Jamdown

Chapter 20

Donavan Malt

The last couple of days sped by. We stopped outside Irwin’s house in Leon’s car, while Arden already left for Portmore with the other teammates. It was Leon and I. I was almost finished with the payments to fix the engine on my car.

Mr. Hill has been kind enough to help with that. He never needed to, but he always looked out for me. It was Leon and I in this car. Normally, we would have Mason with us, but he had to do an important school test today.

To top it off, three other players were not going to be able to make it. This was going to be tight. John said he was coming, but I had a dark feeling he was not going to. He was there at the last match and just seemed out of source.  

Even then I had a bad mix of players for certain positions. I still needed another receiver and one person to put on the line. How was I going to figure that out?

I could have placed myself in the defensive line. That was going to be a laugh if any person from another team was watching.

I groaned and scratched the back of my head just thinking about the problems we were struggling with. It was always a problem motivating players to come to games and that infuriated me.

“Yo,” Irwin said coming down with a little child and Nodelyn in tow.  She wore a white shirt over her tights and her hair was braided in long box strands. 

Leon pulled the door open for Irwin to jump in and Irwin hopped in beside Leon at the front.  

The door was closed. Leon took up his phone and seemed to be thinking with his finger touching his cheek. What was he thinking?

Leon said without warning, “What you waiting for?”

Irwin and I looked at each other. I looked back to see Nodelyn and Leon were glaring at each other. 

She stared at him with a shaky smile. “What?”

Leon said, “Come in. You can bring your son too.”

“You done know how the thing set. I do not watch sports,” she said.

Oh no, Leon was at it again. Every time he saw a girl he wanted. He ran them down like he was chasing his lifeline. “Come on, what you going to do, stay home and watch TV all day?” Leon asked.

“Yes,” she said firmly.

“I have a mini TV in the car.”

Nodelyn yawned. “So?”

“Alright, how about this, you can watch your brother get beaten and thrown around like a ragdoll, does that not sound like better entertainment to you.”

“Hey!” Irwin shouted. Leon ignored him as he and Nodelyn traded grins. They were having a war within those eyes and many lives were lost in the sea of those globes.  

This was infuriating. We had to go. I said, “Yeaaaah, Leon, she does not want to come. Come on—”

Leon waved me off with a dismissive flutter of his hand and focused on Nodelyn.

Nodelyn said, “Your man is calling you.”

“Badman nuh look man,” Leon retorted.

“Leon,” I said more with a hiss.

Leon turned to me with a lovely smile and said, “Brah shut up.” I wagged my head in disgust. He turned back to Nodelyn and continued, “Just chill with we for a while, how about it?” Leon said, while tapping his chest.

Leon, we had no time for this! The hell was wrong with this man! 

She glanced at me before looking back at Leon. “Normally, I would love to see Irwin get beaten, but I have things to do.”

“Then you can do those things with us.”

She was about to retort, but Leon cut her off. “Come on, look, I tell you what, we, the Assassins team will take care of you. All expenses, whatever your son want. Take your son out and give him some breeze.” 

“Dude, no!” I jumped into the discussion. Everyone looked at me like I was mad. I frowned at Leon and continued, “Hear me, no, you understand me? No. It is your money doing that. We are not funding your foolishness.”

Leon snorted and pulled his head back. “No problem. Daaaad.” He turned back to Nodelyn. “Anyways—” She gave Leon a daring gaze. He looked down and motioned at her son. “Hey, you want to watch Irwin fight it out on the football field?”

I face-palmed and shook my head.

The boy cooed then looked up at his mother. He twirled side to side before saying, “What’s football?”

Nodelyn snickered and Leon looked flustered. “You want to see us play?” Leon asked.

The boy said, “No.” Leon looked deflated and Nodelyn laughed out aloud.

The boy continued, “Me want go with Irwin.”

Nodelyn looked at him and asked, “To do what?”

The boy shivered and jumped. “To play action heroes. Action…”

Well, that was not exactly what we were doing, but it was close enough. 

Nodelyn said, “This child. You play too much, Phillip go inside.”

Phillip groaned in disappointment.  

Leon said, “Easy nuh, He can come with us then since you do not want to come?”

Nodelyn presented a face that shouted aversion. “Irwin cannot take care of my child.”

“Why unnu keep on a draw me name into this!” Irwin replied.

Leon ignored him. “Then come, trust me, the stadium have many other places you can go to. You can shop, eat, all sort of things. They even have movie theater next to it.”

“One stadium have all that?” she asked.

“Yeah, it’s like a super complex. How ‘bout it?” Leon asked. He smiled wide, his jaw clenched back as if waiting in anticipation. 

Nodelyn sighed and looked away. "—fine, whatever. Let me get ready  first, okay?”

Leon nodded his head. She took the boy up into her arms and they went back to the house. Leon watched her and pulled his bottom lips inward.

I hit Leon on his shoulder prompting him to turn around. “Leon, we have places to go.”

Leon lifted his hand towards me. “Whoa, easy mi G, we good. She soon forward.”

“Dude—Whe you mean?! We have a match today!”

Leon smirked wider, but it came back into a normal grin as if he was holding back. He then looked at me up and down, then his eyes diverted before he said without much inflection on his voice, “Not that serious sir. It will be late in the evening. We are making good time. Build.” I glared at his never breaking smile.  

This incessant woman chasing man was going to drive me up the wall, before I croaked.

I groaned and shook my head at this sight. Players were what I needed. We needed no cheerleader. 

The hell?!  

If he used that level of effort on recruiting men, then we would have had more players by now. He used his sleek tongue on a woman. A woman who could not have blocked, caught a ball, or tackle a player. 

I sighed and said nothing as the car idled like my football career.   

Mini-Glossary 

Build - Wait 

Forward - Reach, come

G - A shortened form of 'general', this word is used as a greeting between men.