Chapter 3 two gilbert

Is this how the British live?How many times did she ask me that question?I lost count.Do the British live like this?That question became a bitter mourning, sighing over everything she saw: Is this how the English live? Yes, I told her, that's how the Brits lived and fought here and many lived worse than that. She walked slowly to the window, surprised at the sight in front of her, rubbed the windowpane with her gloved hand, checked and said again: Is this how the British live? Before long, the gentleman in me started shaking my ribs and pounding my chest, wondering: Gilbert, what the hell have you done?Can't you see it yet?Tsk, you married this woman back!

I ventured to get the luggage that Hortens had crossed the sea, and Queenie was still standing by the open door.Are you all right, Gilbert? Fortunately, thanks.I told her. What did you say her name was? Holtens. Funny name. What, is it funnier than Queenie? Although I didn't take it as a joke, she laughed for a while.You must remove that suitcase.I'm closing.If you are not careful, people will touch your things. If they can lift it, give it to them.I added, muttering to myself, I'm moving now, Queenie. My idea is to lug the suitcase up the stairs.Now I might be able to push up one step, and if I let my feet rest for an hour later, I might be able to move up two steps.But this suitcase is as heavy as a fat man turned into a stone and put into a coffin. I have to find a strong man to help me.So I knock on Winston's door.

It was not Winston who now answered the door.Yes, he looked like Winston, talked like Winston, and dressed like Winston, but Winston was another twin.It looks exactly like the two lemons on the tree.This is his brother Kenneth.To tell them apart, borrow a shilling from them.Winston will lend it to you, but he will haunt you all over London until he gets it back; Kenneth is different, he will persuade you to give him a shilling, and promise you no more. You can double your money twenty-fold in a week.Kenneth's family was in Notting Valley, and there was an Irish woman named Noreen in the family.I knew it wasn't my friend Winston, because when I asked the man in front of me to help me carry my suitcase up, he said: You mean she just came from home?Do you know what's in her suitcase?

I do not know. Oh, let's open it up and have a look.The price of mangoes is good.Do you see she has rum?I know that last time a boy gave me half of his salary just to take a bite of guava. Inside the box are my wife's things. I can't believe my ears.You are a man.She's just off the ship, and you've got to let her know who's in charge.And make it clear from the beginning so that bad habits don't form.The wife must follow what the husband says.You go ask the judge.You go ask the police.They will all say the same.Everything in the box is yours.What's hers is yours. If she doesn't like it, just beat her up and make her obedient.

And I asked the glib: How did you end up in Winston's room?Noreen kicked you out again? We struggled with the suitcase, dumb as two mime clowns, but at a steady pace until the suitcase slid backwards down the full flight of stairs.That's when Kenneth dropped his hands and insisted that only cigarettes (which I had to supply) would keep him alive.How long did it take us to get to our room?I have no idea.I was a handsome young man when we first moved, and a wheezing old man when we finally reached the top floor.Still sitting delicately on the bed, He Tansi raised a white-gloved finger and said: You can put it under the window, please be careful.

Kenneth and I had a mutual understanding and dropped the hateful suitcase on the floor where we stood, just inside the door. Jamaicans not only like to ask strangers a lot of questions, which can make people dizzy, but they are also good at it, and they are naturally proficient in it.So Kenneth started.The hands on the clock had barely moved, but he had already asked Hertens what part of the island he was from, how many members of the family were there, what her father's occupation was, where she had been educated, which boat she had come on, and whether there was anyone on board. I met a man named Clinton from Huangpi Bay, and of course asked her what was in the suitcase?He never waited for an answer, so Hortens, who listened politely at first, gradually began to think of Kenneth as something dirty stuck to his shoe.

I said: Kenneth, thanks for the help. Kenneth said: Well, you have curtains. I told him: goodbye. He said: Are you leaving? Looks like I'll have to give him the code.Jamaican men know the code.When a man wants to be alone with a woman (only the imagination should know why), his head turns slightly to one side, his eyes dilate first, then quickly turn toward the nearest exit.Even the dumbest and most ass Jamaican man can understand this code, and he will never ignore it in case he has to use it next time. oh!Kenneth said, I have to go.Gilbert, don't forget what I told you.Winston knew where to find me.

He left the room, Hortens turned to me, sneered and said: Is he your friend? I close the door.Now I have to step over that nasty suitcase to get into the room. She said: What are you doing? This thing is in my way. This is a valuable suitcase. Could it be that you want me to sleep in the hallway?Don't you see I can't get around?Didn't your mother tell you that things that cannot be bypassed have to be crossed? She wiped the box as if I had broken it. Gee, it crosses the whole ocean.You want to tell me a skinny Jamaican man will crush it?What the hell are you packing inside?

She slumped her thin hips into the suitcase, averted my eyes, and lifted her chin as if something in the cracked ceiling interested her.As cold and silent as a statue in Trafalgar Square.I longed for the noise of her asking if the British lived like this again. I said: Do you want to take off your coat?She looked at me coldly, as if she had forgotten that I was still there.You don't have to wear that heavy coat, there's a fire in the furnace. Tsk!Do you believe that the gas was chosen to run out at that very moment?I know I have a shilling somewhere, but where?While I was digging my pockets, I said: I just need to find some money and put it in the gas meter.That's when I noticed that my shirt was unbuttoned, hanging like a bum. I've never dressed so casually.Now she was staring at me, her big brown eyes as alert as a cobra.If you adjust your shirt buttons, it looks like you're about to undress.And I know from experience that this will scare her.So I just tucked my shirt into my trousers and thought the bad luck was the new London fashion.

I'll be honest, I was sleeping until she came.But I've been to the pier.Listen to me, she told me she'd be there at seven, and I knew her boat was loaded with bananas, because she was on a freighter to the Jamaica Ferry, London Dock.Everything is going smooth.I work the evening shift in the mail sorting department, and when I wrap up at about six in the morning, I go to the docks.The rising sun is as beautiful as an artist's painting.The boat sailed through the morning fog and slowly went up the river.How romantic, my heart imagines her waving solemnly to me, my shoulders silhouetted manly against the morning light, ready to receive her beautiful curves as she runs to my arms.It's just that they told me that the boat hadn't come yet, and that she and her bananas were arriving at seven o'clock in the evening.Do I have to wait there all day?I ate a little and even cleaned up a little when I got home.Then I lay on the bed and was going to squint just to squint.But I worked a twelve-hour shift, and I went to the docks to kill me, and I cleaned the house!Am I also guilty of falling asleep?

The coin must have fallen out of my trouser pocket on the bed.So now she sees that I have to find money under the sheets.You put money in bed? Tsk, I knew she would say that.I knew it!no it's just when i sleep Oh, so, you are sleeping. I just lie down for a minute, I must So, that's why you didn't pick me up? no i went but I know, you said it, you were cleaning the room.Then she looked around and said: How clean do you see? I'm not stupid enough to say: You woman, shut up.But I've been provoked to think so.But instead I showed her a shilling and told her: I'll put this on the meter.She looked at me coldly and craned her neck a little bit to see where I was going, so I said: Come on, let me show you how to put money on the meter.Do you know what she said? You think I don't know how to put money into the meter?Then she turned to the charming gap in the ceiling and smoothed out her tight black curls so that none of them dared to come loose. But this meter is tricky.Sometimes it goes as smooth as a piggy bank, sometimes it gets stuck.Got stuck today.I had to stand back and kick it so the coin would drop.But, uh, no, one kick didn't work, and I heard her demurely sucking her teeth and tsk-tsk when I kicked it a second time.Why does everything I do seem so vulgar? When I lit the fire again, I said: Won't you take off your coat?She finally listened to me, how sweet the taste of victory.Told you, she continued to wear the little hat and the holy white gloves.I don't have a hanger to hang my coat on.I said: Would you like a cup of tea?I've been planning to get more hangers, the only one already has my suit on it.I said: I'll fill the teapot.I was about to drop my coat on the bed, but, I wasn't that stupid, I managed to hang it on top of my suit just in time. She walks up and down the room.He looked at the billing meter with cold eyes, examined the table carefully, and rocked the back of the chair.She ran her hand across the mantelpiece while I filled the teapot and looked at her hands.God, even I was startled: her white gloves were black. Everything is so dirty.she told me. Then don't touch everything with white gloves. have you cleaned the place I have cleaned it. Then why is everything still so dirty? These are your white gloves.If you touch an angel with a white glove, the glove will turn black too. Now she was touching walls, doorknobs, window sills, curtains everywhere.I told her: Now you're getting dust on everything, the gloves are so dirty.I can still laugh.She snapped my smile away.bring it on.As I spoke, I patted the armchair and moved it closer to the fire.Sit down, and I'll make you a cup of good English tea. Alas, why is it that even the little milk I have left has spoiled, and both cups are dirty, and the teapot has not boiled after being boiled on the stove for so long?I didn't know what else to talk about, but she went on: who is that woman downstairs?You don't know, I can breathe a sigh of relief when I have something to say. Oh Queenie.This house is hers. do you know her Of course, the house is hers.She is the landlady. is she married Her husband disappeared during the war. By herself? right. Do you have a good relationship with her? Wow!friendship.Every Jamaican man knows that when a Jamaican woman spits out these two words, it may be a trap used to make a big fuss.Be careful, young man, or she will think this woman is hiding your three children. I knew her during the war.She has been nice to me and is now my landlady.Fortunately, I know her. It is hard to find a house, especially for people of color. She seems to know everything about you. How can there be. Coincidentally, Queenie chose to knock on the door at this time and shouted: "Gilbert, are you okay inside?"As I was going to open the door, of course I kicked the dead leather case again and almost tripped.I only opened the door a little.Queenie said: "I smell gas. It just went off, but I'll keep an eye out.do you want something Just want to make sure everything is ok. It's all right, thank you.I said, and closed the door. I turned around, and the steam from the kettle covered Hortens.The woman in the fog.She sat there, letting the steam puff away.I tripped over that dead leather case again. Didn't you see the water rolling? She didn't ask questions? I was so angry that I forgot to lift the hideous kettle on the stove with a cloth.Damn it!I immediately put down the kettle and it was scalding to death.This thing is hot!I told her. Then why don't you wrap it in cloth? Reason tells me to take a deep breath before I kill this woman.I said: Please excuse my foul language.But she looked at me coldly, as if I was the confidant of demons and goblins.I said: Come on, I will teach you how to use a gas stove. What are you doing? You need to know how to use it to cook. I want to cook in the kitchen. Here is the kitchen. where? Did you see the gas stove and sink?That is the kitchen.The dining room is there, with a table and two chairs. You mean you only use this for cooking? Yes, that's what I'm going to tell you. Just use this small gas stove? Right, so I'm going to show you how to use it. She turned her head to look around the room again, her mouth gaping open like a fool. are you watchingSo you have to turn away when you are cooking. I froze, she looked so confused, I couldn't help suspecting that I was speaking alien language.Can you cook?won't you?I asked. I took cooking in my home economics class in college.she told me. What we want is not home economics, but food.God, you told me you could cook She stood up.Where is the bathroom?I think there's a bathroom here? downstairs.When I told her, she quickly stepped over the suitcase and was out of sight. I was making tea in a small pot when I heard: Honey, it’s a mess here, but you can’t pee here, right?What's wrong with you people?Does this look like a goddamn toilet? I'm going downstairs right now.The woman who lived in the downstairs room was Qin, and she didn't like to be disturbed at this time of night when she was leaving for work.She stood in the doorway, wearing only a pink petticoat and underwear.One half of the head was curled up, and the other half was half combed, and the comb stuck in it like a hatchet. He Tansi was slowly asking in English intended for the deaf: Can you please tell me where I can find the toilet? Qin frowned and said: What?What?This is not a toilet.Then when he saw me, he said: Thank God!Gilbert, would you do me a favor?This person thought I was a goddam toilet.Then he burst out laughing, like the clatter of pebbles sliding down a washboard.Qin put her hands on Hertens' shoulders, leaned against her and kept sniffing, as if smelling something.Terrible.She had just disembarked and I could still smell the sea.Still courteous, Hortens smiled with wide-eyed eyes, and then felt Jean's door close in front of her. Hortens shouted to me in a anxious whisper: You told me that the toilet is downstairs.This is downstairs.The furrowed brow came from a confused little girl. I touch her arm and she pulls away.Well, I'm sick and I can't touch it.I said and moved away from her.Come with me.I took her to the bathroom, which is on the bottom floor of the house, across from the front door.Can you find your way back? of course.She told me that although I make small mistakes, I am not stupid. I heard her panting like an organ as she came back from downstairs.She was out of breath, but still had the energy to teach me: You mean, every time I want to use the bathroom, I have to go down first and then go up the long flight of stairs? I know a lot of men will tell her: If you don't like it, you can turn your skinny butt and pee out the window.But I said: no, you can use this.I bent down and fumbled for the urinal under the bed.Tsk, just kidding, how proud I am of having this method, I went to get the urinal without even thinking about it.It was only when I put the urinal under her nose that I asked myself: Gilbert, why didn't you clean it up before Hortens came?Excrement splashed over the rim of the jug and onto her beautiful shoes. She jumped away like a flea.Disgusting you are disgusting.She yelled, this place is disgusting.You still brought me here? Now I have to reassure her, put my finger to my lips and tell her to be quiet.I really can't believe you took me to a place like this.You tell me you have a place to live.Do you want me to live this life?Her white-gloved arm was busy waving, almost guiding the plane to a safe landing.And I still had the chamber pot in my hand, and said: Come on, Hortens, stop it.sorry.But the more I tried to soothe her, the more it spilled out. stay away from me.I really can't believe you brought me here.you live like a beast There was no place for me to put down the chamber pot, and I made it worse, following her around, spilling things all over the place.So I dumped the excrement down the sink.God, why are those two cups still in the basin?Haven't I washed up to make a good cup of English tea?Fortunately, for a moment, she was silent.You know, I heard the bell ringing and a woman giggling in the street before I heard her speak, almost calmly.Wait a moment.The place where you wash your cup is the place where you dump your excrement? No, no, no, I'll take it to the toilet downstairs, but She couldn't stand it, and yelled at me: You use dirty things to wash!This place is disgusting.I really can't believe you brought me all the way here to live like this.You want me to come here and live like a beast? God, this woman really pissed me off.I told her: Yes, and you, the lady with the eyes on the top of your head, know that?In the future, you will have to wash dishes, vegetables, and ass in that basin.This room is where you sleep, eat, cook, dress, and write to Mommy about how wonderful the motherland is.Also, Miss Qianjin, because you have just disembarked, there is one more thing you don't know about the UK, and that is: you are very lucky.