Russell Banks - Rule of the Bone

I was scared we’d get busted naturally but didn’t say anything. I-Man being a Jamaican and all maybe didn’t know the ways of Americans yet I thought, but he was older than me and a lot wiser about people in general and I hadn’t seen any cops on board so I said to myself what the hell, let come whatever comes, Jah rules, et cetera and when he handed the burning spliff across to me I took a big hit and went with it and was high in a second and by the time the boat was moving out onto the glistening waters under a cloudless blue sky I was moving too.

We got up and walked as far forward as we could to a little fence where we could look down and see the whole boat below us and we gazed out as far as Canada in the north and as far south as Ticonderoga practically and the Green Mountains in front and the Adirondacks in back and all around us were the glittering waters of Lake Champlain. I could feel the engine chugging under my feet like somebody was playing a huge drum down there in the hold. The wusses seemed to’ve disappeared or actually they’d like turned into the crew of the Love Boat and were harmless now and me and I-Man were the first mate and the captain of our own ship crossing the ocean with seagulls darting around overhead and little green tree-covered islands dotting the water as we pulled away from he continent into the open sea.

I looked back over my shoulder at New York State and the city of Plattsburgh watching my past get smaller and smaller in the distance while next to me stood I-Man the prophet with his staff in his hand staring into the future. We’re crossing out of Egypt into the Promised Land, I thought like I was becoming some kind of baby Rastafarian myself. That was the effect of hanging with I-Man obviously and I didn’t know if it was good or bad especially since I had such a dim view of white Rasta kids like Jah Mood but I had to admit it was hard not to go slipping and sliding into his way of thinking and talking on account of it being so much more interesting than the way most people are raised to think and talk especially us white Christian Americans.

I remember thinking you live from moment to moment and the moments all flow into one another forwards and backwards and you almost never catch one like this that’s separate from the rest. It felt like a precious diamond and I was holding it up to the sunlight between my thumb and forefinger and all these cold blue and white and gold colored sparks of light were jumping off of it.

I turned to I-Man and said to him then, What d’you think, man? Maybe I should go to Jamaica too. You know?

He nodded but he didn’t say yes, no or maybe. He just kept looking at the distant shore like Columbus or something with the birds all wheeling and diving overhead and the front of the boat plowing through the water.

What d’you think? I asked him.

Up to you, Bone, he finally said.

Yeah, I guess it is. I should do what Jah wants me to do. That’s what I think. Jah rules, I declared.

Fe trut’. You got to.

Yeah but how do I know what that is? How do I know what Jah wants?

Jah don’t trouble wid de small t’ings, Bone.

I decided then to leave it up to Jah anyhow which is not quite the same as deciding whether to go to Jamaica, I know but it was as close as I could get. I said, If Jah makes it so there’s enough of old’ Buster’s money to buy us two tickets, then we’ll go ahead and buy two tickets and I’ll go to Jamaica with you. If not, I mean if there’s not enough money then I’ll just check out Vermont for a few days and hitch on back to the plantation.

That was cool with I-Man, I guess. He nodded anyhow but he didn’t say anything. I think he would’ve liked it better if I hadn’t bothered Jah with the small shit. But that was my Christian upbringing. It’s not easy, changing religions and no matter what I-Man said just to be polite I knew I was still a long ways from being a brand-new beggar. Plus when you get down to important moments in life like this your upbringing always seems to kick into over drive no matter what religion or philosophy you happen to prefer as an adult or as an older kid like me. In a crunch us Christians like to think God even sets the price of airline tickets.

Anyhow we got off the ferry at Burlington about an hour later and got some directions from a cop who looked at first like he wanted to bust us but I-Man had this royal bearing and all like he was the President practically or a movie star so the cop just told us how to get to the airport and even said, Have a nice day, fellas. Which is how they talk in Vermont. I think Vermont’s a lot like California only cold and without many people.

When we got to the airport which is about three or four miles up on the heights above the town I-Man said Delta was the kind of plane he’d ridden on before so we walked up to the Delta ticket lady and right away found out that in less than an hour we could get a plane from Burlington straight to Montego Bay with only one stop in Philadelphia or someplace and another in Miami. You won’t have to change planes, she said. Plus thanks to Jah’s attention to detail Buster’s seven hundred and forty bucks was enough to cover the cost of two tickets with even a few bucks left over.

I-Man looked at me and he goes, Well, Bone? You cumin’?

I waved him to step aside so the Delta lady couldn’t hear us and whispered, Do you think it’s wrong for me to he using Buster’s dirty money for this? I’m like worried, man. Sending Sister Rose home to her mom was one thing and sending you home is sort of like the same. But using it to send me away from home, that’s another, isn’t it?

He shrugged like he didn’t really give a shit.

Help me out on this one, man. I’m only a kid and spending dirty money is new to me. Is this what Jah wants?

He said, Jah knows you, Bone, but you don’t know Jah. Not until you first know I-self. Him cyan be no daddy fe I-and-I. I-and-I mus’ fin’ him own daddy. Then he kindly pointed out that I’d already made my decision back on the boat.

I said, Okay, go ahead, man, buy two, and he handed the whole roll of bills to the woman behind the counter.

She scooped up the money and counted out the bills and gave I-Man the change and started punching a bunch of keys on her computer. Let me see your passports please, she said and me and I-Man looked at each other and both of us raised our eyebrows the same way. Like, Passports? He was an illegal alien and I was a homeless youngster missing and presumed dead, practically a milk carton kid and it suddenly looked like the truth was about to come out.

He leaned his Jah-stick against the counter and went rummaging through his bag and pulled out this red Jamaican passport which’d probably been stamped when he came to America to show he’d only been allowed in for picking apples in New York and cutting cane in Florida and couldn’t go home until the company said so. They’d want their money back for the ticket they’d bought for him to leave Jamaica in the first place and the computer’d probably have a bill for it next to his passport number. That’d be the end of my ticket money. Besides, all I had instead of a passport was this phony ID I’d once bought off a kid at the mall that said I was eighteen but except for Art the tattoo guy no one believed me whenever I tried to use it which I only did a couple of times.

But I figured what the hell, Jah’s will be done and pulled the ID out of my backpack and slapped it down on the counter next to I-Man’s passport.

The Delta lady picked them up but at the same time she happened to see I-Man’s Jab-stick which I guess distracted her because she just glanced at my ID card and his passport at the same time keeping one eye on the stick until she says to I-Man, I’m sorry, sir, but you won’t be able to take that on board the aircraft with you.