The Book of Night Women (23 page)

Lilith on the floor by the mistress’ stairs. She ’fraid, but not of the dark woman who come to her in the night. Lilith ’fraid ’cause she don’t know what to be ’fraid of. Homer did warn her that Mistress Roget very French in her ways, but Lilith don’t know what that mean and Homer didn’t have time to make it clear. Night moving on and Lilith listening to nothing. She hear one and two sound from upstairs, a woman fussing. The mistress not sleeping. Some time later she hear a man voice. Must be the massa, Lilith think. They talking loud like it be everybody business.

—Dulcimena? Dulcimena? Where is that nincompoop!

Dulcimena get up quick.

—Yes, mistress! I’s be in de kitchen, mistress, she say. Lilith watch her rub her shoulders something terrible.

—Have you staked the cows? You know Mr. Roget prefers when you do it and not those stupid boys, the mistress ask.

—I-I, I’s goin’ get to it, mistress, Dulcimena say.

—You going get to it? say a man voice so loud that it just come down on the kitchen like thunder.

—Dulcimena, come to me at once!

—But I going do—

—Now! the man say.

Dulcimena stop dead. Lilith watch her as she step slow. Too slow. Massa Roget come down the steps and step over Lilith in him nightshirt. He short and fat round the waist, him hair long and white and curl down him shoulder and him face fat so till the chin bounce when he step. In him hand he carry a horsewhip. Dulcimena try to run, but nowhere to run in the kitchen. He back her up in a corner.

—Suggestions now I’m giving instead of orders, is it? Master over me now, are you? he say.

—No, massa, me was just going to do it, massa. Lawd God, massa, please, massa, ple—she say, but he cut her short with a lash clear ’cross her shoulder. Dulcimena scream. He tear into her and she flip right and left, but he slashing her whichever way she turn. He lash her back, her shoulder, her neck and two time he whip her in the face. Dulcimena fall to the floor between the counter and the kitchen table and Lilith can’t see her no more, but she see Massa Roget over her, whipping and whipping and she screaming and screaming, Me dead, massa, me dead, you done kill poor Dulcey.

Massa Roget whip her until him hand give out and he couldn’t whip no more. Dulcimena crying. The massa red like choking pig. He step past Lilith and go back upstairs. Lilith so frighten she couldn’t move. She stay on the ground, her eye wide open, until Dulcimena pick herself up and go through the door to stake the cows. A good while later Dulcimena come back in and she still sniffle. Lilith watch her as she take a brown bottle out of a cupboard, pour something onto her hand and wipe her face, chest and as far on her back as she could reach. She lay out her mat on the floor of the kitchen and go to bed. It was February and the shortest month suddenly felt like it goin’ go on forever. Lilith didn’t fall asleep till near morning.

16

LILITH SEARCHING HER MIND BACK AND FORTH TO FIND A word stronger than perplex. Flabbergast? She roll that word on her tongue quick, but spit it out when she remember that is Robert Quinn she hear it from first. Robert Quinn, who say he lose the taste for whipping negro womens, then turn round only to make slave-driver manhandle her, then whip her every week. Flabbergast can go to hell and take him along, she think. Perplex, she settle on. Perplex. Lilith perplex cause Dulcimena just wake her up.

—Wakey, wakey, cooking and bakey, she say as she nudge Lilith.

As Lilith roll over and rub her eye, Dulcimena hopping, skipping and jumping round the kitchen and singing and dancing as if she doing the quadrille. She hop, all dainty-like, from one window to the other to let fresh light and new air in the kitchen. She sing a song that sound like what Robert Quinn sing unawares. She spin two time and stop, and only then Lilith see the dark blotch under her left eye and the mark on her left arm. For a moment Lilith did think last night was a dream.

—Miss Dulcimena, you feeling poorly?

—Me lookin’ poorly to you?

—No, but...

—Call me Dulcey. Me halfway out the door by de time you get to mena.

Lilith think it best to not say nothing. Dulcimena go over to the water bucket on the counter, dip her two hand in and wash her face. She lift up her dress to wipe her face but jerk when she touch her eye. She dab slow around it and smile when she see Lilith. Lilith watching Dulcimena face. And her little belly and thick legs that shiny with morning sweat and her pussy hair that plenty bush up. Dulcimena smile wide but wince, so she smile narrow.

—Come, pickney, massa and mistress soon wakes up and if breakfast tardy, you goin’ get what de duck get.

Dulcimena and Lilith in the barn, not far from the house. She set Lilith ’pon a stool beside the cow. Dulcimena push a bucket underneath the udders, then stand back and look at Lilith. Lilith watching the sky go from pink to orange and the flowers as they wake up and the land that, unlike Montpelier, lead to a fence. Anything but the cow.

—Lawd, pickney, de cow cain’t milk sheself.

Lilith don’t know what to do. She try to remember if she ever seen anybody at Montpelier milk a cow. She hiss. Is not as if cow keep in the cellar. Lilith grab an udder hard and the cow jerk. Lilith so frighten she push herself back and tumble over the stool and land flat on her back. Dulcimena have to clutch herself from laughing so hard. Lilith hiss.

—Make haste, pickney, de massa soon wakes up, and we still have egg to collect.

—Me no know how to do them things! Lilith say.

—Excuse me please? How come you is nigger and you don’t have nigger skill? Look here, pickney.

—Me don’t name pickney, me name Lilith.

—Eh-eh, excuse me please, whatever you name. Dulcimena don’t say nothing else. Lilith set herself back on the stool and grab a cow udder. She squeeze again and milk, right in her left eye.

—Cho bombocloth!

—Pardon your French! Dulcimena clutching herself again with laughing.—Pickney, if you keep dis up me soon start hiccup. Come now, she say and sit down beside Lilith.—Like so, she say. Dulcimena take an udder in her hand and glide her finger down as she squeeze. Milk spurt in the bucket.

—Slow, slooooow, but firm like when you pullin’ the massa ding-dong.

—W-what?

—Excuse me please. Me forget say is in church dem grow you, Lady Virgin. What a ting, eh? Massa Roget goin’ puppalick when he hear say nobody ride through you bush. No bother look ’pon me like you don’t know nothing. Somebody must was taking Massa Montpelier lobster if is not you.

—That is not my affair.

—Uh-huh. Me think is you. Dat’s why dem send you to Coulibre, don’t it? Tings was getting out a hand. So tell me now, Massa Montpelier, him buddy big like banana or small like bean?

Lilith jaw drop again and Dulcimena almost fall over the stool with laughing.

—Why you so hoity-toity? Montpelier must be some different place to rahtid.

Lilith look at Dulcimena. Dulcimena think Lilith shock over what Dulcimena say, but she shock over how she saying it. Dulcimena full with so much mirth and laughing that Lilith begin to wonder again if she did dream what happen the night before.

—Grab a cow cocky! Dulcimena say and she start to sing, I want to go-oh, I want to go-oh-ohhhhh. Lilith can’t help herself. She grab an udder. Soon after that she singing I want to go-oh too. Dulcimena did say she pretty.

Massa Roget come downstairs
before everybody and Dulcimena have him breakfast ready. The man dressed in black coat, black waistcoat, black breeches, white wig, white socks and little shiny black shoes that look like they be for womens. Massa Roget bald and he have him white hair in him hand. Lilith have a start, but only a little. Old white man have more wig than woman. Dulcimena pass him on the right to spoon out eggs on him plate and he slap her hard on the arse. Dulcimena jump and shriek a little, but giggle real quick.

—You is mischievous boy, massa. Mischievous, mischievous. Dulcimena smile wide and motion Lilith to bring the teapot. Lilith set the teapot down on the table but don’t look at Massa Roget.

—And who have we here? he say.

Lilith don’t say nothing.

—Dem call her Lilith, massa. She send over from Montpelier Estate.

—Ah, yes. . . . Word has come ahead of you, my child—none of it good, I might add.

Lilith don’t say nothing. The two womens stand while Massa Roget eat. The whole time he using him right hand to shove food down him mouth, he using the left to lift up Dulcimena dress and stroke her arse. Dulcimena looking at her finger like she about to bite her nails. Lilith inch back to the stone counter behind her. Even with the sunrise coming through the kitchen, the counter still cold. Soon Massa Roget finish him breakfast and after he done search Dulcimena arse Lilith see the front of her dress shifting up and down. Dulcimena mouth sound like she enjoying the feel-up but her face already out the window. Massa Roget gulp down a cup of coffee, then set out. He ask Habakkuk the carriage driver to bring round the barouche, saying he is still lord of this house and his daughter is just going to have to make do without it today. Then he set he wig lean and Dulcimena stop him and straighten it. After he leave, Dulcimena set bread, eggs, coffee, white yam, strips of goose, strawberries, banana and pear on a tray and hand to Lilith.

—The mistress take her breakfast in bed, Dulcimena say and point upward.

Lilith upstairs. The banister is wood, but the steps is out of stone. The walls is out of stone too. Lilith never see an entire house that look and feel like her cellar back at Montpelier. She let the noise of Mistress Roget lead her to the room door.

—Enter!

As Lilith open the door, all stillness come to an end. Francine at the closet holding a petticoat like a baby. Lilith never pay her much mind since that first time when she run past her crying just as she was coming to Coulibre. Francine skinny like a stick, with hair pull back into a bun, like black woman hair forcing to be white. She wearing a brown dress that touch the floor. Lilith remember her bawling but can’t remember her voice. Dulcimena say that Francine be there to wait on the mistress, but Lilith don’t know what that mean, for it seem too easy work for them to give a negro. Mistress Roget sitting up in the bed like an invalid but she not sick at all. She in a light blue gown with her hair tie up. Though is early, still her lip red and the beauty mark move from the left cheek yesterday to her chin today. The sun coming through the glass window that look much bigger inside than outside. At the center of the room be the bed, with a dark wood desk to the right wall and another to the left. Right in front of the bed is four armchair, with purple cushions, all put to face each other like a cross. A rug with white baby angels cover the whole floor. On the right wall be a painting of a woman who look exactly like Miss Isobel but the clothes she have on not the latest fashion. The yellow-hair boy from before running all over the room shouting.

—I’m a kite, Mama! A kite I am, he say.

—And do kites try their parents’ nerves, Henri?

—Wooooooosh! Wooooooosh!

—Henri, Henri. Down for breakfast you go now. And try, my dearest, not to wake your brother. Follow . . . what do they call you?

—Lilith, mistress.

—Yes, follow Lilith. Off with you.

Lilith place the tray on the bed and leave the mistress.

—We shall have to get you a new dress. Mister Roget would have a conniption should he see you in those rags. Has he seen you yet?

—Yes, ma’am.

—Really? Hmmm. Nevertheless, let Dulcimena lend you one of hers. Coulibre boasts the best-dressed niggers in Jamaica. As for myself, I’d sooner die than see a nigger unclothed. Does that fill you with pride, young girl?

—Mistress?

—Does that make you proud? Oh, how I hate repeating myself. Gives one the fear that one is not being listened to.

—No, mistress.

—Good. Now leave me. One more thing. I’ll leave the baby in your charge, so please take him away from that guttersnipe Matraca, I can hear him crying already. God’s words! I’ve slapped her so many times about her confounded stench!

Lilith walking down the corridor to the pickney room. It strike her how this house so hard with all the stone, but every room noisy and light cover all the walls. Montpelier is wood mostly, but no noise come from that house except for the early days when Robert Quinn take him female company home. Sometimes Lilith wonder if she hate Robert Quinn because at least Massa Humphrey never promise her nothing. But Robert Quinn didn’t promise her nothing either, not really, and whatever white man say, they contrary enough to take back anyway. Maybe this be one of the things Homer was teaching her that she didn’t listen to. Lilith wonder what they plan to teach her at Coulibre.

Dulcimena have lunch ready
with Lilith help. Lilith hold the baby most of the day and hand him to Dulcimena when he need feeding.

—Francine can talk? Lilith say.

—Who? Dat lil’ bitch? She sing when she ready. Matraca hate her because she get the mistress’ old clothes first, then Matraca second.

—She ever come downstairs?

—She? Dat girl be the only nigger who get send off the premises, ’pon errands for di mistress. Ride the mistress’ little carriage herself. She even go to Montpelier one, two time, you never see her?

—No.

—Well, the only time that nigger leave the mistress is when massa feel fi fuck him wife for a spell. Eh-eh, di baby do a stinkee, Dulcimena say and hand the baby back to Lilith. Lilith wrinkle her nose.

—Then what you expect me to do with it?

—Dat a your business, pickney. But you might want to go back to him room and grab two cloth. And the basin upstairs should have water. Or just give him back to Matraca. She love baby shit.

The baby grin at Lilith like he don’t care. Lilith try real hard not to grin back.