An excerpt from Crystal Evans second NOVEL,Mama Brown’s Family…COMING OUT June 02.2013 online in E BOOKS AND PRINT TO ORDER
Diamond sat down in the passenger seat listening to Junior having a conversation with someone on the phone. One of the things that she loved about him is that he sounded different from the guys in her community. His language was refined, he dressed hot yet classy and he was sexy and gaudy. He wore gold chains, gold watches and gold wrist bands. He had on identical gold rings on both fingers. The first time Diamond saw his ring she thought he was married but he assured her that he wasn’t, citing that wearing the rings were just for fashion.
.”Diamond giggled as Junior took her hands and kissed them. Junior was the senior manager at another bank but he often came to their bank since he had an account there. He was beautiful, brown skin, drove opulent cars. He lived on the other side of town and he had many rich, big shot friends. He had taken an interest in Diamond even though most of her co-workers told her to stay away from him because he had issues. Diamond thought he was the best thing that had ever happened to her.
Diamond sat down in the passenger seat listening to Junior having a conversation with someone on the phone. One of the things that she loved about him is that he sounded different from the guys in her community. His language was refined, he dressed hot yet classy and he was sexy and gaudy. He wore gold chains, gold watches and gold wrist bands. He had on identical gold rings on both fingers. The first time Diamond saw his ring she thought he was married but he assured her that he wasn’t, citing that wearing the rings were just for fashion.
Diamond stared at his huge smooth hands and his skin was flawless. He wore glasses denoting his intelligence and sharp thinking skills. He spoke to her nicely and he visited exotic places abroad. He had two kids; he was single and thirty two years of age. Diamond felt so lucky to have a man of his status claiming an interest in a girl like her.
Junior leaned over and watched Diamond’s pensive face glowing in the sunlight. She was a beautiful black girl, her body, strong and healthy. She was intelligent, smart, and on top of it all she was fresh since none of his guys have ever claimed getting a piece of her. He was going to be the first in his clique to sample this cherry. She claimed that she was a virgin but that was yet to be seen since such virtues were rare in Jamaica nowadays. But from talking to her he knew she was a good girl and he will have a piece of her at all cost. She had never begged him anything like the other girls who occasionally wanted phone cards or clothes money. She just enjoyed his company and lauded him with compliments.
Junior looked at Diamond, his brown eyes gleaming with masculine admiration. She hated when he looked at her like that because it look as if he was hiding some dark secrets. He had this mischievous look on his face that she found both wary and intriguing. He laughed “so puttus, when you coming to spend the weekend with me”
Diamond choked “probably this week”
Junior smiled and said “what time you mother want you back in the house?”
Diamond laughed “I don’t know I will asked her”
Junior stiffened and said “mi can’t bother with the pickney business”
Diamond squirmed, feeling the need to defend herself “I am not a child”
Junior said “okay what are you doing later?”
Diamond smiled “nothing”
Junior laughed “meet me at the shell gas station at five”
Diamond laughed “okay”
Junior looked at his watch and said “okay I will see you later” and slapped her on her big bottom as she stepped out of the vehicle and sauntered through the gate into her yard. Junior watched her feeling the need to have her rising inside of him. He wanted her young supple body so badly that his groin hurts but he would not force her. He was sure that tonight she would come to him.
Fay watched the black Mercedes crawl away down the street. She was happy with the choice of boyfriend that her daughter had chosen, older man, wealthy and successful. The type of man that would not use her, impregnate her and abandon her. Most of all he was from uptown, cultured and refined, nothing like these ragamuffins that lived in Glambas. She vowed that her daughter will never have a relationship with any of the boys in the community. Her child was different and she was going places and Junior was one of those places. Fay watched as her daughter stepped into her room with a starry look in her eyes and dazzling smile. The girl was obviously smitten.
Fay sat up on the bed “so Mr. big shot bring you home”
Diamond laughed and replied “mommy, why you always a call him that, he is not like that, him very down to earth…you can believe it mommy, I heard him cuss bad word this morning make me hear”
Fay’s eyes dilated “so what you don’t know say men like them cuss bad word too, you a idiot”
Diamond cringed at the word ‘idiot’ “mommy is just that I thought men like that never cursed”
Fay lie down on the bed “you hear me say you must stop chat so round me, when you deh round you frens them, you chat like you a foreigner”
Diamond snickered “that’s not foreigner talk mommy, it’s just Standard English, what wrong with that”. Diamond could not understand her mother’s resentment of her speaking Standard English in the house. “Mommy it’s the official language of Jamaica”
Fay stiffened, her face austere “me don’t care, a patois a language here…so you give big shot any yet?” Fay rocked from side to side, looking her child up and down “make sure you don’t give him any?”
Diamond laughed, sex was not the most comfortable topic for her especially when the audience was her mother “mommy don’t worry, am not stupid, am not like the other girls”
Fay cocked her head to one side and pouted “ make sure because when you give him it too quick, him say you easy, make him spend some money first, you want a little two room board house with inside bathroom and kitchen, you no give no man nothing free, memba time hard!”
Diamond smiled timidly “mommy afraid to ask him, a don’t want him to think am a gold digga”
“Gold DIGGA!” Fay’s face crimsoned with incredulity “you anno my Pickney?” Fay looked at her daughter as if she was seeing her for the first time “man must spend money to get good stuff, make him know you no cheap or him will think you a idiot gal and laugh affa you and tell him friends”
Diamond rolled her eyes and smile “alright mommy I will do as you say”
Diamond ambled out of her mother’s room and headed for the kitchen. The kitchen was dirty with plates all over the sink and the rubbage bin was not emptied therefore the place was buzzing with flies. The Ackee leaves that were place on the table that mama said would deter flies were not working. The pots needed scouring and the stove was over strewn with grease and grime. The odour that prevailed in the air was a musty mixture of overnight food and garbage. The ceiling was black with dust and exhaust from the stove and the coal pot that was occasionally utilized when the gas was finished.
Diamond began to extract the plates from the sink, scraping food residue from them as she got the sink ready to wash the plates. She separated the cups from the plates since cups were washed first and then the plates and afterwards pot. Diamond methodically removed the grease from the dishes while her mind went on a desultory of subjects until it became fixed on Juniour. Junior walking towards her, kissing her, taking his huge hands and cupping her Jennifer Lopez booty and their bodies entwining. Diamond smiled at that thought and realized that she had just mentally admitted that she was going to give her virginity to Juniour. She almost dropped the plate she was washing as she gripped the counter feeling the need to balance her body as something inside her crumbled at the thought of finally doing it. What if Juniour is not serious about a relationship? What if Juniour only wanted to be the first to pick her cherry? Lately she began to have a lot of reservations about Juniour but she told herself that she was just being paranoid. She always got this way when she was suppose to take the next step in a relationship that’s one of the reason why she was still single and inexperience. She always marooned the guys whenever sex came up. She would just stop talking to the guys or simply lead them on until they got tired of waiting and dumped her, much to her relief. But Juniour, there was something different about him; she didn’t know if it was because he was fourteen years older than her, his brown skin or his BMWs. This man made her tingly all over. Every time he looked at her, a volcano erupted in her lower extremities and her hands became sweaty. The man made her lose all coherent thought and that was not good. He only had to look at her and all her defenses would crumple. Simply put, the man had her spellbound. God! He must be working obeah!
Pat watched his niece scrubbing the pot and her animated face contouring the action that was taking place in her mind. Whatever she was thinking about was obviously very important because her movements change rapidly. It was as if she was in a quandary and indecisive about a course of action. She had been like this since a child. Pat sometimes wondered if she was secretly deranged since she also spoke to herself during these mental voyages. “Woman what make you a talk to you self”.
Pat moved closer to his niece just in time to see a mixture of reactions largely shock or was it embarrassment played upon her facial features “what happen you a mad, careful because if certain people see you talking to you self, a that them ago think”
Diamond jumped startled and mortified that someone had seen her daydreaming “what happen uncle me never see?”
Pat replied “how you fi see me when you yeye turn in a you head?”
Diamond laughed, her uncle was hilarious and very perspicacious. Diamond felt elementary around her eldest uncle, she knew it was a matter of time before he browbeat her about what he witnessed this morning.
Pat looked at his niece as she stared up at him. It was amazing how children changed. Yesterday Diamond would have jumped on his back or beg him to carry her to the shop and today if she saw him on the road she would probably ‘duck him out’ or find some other means of eluding him. He could no longer have a conversation with her without feeling uncomfortable. Lately whenever she spoke to him she seemed so guarded “uncle what you thinking about?”
Pat stared into her beautiful, innocent face “I want you to be careful of them Benz boy deh, most a them only want get into you clothes, they don’t want nobody, Them only want spoil you up, careful”
Diamond laughed “uncle don’t worry we are just friends”
Pat smirked and poured water into the tea pan “friends?” Pat face became somber “none a them deh boy no want friendship, me a man… make me tell you, them a user, them only want the girls them bodies and then they run off when you pregnant, careful… take what you can get, protect you self” Pat grunted something inaudible and continued “him don’t have a woman?”
Diamond smiled and said “no!” a little louder and enthusiastic than she should have that her uncle’s eyes widened at her answer.
Pat looked at his niece, eyes filled with disbelief and amusement. He burst into loud guffaws “Pickney come sit down beside me!”
Pat motioned Diamond to sit on the bench beside him “a man like that tell you he is single, either him lying, him wife they a foreign or he is a damn player!”
Pat stirred to face his niece as he watched her facial expression changed from amusement to ponder over his statement “baby girl don’t make them boy fool you, them deh man no single and so much girl deh a road… mind him a one a them man from the borderline”
Diamond chortled “no uncle I don’t think he is gay!”
Pat’s torso convulsed “THINK… anno think you fi think. You must make sure or else you might find out the wrong way… a don’t want to see you get hurt…when this man start show him real colours!”
Diamond thought about what her uncle said. His theories weren’t foreign because her friends had said the same things to her and she had thought about them too. She knew Juniour’s single status was incredulous since men like him are rarely single. But she liked to give people the benefit of the doubt. She remembered the last time she questioned his single status and how he had gotten angry and shot her down with a lecture about questioning his integrity.
Diamond never asked him another question.
Her friends had said that he was “dark and fool fool” and that she should avoid him. Diamond took her phone up and dialed Juniour’s number. She needed some reaffirmation and hearing his voice would soothe the conflicting notions about him that were wreaking havoc on her mind.
Junior looked at the phone and wonder what this little girl wanted now. He answered the phone annoyingly “hello”
Diamond winced at the sound of his voice “hi Juniour ahmmmmmm” Diamond stammered feeling wary of asking him for his affirmation “Somebody told me that you are a player and that you will use me”
Junior sneered “girl how many times me must tell you don’t ask me no foolishness?”
Diamond flinched at his retort. He sounded angry and she was the source of his wrath “am sorry baby don’t get mad… I just felt like asking you… I am sorry, I won’t do it again, please forgive me”
Junior smiled, that is one of the things he liked about this girl. She was very malleable and exactly how he liked his woman, pliable and acquiesces. Junior laughed and said in a cheerful, reaffirming voice ‘’ baby don’t listen to them alright Puttus, am here if you need me, I tell you I need you and I meant it”
Diamond chuckled and replied “okay bye bye… I am sorry for upsetting you”. She loved when he called her ‘puttus’, it made her heart do flip flops.
Diamond glanced at herself in the mirror and wondered what was going to happen tonight. She was very excited about later but also apprehensive. She had a lot of questions as she stared at her reflection in the mirror. She loved her dark complexion even though her mother had told her to use a little fading cream to lighten her skin. She did not like the idea of bleaching. Many persons said she was beautiful for a black girl, too mature for her age and looked years older than her eighteen years. It was this look that had made Juniour looked her way. OOOOH Juniour! She thought and opened her phone to look at the picture she took of him this morning. Oh how she loved him. She couldn’t wait to be with him later.”"
Read more: http://bookstove.com/book-talk/mama-browns-family/#ixzz2OCAyWpLQ
Diamond sat down in the passenger seat listening to Junior having a conversation with someone on the phone. One of the things that she loved about him is that he sounded different from the guys in her community. His language was refined, he dressed hot yet classy and he was sexy and gaudy. He wore gold chains, gold watches and gold wrist bands. He had on identical gold rings on both fingers. The first time Diamond saw his ring she thought he was married but he assured her that he wasn’t, citing that wearing the rings were just for fashion.
.”Diamond giggled as Junior took her hands and kissed them. Junior was the senior manager at another bank but he often came to their bank since he had an account there. He was beautiful, brown skin, drove opulent cars. He lived on the other side of town and he had many rich, big shot friends. He had taken an interest in Diamond even though most of her co-workers told her to stay away from him because he had issues. Diamond thought he was the best thing that had ever happened to her.
Diamond sat down in the passenger seat listening to Junior having a conversation with someone on the phone. One of the things that she loved about him is that he sounded different from the guys in her community. His language was refined, he dressed hot yet classy and he was sexy and gaudy. He wore gold chains, gold watches and gold wrist bands. He had on identical gold rings on both fingers. The first time Diamond saw his ring she thought he was married but he assured her that he wasn’t, citing that wearing the rings were just for fashion.
Diamond stared at his huge smooth hands and his skin was flawless. He wore glasses denoting his intelligence and sharp thinking skills. He spoke to her nicely and he visited exotic places abroad. He had two kids; he was single and thirty two years of age. Diamond felt so lucky to have a man of his status claiming an interest in a girl like her.
Junior leaned over and watched Diamond’s pensive face glowing in the sunlight. She was a beautiful black girl, her body, strong and healthy. She was intelligent, smart, and on top of it all she was fresh since none of his guys have ever claimed getting a piece of her. He was going to be the first in his clique to sample this cherry. She claimed that she was a virgin but that was yet to be seen since such virtues were rare in Jamaica nowadays. But from talking to her he knew she was a good girl and he will have a piece of her at all cost. She had never begged him anything like the other girls who occasionally wanted phone cards or clothes money. She just enjoyed his company and lauded him with compliments.
Junior looked at Diamond, his brown eyes gleaming with masculine admiration. She hated when he looked at her like that because it look as if he was hiding some dark secrets. He had this mischievous look on his face that she found both wary and intriguing. He laughed “so puttus, when you coming to spend the weekend with me”
Diamond choked “probably this week”
Junior smiled and said “what time you mother want you back in the house?”
Diamond laughed “I don’t know I will asked her”
Junior stiffened and said “mi can’t bother with the pickney business”
Diamond squirmed, feeling the need to defend herself “I am not a child”
Junior said “okay what are you doing later?”
Diamond smiled “nothing”
Junior laughed “meet me at the shell gas station at five”
Diamond laughed “okay”
Junior looked at his watch and said “okay I will see you later” and slapped her on her big bottom as she stepped out of the vehicle and sauntered through the gate into her yard. Junior watched her feeling the need to have her rising inside of him. He wanted her young supple body so badly that his groin hurts but he would not force her. He was sure that tonight she would come to him.
Fay watched the black Mercedes crawl away down the street. She was happy with the choice of boyfriend that her daughter had chosen, older man, wealthy and successful. The type of man that would not use her, impregnate her and abandon her. Most of all he was from uptown, cultured and refined, nothing like these ragamuffins that lived in Glambas. She vowed that her daughter will never have a relationship with any of the boys in the community. Her child was different and she was going places and Junior was one of those places. Fay watched as her daughter stepped into her room with a starry look in her eyes and dazzling smile. The girl was obviously smitten.
Fay sat up on the bed “so Mr. big shot bring you home”
Diamond laughed and replied “mommy, why you always a call him that, he is not like that, him very down to earth…you can believe it mommy, I heard him cuss bad word this morning make me hear”
Fay’s eyes dilated “so what you don’t know say men like them cuss bad word too, you a idiot”
Diamond cringed at the word ‘idiot’ “mommy is just that I thought men like that never cursed”
Fay lie down on the bed “you hear me say you must stop chat so round me, when you deh round you frens them, you chat like you a foreigner”
Diamond snickered “that’s not foreigner talk mommy, it’s just Standard English, what wrong with that”. Diamond could not understand her mother’s resentment of her speaking Standard English in the house. “Mommy it’s the official language of Jamaica”
Fay stiffened, her face austere “me don’t care, a patois a language here…so you give big shot any yet?” Fay rocked from side to side, looking her child up and down “make sure you don’t give him any?”
Diamond laughed, sex was not the most comfortable topic for her especially when the audience was her mother “mommy don’t worry, am not stupid, am not like the other girls”
Fay cocked her head to one side and pouted “ make sure because when you give him it too quick, him say you easy, make him spend some money first, you want a little two room board house with inside bathroom and kitchen, you no give no man nothing free, memba time hard!”
Diamond smiled timidly “mommy afraid to ask him, a don’t want him to think am a gold digga”
“Gold DIGGA!” Fay’s face crimsoned with incredulity “you anno my Pickney?” Fay looked at her daughter as if she was seeing her for the first time “man must spend money to get good stuff, make him know you no cheap or him will think you a idiot gal and laugh affa you and tell him friends”
Diamond rolled her eyes and smile “alright mommy I will do as you say”
Diamond ambled out of her mother’s room and headed for the kitchen. The kitchen was dirty with plates all over the sink and the rubbage bin was not emptied therefore the place was buzzing with flies. The Ackee leaves that were place on the table that mama said would deter flies were not working. The pots needed scouring and the stove was over strewn with grease and grime. The odour that prevailed in the air was a musty mixture of overnight food and garbage. The ceiling was black with dust and exhaust from the stove and the coal pot that was occasionally utilized when the gas was finished.
Diamond began to extract the plates from the sink, scraping food residue from them as she got the sink ready to wash the plates. She separated the cups from the plates since cups were washed first and then the plates and afterwards pot. Diamond methodically removed the grease from the dishes while her mind went on a desultory of subjects until it became fixed on Juniour. Junior walking towards her, kissing her, taking his huge hands and cupping her Jennifer Lopez booty and their bodies entwining. Diamond smiled at that thought and realized that she had just mentally admitted that she was going to give her virginity to Juniour. She almost dropped the plate she was washing as she gripped the counter feeling the need to balance her body as something inside her crumbled at the thought of finally doing it. What if Juniour is not serious about a relationship? What if Juniour only wanted to be the first to pick her cherry? Lately she began to have a lot of reservations about Juniour but she told herself that she was just being paranoid. She always got this way when she was suppose to take the next step in a relationship that’s one of the reason why she was still single and inexperience. She always marooned the guys whenever sex came up. She would just stop talking to the guys or simply lead them on until they got tired of waiting and dumped her, much to her relief. But Juniour, there was something different about him; she didn’t know if it was because he was fourteen years older than her, his brown skin or his BMWs. This man made her tingly all over. Every time he looked at her, a volcano erupted in her lower extremities and her hands became sweaty. The man made her lose all coherent thought and that was not good. He only had to look at her and all her defenses would crumple. Simply put, the man had her spellbound. God! He must be working obeah!
Pat watched his niece scrubbing the pot and her animated face contouring the action that was taking place in her mind. Whatever she was thinking about was obviously very important because her movements change rapidly. It was as if she was in a quandary and indecisive about a course of action. She had been like this since a child. Pat sometimes wondered if she was secretly deranged since she also spoke to herself during these mental voyages. “Woman what make you a talk to you self”.
Pat moved closer to his niece just in time to see a mixture of reactions largely shock or was it embarrassment played upon her facial features “what happen you a mad, careful because if certain people see you talking to you self, a that them ago think”
Diamond jumped startled and mortified that someone had seen her daydreaming “what happen uncle me never see?”
Pat replied “how you fi see me when you yeye turn in a you head?”
Diamond laughed, her uncle was hilarious and very perspicacious. Diamond felt elementary around her eldest uncle, she knew it was a matter of time before he browbeat her about what he witnessed this morning.
Pat looked at his niece as she stared up at him. It was amazing how children changed. Yesterday Diamond would have jumped on his back or beg him to carry her to the shop and today if she saw him on the road she would probably ‘duck him out’ or find some other means of eluding him. He could no longer have a conversation with her without feeling uncomfortable. Lately whenever she spoke to him she seemed so guarded “uncle what you thinking about?”
Pat stared into her beautiful, innocent face “I want you to be careful of them Benz boy deh, most a them only want get into you clothes, they don’t want nobody, Them only want spoil you up, careful”
Diamond laughed “uncle don’t worry we are just friends”
Pat smirked and poured water into the tea pan “friends?” Pat face became somber “none a them deh boy no want friendship, me a man… make me tell you, them a user, them only want the girls them bodies and then they run off when you pregnant, careful… take what you can get, protect you self” Pat grunted something inaudible and continued “him don’t have a woman?”
Diamond smiled and said “no!” a little louder and enthusiastic than she should have that her uncle’s eyes widened at her answer.
Pat looked at his niece, eyes filled with disbelief and amusement. He burst into loud guffaws “Pickney come sit down beside me!”
Pat motioned Diamond to sit on the bench beside him “a man like that tell you he is single, either him lying, him wife they a foreign or he is a damn player!”
Pat stirred to face his niece as he watched her facial expression changed from amusement to ponder over his statement “baby girl don’t make them boy fool you, them deh man no single and so much girl deh a road… mind him a one a them man from the borderline”
Diamond chortled “no uncle I don’t think he is gay!”
Pat’s torso convulsed “THINK… anno think you fi think. You must make sure or else you might find out the wrong way… a don’t want to see you get hurt…when this man start show him real colours!”
Diamond thought about what her uncle said. His theories weren’t foreign because her friends had said the same things to her and she had thought about them too. She knew Juniour’s single status was incredulous since men like him are rarely single. But she liked to give people the benefit of the doubt. She remembered the last time she questioned his single status and how he had gotten angry and shot her down with a lecture about questioning his integrity.
Diamond never asked him another question.
Her friends had said that he was “dark and fool fool” and that she should avoid him. Diamond took her phone up and dialed Juniour’s number. She needed some reaffirmation and hearing his voice would soothe the conflicting notions about him that were wreaking havoc on her mind.
Junior looked at the phone and wonder what this little girl wanted now. He answered the phone annoyingly “hello”
Diamond winced at the sound of his voice “hi Juniour ahmmmmmm” Diamond stammered feeling wary of asking him for his affirmation “Somebody told me that you are a player and that you will use me”
Junior sneered “girl how many times me must tell you don’t ask me no foolishness?”
Diamond flinched at his retort. He sounded angry and she was the source of his wrath “am sorry baby don’t get mad… I just felt like asking you… I am sorry, I won’t do it again, please forgive me”
Junior smiled, that is one of the things he liked about this girl. She was very malleable and exactly how he liked his woman, pliable and acquiesces. Junior laughed and said in a cheerful, reaffirming voice ‘’ baby don’t listen to them alright Puttus, am here if you need me, I tell you I need you and I meant it”
Diamond chuckled and replied “okay bye bye… I am sorry for upsetting you”. She loved when he called her ‘puttus’, it made her heart do flip flops.
Diamond glanced at herself in the mirror and wondered what was going to happen tonight. She was very excited about later but also apprehensive. She had a lot of questions as she stared at her reflection in the mirror. She loved her dark complexion even though her mother had told her to use a little fading cream to lighten her skin. She did not like the idea of bleaching. Many persons said she was beautiful for a black girl, too mature for her age and looked years older than her eighteen years. It was this look that had made Juniour looked her way. OOOOH Juniour! She thought and opened her phone to look at the picture she took of him this morning. Oh how she loved him. She couldn’t wait to be with him later.”"
Read more: http://bookstove.com/book-talk/mama-browns-family/#ixzz2OCAyWpLQ
