Delbert and the Ginnal Woman: A Story of Luck, Insult, Love and Retaliation in Jamaica

By Paul Foreman

A story of an illiterate young man who lived in abject poverty until he befriends a German tourist in Jamaica. Together they accidentally discover a large fortune. The book tells how Delbert and his friend use their new wealth to help many Rastafarians who become their friends, and how Delbert gets his unique revenge for an injustice by a wealthy woman who tried to destroy him and his relationship with the young woman he loves.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Mar 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9781483524597

Book preview

Foreman

PART I

CHAPTER 1

By the time he was twenty years old, Delbert had five children with three different women, and he had never been married. Marriage had never ever entered Delbert’s mind. He had a son with the young girl with whom he was currently living, and she was expecting their second child. He seldom saw his four other children, two sons and two daughters who lived in Savanna-La-Mar, about a two hour drive from Cousin’s Cove, a seaside village near Negril on Jamaica’s western coast where he had spent all of his life. Delbert was abandoned by his mother when he was nine, and he did not know his father. As far as he was aware he had no brothers or sisters, although it was highly improbable that his father and his mother had no other offspring.

Delbert did not know his last name, but assumed the surname Maxwell because he liked the way it sounded. He spent much of his life alone, his only focus being survival. He didn’t know what survival meant; he just did whatever he had to do to live. Most residents of Cousin’s Cove knew him, but he really had no close friends. Young men of his age appeared ashamed to be around him. They apparently found his tattered clothing and unkempt appearance embarrassing. Miss Vie who owned a small roadside shop was kind to him, occasionally giving him some hard dough bread, a cream soda, or a bulla or two. Although he never asked Miss Vie for any details, Delbert always felt that Miss Vie knew his mother and felt some sympathy for him and his circumstance.

Although he wanted to remain in Cousin’s Cove, Delbert felt that he should move with his pregnant girlfriend when she went to live with her parents in Barrett Town, a small hillside village about twenty minutes east of Montego Bay. Delbert met his current girlfriend when she was thirteen, and they had their first child before her fourteenth birthday.

He thought he would remain in Barrett Town at least until his baby was born. Like many other young men in Jamaica, Delbert’s infrequent jobs that paid little did not allow him to provide support for his children, and was hardly sufficient for his own basic needs. Delbert’s girlfriend was now fourteen years old, and carrying her second child.

As a young boy, Delbert lived by himself in a cave near Cousin’s Cove, a few miles from the resort town of Negril where he was born. He had no one to care for him, nor who particularly cared for him. He slept on a pile of burlap bags which he stole. He survived by getting whatever he needed however he had to, even if he had to steal. He was cunning, and lying was a useful skill for his survival. In the local vernacular, Delbert was a ginnal whose deceit was never intended to hurt anyone, but was essential for him to live. The few people who knew Delbert thought of him as caring and kind, and his good looks and muscular body assured him of female companionship whenever he wished. Some people in the village called him Anancy or Samfie Man because his cunning ways reminded them of the Anancy of Jamaican/African lore, or of a con artist who used deception to get what he wanted.

Delbert never went to school, and could not read or write. The only jobs for which he ever qualified were those requiring unskilled labor, and he could only get such jobs if written applications were not required. Delbert’s clothes consisted of ragged shorts and torn tee shirts which he found or stole. He didn’t own a pair of shoes, and walked around in his bare feet. Sometimes he wore flip-flops which always looked as if they were about to fall apart. He occasionally wore a pair of sandals which he made from a discarded truck tire.

Delbert’s diet consisted of mangoes and other fruits which were plentiful in the area, as well as breadfruit, bananas, yams and sugar cane, the juice of which he got from chewing the fibrous cortex from the sugar cane stalks. He frequently complained of sore jaws which he got from constantly chewing the fibrous sugar cane. An accidental positive result from his sugar cane chewing was beautiful white teeth which he maintained by his daily use of chew stick, a stem from an easily available plant which produced a natural toothpaste with a bitter-sweet foam when chewed. Coconuts provided an easily available source of liquid nourishment. His primary source of protein came from fish which he was expert at catching. He joined pieces of fishing line that he found along the coast, and made crude hooks with safety pins which allowed him to catch snapper, jack and parrot fish which he cleaned and roasted over open wooden fires. With a machete he removed mollusks from rocks at the seaside which he used as bait when he went fishing. He never went hungry, but he dreamt about rice and peas, curried goat, stewed peas, brown-stew chicken, and oxtail with beans which he occasionally saw others eating.

Approximately once each month, Delbert made what he called sea beef, a stew made from the mollusks which he pried from the rocks near the sea, and which included any vegetable he could find. He promoted his stew as a soup for men, and whenever he made it he always had a significant number of old and young men who were willing to pay him US$1 for a cup, providing him with his only reliable source of income. He promoted his sea beef as an aphrodisiac which he said included secret ingredients which he boiled for hours over a wood-fueled fire.

Delbert Maxwell’s life was a solitary one, with the exception of those times he spent in his cave with young girls who were attracted by his kind, gentle, funny and quiet demeanor. He always had a good supply of ganja which he readily shared with his female visitors.

It was difficult to understand Delbert when he spoke, not only because his speech was rapid, but mainly because it was limited to the Jamaican dialect which was all he knew, and he often included utterances that had meaning to him alone. No one knew what Delbert meant when he referred to flappas which was believed to be a species of bird, or plippans which was believed to be some kind of fish.

Delbert was fearless, although any mention from anyone of a duppy would make him shudder. He often said the duppy that he most feared was Guzu which sometimes kept him awake at nights. No one else was aware of the Guzu ghost. The only other fear he admitted was of croaking lizards, harmless creatures which appeared at nights near lights to feed on moths and other insects which the lights attracted. Most Jamaicans feared the croaker as it was called, so Delbert had no reluctance in admitting this fear. He showed no fear of the rat-bats that shared his cave with him.

Delbert had no religious exposure, and had no reason to believe in a God of any kind. Whenever Miss Vie who owned the little shop in Cousin’s Cove would tell him he should go to church, he would tell her that church is rubbish. It don‘t make no sense dat any god who love everybody would mek mi modda leave me alone an go America if im could stop it. Ah was jus a likkle bwoy wen she leave me. So why im didn’t stop it if im love mi? An ah don’t do nutt’n fi im to not love mi. An why im mek me grow up poor like a mongrel daag who have to live eena cave? If im did love mi ah wouldn’t av to tief when ah get ungry. It don’t make no sense to mi dat black man poor an white man rich. What kind of god mek dis happen? Why unnu only go to church on Sunday? Why unnu cyaant pray eena unnu own ouse? Why unnu gwaan nice on Sunday but unnu tief and tell lie an give wey pum pum during di week? An husban dress up an go church wid dem wife on Sunday but grine odda woman durin di week? If dere is a god, im hidin from me. Is pure rubbish, Miss Vie. It don’t make no sense to mi at all. Ah don’t do nutt’n to get treat so bad. Delbert was always prepared to defend his disbelief in a God whenever the subject arose in his presence, and he felt certain that his religious opinions helped to alienate him from most residents of Cousin’s Cove who claimed to be devoted children of God. Something must be wrong with him, they thought.

Delbert’s atheism left some room in his thinking to appreciate the Rastafarian lifestyle, although he recognized that dreadlocks were frequently worn by some only as a social sartorial statement rather than as a sign of reverence for, and compliance with a belief in Ras Tafari. He respected the simple honesty of the Rastafarians he knew, and respected their strict adherence to their ital diet and abstinence from alcohol. He concluded that the Rastafarian lifestyle would be difficult for him because he could not pass up a Red Stripe or a likkle whites if ever he was able to get some. His Rastafarian friends shared his use of ganja, and this allowed a special kinship.

After his sixth child, a son, was born in Barrett Town, Delbert returned to Cousin’s Cove, a place he knew and where he felt comfortable. He had his cave and his ganja plot, and although he had no close friends, he was recognized by the residents and didn’t feel like a stranger there. He had become immune to the comments he frequently heard about his appearance although the word wutliss, used with reference to him hurt his feelings. He had an intuitive sense of right and wrong, and his illiteracy was an incorrect measure of his common sense. He was more comfortable in Cousin’s Cove than anywhere he knew, and without a job in Barrett Town, there was nothing for him to do there. Returning to Cousin’s Cove where survival was easy made sense to him.

Fatherhood for Delbert meant only fathering children and not caring for them. Dat is baby modda job, he often said. He would occasionally add, But if ah evvva get any money in mi life ah gwine tek care a all mi pickney dem. Dem don’t deserve to live like mongrel daag like dem faada. Ah would love to sen all mi pickney to school. Ah love dem but ah cyaant show dem dat ah love dem, an dat hurt mi. Mi dream is to mek all a dem know dat ah love dem. An ah would love fi tek care a all mi baby modda dem.

CHAPTER 2

When he was about twenty, Delbert built a small canoe from lumber which he stole at nights from a hotel construction site near Negril. He tied planks of flat lumber together with wire, and walked the few miles from Negril to Cousin’s Cove every night for a week carrying the wood pile on his head until he had accumulated sufficient lumber for his boat. He used a machete to shape the lumber, and he stole nails from construction sites in the area to fashion the lumber into a small boat. He removed asphalt from edges of the highway and heated it in a discarded tin can and used the hot asphalt as a sealant for his boat. He painted his little boat with many coats of whatever paint he could steal.

Delbert used his boat to go fishing in the small inlets near Cousin’s Cove where he met a German man named Hans Schroeder who had recently purchased a small house on the coast, a few miles from Cousin’s Cove. In exchange for a few dollars, Delbert showed Hans the best places to go fishing in the area, and they frequently went fishing together. Before long, Delbert and Hans became friends, and after Hans saw the cave where Delbert lived, he gave him a room in his home where he could sleep. At twenty years of age, Delbert slept in a bed for the first time.

Hans grew up in an orphanage in Frankfurt, Germany, and did not know his father or his mother. As far as he was aware, he had no relatives. As a teenager, he was adopted by the Schroeders of Hamburg who owned a business that distributed photographic equipment throughout western Europe. Hans took a keen interest in photography at his high school in Hamburg, and with his adopted parents’ encouragement and support, he was able to study photography with some of the better known photographers in Germany.

Hans was an attractive man who was quiet and had a good sense of humor. His income from photography allowed him to have an active social life which included skiing trips to Austria where he met and fell in love with Ingrid Gerdemann who became his wife. Life changed for Hans when his adopted parents died within a year of each other leaving nothing for him in their wills. His relationship with his wife became stressful, and he began drinking heavily. After discovering that his wife was being unfaithful to him, he sank into a deep depression, and decided to end his marriage and leave Germany. His love of reggae music took him to Jamaica about which he had read, and he thought this move would be the antidote for his depression. He owned expensive photographic, recording and other electronic equipment, and he thought that eventually he might produce a book of photographs or a film of Jamaica which he would hopefully sell.

Hans drove an old jeep in which he kept a bag with his photographic equipment, fishing gear, snorkeling equipment, a life jacket and a metal detector. Delbert called his German friend Ants, and frequently asked Hans how he was given that name. Ants is black, so why yu modda call yu dat? Ah could undastan if ants was white, but dat is fi yu business.

In addition to the small amount of money Hans gave Delbert for his fishing guidance, Delbert got money from him for ganja which he cultivated in a small plot which he maintained outside the cave where he had lived before he moved to Hans’ house. Shortly after moving, Delbert began growing ganja on Hans’ property to allow easy access to the herb which both he and Hans smoked on a regular basis. Delbert was able to convince Hans that he had developed different strains of ganja by combining ganja with various kinds of dried seaweed, each strain capable of delivering a different hallucinating effect. His special blend was called ood weed which he claimed had the most powerful effect on sexual arousal and stamina in men. Delbert convinced Hans that there is no cock-stan in di worl dat stronger dan a ood weed cockstan. It will mek gal bawl fi Jesas. Some man will tell yu dat Irish moss wid rum an raw peanut an root wine will mek yu ood stan up good, but dere is nutt’n like dis blend---truss mi. Hans believed Delbert. Peace an Love was another blend which Delbert recommended to Hans as the best to smoke if his only interest was in sitting on the beach watching a sunset and meditating. If all yu want to do is chill, Peace an Love will tek you to a place where yu feel like there is nutt’n yu cyaant do, an where everybody love yu. Delbert also made biscuits with ganja which he called butta dreams, and which he recommended be eaten about an hour before going to bed at nights. Butta dream biscuit will mek yu av some serious dream, man. Yu will dream about all kine a gal an yu will wake up feeling fresh an strong like mule". Delbert became a resourceful lying businessman, and although his income from his ganja crop was small, it allowed him to have some cash in his pocket occasionally which he used to purchase sugar, rice, bread, bullas, cigarettes and sometimes rum from Miss Vie’s little roadside shop in Cousin’s Cove.

Hans Schroeder was able to understand Delbert when he spoke, although he could not converse with him in the Jamaican dialect. Delbert taught Hans Jamaican curse words, which brought Delbert to loud laughter whenever Hans said something like raas claat , bumbo or blood claat or batty with a strong German accent. Delbert once told Hans that he would get quicker service at Mr. Wong’s shop if he asked for ‘a poun a raas sugar’, or ‘a pack a bumbo claat cigarette’, and Hans never understood why these requests were always met with raucous laughter from Mr. Wong and anyone who was within earshot when he placed his orders. Delbert had fun at Hans’s expense. Although not an obscenity, rahtid was a Jamaican expression of surprise which Hans used frequently to Delbert’s delight. After eating Delbert’s ganja-infused butta dream biscuits, Hans could be heard saying rahtid over and over for hours.

CHAPTER 3

Often Delbert would accompany Hans to Negril where they would walk the seven mile beach searching for metallic objects in the sand with the metal detector which Hans kept in his jeep. They occasionally found a few coins and an occasional ring, but nothing of significant value. Delbert enjoyed these expeditions since Hans allowed him to carry the metal detector, and he relished the curious attention which he received from young Jamaicans who had never seen a metal detector before.

Delbert had wondered if he carried the metal detector in his little boat if he might find metal objects buried in the sand in the shallow waters of Cousin’s Cove. Hans had told him repeatedly that he should never use the instrument near the salt water to avoid rusting which the salt would cause. But Delbert’s curiosity got the better of him when Hans went to Montego Bay for a day. Delbert spent hours rowing around inlets in Cousin’s Cove holding the metal detector so that it would not get wet. After doing this for a few hours, he concluded that the effort was a useless waste of time, and began rowing back towards the beach when the continuous and recognizable beeping from the metal detector started. His canoe was in about three feet of water near to mangroves and in a secluded location which he had never visited before. He turned the detector off, got out of the canoe and began digging in the sand with his bare hands. He touched what felt like a metal ring, but the water was not shallow enough for him to easily remove whatever was buried in the sand. He would need a mask and a snorkel to allow him to dig continuously without having to surface frequently for air. Hans had let him use his snorkeling equipment before, and he would borrow the equipment again without revealing why he needed it.

He took note of his location so that he could continue digging the next day. He needed to remember exactly where he was when the instrument