Delay and disturbance in St Catherine

After a long drive from somewhere in the bushes of St Ann, I finally got to Bog Walk in St Catherine. Ahh yes. My destination, Kingston, was within reasonable range.

Now, I had glanced at a sign some ways back that said something or the other about expecting delays of some sort. Trivialities, I figured. My aim was to get to Kingston as quickly as possible. Reading road signs was not terribly important.

Screech! My cruise around one of the sharper corners of the Bog Walk Gorge came to a sudden halt when I found myself at the end of a bit of a line. Drat. Though short, the line was only going to keep me on the roads even longer.

There was extensive pipe-laying work going on at a section of the gorge. I had noticed it earlier that morning, but it didn't matter much at the time, since not many persons were on the road then. Now that it was late afternoon, things were much different.

There were men and women wearing reflective vests and hard hats standing all around. Some were holding flags. Half of the road was apparently closed, so the flag-holders were only allowing a few cars through at a time. Just what I needed.

When I first got there, only traffic coming from the opposite direction was being allowing through. After a few minutes of sitting around listening to Bob Marley on the radio, it was my time to move. I gunned the engine and was on my way again, certain I'd get to the other side before having to stop again. Fate though, had other plans.

Screech! Great. Everything came to a stop yet again. This time, the cause was different. It seemed there was some miscommunication between flag men which led to both sides of traffic being signalled to go at the same time. Now, a complete mess.

I stuck my head out the window and looked up the road. Cars, buses and trucks stuck only inches from each other. Behind me, same thing.

Not pleased

I looked across at the car beside mine. It was a taxi packed with at least eight passengers who, by the looks of it, were not too pleased with the prospects of having to spend added time in the embrace of strangers.

"Ah wah dis man? Is who ah run dis ting yah?" yelled a woman in dark glasses. She was sitting in the back of the car with her head out the window to make room for a tall fellow in a wide-brimmed hat sitting next to her.

The driver of the taxi, a stout, bald man wearing several large gold rings, hopped out of the car. He had a towel thrown over his right shoulder.

"Oy man! Yuh nuh have no sense?" he yelled, gesticulating wildly. I looked behind me to see who he was talking to.

It was the flag man who had let us through earlier.

"Man, who yuh ah talk to?" the man with the flag replied.

"Den nuh you ah di only idiot on yah?" was the taxi driver's clever reply. "How yuh fi leggo di line when yuh see cyar ah come?" he added. "Ah you cause all ah dis yuh know."

The flag man was not amused.

"Yeah man, cause ah me name gad. Ah must me name gad. Every problem weh happen inna di world ah me cause it," he yelled.

The driver of the minibus ahead of me also got out. He looked up and down the road, then at the flag man. "Yuh is a real clown. Yuh head mussi full ah water. Dis mek sense to yuh?" he said. By now, men wearing long-sleeved shirts and hard hats had appeared. They seemed to have been searching for a solution. One of them, a slender, young man sought forgiveness for the persecuted flag man.

"Sir please, calm down. Please. We'll get you going again soon," he said to the taxi driver. But the masses, now sufficiently peeved, were not about to let the flag man off so easily.

The driver and passengers in the car behind mine, got into the action.

"Yuh know is a simple work. Not even dat yuh can't manage?" said the driver, an elderly man with uncombed hair.

"Man, tap yuh noise! Yuh know me?" the flag man yelled.

Mob getting larger

But the mob was only getting larger, and angrier by the second. "Fire him!" "Him fi go shovel stone!" "Mek him go chuck off inna di river!" They yelled with fury. I looked over at the flag man who, I could tell, was about to blow a fuse.

"Yow, mi ah 40 yuh know? Yuh know wah kinda man me be? Mine mi get vile yuh know!" he yelled. I rolled up my windows.

The woman wearing glasses in the car beside me could take no more. She jumped out of the vehicle.

"Man, why yuh nuh tek off di hat? Di hat ah tek up more space dan people!" she yelled to the man who was sitting beside her.

The offending hat-wearer looked her up and down.

"Fi yuh wig in yah inna mi face and ah tickle mi nose, but yuh nuh hear mi ah complain though. Shet up yuh mouth and come back inna di cyar!" he shouted.

The woman hissed. Meanwhile, the flag man was getting more upset and yelling things I've only heard in violent gangster movies.

I locked my doors. Then, when looking in the distance, I was sure I saw some movement. Yes! Something was moving. Slowly and ever so carefully the lines started moving. Engines started purring again and passengers, including the woman in the glasses, returned to their seats. Now only a single taxi driver and the flag man were still arguing.

"Oy, come move yuh cyar!" someone yelled and the taxi driver looked around. Without saying another word to the flag man he took off, jumped into his car and drove off. As I started moving again, I could hear the flag man still shouting.

"Is lucky unnu lucky! Ah true yuh nuh know!"

Where should Robert go next? Tell him at robert.lalah@gleanerjm.com.