The Crew

Benji

A medium-sized brown dog with amber eyes, one ear up and one ear down, and a patch of fur missing behind his right ear in the rough shape of a star. He lives in the neighbourhood of Cliffside, Portmore, Jamaica. He minds his own business — except when someone else’s business needs minding, which happens more often than most people expect.

He does not go places without reasons. His nose is never wrong. He looks at things the way grandmothers look at things they are deciding whether to speak about: steady, patient, already knowing, waiting for the right moment.

Omar Reid

Cliffside Primary Standard Five. Quietly observant, asks the questions adults don’t think to ask, and reads the situation before he opens his mouth. The kind of boy who notices when something is one degree off, and won’t let it go until he understands why.

Clevie Marshall

Lives two doors down from the Reids. Practical, fast, the first one moving when something needs doing. Has been carrying things for grown-ups since she could walk, which means she knows where everything in the neighbourhood lives and who owns it.

Nadine Henderson

Visits her great-uncle in Cliffside every few months. From farther up the coast, sharper-tongued than the boys, with a memory that holds everything she’s ever seen anyone do. Older than Omar and Clevie by a year. The one who asks “why” three times in a row.

The arrangement

Benji finds the trouble. Benji recruits the crew. The crew does the parts that require hands.

It works out fine, mostly.

Mostly.