The Highflyers

Istopped at a cafeteria on Lyndhurst Road and bought a dinner and decided to eat in, there and then. I was halfway through my dinner when I looked up and saw Dunstan Patrick. I wondered what Dunstan was doing in this area. He saw me and came over.

“You’re back in Jamaica now, Danny?” he said, without preamble.

I motioned him to a seat and he sat down. He still hadn’t ordered anything.

“So what are you doing in this area, Dunstan?” I asked.

“I teach at a nearby school,” he said. “I just stopped by to get a soda.”

Dunstan was a very short man, and probably a few years older than I. I wondered how he had got this teaching job. He had several subjects, but he had been kicked out of so many universities and teacher training colleges that I wondered just what he was up to these days.

“Teddy told me that you were out here. I suppose you’ve heard about Cliff?” he asked.

I told him I had, and asked him where Teddy was working now. He said he was a janitor over by the Bayliss Hotel on Mountain View Avenue. The day I’d seen him, he’d taken a taxi going in that direction. Dunstan got his soda and left, but not before telling me that the cocktail circuit was still active.

Food and drinks used to flow on the circuit and at one time, Dunstan depended on it solely for his survival. I didn’t even know how he could have landed a teaching job, he was so laid-back. But maybe, like the communities, the people had changed. For a fact Dunstan so frequented the hotels, art galleries and such places looking for the latest free feast that he had been banned from several venues. He was attending one of the universities and surviving off the circuit and I warned him that he needed at least three meals a day, but he ignored me. He didn’t make it past the first year, most times.

I paid my bill and left and decided I’d stop by Max and get a bottle before going to my room. I decided to phone Avrill after 12 o’clock as the cellphone network I was using gave you free calls after midnight.

I woke up early the next morning. I had a radio in my room and a television set. I understood that there were a lot of radio stations down here now and one or two more television stations. I had cable in my room and I watched some of the cable stations, though I can’t say what they were showing interested me. I had run the dial on my radio trying to pick up any familiar voices, but with no luck so far. I noticed that most of the airwaves were packed with a lot of talk shows.

I went down for breakfast. Maybe it would take some time for me to get used to the fact that I was going nowhere. I was determined to stay here until my hair was grey.

I bought the morning dailies, but once again didn’t get past the headlines. The local news didn’t interest me. Maybe I’d better get some foreign papers, I thought. There was a bookstore in New Kingston that sold those papers. Maybe after I rejected those I could start accepting the local news.

Avrill would take the ferry this morning. I was due to meet her for dinner later in the evening.

I had copies of the tapes I’d given to Tony. I wondered if it would not have been a good thing to give him copies of the records I had selling in England. I decided that the next time I saw him I would.

I went and bought the papers I needed and then went over to the library. As I sat reading in walked Delores Malcolm. She came right over to me.

“Danny Walters, I didn’t know you were back in Jamaica,” she remarked as we embraced each other.

“Delores, it’s been so long. Take a seat and you can fill me in on the happenings around here.”

She was dressed in jeans and a shirt. Delores was of medium height. She had put on some weight and was now probably in her early thirties.

She sat down. I noticed that she had several books.

“Fancy seeing you out here. None of the guys or girls come here anymore, Danny. Most of them have finished studying and have moved on. You remember Petal and Denton, well they migrated. Norlene got married and moved to Montego Bay. We still call each other and she had twin boys. You know that Cliff’s dead. What more can I tell you. Maybe I’d better ask how you’re doing.”

“I’m doing all right. I’m living at the Hill View Hotel on Upper Orange Street. I’m doing some songs. I had some songs when I was over in England. And I’m seeing a girl from over Port Royal.”

Delores lived at the Drummond Court Hotel on Old Hope Road.

She was doing the finals of some English Accountancy Examinations. She had a car, wasn’t married but had one child who was in the country with her mother.

Eventually, I left Delores to her studies and continued reading.

Later, Avrill came to have dinner with me and we went out to a nightclub. When we returned we carried several bottles I’d bought up to my room.

~

For two weeks I didn’t hear anything from Tony. He must have thrown away the tapes I’d given him. I used the number he’d given me, but all I got was his voice mail. I tried calling Charmaine but also with no luck. I drove by the bar where I’d met him and his friends and even stopped to have a few drinks but he never showed up.

I had paid for my hotel a month in advance, but had only a couple of weeks to go before I had to pay again or look for new lodgings. I didn’t want to move as I was comfortable there.

Then that Thursday morning I got a call from Jason Hastings. He told me that Tony wanted to see me at the studios. I took the tapes of the songs I had playing in England with me.

Jason ushered me into Tony’s office, which was spacious. The short girl I’d seen with him that evening was also there. Tony introduced her as his secretary, Jacqueline Stelstar. Jason took a seat at one of the chairs facing Tony. I took the other.

“We liked the tapes, Danny,” Tony said, without wasting time. “Jason said he liked the material. The delay in getting in touch with you was because we wanted several other experts whom we work with to hear them. They all agree that it’s good stuff,” he said.

“I was sort of worried that you’d thrown away the tapes and I wouldn’t hear from you again,” I told him, relief making me relax.

“Shame on you, Danny. If they were no good I would have gotten in touch with you and told you so.”

They wanted me to start