Shakespeare Avenue

By Mimsie Mendez

 

“Unda mi nose” is a popular Jamaican phrase and was the last place Sandy expected to find love, or anything else for that matter.  And so she lived her life searching in all wrong places often ending up hurt, lost and alone.  Ten years later and scarred with tons of physical and mental baggage she winds up right where she started. Like all the other roads she had trodden her body was saying yes and her head was cautioning her to be careful. 

Question is: Is she prepared to look unda her nose and if and when she does will she keep it unda her nose? 

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Sep 19, 2005
• ISBN: 9781463499068

Mimsie Mendez

Mimsie Mendez grew up in  “Mendez Town” a small farming community named after her great grandparents and known for its “yellow yams”.  The small community is located in Central Jamaica in a parish widely known as the “Cockpit Country” due to its hilly terrain and tall mountains.   Very early in her life she started reading often using a kerosene lamp she likes to say and has continued since.  Her very first books were her mother’s “Mills and Boons” romance novels.  She would hide under the bed for hours and read them without her mother’s knowledge.  She was known for making up stories and not long after she started writing them.    Growing up in the church it wasn’t unusual for her to woo people with her plays, poetry and songs of inspiration.  Her first publication was for her school yearbook in her senior year of high school.  She then migrated to Kingston where she started freelancing for various local newspapers and radio stations including “The Gleaner” and “Irie FM”.    Today she lives in a suburban New Jersey town and is studying for her master’s degree.  She hopes to be the first female Prime Minister in her homeland and hopes to return there someday.   

Book preview

Contents

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

About the Author

Acknowledgements

I would like to say a special thank you to everybody who helped me in some way, shape or form in putting the finishing touches on this my very first book.

First on the list is my mother who taught me to read at an early age, for being hard on me and providing those Mills & Boons books. Second on the list is my one and only daughter Mishka, thanks for putting up with my continuous writing and sitting by my computer.

All my friends Michelle, Aneika, Phylis, Omar, Elston & Jomo for helping and putting up with my continuous flow of silly ideas. But thanks especially to Jomo, you provided the best inspiration of all.

To all of you I will be forever indebted and forever grateful to know people like you.

Mimsie

Chapter 1

I remember it like yesterday, the very first time I saw him more than ten years ago. I remember the look in his eyes, the clothes he was wearing. The person he was standing with, up to the weary expression on his face. This was the day I met the love of my life. I walked hurriedly in the blazing sun accompanied by my cousin Michelle. All I could think about was getting my hair done, you know fixing up myself. You never know when you will end up at a dance or a party, so I have to be prepared just case anyone asked.

Brook Valley was smack in the middle of Duhaney Park, a small housing community in Kingston. The community spread out over 4 miles and like most other affordable housing projects it was divided into rival factions based on alliance with the political parties. The community was a mixture of townhouses, apartments and one family houses and the narrow streets bore names of English characters such as Sherlock, Shakespeare and Baldwin.

Brookvalley’s streets were unusually quiet on this particular evening, gone was the usual hustle bustle that defined everyday life. This new calm was representative of the peace that had existed between Sherlock and Brook Valley for the last few years. It was a little after four in the afternoon but the sun was still high in the sky. I could feel the heat that emanated from the tarred streets and the absence of rain only made it worse. The sun slowed us down a little but that didn’t do much to dampen our spirits. Michelle cared very little about the weather and I cared very little of anything except looking pretty and going out. I was in search of the ‘bashment hairdresser’ from Shakespeare Avenue and I don’t know what Michelle was in search of.

Michelle was my cousin who was visiting with me from the country. Except for our dimples that were passed down from my grandmother we were both very different. Michelle was chocolate brown with flowing jetblack hair. Her five feet nine inches height was considered very tall and her ostrich long legs were the talk of the town. She was nineteen and a year older than me but she looked like a typical sixteen year old.

Me on the other hand was the total opposite of Michelle. My hair was just long enough to be pulled back in a small bun at the back. My almost yellow complexion and hazel brown eyes were the talk of the small community I grew up in. I was always teased that I was a ‘jacket’ as I looked nothing like my father. To make matters worse my mother was known to have had wandering eyes as a young girl, and was known to have a few boyfriends before settling down with my father. My legs were not short and stubbly but definitely not long and lean like Michelle’s. I inherited my mother’s good looks and her average height, but definitely not her charm, as I was known to throw many a tantrum.

As I said we were two different people and that much was evident in how we looked on that day. Michelle was all decked out in a white form fitting denim dress and matching sandals. Michelle always dressed to kill and today was no exception. She always met guys and today she was looking forward to meeting a few. On the other hand I was simply clad in blue overalls that stopped just above the knees and a pair of blue flip-flops. Tucked in a side pocket was the only $500 I had in my name; and as I walked I held onto to it tightly.

My hair pulled back in a scrunchy was a mess from a bad coloring job and I had to find someone who could fix it. The last few weeks had seen my usually healthy hair falling out in huge chunks. This was a bad thing but I think I deserved it due to my foolish and cheap attempt to color my hair by myself.

It was as we rounded the corner where Baldwin and Shakespeare Avenues met that I saw him first. At first he seemed like any other ordinary guy, but I recalled I had never seen him before. Not that I knew everyone in Brook Valley but I was frequently on that block and I never saw him before. We were still far away but I knew I had never seen him before and something told me he wasn’t just going to let us pass by without saying something.

My heart skipped a beat in my chest, as we got closer to where he stood. He was standing with another guy I had never seen before either. They both seemed to be saying something to each other and even though I couldn’t hear them, I had a feeling we were the subject of that discussion. Michelle suddenly took the corner from me leaving me vulnerable and in full view. Boy did I hate it when guys stare; it made me feel like fresh meat on a chopping block. I suddenly started brushing my hair back with my hands as I always did when I became nervous. It was all in place but that was a bad habit of mine. One I later learned contributed to the demise of my hair.

We were now at 86 Shakespeare Avenue and I made a mental note to myself. We needed to be at 88 and so we walked on. It was the next townhouse and I stopped, there was no gate as the house was built out onto the street. I knelt, picked up a small pebble and knocked on the burglar bars since there was no gate.

As I did this I felt eyes peering at me and I looked around to see him walking towards us.

Who do you want? he asked with a small smile at the corner of his mouth.

I need to see the hairdresser, I replied nervously.

By this time his friend had also started walking over.

Oh Mammy not here, she will be back soon he replied. She is probably less than ten minutes away.

I guess we will come back later then I stammered and started walking away.

You don’t have to he blurted out I will open the gate so you could wait inside. Then he hurried to open the iron grill and let us in. The verandah’s sheen reflected our faces as we scurried to sit on the patio chairs. It didn’t look much like a hair salon except for the two dryers adorning the wall and the curling irons and other stuff that lay on top of a small hairdresser stall. Soon a small boy ran from the inside of the house screaming his head off.

What happen to you Mark? Kevin asked.

Mikey hit me again, the little boy screamed after which Kevin excused himself and disappeared into the little house. The house from the outside seemed like the typical Duhaney Park townhouse, with the living room directly behind the verandah and the bedrooms upstairs.

Moments later, Kevin exited the house and things seemed to have quieted down. By the way my name is Kevin, he stated as he introduced himself, all the time looking me dead in the eye.

I am Sandy I responded my heart still in my mouth, and this is my cousin Michelle. By this time his friend had started giving him the look, impatiently waiting for Kevin to introduce him also. Kevin seemed to have read his mind because suddenly he blurted out, this is my friend Paul and he lives across the street. At that Paul made his way toward the chair in which Michelle sat and a conversation ensued.

All this time, I was watching Kevin and pretending not to. He seemed like he was eighteen or nineteen, which in either case he was much too young for me. I was barely eighteen myself but I thought I knew everything about the world.

As I sat twiddling my