A Dying Quest-excerpt from a short story by Austin Mitchell

A  Dying Quest

by

Austin Mitchell

           Sophia shouted as she heard the gunshots and saw Ricky stagger back into the room and fall. She heard running footsteps and knew that his attackers were running away.

        “Ricky, Ricky!” she called out.

         There was no sound and Sophia turned on the lights. Her son and the baby were crying. There was blood all over Ricky and Sophia started to shout.

       “They’ve killed Ricky, murder, they’ve killed Ricky.”

       Neighbors came to her assistance.

     “Sophia, Sophia, what happened?”

      “Jesus Christ, they’ve killed Ricky.”

         “I don’t  know what happened. I heard a knocking on the door. I told him that he shouldn’t open it, but he never paid me any mind. Just as he opened the door I heard the gunshots. Then I saw him stagger back into the room and I  started shouting.”

                                                            ****

            “Your name is Stennet Rhoomes and you are Sophia’s first baby father. Then it’s you who killed the man. He took away Sophia from you?” Sergeant Reid asked.

            “Imagine, they just shot the woman’s baby father. You are one of her baby fathers and you are on the scene of the crime with a gun. You were  going to kill the man who is dead or Sophia?” Corporal Bilton asked.

            “What are you doing with this gun?” Sergeant Reid asked.

            “A man begged me to hold it for him.”

            “You hear that, Bilton. So you are not a gunman then?” Sergeant Reid asked.

            “What was the man’s name who gave you the gun to hold?” Bilton adsked.

            Stennet went dumb.

            “You know what I feel, Bilton. It was the two of them who were supposed to murder the man, but the other man couldn’t wait on him.”

            “ Are you sure it wasn’t somebody else he was  going to stick up.”

            “A man just begged me to hold his gun for him,” Stennet insisted.

            “You are imagining things. You are under arrest for illegal possession of firearm,” Sergeant Reid said.

****

              Sophia cried that day when Ricky was buried. She was to cry at Stennet’s trial as he was sentenced to ten years in prison. Her second baby father was dead and her first baby father was in prison. Two years later she took up with a man by the name of Bradley West.

            She was six months pregnant when she received a note.

            ‘Time longer than rope.’

            She decided to ignore the note.

            Her first child with Bradley was one year old when she received another note.

            ‘You are living with a bad man.’

            Again she ignored this note. She really didn’t know what work Bradley did except that he was at the race-track every day. He told her not to worry. He always had plenty of money. He told her that he was a security consultant. He did a lot of undercover work. Sophia had to depend on him for the maintenance of her three children. Four years after Stennet went to prison she had her second child for Bradley.

****

            Two months later they were at home when Bradley said.

           “Sophia, the guy, Stennet, will soon come out of prison. I don’t want you to have anything to do with him.”

            “I have a child for him. If he comes and want to see him, I can’t stop him.”

            “Suppose he wants to sleep with you again?”

            “I left Stennet and was along with Ricky before he died. I just feel that it was he who killed him.”

            “Lots of people feel that way  too. Anyway,  he still has a couple more years to go.”

            “I’m sorry that up to now they haven’t found out out who killed Ricky.”

            “Nobody but Stennet did it. He was trying to hide the gun, but the police  caught him with it.”

            “The police said no shots were fire out of the gun they caught him with.”

            “He could  have hidden it.”

            They had moved and were living  about five miles from  where the tragedy of Ricky’s murder took place.

            Bradley refrained from telling Sophia that he had been getting messages. The last one read.

            ‘I soon come a road.’

****

            “Stennet will soon come out. You know that it was he who killed Ricky. I hear that he still loves Sophia and thar he’s  swearing after you,” a man called English told Bradley one day.

            “I am not afraid of Stennet. Every night I sleep with my gun. If he sends men after me, I’m ready for them.”

****

             Sophia was at home one day when there was a knock on the grill. It was Ricky’s father, Gilroy.

            “Mister Gilroy, what are you doing up here?”

            From Ricky died his family had treated her like a stranger.

            “The man that you live with now, did you know him before you met Ricky?”

            Sophia turned around the question in her mind.

            “What kind of question is that, Mister Gilroy?”

            Mister Gilroy got up.

            “Up to now the police haven’t find out who killed my son. They say it’s Stennet who did it. Yet they found him there with a gun. He knows  who killed Ricky but he doesn’t want talk.”

            “Mister Gilroy, I don’t know what to say. Even though I live with a next man and have children for him, I still miss Ricky. But I can tell you that it was after Rickey died that I met Bradley.”

            “I am not stopping until I find out who murdered my son.”

              After Mister Gilroy left Sophia began to think. Stennet would want to come and look for his son whenever he came out of prison. She couldn’t stop that nor could the police. Bradley wouldn’t  want him near the house. She feared that something bad was going to happen.

            From her high school days guys had been fussing with each other over her. She remembered what happened when she was in Grade Ten. Delroy Jones had burst Patrick Hugh’s head with a bottle after he saw her talking to him. She was shocked as she and Delroy were not even friends. Her parents had been furious with her and wanted to send her to a different school. She and Stennet became friends in Grade Eleven. They were always quarrelling because of the rumors being spread by her enemies that she was sleeping around.  In the last term in Grade Eleven she got pregnant for Stennet. She did her exams as the pregnancy hadn’t begun to show. She didn’t graduate, and couldn’t go on to six form. 

            She was virtually ostracized by her parents and other relatives. She had to go and live at Stennet’s parent’s home until she had her baby. Then she heard the rumors about Stennet and other women. Nerine Darby came to fight her over him. They  had rolled each other on the ground until neighbors parted them. They both had cuts and bruises all over their bodies and had to seek medical attention. Nerine sued her for assault, but she countersued her and the judge asked them to compromise the case.

            When she left Stennet, she didn’t have anywhere to go but Ricky took her in. He was probably five years or so older than her and had built this one bedroom house on his parent’s property. Stennet had warned her that he wanted her back so any man she went to live with was only baiting up himself.

              Sophia looked at herself in the mirror. She was still beautiful with long curly hair.  Her only job had been  as a basic school teacher when she was living with Ricky. From Ricky died she never worked again. She was fully dependent on Bradley to support her and the children. Suppose something should happen to him how would she manage to support herself and four children?

            When Bradley came home that evening she brought up the subject.

            “I would  like to go back to school to finish up my schooling.”

            “How many subjects do you have?”

            “Five but I don’t have English or Mathematics. If I get those subjects I could  go to teacher’s college.”

            “So how are the children going to manage?”

            “My mother says that she will pick them up in the evenings for for me.”

            “All right, I will give you the money then.”

            Sophia finished up her subjects but Bradley refused to help her get into teacher’s college. She was wringing her hands, wondering where she would get the money from. She had passed the entrance test for college. Then out of the blue an uncle in the United States agreed to help her.

            Sophia felt that maybe Bradley believed that she was going to leave him when she finished college. She knew that several men didn’t want any educated women around them. Bradley, as far as she knew had only finished high school and didn’t have any subjects. She knew that her parents didn’t like him and were always questioning her about him. She told them that he was from another district, five miles away from where they lived.

            She had just started her second year in college when she got pregnant again. She managed to have her baby and complete her courses with the help of several of her classmates despite Bradley’s misgivings that she should give up college for the baby.

            She got a teaching job six months after leaving college. It was three miles away but Bradley refused to take her in the mornings. She had to take a mini bus and then a taxi.

            Two years later, Stennet was released from prison. He came to look for her a week later. Sophia had to think that he looked none the worse. He talked to his son. Sophia was glad that she hadn’t told Denton where he was all this time and the little boy didn’t ask.

            When Bradley came home she told him about the visit. She and he were not on good terms because of his meaness towards her. She had secretly done an operation to prevent herself from getting pregnant again. She also felt frustrated at his refusal to marry her.

            “So as soon as he comes out of prison, he  has to come and look for you. I suppose you are glad to see him.”

            “I told you that if he wants to come and look for his son I’m not going to stop him.”

            “You and he will soon start sleeping together.”

            “Bradley, stop it!” she cried and fled to her room.

            Six months later, she was surprised when she was waiting on a taxi, who should pull up at her gate but Stennet.

            He dropped her and the children home, occasionaly from then on. He told her that he had a woman in Old Harbour. One evening just as Stennet’s taxi drove off Bradley drove up.

            “I knew it. So you have gone back to him?”

            “Bradley, are you crazy? Everytime I ride in Stennet’s taxi I pay him. You think I could be with him again and I don’t know if he was the one who killed Ricky.”