.

            “Far as I know Collette is still my woman. It’s you who are trying to get her back by calling and threatening me, but you won’t get her back,” Les warned Bindy one day.

            It was true what Les had said. Collette had left Bindy after their six month’s romance. She had complained that he was mean. Bindy was not in the habit of giving women money. They were the ones who were always spending money on him. He was always the one who broke off the relationship when he got tired of a girl or her generosity had dried up. Collette seemed to be breaking new grounds as far as Bindy was concerned and he didn’t like that.

              A month later, on a Friday afternoon Bindy was accompanying Collette back from the canteen when a tall powerfully built man called out to her.
Read the full story in ' Going to the bushes to cut Firewood'.