Old Story Time

521 Words3 Pages
“Old Story Time” written by Trevor Rhone, narrated by Pa Ben, who is integral to keeping the peace, as well as keeping the lines of communication open between families, is about a mother who wants the best for her child (Len). Mama, also known as Ms. Aggy wishes for her son to get a good education, avoid individuals of darkened skin, for black signifies failure and hard ship, while white signifies prosperity and advancement. Also to court Margaret, the reverend's daughter who, it is implied, is white. As a result, she isolates him from the children in the neighbourhood and forcibly encourages him to study. The result of her 'encouragement' is that he obtains a scholarship to go to University in England, travels the world, obtains a PhD, and gets an excellent job in the banking sector in Kingston,Jamaica. Alongside her encouragement, regarding education, however, is her castigation of the Black race. She tells her son that Black is not good, therefore, he must try to court Margaret, the reverend's daughter who, it is implied, is white. He attempted to accommodate his mother and was brutally humiliated. This incident, however, led to him meeting his future wife, the dark skinned Lois. Mama does not react well to their marriage and maintains the belief that Lois has worked obeah on her son in order to obtain and keep him. We learn that Lois is, in fact, dedicated to Len. So much so that she embezels the bank's money in order to support Len while he was away at University. She paid for it at that time because her then boss, George McFarlane, blackmailed her. Her former boss re-enters her life when Len investigates George's financial activities in order to ascertain whether or not he has scammed Mama in a housing deal. George tries to use her former fraudulent activities against her, but it backfires on him because Len uses the same bank slip, that George had kept as
Open Document