Calypso Summer Read Online Free Page B

open a health food and products store.’
    â€˜Health food and products?’
    â€˜It doesn’t matter if you don’t know much about it. All that matters is that you look the part, I’ll teach you the rest, and you’re a fast learner … smarter than other people like you … young people.’
    â€˜I look the part?’ It was the first time anyone had ever told me that.
    â€˜Yeah, you’re tall, fit, and you’re, what would you call it … exotic looking. I mean look at me. Do I look like the type of person you’d take health advice from? I looked closely at Gary, his grey hair, skinny legs and little gut.
    â€˜Of course,’ I said just in case it was a trick question.
    â€˜Maybe, but you’re more convincing, especially if you speak that Jamaican lingo, that will do it for them ’ey Calypso?’
    â€˜Where’s the shop going to be?’
    â€˜Right here, we’ll deck it all out. I’ve got suppliers lined up and everything. I reckon it will really take off. I’ve been doing my research for a couple of years now. Health food and health products aren’t just for hippies anymore.’
    â€˜And you’ll pay me?’
    â€˜Yes, I will, but there’s just one thing.’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜You can’t come to work stoned … it won’t look good.’
    With my dreadlocks, I had expected Gary to raise the issue of me smoking dope earlier. But seeing I’d been straighter than I’d been in years working with him, I was a bit pissed off that he even mentioned it. It was no use arguing with him though. ‘No problem, I’ve kind of given up anyway,’ I said, not sure that I could do it.

5
    Gary’s Showtime DVD Store changed into Henley Beach Health Food and Products Store in the winter and by spring things were really taking off.
    Posters of Hollywood stars were replaced with a fresh coat of lime paint and where the white DVD shelves once stood there were simple metal shelves like the ones in an Asian grocery. There were some posters about reconciliation and Asian and African people farming. The shop front had also been refitted like an oldfashioned fruit and vegetable shop with large windows that pulled up to the ceiling to create one big entrance. Sunflowers and palms in pots were all around the shop. It looked deadly and Gary paid me more money than I’d seen to help set up the new shop.
    It was freaky when I walked into the store the first week it opened and saw Gary wearing yoga pants, a tie-dyed t-shirt and pair of sandals.
    â€˜What are you laughing at?’ Gary asked as I stood there pissing myself.
    â€˜What you reckon?’ I said, pointing at his pants.
    â€˜Got to look the part mate. That’s why I bought you these,’ he said pulling a pair of red yoga pants from behind the counter.
    Shame job. I felt my jaw drop.
    â€˜And I want you to buy some trendy thongs too and some good t-shirts. That’ll be your uniform.’
    When I first had to wear the pants I packed them in my bag and got changed in the Henley Beach public toilets. I hoped no one would see me wearing them. But then during the week some customers, women and that, said they looked good, they likedthem. And they were comfy too, like karate pants. When I started wearing them around all the time, Run absolutely pissed himself laughing. ‘I don’t give a fuck,’ I said, ‘I’m getting paid five hundred and thirty bucks a week to wear ’em.’ And I didn’t either. The money was deadly, it helped move out of Mum’s and get my flat. It was deadly telling Centrelink that I finally had a job. I felt like a different person, true, as I walked out of the Centrelink office and the afternoon sun hit my face. They could stick their dole diary and interviews up their arses.
    I remember Gary whispering to me on one perfect afternoon last spring as he brushed past. ‘Calypso,