Street preacher in Brown's Town, St Ann. - Ian Allen/Photographer So it appears we're all going to die. Of course, we already knew that, but on a recent visit to Brown's Town in St Ann, I found out that the end may be closer than many of us had thought.

It was on a hot day in the middle of the week that I found myself standing next to a small restaurant in the town, trying hard not to be overcome by the inviting aroma beckoning from within. It seemed to have been a particularly busy day in the town. There were dozens of people moving around, some selling, others buying, some driving, others walking. However, there was one fellow who stood out in the crowd. That might have been because he was standing in the middle of the street shouting, "Repent! Repent and be born again, oh ye heathen!"

He was an older chap, a bit on the short side with greying hair and matching beard. The man was standing in the midst of traffic, holding a big white sign with the words, 'Jesus Is Near Be Ready', written in bold, blue letters. He was holding something in his other hand but I was too far away to see what it was. Now, call me strange, but this isn't exactly something I see everyday, so it struck me as odd that no one else in the crowd seemed to have noticed the fellow. He was trying desperately to get the attention of motorists and anyone else with whom he made eye contact. It seemed though that nobody was willing to give him the time of day. I asked a nearby juice vendor about the sign holder.

'Dem call him Prophet'

"Mi nuh really deal wid him yuh know, for mi ah Rasta from birth. But I hear dem call him Prophet still. I nuh know if is him real name dat though," the juice vendor told me.

Now I figured I would regret it but I decided to go over to Prophet and find out what his story was. So, when the man walked over to lean on the wall of a shoemaker's shop, I guess, to take a rest, I strolled over to him and bid him a hearty hello.

"Eh? What?" he said, whirling around. It appeared he was taken aback by the greeting.

"Hello. Repent!" he shouted. I asked the man his name but he only shook his head and started questioning me. "Howdy, mi son. You will see here that the good Lord is on his way and is time for all those who are in sin to repent and reunite with the maker. What yuh planning to do to prepare?" he asked. I told him he was certainly on to something and tried to change the subject by asking him if he did that (stand in the street preaching to the sinners) every day. "Well, not every day. Mi have tings fi do yuh know. But I am here today to do the work of God," said he.

A woman was walking by us at that moment. She was a curvy belle with flowing synthetic hair and alarmingly thick eyelashes. She was sporting a low-cut blouse and a skirt that could easily have been mistaken for a belt.

The man caught a glimpse of her and grimaced immediately.

"Woman, go cover yuhself!" he shouted.

The woman stopped in her tracks and I braced myself for the worst.

She spun around and looked at both of us. I realised she was, in that moment, trying to figure out who had dared deal her such an impertinent reproach. She was looking at me first. Now let me be clear. The scowl on the woman's face was enough to scare a lumberjack, so I tilted my head ever so slightly in Prophet's direction and signalled to her with my eyes that he was the culprit, I was innocent and so deserved to live another day.

The woman picked up on the signal and walked over to the man with the sign.

"Hey likkle short tukuh-tukuh man! Why yuh nuh go home to yuh wife and stop watch me and what mi wearing? Look pan yuh too!" she said before turning around and walking off.

Sin and evil

Prophet looked at me and I shook my head.

"Dat is why God coming back fi him world. Is pure sin and evil inna Jamaica today," he said.

I asked the man when he expected the trumpets to sound.

"It should be before the end of the year, or maybe next year early. All of the signs show that these are the end days," he said.

It started getting a little warm out there in Brown's Town so I bid the old man goodbye and walked off, while he went back into the streets to warn more people about the fast-approaching end of the world.

robert.lalah@gleanerjm.com