Miss Della's Radio

Miss Della's Radio 

by

Austin Mitchell

         In the 1960s for those of us who didn't own a television set, a radio was a Godsend. So Miss Della's brother in America had brought a radio for her the last time he was coming to Jamaica. This was a year ago. It was company for the childless Miss Della as her husband had died five years ago. Miss Della is a middle aged woman and a maker of hats, bags and mats.
      About a month after she got the radio, her younger brother, Benjie and his son, Huntley, came to stay with her as they wanted to catch the early morning bus into Kingston. Benjie lived far from the main road and there were no taxis plying those roads in those days. He had returned to the area five years ago after relocating from Kingston, where he had lived for many years.
             Benjie had gotten one of the radios from his brother, which he promptly sold.
          Miss Della's house was a three bedroom bungalow. She had rented out the two rooms up to two month ago. But tenants gave so much trouble that sometimes she wondered if it was worth the effort. Most of them wanted to come and live free and they hardly wanted to pay the utility bills.
              She fixed up the other two rooms to accommodate Benjie and Huntley for the night. She knew that both of them were not honest people. Huntley had done time for robbery. He now lived in one of the most violent parts of Kingston. She knew that over the years her brother had gotten into one scrape after another. He was a known knife man in his younger days. While he had never killed anyone she knew that he had done at least three short prison stints for wounding other persons. So it was with a heavy heart that she decided to accommodate them that night. Before letting them into the rooms she did a careful inventory of everything that was there and made sure that nothing valuable was left lying around. She locked up her radio in a cupboard in her room and put the keys under her mattress. She hid away her purse by throwing it under her bed with the little money she had in it.
              They spent the evening talking about the old times. Miss Della told them that times were getting harder as her goods were not selling. She said that her brother in America promised to send some money for her. Huntley told her that things were hard in Kingston with a lot of robberies going on. Benjie told her to ask, Clement, their brother, to send some money for him too, to which she agreed. Before they retired to bed, they had a light meal.
              When Miss Della woke up at five thirty that Saturday morning there was no sign of Benjie or Huntley. Her room door was open and her radio was gone!
      She started screaming.
      "Benjie and Huntley, bring back me radio!"
       A wood cutter named Big Phil was coming down the road, going to cut trees. He was a brawny chap as wood cutters go.
        "What happen, Miss Della?"
         "You see Benjie and Huntley?"
          "I just passed them up the road."
        "Help me, Mr. Phil, they just stole my radio."
         "Your brother and your nephew robbed you?"
          Big Phil decided to help Miss Della.

                 He carried his tools and left them in her yard before starting after her.

          Miss Della hadn't gone far before he caught up with her. Big Phil was aware that the bus might have already been on its way to Kingston. The only way they could get back the radio was to reach the Square before the bus left.

          “Miss Della, since I can walk faster than you, I’m going ahead of you to see if I can catch up with them," Big Phil told her and started off.

          “Go on son, I can hardly manage the walking but you are a big strapping man.”

          Big Phil was nearing the Square when he heard the bus blowing its horn. He broke into a sprint and just as he reached the Square the bus started to pull out. Thinking that it was an additional passenger the driver stopped the bus.

          Big Phil jumped on the bus and ran up to where Huntley was sitting. He grabbed his bag and both of them began struggling. The conductor and the loader men managed to drag them off the bus.

          “What’s going on, a must some mad people this,” the driver remarked and drove of the bus.

        “You can wait on the nine o’clock bus,” the conductor shouted at them.

          Angry that the bus was gone without them both Huntley and his father pulled their knives and came at Big Phil.

          An exhausted Miss Della reached the village square just as Huntley and his father began attacking Big Phil.

          “Benjie and Huntley, leave him alone,” she shouted.

          Bill Phil had grabbed up a big piece of stick which he was using to ward of the two knife wielding men. But both men were closing in on their victim.

          Despite Miss Della’s call to onlookers to help Phil nobody moved to help him.

          “We are going to cut you up so that you own mother won’t recognize you when we finish with you,” the old knife man, Benjie warned.

          A young man named Dillon pulled his knife and went to help Phil and Benjie took him on. It soon became apparent that Dillon was no match for Benjie who slashed him all over his body, forcing him to jump over a wall. Several young men who had drawn knives quickly put them back when they saw the beating Dillon had received.

          Meanwhile Huntley had slashed Phil on his hands at least twice and was circling him for an opportunity to finish him off. Benjie had now re-joined the fight. Miss Della knew that they were going to kill Phil.

          She began screaming, when a police jeep sped into the village square. Huntley and Benjie didn’t even have time to throw away their knives.

          “What’s going on here?” the Corporal asked.

          Benjie and Huntley started accusing Big Phil of attacking them. It was only after Dillon climbed back over the wall that the police realized what had happened. Miss Della was able to prove ownership of the radio despite Huntley’s insistence that it was his.

          It appeared that they were going to sell the radio. Huntley would have gotten half of the money to go and gamble while  his father would be able to buy his weekly supply of groceries with his half.

          Both men were slapped with a barrage of charges that morning. Miss Della later told Phil that her brother had promised to send a radio for him. The End.