For love of Him

"For Love of Him" is a book of short stories with a Jamaican/Caribbean flavor.  The stories were written to answer the age old question, who is smarter, the woman or the man? The stories are not all about love because in some stories children feature as the main characters.

(Here is an excerpt from the book) 

The trip home was uneventful except that the bus stopped more often than usual and they got home slightly late. Suzie told Artie to sit, relax and have a bottle of beer while she cooked.

     Suzie had just finished cooking and was about to serve Artie his dinner when the room shone brightly from the headlight of a car. Suzie rushed to the window and peeped through the curtain.

    “Jesus Christ, I am dead now!” Suzie exclaimed with a look of terror on her face.

  Turning to Artie she said “Quick jump through that window outside and hide.”

   Artie started to ask her what was the matter but he knew then what terror and fear was when he saw Suzie’s face. She yanked him out of the chair with such force and pushed toward the open window with such force that when he got to the window he dove through head first and laid still. He had been sitting in the chair only in his merino and briefs because Suzie had said she liked looking on him semi nude. Suzie had not allowed him time to take up the rest of his clothes.

     He did not have time to think about this because he heard a loud banging on the front door and a male voice calling Suzie’s name.

      “I am coming, I am in the bathroom taking a bath,” Artie heard Suzie shout in response to the calling of her name.

     A few minutes later Artie heard Suzie open the front door.

    “Come here and give me a hug and a kiss my sweet,” said the male voice.

    “Ouch!” Artie heard Suzie exclaim “Do you have to carry your gun whenever you come to visit me? You know I do not like guns,” Suzie said to the man.

     “Do you really expect me to travel to this god forsaken place without my irons?” the man asked.

    “Yes,” Suzie answered.

    “Wait, this place smell like some cheesy foot man was in here, I hope you are not keeping any man with me!” stated the man threateningly.

  “You do not normally come here, what are you doing here?” Suzie asked.

     “Baby it is three weeks since I last saw you. I missed you while I was away on that course studying and I have not been in the town or home as yet, I had to come and see you,” the man answered.

       “Does that mean you will be spending the weekend with me?” Suzie asked in an excited voice.

“Are you mad?” the man in turn asked in a shocked voice.

 “You never have time for me,” Suzie pouted.

 “Baby I rent a nice apartment for you near where you work so you don’t have to travel from here every day. I give you money and buy all the nice things you desire. Do you want more?” the man asked.

 “Yes,” Suzie answered.

 “What?” the man asked.

  “You,” Suzie said.

   “Baby if I divorce my wife then you will lose all of those nice things I have been providing. If I go home and cannot perform my husband duties then there is a hell of a price to pay. I remember the last time I could not because I could not perform because I was tired.” The man explained.

 “You were not with me, it was with some other woman,” Suzie said.

 “Baby we are men and we cannot have the same menu every day, sometimes you have to change the menu,” the man said.

 “You were lucky she did not kill you that night,” Suzie commented.

  “I do not know how she grabbed the gun so fast but luckily I was by the window so as soon as I realize I could not reach her before she grab the gun I dived through the window and the bullet still grazed my backside. I stayed outside for a long time until it was time to go to work then I put my hat on a stick and poked it around a corner to see what would happen. Every day I give thanks that my head was not in the hat. I had a bullet hole in my hat, I could not report to work without my gun and I had an important meeting that morning.” The man reminded Suzie of all that had happened that day.

    Artie was crouched under the window listening to Suzie and her male companion as they argued.

    Suzie said “You get to have all the nice time, you have your wife, you keep other women, you have me and you threaten to shoot any man that I have as a friend.”

    “Baby I love you, my wife and my gun and I am not sure which of you I love the most and I do not plan to share any of you with anyone,” the man said.

   “You love me? And nearly let your wife kill me?” Suzie asked skeptically.

     “It was not my fault. Someone told her we were friends. It was a good thing you had left that job the week before. She went to the place and beat the heck out of the woman that she saw that best fit your description,” Suzie’s companion explained.

     “Poor, virgin, Christian Junie, she is as afraid of a man as a thief and she had to go to the police to report that a woman beat her up for being along with her husband and she had no idea who the woman was that had assaulted her. Your wife was lucky Junie’s pastor told her not to press charge because it is not good for a Christian to go to a court house,” Suzie said.

 “You know she is not afraid to fight with me either for she is a warrior,” the man said.

“I think I need to leak some water,” the man commented.

      “You can either go back outside or use the bathroom,” Suzie said.

      “No, my grandfather said to prove that you are the man of the house sometimes you should stand a do it our side the window,” the man said.

    Artie was still crouched below the window he was glad that it was dark but he dared not move.  He felt the water coming down on him and knew it was the man leaking water.

   “Why do you have the window open? I could swear I passed water on a dog down in your rose garden. It is no wonder the place smell this bad,” the man said.

   “You do know I have not been home since you went to study and I had to open the window to let some of the nice night breeze blow through the house,” Suzie responded.

  “The food smell good, do you have any leftover?” the man asked Suzie.

 “You are lucky, I cooked enough to last me for tomorrow, come let me serve you,” Suzie said.

 There goes my dinner Artie thought as he heard the window being closed. He had looked out the same window the weekend he had spent with Suzie and so he knew he was in a fairly well kept rose garden. He could smell the stink of urine on his clothes but he dared not remove the clothes he was wearing. He wondered if Suzie would try to get if it was even his pants to him. As if out of spite a chill breeze blew through the rose garden.

      Artie tried to carefully felt his way along the house. He got pricked by thorns from time to time but managed to get out of the rose garden. He saw when the light was put out in Suzie’s room and thought of the bad thing that he would love to do to the car parked at the front of the house but he had learnt from a previous incident. Disabling the car would only mean the man in the house staying longer. There was an old shed in the corner of the yard and Artie made his way to the back and curled up in a ball as comfortably as he could.

      Artie yawned with hunger and he heard his stomach make a loud noise. The night got cold and he began to tremble. He dared not go into the hut because it was dark and a scorpion sting when he was young had left him with a healthy respect for dark places especially at night.

        He must have fallen asleep because the next thing he was aware of was a wicked crack of lightning followed by thunder.  He had no doubt it was going to rain. He listened and was sure he heard a whistle followed by the low calling of his name. Artie peeped around the corner and sure moving silently was a lantern. He whistled and Suzie came and told him it was safe to return to the house.

  Inside the house Artie wanted to curse, swear and fight but he knew that he was stuck for the weekend and it was only Friday night and he still did not know how to leave where he was because both times he had gotten there in the dark and had left before day light.

     Suzie went out of the way to reassure him that her male friend would not return for the week end. To compensate for the indignity Suzie insisted that she bathe Artie and the meal she was cooking would be ready by the time she was through.

   “What clothes will I put on?” Artie asked.

  “So that you do not feel bad, as soon as you have eaten we will go to bed and I will not wear any clothes either,” Suzie told him.

   "When you hand is in the lions mouth ...

© Prince W Bradford 2013

If you enjoyed this excerpt you can download the book from your favorite online retailer or get a print copy.

Available:  http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Prince-W.-Bradford/e/B00GM5OKR6