Men of men, Hearts of hearts

I would like to tell you more about him if I could. River has one of the biggest hearts that one person could bare. Yes he could be somewhat of a hell raiser and womanizer, but the one thing he has is heart. Robin Hoodish if you will. He spent a lot of times on the island where Jamaicans themselves would never go. He fears no mortal man.
On one of my trips to meet him we went to Kingston 13. I was scared shitless. It was a far cry from Clarendon, where he had a girl stashed away. Imagine 2 white Americans strolling the streets of the concrete jungle. I asked once and only once. WTF are we doing here. He replied "9Th night soon come". No idea what he was talking about. We got a room, which was a dump , no AC nor bars on the windows. I was so damn nervous, but he was like "man wanna spliff". I could not understand why we were there.
A knock came at the door at 2:30 in the am. I thought I would be knowing the lord very quickly. Riv got up buck naked and just opened it, like he had a death wish.(still to this day I think he does). It was 3 huge dreads and they looked like they ran a lot of things around the city. The one in the middle reached into his pocket, I just shut my eyes and waited for the glak glak. I heard "here riv mi breddren" , he handed him a envelope. They all did some wild hand shake, pats on the back and they left. He looked over at me and just did that grin that he does.
9Th night is here mon, he said. WTF is 9Th night. I had to ask him. he said "big doins in the death yad tonight". I did not ask anymore questions about anything when he said death I just decided to just be quiet. We went down to well I guess you wanna say undertakers office. We walked in, River pulls out the envelope that was handed to him last night. He gave it to the undertaker guy and told him that he wanted everything on that list taken care of no questions asked. the man looked and started laughing" this gonna cost to much money when you gettin the wire ,mon" River pulled out a roll of cash and put it on the counter, then he pulled out his blade and stuck in the counter top, "anymore questions or should i start measuring you for a box". He was a very dark black man when we got there , now he looked white. He said no problems. we left.
He said let's go back to the room and clean up a bit. I never once saw river dress up but that night he was looking GQ. He said time to go. I did not say a word I just followed. We got to the grave yard (death yard). He was welcomed like a king. The big dread from the night before came up to him and said" if it was not for you my mother would not be able to have this great send off , Bless you River." Riv told him that she was like family to him and it meant a lot to help out.
I do not know about all of his connections on the island nor do I wish to. All as I know is not to many white Americans could move that freely in Kingston13. That's what he is about all heart. He loves to give , the sad thing is a lot of folks use that part of him to their advantage.