forced him to return home to Freeport. He had recently had a stroke and the last time Black was on the island, there was talk that he wasn’t doing that good.
The moment Mr. Elgin saw Black come through the door, he rose to his feet. "Mr. Black," he said as Black shook his hand.
"Mr. Elgin!" Black said. Obviously glad to see him. "You are the last person I expected to see. I heard you had a stroke."
"Yes, sir, yes sir, that is true. But you don’t think a little thing like that gon’ keep me down for long. So I make up me mind to beat it. Every day, I walk up here, sit and talk with the brethren and I walk home."
"You must live at least two miles from here."
"That is me exercise for the day and that is how me fight back against the stroke," Mr. Elgin said.
"Well it’s damn good to see you, sir. I’m glad to see that you didn’t let it beat you," Black said and they sat down to talk.
Meanwhile, at the dress shop, the ladies modeled their creations for CeCe. She was for the most part impressed with the creativity and originality of their designs. She saw the potential in what they had and how, if they negotiated a good price and could keep up with demand, she could make some money.
As the mini fashion show continued, a woman came into the shop. Her name was Jacara Delbridge, the local entertainer who Black spent time with on his trips to the island. Not only was Jacara fine as hell, but she could sing and dance her ass off.
She used to be a showgirl in Vegas and concluded that she would never be the headliner, so she decided to move on. She had come to the Bahamas for Junkanoo, a national festival in the Bahamas and for a short vacation, and decided to stay when the opportunity to be part of the show presented itself.
"Hello, Jacara," one of the ladies said.
"Hey, ladies," Jacara said and looked at Alan as she passed.
Alan took out his cell phone and called Jamaica to let him know what was going on. He listened to what Alan had to say and looked at Black who was still talking to Mr. Elgin. He reminded Alan that his job was to protect CeCe and that included protecting her from Jacara, if it became necessary. He told Alan to let him know if things got out of hand.
"What’s going on here?" Jacara asked, even though she already knew. She’d gotten a phone call the minute CeCe came into the store.
"Oh, just a little show for a friend of Jamaica’s. She’s a big-time buyer from New York and we are trying to get her interested in buying some of our designs."
"I don’t know about big time," CeCe said. "But so far I like what I see."
"Miss Collins, this is Jacara Delbridge."
CeCe stood and shook Jacara’s hand. "CeCe. It’s nice to meet you."
"Jacara’s a singer who performs at a number of places ’round town. In fact, we design all of her outfits," the owner of the dress shop boasted.
"And they do excellent work, too. Well I’m not going to get in the way. I’ll just come back another time," Jacara said, but didn’t mean it.
"You are not in the way, Jacara. Why don’t you stay? Maybe you see something new for your show. That is if Miss Collins doesn’t mind, of course?"
"Not at all. Please have a seat."
"If you’re sure I won’t be in the way," Jacara said and sat next to CeCe.
As the show continued, CeCe and Jacara chatted about the pieces the ladies were modeling. About CeCe’s store is in New York, and Jacara invited CeCe to come and see her show. Her purpose in being there wasn’t to make a scene. She only wanted to send a message to Mike Black. She wanted him to know that this was her island and he could not be there with another woman, and she not know about it.
Once she had been there long enough to make her point, Jacara got up. "Well I got to be running on now, ladies," she said and turned to CeCe. "Miss Collins, it was very nice meeting you. I hope to see you at one of my shows."
"I will. And if you’re ever in New York, I hope to see you at my shop," CeCe said.
"Well," Jacara
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