Godspeed

Chapter Ten

Once home, the father and son pair wasted no time boarding up their exposed windows. In their hurry Tafari had said something to Marley that the boy couldn't quite hear but he knew that, at the time, it almost sounded as if Tafari had begun to reference Marley and not the fragility of the windows. That was when Marley Mason decided to speed up. The sooner they finished this, the sooner both of them could stop having to speak about that which was prone to shatter.

Normally, Marley would have been doing this with headphones on too, a silent indicator to his father that he didn't feel like speaking. But on their walk home Marley's headphone batteries had died and the electricity Marley required at home to charge it, was gone. The house was powerless and the boy had no other option but to work in a place where he was vulnerable to sounds he couldn't turn up, down or off. In a way, it reminded Marley of his time as a waiter in Jah-Jah's Jamaican Jerk Foods. There he was susceptible to sounds as well. Forced to deal with strangers, crowds and customers; like the Jamaican family he'd met earlier today. Often Marley would interact with new families but none of them had ever shared his heritage or the way he laughed or the way his mouth pronounced English words a little differently. If he'd never taken off his headphones he might have never met them. Now that Marley thought of it, he couldn't remember the last time he took his headphones off in his own house.

As Tafari and Marley haphazardly slammed the first, second and final nail into a boarded window pane, there was only silence. Tafari Mason passed his son and went back into their house and Marley tried not to stare after him as he followed. Now, inside the darkened home, Marley turned all around to look at the nailed slabs of wood. He wondered if it would be enough to stop the incoming hurricane. He waited for thunder, the sound of which should indicate the strength of the storm to come, but there was none. Closer to the windows, Marley could hardly hear the wind either. Where was the hurricane we're supposed to be so afraid of? he thought.

Telling himself that the natural disaster might not be that bad after all, Marley Mason entered the kitchen where he saw his father seated around the dining table. He went to pull open the refrigerator when his father muttered that he should be mindful of how often he opened it. Without electricity, it wouldn't be able to produce enough cool air to sustain the food inside and it was their responsibility to conserve it. "But I'm hungry," Marley said.

"Then make it quick. And stop dragging your feet. The world isn't over, you know."

The boy retrieved a can of soda and two oranges. "I'm not." Then he turned to leave but his father stopped him.

"Sit here." Tafari invited him to the chair just across from himself.

Marley turned, analysing the serious look in his father's eyes before finally sitting. "You kids nowadays. Light gone and unnuh act like is the end a di world." Marley wanted to tell him he couldn't care less about the power in this house; there were lights missing in other places. "I hope whoever hit you like dat you yuh hit dem back."

Marley looked up at his father just in time to see the man indicate to his right eye. Marley touched the spot on his own face, the skin still a little tender around the area. "How did you know?"

"It's swollen, Marley. And You keep touching it," Tafari answered nonchalantly. He leaned forward, the table rattled under his weight. "Well? Did you?"

"Did I what?"

"Hit dem back?"

Marley winced. If he had tried something like that he was sure Richie would have given him a broken bone. "I didn't get the chance." It wasn't a total lie.

His father huffed. "Anyway, you know what we did when we neva have nuh light?"

Marley amused him. "What?"