Stredwick

T here was a time when you stood a fifty per cent chance of being picked in Kingston. Thieves abounded, some very young and some oldsters. I was in a taxi in April 2015 and the driver was relating to us about pickpockets. He said that they used to come out in droves especially on a Friday. They usually had a leader. He also said that some of them were trained in the art of picking people’s pockets. Some of them would be dressed in khaki uniform. They were also numerous at Christmas time. I always could spot pickpockets dressed as school boys because they always looked tougher than the normal school boy. I was picked at least three times, twice on a bus and once in Downtown, Kingston. The first time was on Red Hills Road. I actually laywaited the bus and found the pickpocket. The police searched him but didn’t find anything on him. One night during the Christmas season I took a bus in Cross Roads. I had my money in my jeans pocket

                                                 The Honest Driver                                                                    by                                                     Austin Mitchell            I can’t seem to remember the bus number. All I remember is that when I came of the bus in Half Way Tree my wallet was missing. I don’t think the transportation depot had been completed at the time. In all likelihoods I had alighted on Eastwood Park Road. I can’t tell you how much money it was except to say that it was a substantial amount. In my wallet I had two credit cards and my debit cards plus other important cards like my driver’s licence. I kept thinking that if my credit cards fell into the wrong hands I would be in serious trouble. At the time there were substantial amounts on both cards.           The next day I reported the loss of my cards to the bank. But in the afternoon my wife phoned me saying that my wallet had been found. I got a telephone nu

Jamaica is divided into fourteen parishes. The largest parish is St. Ann in which we find Ocho Rios. Kingston is the smallest parish. St. Elizabeth is the next largest followed by St. Catherine and Clarendon. Here are the parishes in order of size:  Parish                        Area                  Capital St. Ann                1,210.28 sq.km       St. Ann's Bay St. Elizabeth        1,205.67 sq. km      Black River St. Catherine        1,197.20 sq.km         Spanish Town Clarendon            1,195.59 sq. km        May Pen Trelawny                 874.62 sq.km          Falmouth Manchester             829.01  sq.km        Mandeville Portland                   815.06  sq. km       Port Antonio Westmoreland        789.54  sq. km         Savanna-la-mar St. Thomas             742.48 sq. km        Morant Bay St. Mary                  610.77 sq. km      Port Maria St. James                 92.28  sq. km       Montego Bay Hanover                  51.15  s

A Whiff of Smoke by Austin Mitchell      S ometimes in the 1990’s I was going to Kingston when on reaching a section of Marcus Garvey Drive we were signaled by the police to stop.   The driver obeyed the order. Now one of the cardinal rules when you are on a bus signaled to stop by the police is not to let any passenger dump any illegal stuff on you. A policeman entered the bus and sniffed.           “I smell ganja. All of you will have to come out of the bus so that I can search it,” he told us.            Some of the passengers told him that he was wasting their    time as no marijuana was on the bus. The policemen insisted that t   they wanted to search the bus and also the passengers. All of us got   up wearily out of our seats and began filing out of the bus. A  young man  from the back of the bus stood on the bus seat and lit  literally flew through a window. He was off before the police could gather their wits, rounded a corner and was gone. The poli

Big Dread by Austin Mitchell         We called him Big Dread. I first met him on my first holiday in Kingston. He and his brother lived next door to my cousin. His name was Evrol and his brother was called Mikey.   I didn’t know that they were Mister Brown‘s nephews. It wasn’t until they came to spend holidays with him and his wife Miss Ivey. They brought their young sister, Dania, with them. They returned home two weeks later and were frequently holidaying in the country after that. I didn’t see them for a number of years. Their sister came to stay with Mr. Brown.   Then I heard that they had migrated.   Sometimes later the sister also migrated.             I was in my district one day when I saw this tall dreadlocks coming down the road. It was Evrol. I didn’t recognize him but he recognized me.             “Delton, what’s going on?” he asked.             It was then that I recognized him.             “What the hell! Evrol what are you doing out here?” I asked.  

One Good Turn……. A short story by Austin Mitchell Jacqueline shed a torrent of tears. She had left her purse with her lunch money in her bag and after she came inside from morning recess it was missing. “My mother is going to beat me,” she wailed. “It’s her purse and she told me to take good care of it.” None of us in the class had any idea as to who might have taken the money. We had all left the room at the same time. We had returned at just about the same time too. Miss West, our class teacher, was adamant that she was going to find the thief. However, nobody owned up and she had to give Jacqueline money to get her lunch at the canteen. There was another problem, the money stolen wasn’t only to buy lunch, but to get groceries at Jackson Chung’s shop when school was over.                 “I don’t know what I’m going to do. She’s waiting on those groceries to make our dinner and breakfast for tomorrow.”                 None of us grudged Jacqueline the prospect