I attended a dead man' wedding -excerpt

I attended a dead man’s Wedding by A.G.Mitchell “Repeat what you just said, Roscoe,” I challenged my old classmate. “Duckie is in prison in the United States, serving forty years for attempted murder.” “That can’t be true. He and I were working at the same agency for a year before he got a better job offer in Montego Bay. That was about eight months ago.” Roscoe put his hands on his head and stared at me. “Guys like Marvin, Eddie and Duffus know what happened. When I go up I’m going to let them call and confirm what I’ve told you.” We then had another drink in the bar before we parted. According to him, Duckie was ill-treating his woman since they were in Jamaica. He continued the practice when they both migrated to the States. The girlfriend got fed up and left him for Jack Baldie. Infuriated, he bought a gun, waylaid Baldie, fired shots at him, some of which caught him but none mortally. Although I knew Duckie’s cell phone number I decided not to call him about what Roscoe told me. I met several other classmates, some local and some from abroad and nobody mentioned anything about him. He was not at our school’s fortieth anniversary celebrations. I first met him in the first form at Mc Kinley High School almost thirty years ago. Roscoe was in our batch as were the guys he mentioned. He was probably three or four years older than most of us. He had a way with the women that before he left high school, he got two girls and an adult woman pregnant. He nearly got expelled from school because of gang activities. He told me that most of the men in his community were gangsters. He had formed a gang at our school and was being paid protection money. He had to have counselling or be expelled when the principal found out. By my count, he would have spent over twenty years abroad. Two months later I met Reva Holland. “Reva, how are you?” I asked and we both hugged each other. “Delton, I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to our school’s homecoming celebrations. I heard it went on great.” “It was good, you really missed something. Would you believe that Duckie is in Jamaica? Actually, he left to work in Montego Bay about a year ago.” “Duckie is in Jamaica! I don’t believe it, he’s supposed to be in prison. You know that I was one of his high school girlfriends. I wouldn’t wish it on anybody, least of all, him.” According to her, he and his girlfriend were having a heated argument and he started slapping her around when his aunt intervened. He shoved her aside and she fell, hit her head and died before she could receive medical attention. As far as she knew, he had received at least four years in prison. Based on her calculations, he would be just now serving the last year of his sentence. What the hell was going oI didn’t hear from any of the guys whom Roscoe said would call me. Maybe he hadn’t gotten around to it as yet. A few months later I received a call from Duckie. He and his woman, Norlene, were getting married the next month. I refrained from asking him about what I had heard from Roscoe and Reva. The wedding was to take place in Kingston. I called both Roscoe and Reva and told them about his forthcoming marriage. Reva said that Duckie was a serial groom and she wasn’t sure that he had ever been married. I told her that she was bitter because of what happened in Grade Ten when he left her for Rhea Creary. She denied it and said that she was now happily married with two children. Duckie and Norlene came to see me. The wedding was all planned out. He wanted me to be his best-man, but I refused. He said that it was since he returned home that he met her. He said that for his part he would have preferred a quiet wedding, but as it was her first, she wanted it to be big.He also explained to me that he was now carrying a gun as he had to evict some tenants from his two houses in Kingston and one of the men was sending him threats. Norlene said she was fearful and he said that she was taking shooting lessons and would soon get a gun. “I spent five years in the United States army so I had no problem in getting a gun license,” he said. I was surprised as I didn’t know that he had been a soldier. “I killed two men over there, both legally. Both of them tried to rob me. Then I had to defend myself against a guy by the name of Baldie.” “Delton, you remember Amber, my old girlfriend from out here. We went up together. I did everything for that girl. I soon found out that she was cheating on me with this guy, Jack Baldie, so we broke up.” He drank some more of his beer before continuing. “A few months after we broke up, she went to live with him. She still owed me money so one day I went to her house to collect some of it.” “The guy thought I was trying to befriend her again and came after me with a knife. I fired two shots both of which caught him in his legs. I was not charged as the police said that I had fired in self-defense.” “There was another incidence, Norlene knows about it too. I’ve told her everything. After Amber and I broke up I had another girlfriend. One day we got into a shouting match. My aunt whom we lived with got involved. I knew she had a bad heart.” “I honestly don’t know why she intervened and she knew her medical condition. She just collapsed and right there. Everybody blamed me for what happened." If you enjoyed reading this excerpt, them maybe you should go to the Austin Mitchell pages on Amazon.