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Chapter 8
Leigh Raps
Cornelia’s jubilation to see Janvon was immediately tempered by seeing ‘What’s Her Name’ right beside him. Cornelia was quick to notice that the girl’s pale skin had not burned red like a lobster and stripped as she had hoped, but was in fact mellowing into a honey brown. Her hair that was looking mousy just a few days before was now streaked with golden highlights She was wearing an electric blue bikini similar to the one that Cornelia had tried on, and then put back a few days before. It sat well on her slim figure but, Cornelia thought wryly, was rather flat at the back.
As the captains of both boats spoke, Janvon came over to join her.
“Don’t say I told you so Janvon”, she whispered, “you were right.”
“About what?”
“There is stuff on the boat.”
“They let you see?”
“Yes.”
“Then they won’t let you leave that easy.”
“Why can’t I come with you now and we can call the police?” “Do you see that bulge in Julio’s back?”
“Yes...”
“That is bound to be some kind of powerful handgun.”
“Oh God.”
He looked around. Unfortunately, Mr. Koeman and Leigh were both now on the yacht and were openly admiring it.
“It gets worse. See how smart these guys are”, Janvon said to her quietly, “they have invited us to stay here and enjoy the yacht while our captain goes for a mechanic. So if anything goes wrong, they have hostages.”
She and Janvon watched helplessly as the fishing boat chugged away with the captain, whom she recognized as her Aunt’s customer, Lambert, and Janvon’s Uncle Roger on board while the Koemans and Janvon stayed behind. Leigh came over and sat between Cornelia and Janvon.
“Lia; Can I call you Lia? This is such a cool yacht. Did you go fishing this morning? My Dad caught a dolphin, not like the ones at Sea World of course, and Janvon showed me a shark. It was an amazing experience! I was so scared, at first, but he told me that it won’t trouble us, and he was right.”
“No we didn’t go fishing, we listened to music and had lunch”, Cornelia wished that Leigh would go away, but the girl was comfortably settled and continued chatting.
“Did you now? Is Jimmy your boyfriend? He is so cool. I guess you got over that quarrel you had with him the other day huh. That’s good. I broke up with my boyfriend six months ago. He was so immature; so it was really nice meeting Janvon on this trip. He has really been something special for my Dad and me. We’re going to be friends forever.”
Cornelia wanted to break this girl’s bubble.
“Really, what about your mother?”
“I spent the summer in Orlando with her last year. That is why Dad and I are here now.”
“I don’t understand”, said Cornelia truly confused.
“The child custody settlement.., you don’t get it? My parents divorced when I was ten.” She continued nonchalantly. “The judge and I agreed that I would live with my Mom but they get to alternate keeping me for holidays. So last summer Mom took me to Disney and MGM studios, Dad felt he had to go one up on her, so here we are in Montego Bay. It’s my first time abroad. His girlfriend Shelby was mad, she wanted to come, but I told Dad that I really wanted it to be just us, so he has been running up his data sending her text messages and photos.”
She looked at Janvon.
“Is it OK wanting my Dad all to myself? I won’t see him again until Easter because he
lives in Dallas and my Mom and I live in Boston.
Janvon replied.
“Well it’s the opposite for me ‘cause I live with my father, and my mother lives with her
husband and their daughters. But I feel special because I am the only boy for both my parents and she feels good to call me to do things for her and I go.”
“Things like what?” Leigh wanted to know.
“Well, she is a vendor in the craft market so I pack out things for her or travel with her when she has to go out of town to buy her jippi jappa straw.”
“Really Janvon, that’s so cool. Can I meet your Mom sometime?”
“And my father too. He makes brooms and she sells some of them.”
“Your father sell broom for a living?” Cornelia could not help blurting that out.
He looked into her eyes.
“Yes, his brooms are really special. I wanted to show them to you.”
“Show them to me Janvon. Let’s go tomorrow,” Leigh’s eyes were bright with interest.
Cornelia felt her annoyance rise.
“Well my parents have only been married to each other and have three children
together,” Cornelia was trying to secure a foothold into the conversation, and Leigh picked up on it.
“Really Lia, that’s so cool... being married only one time. I have a friend with parents
like that. They are pretty religious though.”
“What does that mean?”
“They are Muslim so you can’t go over to her house on Friday ‘cause that is their sacred time that they devote to worship.”
Cornelia thought about her own household.
“Yeah, too much religion can get tedious.”
“I think it’s totally cool to have culture. Food culture, religious culture, fashion culture, accents, family traditions.”
“You do?”
“Sure do! I mean, my parents love me, but the only time that we make an effort to be together is for holidays. Holidays are important in my family and Mom has to make sure that I have a good time; then Dad has to make sure that I have a better time; and both my grandparents are retired and traveling all over the place, so I see cousins every other Thanksgiving. It’s like there is no real centre in our family.”
But Cornelia still had an unanswered question: “But that still does not say why you think that your friend’s religious family is good.”
“It is a commitment to a way of life that they share. Understanding each other, making sacrifices for the family, having a bond that goes back in time.”
“That is not religion,” said Cornelia. “That’s a way of life. I was talking about faith.”
“I have to learn about that one day,” said Leigh. “I think that I have it, but I don’t know what it means. One day, I know I shall.”
“That’s cute,” said a male voice.
Jimmy had joined them. He had been watching Cornelia carefully while Mr. Koeman was asking Julio questions about the boat and he came over as soon as he could get away.
“What’s cute?” Cornelia asked, annoyed that her jealousy was so out of control that day.
“Her tattoo,” he said and pointed at the dove on Leigh’s shoulder.
“Thanks”, said Leigh. “It didn’t hurt so bad.”
Jimmy flashed her one of his charming smiles and gently touched the tattoo and murmured.
“Really, you must be a very brave girl. Did you get some since you have been here?”
“No.”
“How comes?” Jimmy looked knowingly at Janvon.
“He keeps putting me off”, she said. “Says that his uncle wouldn’t like it.”
Has Lia told you what we have been doing since morning?” Leigh moved a little away from Jimmy before replying.
“Yeah, she said that you went sailing, then had lunch, then the engine started to act
up. Well, that’s good for my Dad, he loves boats.”
“Yeah, he was telling me”, Jimmy said. “Look, did you have lunch already, we’ve plenty food in the cabin. Even enough for a vegetarian. He looked at Janvon.”
Leigh looked at Janvon too: “Well I am a little bit hungry...”
Janvon nodded his head, “Since we are going to be here a while, sure.”
Jimmy then led them downstairs and invited Mr. Koeman to join them. His eyes met
Cornelia’s and she realized that the glint that she had found so sexy a few hours before now seemed menacing.
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