"Comm check...
Testing, one... two...
Kwes Boaz speaking.
...you a hear me?
Ah. You ever wake up and feel like something's...missing? That's my life. Seven years after. Now I'm back, but nothing's the way I left it. Not even me.
Amnija happened righ...
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I held his gaze, unflinching. Ain't no fear in me, but the respect I got for him? That shit runs deep, beyond boundaries.
He gave me another shot at life. Cyaa' diss a man like that.
"Ah. . .respect," I nodded, the weight of the words sinking in. Every syllable was a promise. Not to him, but to the younger me. I owed him grace, and I never gave it.
He nodded continuously, watching as I did exactly what he said.
"Yo, Kwes?" he called.
I looked back, a smirk creeping up. "Headshot mi a get now?" The moment the words left my mouth, we both busted out laughing.
"Keep deh woman deh. The happiness a show mi bwoy," he chuckled, eyes glinting. "Love it. Mi want a grandson too. Gyal Pitney love man too much."
I laughed.
He wasn't my father, but it felt like it.
"If she decide fi buss me," I shout, loud enough for him to hear from a distance. I was at the gate now, but he kept the conversation going like we were right next to each other.
"A you a buss off enuh!" he yelled after me. "Yuh naffi' ask ooman nutt'n a dat dem deh yah fa. Doh mek mi 50th ketch me and yuh still deh pan eh' Gilding truck yer bwoy?!"
"Wah that you a tell the bwoy? Pitney is not a must yer? Mi nuh know a wah do Buju inna the day yah," Olivian chimed in. She worked at the gate on evening shifts.
"Youth have a bright future man. Dem yah place yah a fi man like me. Only place we have fi guh a jailhouse and cemetery," he spoke that like it was nothing.
Jah know'
"Make sure you a do the school thing still. Doh give up, and gimme a link," I started laughing, but before I could recite his words, he beat me to it.
"Mi know wah mi say bwoy. Nuh fawud back inna handcuff, but yuh can share the joy, or a phone call. As long as yuh keep me in the know," he continued.
On a regular day, Buju didn't talk much. He just missed having me around, but deep down, he knew he wanted more for me.
I finally left.
I had no car, so I would have to jump on a Ocho Rios bus. I stood at the Gas Station in Spanish town for about five minutes and lost patience.
