Shorty And Homeboy

It’s cold enough to make a polar bear impotent. At least that’s what Shorty said when he stepped off the jitney yesterday morning.

Shorty had on a t-shirt, a regular shirt, a sweater and an over coat left over from World War II.

With all of those clothes you’d think Shorty would be as warm as a bug in a rug, but oh no, the short man was still complaining about being cold.

Shorty was downtown to meet Homeboy and Clifford.The three friends were to have lunch at a little greasy spoon restaurant on the north side of Bay Street where taxi drivers hang out between jobs.

So Shorty and I stood on the sidewalk talking about this and that while he waited for his friends.Shorty said that he was glad that Bradley’s troubles were over.

He figured that nothing would have come from those charges anyway since the women folk in town did not stand up for the woman who said that she was wronged.

Shorty said that when women don’t stand up for women on a charge that’s close to murder, then your luck bad!

Not even the straw vendors who would row for anything and everything under the sun, did not defend that woman.

So, reasoned Shorty, he just knew that nothing would come out of those charges.

Shorty was talking about this and some other things when Homeboy showed up.

Homeboy looked haunted.I believe it was from the stress of voting wrong in the last elections but I could not be sure.

Anyway, I hadn’t seen Homeboy since the middle of December, and it was good to touch base with him again.

Homeboy said that he didn’t mind the cold weather because he had been on the contract once and this weather was a joke to what he experienced in Bel Glade.

I always figured that Homeboy was a more determined fellow than Shorty and the fact that he tolerated cold weather better was my first proof of that.

Homeboy said that he saw Sidney up by the House of Assembly, and despite Sidney’s troubles, he hadn’t lost a pound of fat.

And just about then Clifford showed up. Today at least, Clifford did not smell like brute.He smelled more like fresh conchs.

We stood on the sidewalk and chewed the fat a little longer until the friends turned and went into the restaurant.At least now that Shorty is working for government; he can treat his boys to lunch. That’s some progress and there are people who say that this government ain’t doing nothing.