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Chapter 5
Out With Jimmy
Cornelia was idly sitting in the library reading room when Jimmy stepped inside looking for her. She waved and he saw her and walked over and sat in an empty chair beside her. Cornelia savoured the moment to really look at him as she did not have the composure to do before. Jimmy had a cool dark complexion and an angular face like a model. He had well shaped lips that parted to reveal perfectly shaped white teeth. Today he wore sunglasses and took them off slowly as he sat down. Goose pimples rose on Cornelia’s arms as she thought that the environment just did not suit him, he was way too cool for a boring library.
“Hi Baby Girl, are you ready for the time of your life?”
“Hi Jimmy. What do you mean?”
“Things are slow, so I am taking the day off to be with you.”
“Really Jimmy!” Cornelia had never met anybody before who could just openly take a day off from work when they felt like it.
Jimmy stood up and dangled his car keys in his fingers, “Who needs to be in a stuffy office when they can be out with you, come on.”
Cornelia put down the magazine and followed him outside where his car was waiting under the trees. He got in first, then opened the door for her from the inside and she slid in beside him. She noticed that some of the teens who were supposedly at study were slyly looking at them side-eyed and she revelled in the moment. The air conditioning made the car pleasantly cool and dancehall music was playing softly from the tape recorder. Jimmy drove slowly out of the parking lot and ten minutes later had pulled into a shopping plaza. It then occurred to Cornelia that she should ask where they were going.
“To the beach.”
She hesitated before getting out of the car, “But I don’t have a swimsuit with me.”
“That is why we are here, you are going to choose something nice to wear.”
He led her to a boutique that sold resort wear.
“Hi Jimmy, said the shop attendant leaning over the counter and making eyes at him.
“What’s up babe,” Jimmy flashed a smile at her and guided a slightly dazed Cornelia towards the swimwear section.
If Cornelia had been asked to put words to her feelings she could not. Some instinct inside of her told her that what she was doing required caution; however at the same time, here she was with an exciting guy who was offering to buy her clothing that she could only have dreamt of before. She owned a bathing suit only because swimming was a subject that she did in physical education classes at school, and it was the regulation school design. She eyed the bikinis on display then self-consciously looked around her as if she was about to do something wrong. There was only the shop attendant in a tight blouse, Jimmy in his stonewashed jeans and a delectable array of one and two-piece bathing costumes. She reached out and took down three outfits to try on.
The first bikini fit Cornelia well, but the leg had a French cut and as Cornelia had not shaved her bikini line, she put that back. The shoulder straps of the second kept slipping down her shoulders so she decided against that, and stepped out of the dressing room wearing the third. It was a simple green and yellow one-piece outfit with a little wrap that fit around the waist making her feel less exposed and comfortable.
“This look OK?”
“Oh baby, baby, you a tek life.”
Jimmy’s obvious approval gave her even more confidence and when she changed back into her clothes also picked out a towel, a tote bag and a pair of beach sandals to take to the cashier. Jimmy also made some purchases.
Cornelia had assumed that they were going to a beach in Montego Bay, so when they passed the airport and were on a straight road that took them miles and miles past the high walls of hotels, a golf course and open land that bordered the blue-green sea, she posed her question.
“Ahm, Jimmy, where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.”
“I am surprised already, tell me where we are going.”
He glanced over and saw that her mouth was set in a firm line and that her arms were folded.
“Hey Baby Girl, don’t get so serious on me. What do you think? That I’m going to steal you? Well, God knows that you look good enough to steal.” He grinned and looked into her eyes, Cornelia wasn’t smiling back. “OK, then. Is it alright, Miss Cornelia, if I take you to Dunn’s River?”
Cornelia’s mouth fell open.
“What, Dunn’s River! I’ve always wanted to go there. But Jimmy, isn’t that far?”
“Relax and enjoy the ride, before you know it, we’ll be there.”
The radio continued to belt out dancehall music and the sound of the DJ Tiger filled the car. “No wanga gut, no wanga belly. No licky, licky, no nyamy nyamy. Soon poison”
Cornelia mouthed the words to the songs and nodded to the beat as the landscape flashed by on the open road.
It took them an hour and a half to reach Dunn’s River and the parking lot had scores of taxis, private cars and tour coaches. As they came out of the car, Cornelia was aware that a deep noise that she could not place seemed to be around them. She was about to ask Jimmy what it was as they walked through a throng of craft vendors and tourists when her eyes nearly popped out of her head and drove all conscious thought away. She had seen pictures in social studies books and television features that showed craft villages in the tourist areas, so she was prepared for the straw hats and bags, the mats, the t-shirts - some of them cut-up braided and beaded - and the wooden carvings of fish or cut-outs in the shape of Jamaica. However, one vendor had carvings of naked men holding oversized erect penises in their hands at the front of his stall. Despite her shock, Cornelia could not take her eyes off the spectacle and as she walked behind Jimmy, she craned her neck to look at them. A few persons were gathered in front of that same stall taking photographs. The owner of the stall, a middle-aged man, placidly watched them, and then stretched out his hand for a fee. The female vendor in the stall next to him seemed offended and with her ample back to his stall used one of her straw fans to fan her face.
“Are you listening to me? Try on this.”
Cornelia regained awareness of her immediate environment and realized that Jimmy was holding a pair of flat shoes made of rubber and plastic for her to put on.
“What are these for? I already got sandals.”
“It is better to walk up the falls with these.”
She put them on and they fit, and Jimmy paid a rental for them.
By now, the sound of the noise was very loud and they were walking down a tunnel floored with concrete steps. After several minutes they emerged on to a white sand beach. Jimmy directed Cornelia to the change rooms, and carrying his bag of purchases from the boutique, also went to change. When they emerged, he was wearing a pair of skintight black swim trunks that showed Cornelia that he was finely built with strong legs, a washboard stomach and muscular arms. Somehow she didn’t notice anything above his shoulders. His hands took her bag from her,, put it in a locker, and then led her away.
“Well, what do you think?”
Cornelia tore her eyes away from Jimmy’s backside to look up, and then was spellbound by another natural phenomenon.
Born and bred in the Corporate Area, the only times that she left the city was to go on educational school trips and these never involved water. Her maternal grandmother lived somewhere in St. James, but they never visited her there and her grandmother rarely came to Kingston. No one ever spoke of her mother’s father. So to stand on a white sand beach and see white water spilling in a thousand rills through a gorge from a height in the distance down smooth boulders and then end in a shallow harmless pool at your feet was an amazing sight to her.
Now she understood that the thunderous noise that accompanied them from the parking lot all the way down the tunnel was the sound of the Dunn’s River water traveling over rocks.
“Jimmy. Is so it pretty?”
She shivered in excitement as he smiled, obviously pleased at her delight. He firmly, but gently held her hand and led her to step upwards on the first stone ledge.
“Where you going?”
“We are going to climb the falls.”
“What!”
Jimmy gestured at the scores of tourists above them who had formed a human chain and
were gingerly pickling their way up the mountain of water. Even beside them another ten or so persons had arrived and a local guide was telling them to give him their cameras. In a few minutes the guide had slung ten cameras around his neck and had each visitor holding the hand of another; then taking the first person’s hand he called for them to “step where I step”, and led his group away. Without another word, Jimmy took another step and Cornelia followed him. When she realized that the falls were actually easy to climb and that she was not going to tumble headfirst into the water and bounce back down to the beach, she actually started to enjoy the tingle of cold river water on her skin. She did slip a couple of times, but Jimmy’s strong hands held her safe. After they had climbed for nearly twenty minutes he released her hand, slid into a little rock pool on a ledge, and beckoned her to join him. She noticed that he was kneeling, so realized that the water was shallow, and emboldened, she did.
Jimmy drew her into an embrace and as the water was cold, she enjoyed sharing their mutual warmth. She sat there with him and looked down. It was a magical moment as all around them was a seemingly endless supply of clear moving water that rippled and flowed over rocks dappled with sunlight that filtered through the leaves of trees on either bank. At the bottom of the falls, a band of pale sand bordered a sea that was a bright calm aquamarine that faded into a Caribbean blue horizon.
After climbing the falls to the top, they made their way down to the beach again where
they retrieved their towels and dried off. Cornelia was concerned about her hair. She had left home with it combed in one, but now it was unkempt and tangled around her head as the lone scrunchee that had held it together had got lost in the climb, and she had no comb. As she self-consciously used her fingers to comb it out, Jimmy held her hand.
“Shake your head,” he said
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
So Cornelia shook her head a little. “Harder.”
She squeezed her eyes shut and shook a little bit more.
“Harder than that, man. I want to see the drops fly from your hair. It is beautiful.” Cornelia laughed and using her shoulders rocked her head front and back and from side to side to send a shower of crystal droplets flying from her hair on to Jimmy and to sink into the sand beneath their feet. Then Jimmy stood behind her and using his fingers, smoothed her hair from her forehead to the nape of her neck, then divided a small piece from it. He used this piece as a ribbon to secure the rest of the hair, leaving her with a puff to the back.
“How did you know how to do that?” she asked.
“That is how my grandmother did her hair when she was at home. Her hair was thick and pretty like yours, and I liked to feel it, so she showed me how to do it.”
Jimmy went to buy hot dogs from the grill on the beach. Cornelia sat on her towel on the sand. She thought about how fortunate she was to be having this holiday and what her friends would say if they saw her with Jimmy. Cornelia grinned to herself. Marissa would be screaming with excitement and wanting blow-by-blow details of the day. “He was a perfect gentleman’, Cornelia would be saying to her friend, “A real classy
guy, and he looks good!” Then they would laugh together.
They ate hot dogs with sodas, then they left the beach for the car park. While they were in the tunnel, Jimmy held Cornelia’s hand and she held it back, thinking that this was nice. When they returned to the car park and passed the vendors he surprised her by quickly releasing her hand to put it around her waist and whisked her behind a tree, out of sight of the main parking area. Before she could say a word Jimmy had pressed her back against the tree and was kissing her lips. Stunned, it took Cornelia a few seconds to recover enough to twist her face away from his and catch enough breath to demonstrate.
“Let me go.”
But his lips were on hers again and now his body was leaning against hers. His hands had pinned her wrists behind her and his strength made it difficult for her to wriggle free. For what seemed an eternity, Cornelia panicked as Jimmy’s hot breath and body seemed to be all over her and she could not do anything about it. Finally he raised his face long enough to whisper.
“Relax, Baby Girl.”
Cornelia took a deep breath and shouted.
“Move off me bwoy!”
“Shh. Why you have to gwaan so?”
“Me seh, come off me.”
Then with all her strength, she pushed Jimmy away from her, and before he could hold her again moved to get around the tree and back into view of the parking lot.
“Cornelia?”
She drew up sharply as a familiar voice sounded from very close by. It spoke again.
“What are you doing here?”
It was Janvon. Cornelia looked from Jimmy to Janvon blinked, then pumped up with the adrenaline rushing from her struggle with Jimmy, went on the attack.
“What do you mean, what I am doing here? I could ask you the same thing!”
“I told you that my uncle was doing a tour, remember? You said that you did not want to leave town.”
“Well, I changed my mind”, Cornelia bit back.
Janvon said nothing but looked from Jimmy to Cornelia and back.
“Are you OK?”
Cornelia, who was wondering how she was going to survive a ride back to Montego Bay with Jimmy tried to regain her composure, and grinned.
“Oh, do you know my friend Jimmy?”
Janvon looked at the other youth steadily and did not answer the question directly. “You are Jimmy Barnett?”
Jimmy who was standing with his hands in his pockets, nodded.
“Yeah’ said Janvon, “I know about Jimmy Barnett.”
Cornelia butted in.
“Jimmy this is Janvon, the guy I was telling you about, my Aunt Josie’s friend.”
Janvon repeated his question.
“So are you OK, Cornelia? Do you have a ride back? We have space.”
“Well, actually, since you are going near me”...she turned to Jimmy, “I think maybe
that I’ll go back with Janvon.”
She picked up her bag where it had fallen and edged nearer to Janvon.
“So, later, bye.”
Then without a backward glance followed Janvon to a minivan tour bus and got in.
When she was seated and Janvon slid the door shut, she looked around at the other passengers. In the front was a man who looked vaguely like an older version of Janvon; he had the same broad forehead. Beside him was a middle aged white man. In the back with herself and Janvon was a white teenage girl who was about their age. They were all staring at Cornelia. Janvon introduced her to the driver as Josie Granville’s niece who was spending the holidays in Montego Bay. He explained that Cornelia had asked him for a ride back and said nothing more.
“So you related to Josie”, said the driver. “We were good friends many, many, years ago, but not anymore...life is like that.”
Janvon explained that the driver was his Uncle Roger and the other passengers were Americans Mr. Mitch Koeman and his daughter Leigh Koeman.
Cornelia said a polite good afternoon, then settled into her seat as they drove off, and absorbed herself in her own thoughts. The Country and Western music being played through the vehicle speakers wrapped the van’s occupants in a comfortable atmosphere. Somehow, the day had gone wrong and she did not know why. Being with Jimmy was so good right up to when they were leaving; he was holding her hand so nice and all of that. At that moment Cornelia was desperate to talk to Marissa. Together they would figure out what was the best thing do. But the only person that she barely knew here was Janvon, and she wasn’t going to talk to him about this. She thought about Aunt Josie and their talk the other evening and decided that her Aunt was also definitely out of the question. Cornelia heard soft giggling above the music and realized that Janvon and the girl, Cornelia had forgotten her name, were in deep conversation with each other. She felt a bit left out, but shrugged it off and wondered when she was going to see Jimmy again to demand that he explain his ungentlemanly behaviour in the parking lot.
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