He ruined many garments in this way.
He also had the habit of giving away ties he had decorated himself. He would say, ‘I have something for you. Take it and wear it. I giving it to you because I like you.’
And if the tie wasn’t worn, Edward would get angry and begin shouting, ‘But you see how ungrateful black people is. Listen to this. I see this man not wearing tie. I take a bus and I go to town. I walk to Johnson’s and I look for the gents’ department. I meet a girl and I buy a tie. I take a bus back home. I go inside my room and take up my brush and unscrew my paint. I dip my brush in paint and I put the brush on the tie. I spend two three hours doing that, and after all this, the man ain’t wearing my tie.’
But Edward did a lot more than just paint.
One day, not many months after I had come to the street, Edward said, ‘Coming back on the bus from Cocorite last night I only hearing the bus wheel cracking over crab back. You know the place by the coconut trees and the swamp? There it just crawling with crab. People say they even climbing up the coconut trees.’
Hat said, ‘They does come out a lot at full moon. Let we go tonight and catch some of the crabs that Edward see.’
Edward said, ‘Is just what I was going to say. We will have to take the boys because it have so much crab even they could pick up a lot.’
So we boys were invited.
Edward said, ‘Hat, I was thinking. It go be a lot easier to catch the crab if we take a shovel. It have so much you could just shovel them up.’
Hat said, ‘All right. We go take the cow-pen shovel.’
Edward said, ‘That settle. But look, all you have strong shoes? You better get strong shoes, you know, because these crab and them ain’t playing big and if you don’t look out they start walking away with your big toe before you know what is what.’
Hat said, ‘I go use the leggings I does wear when I cleaning out the cow-pen.’
Edward said, ‘And we better wear gloves. I know a man was catching crab one day and suddenly he see his right hand walking away from him. He look again and see four five crab carrying it away. This man jump up and begin one bawling. So we have to be careful. If you boys ain’t have gloves just wrap some cloth over your hands. That go be all right.’
So late that night we all climbed into the Cocorite bus, Hat in his leggings, Edward in his, and the rest of us carrying cutlasses and big brown sacks.
The shovel Hat carried still stank from the cow-pen and people began squinging up their noses.
Hat said, ‘Let them smell it. They does all want milk when the cow give it.’
People looked at the leggings and the cutlasses and the shovel and the sacks and looked away quickly. They stopped talking. The conductor didn’t ask for our fares. The bus was silent until Edward began to talk.
Edward said, ‘We must try and not use the cutlass. It ain’t nice to kill. Try and get them live and put them in the bag.’
Many people got off at the next stop. By the time the bus got to Mucurapo Road it was carrying only us. The conductor stood right at the front talking to the driver.
Just before we got to the Cocorite terminus Edward said, ‘Oh God, I know I was forgetting something. We can’t bring back all the crab in a bus. I go have to go and telephone for a van.’
He got off one stop before the terminus.
We walked a little way in the bright moonlight, left the road and climbed down into the swamp. A tired wind blew from the sea, and the smell of stale sea-water was everywhere. Under the coconut trees it was dark. We walked a bit further in. A cloud covered the moon and the wind fell.
Hat called out, ‘You boys all right? Be careful with your foot. I don’t want any of you going home with only three toes.’
Boyee said, ‘But I ain’t seeing any crab.’
Ten minutes later Edward joined us.
He said, ‘How many bags you full?’
Hat said, ‘It look like a lot of people had the same idea and come and take away all the crab.’
Edward said, ‘Rubbish. You don’t see the moon ain’t showing. We got to wait until the moon come out before the crab come out. Sit down, boys, let we wait.’
The moon remained clouded for half an hour.
Boyee said, ‘It making cold and I want to go home. I don’t think it have any crab.’
Errol said, ‘Don’t mind Boyee. I know him. He just frighten of the dark and he fraid the crab bite him.’
At this point we heard a rumbling in the distance.
Hat said, ‘It look like the van come.’
Edward said, ‘It ain’t a van really. I order a big truck from Sam.’
We sat in silence waiting for the moon to clear. Then about a dozen torch-lights flashed all around us. Someone shouted, ‘We ain’t want any trouble. But if any one of you play the fool you going to get beat up bad.’
We saw what looked like a squad of policemen surrounding us.
Boyee began to cry.
Edward said, ‘It have man beating their wife. It have people breaking into other people house. Why you policemen don’t go and spend your time doing something with sense, eh? Just for a change.’
A policeman said, ‘Why you don’t shut up? You want me to spit in your mouth? ’
Another policeman said, ‘What you have in those bags?’
Edward said, ‘Only crab. But take care. They is big crab and they go bite off your hand.’
Nobody looked inside the bags and then a man with a lot of stripes said, ‘Everybody playing bad-man these days. Everybody getting full of smart answers, like the Americans and them.’
A policeman said, ‘They have bag, they have cutlass, they have shovel, they have glove.’
Hat said, ‘We was catching crab.’
The policeman said, ‘With shovel? Eh, eh, what happen that you suddenly is God and make a new sort of crab you could catch with shovel?’
It took a lot of talk to make the policemen believe our story.
The officer in charge said, ‘I go like to lay my hands on the son of a bitch who telephone and say you was going to kill somebody.’
Then the policemen left.
It was late and we had missed the last bus.
Hat said, ‘We had better wait for the truck Edward order.’
Edward said, ‘Something tell me that truck ain’t coming now.’
Hat said very slowly, half laughing and half serious, ‘Edward, you is my own brother, but you know you really is a son of a bitch.’
Edward sat down and just laughed and laughed.
Then the war came. Hitler invaded France and the Americans invaded Trinidad. Lord Invader made a hit with his calpyso:
I was living with my decent and contented wife
Until the soldiers came and broke up my life.
For the first time in Trinidad there was work for everybody, and the Americans paid well. Invader sang:
Father, mother, and daughter
Working for the Yankee dollar!
Money in the land!
The Yankee dollar, oh!
Edward stopped working in the cow-pen and got a job with the Americans at Chaguaramas.
Hat said, ‘Edward, I think you foolish to do that. The Americans ain’t here forever and ever. It ain’t have no sense in going off and working for big money and then not having nothing to eat after three four years.’
Edward said, ‘This war look as though it go last a long long time. And the Americans not like the British, you know. They does make you work hard, but they does pay for it.’
Edward sold his share of the cows to Hat, and that marked the beginning of his drift away from us.