The Cost of Sugar

by Cynthia McLeod

  75 “Tru tu Ashana, mi no sabi, ma luku w’é go na foto, fu luku den, kon nanga wi, dan yu srefi kan si.”

  76 “Mini-mini pé yu de?”

  77 “Nengre na Nengre.”

  78 “Dyonsro mira e kon na a pikin.”

  79 “Kon baya, mi pikin misi, kon.”

  80 “Un kweki yu, mi nanga Ashana, un kweki yu, leri yu ala sani san un ben denki taki bakra misi musu sabi, un leri yu fu de wan switi umasma, fu lobi trawan, fu dun bun gi trawan. Ma a no dati un ben musu leri yu; luku fa wi meki fowtu, un ben musu leri yu fu de wan takru sma, bika luku san e pesa nanga yu now. Yu bun, yu switi, ma tra sma, den no bun, den no switi, den takru, den meki yu krei. No de bun moro, no de a switi misi Elza moro, kon takru leki su, seni na uma gowe, seni en gowé, meki a mars komopo na yu oso.”

  81 “Fa mi kan seni en gowe Maisa? Ala sma e denkti dati un de leki tu sisa, mi no kan seni en gowe.”

  82 “Yu musu fu seni en gowe, meki sma sabi taki en a no yu sisa, a no yu sisa nono, a no lobi yu srefi srefi, noiti a no ben lobi yu, mi kan taigi yu dati. Now a no ten fu prakseri sisatori misi Elza, now yu musu feti, ai feti.”

  83 “Luku, efu yu no wani feti gi yu srefi, dan feti gi en. No meki a asema soigi en p’pa.”

  84 “Fa mi o feti dan Maisa?”

  85 “Taigi mi dati yu wani feti, dan mi Maisa o yepi yu.”

  86 Black magic.

  87 “Ma yu n’o du wisi toch Maisa?”

  88 “Yu no afu frede, mi a no wisiman.”

  89 “Dan sribi now.”

  94 “Dan suma na Maisa dan, mi no sabi yu.”

  95 “Mi na misi Le Chasseur srafu. Mi ben libi na pernasi fosi. Na pas-pas mi kon a foto, ma na Ma Akuba mati, Néné Duseisi seni mi dyaso.”

  96 “Hmmm, we sidon dan.”

  97 “Taigi mi san de fu du.”

  98 “Mi o meki wan sani gi yu, ma dan yu musu tyari wan fowru, dri eksi, wan batra switi sopi, nanga wan pis krosi fu yu masra nanga wan fu na tra uma. Tyari den kon tamara neti.”

  99 “Gran tanyi baya Ma Akuba, gran tanyi.”

  CHAPTER VII

  SARITH

  An angry Sarith walked along the street, so fast that Mini-mini, who was holding a parasol above Sarith’s head, almost had to run to keep up with her. When she left the house she had no idea where she was going. She had wondered for a moment whether it might not be better to go to Rebecca’s, which was just around the corner. But she had immediately thought better of that. Rebecca and Abraham were real sweethearts, focused entirely on each other. They would certainly be amazed if Sarith suddenly appeared like this. No, she went to Esther’s. Her mother was still staying there. As she continued walking along in the direction of the Saramaccastraat her anger steadily increased. “Do feel free to go,” Rutger had said. If only he were here this minute! She would gouge his eyes out! She no longer felt like going visiting. When she arrived at the De Ledesmas’ it turned out that her mother Rachel was planning to leave for Hébron in about two hours’ time, taking her son-in-law’s boat when the tide began to come in. Her mother assumed that Sarith knew that she was leaving and had come to say goodbye. Sarith left it at that.

  “Aren’t you staying at Elza’s any more?” asked a curious Esther when, after Rachel had departed, she heard Sarith telling Mini-mini that after the afternoon rest period she must go with an errand boy to fetch her belongings from the Le Chasseurs’.

  “No, I prefer to stay here,” replied Sarith, “I can’t sleep because of the baby’s yelling.”

  And so she remained at Esther’s for a few days; here and there a visit, now and then with Esther and Jacob to a party or an evening with acquaintances.

  When one morning she was at Rebecca’s and heard that Abraham and his wife would be going to Joden-Savanna the next day and would stay some days at Hébron, Sarith decided to go with them. Once at Hébron she didn’t carry on to Joden-Savanna, but stayed at home, bored and getting irritated and grumbling about anything and everything. Since there was no-one to talk with, she talked with Mini-mini. Mini-mini had to give her a massage every day and time and time again answer the question: wasn’t her Misi Sarith oh so beautiful. Patiently, Mini-mini would say each time, “Yes Misi Sarith, you are beautiful.”100

  Now and then she would go by boat to a neighbouring plantation or go visiting with her mother for a few hours. Sometimes there were visitors at Hébron itself: passing tent boats that had to wait for the tide, passengers who sometimes stayed overnight. But in general it was pretty dull. Sarith was continually worrying. She was twenty years old, exquisitely beautiful, unmarried, not even engaged, and could not really think of anyone she would readily marry. And then you had Elza and Rutger playing the happy young couple with their baby there in that little house on the Wagenwegstraat. But wait a moment: she would change her tactics. She would return to Paramaribo and be really sweet to Rutger. Of course he would fall completely for her charms, and once she had him well and truly caught, she would make it plain that the role of happy father was nothing for him.

  ELZA

  Little Gideon was growing apace. He was now four months old, a high-spirited baby who hardly ever cried and often lay playing in his cot. Elza still fed him herself. When Rutger came home from work he would often spend hours playing with his son on the large bed. Elza often had to laugh, moved as she was at how convinced Rutger was that there was no child more handsome and intelligent than his.

  Coming home from the office one afternoon, Rutger asked Elza while they were eating, “Who do you think came by the office today?”

  When Elza asked who that was, he answered, “Sarith.”

  “Sarith? What did she want at your office?”

  “She came to apologize for her behaviour recently and to ask whether she could come to stay with us again.”

  “And what did you tell her?” asked Elza.

  “That it was all right, of course,” replied Rutger, and, looking at his wife, “There was nothing else I could do!”

  Elza said nothing, but thought to herself how stupid she had been to have imagined that they were now rid of Sarith. She would return and everything would just start up again.

  Early that evening, around six, when Elza and Rutger were sitting in the front room, Sarith indeed appeared. She behaved as if nothing had ever happened, greeting Elza and Rutger sweetly and telling Mini-mini to take her things upstairs and unpack. In the days that followed she was exceptionally friendly towards both Rutger and Elza, though she hardly glanced at the baby.

  Once when she saw Rutger alone in the dining room sitting on a rocking-chair with his son, she sneered, “So, you’re playing the role of devoted father very well.”

  “I’m not playing a role: I am a devoted father,” said Rutger, and he continued talking to his child and paid no further attention to Sarith, who realized that if she was to win Rutger over again she would have to try different tactics. She decided that from now on she would pay all the more attention to the child and take every opportunity to say how handsome and sweet he was.

  When she came downstairs the next afternoon, she saw Afanaisa standing on the back step with the baby on her arm. She went to the child and tickled his chin, and when he began to laugh she wanted to take him from Afanaisa, but Maisa’s stern tones rang out from the stairs, “Afanaisa, bring the young masra here: his nappy needs changing.”101

  At the top of the stairs Maisa took the baby from Afanaisa and disappeared into the room with him. There she said to Elza, “If you don’t want your child to get fyo-fyo102, don’t let that woman touch him.”103

  Elza started. Fyo-fyo! She didn’t know what it was precisely, but it was in any case something really terrible. Babies and small children could die from it. She thought of Maisa’s words when Gideon was born. She would have to fight for him. Well, she was prepared to fight for him. With everything, if necessary.

  Sarith continued being sweet and affectionate towards Rutger. She tried everything: laughed with him, even wanted to pour coffee for him when t
hey sat eating. Elza saw all this and also noted how Sarith was becoming increasingly unfriendly towards her, often saying nothing to her the whole day long, or perhaps just making a snide remark.

  One afternoon, around the time that Rutger usually arrived home, the baby lay on a mat on the dining room floor, while Afanaisa sat next to him on the ground. Sarith came into the room, looked at the child, bent down, picked him up and went with him in her arms to stand on the porch in front of the house. Elza came into the dining room, saw that the child wasn’t there, and asked Afanaisa, “Where is Masra Gideon?”104

  “Misi Sarith has taken him with her, to the front veranda,”105 came the answer.

  Elza flew outside onto the veranda, grabbed the child from Sarith’s arms and snarled, “Keep away from him; he’s my child.” Once indoors, she passed the child to Afanaisa, saying, “Take him upstairs.”106

  Sarith could say nothing. She had wanted to set a tender little scene for Rutger when he came home, but hadn’t reckoned with Elza’s reaction.

  After lunch, when they had already retired to their room for the afternoon nap, there came a gentle knock on the door. It was Mini-mini: “Misi Sarith is asking whether Masra Rutger can come to hear something.”107

  Rutger left the room. Elza was furious. On edge, she waited to see whether Rutger would return or whether he would stay with Sarith in her room as on the previous occasion. In Sarith’s room, Rutger stood in the doorway. “What’s up, Sarith?” he asked.

  “Oh, Rutger, could you just look at my back? I think some insect or other has bitten me there.” Rutger gazed at the pretty young woman standing there with her hair hanging carelessly over her shoulders, dressed in only a very thin batiste shirt. He knew what her intentions were and said calmly, “I think it would be better for Mini-mini to take a look at you. Will that be all?” and made to turn around. This was something Sarith had not expected. With one leap she was upon him, grabbed him by the arm and pushed the door closed. “Oh Rutger, what is it? Don’t you love me any more; don’t you want me?” She put her arms round him and lay her head on his chest.

  He loosened her grip and said steadily, “No, Sarith, not this, not any more,” and left the room.

  “What did Sarith want?” asked Elza when, to her relief, Rutger returned promptly.

  “Oh, she wanted me to look at something or other on her back.”

  “It just never stops, does it, hey?” said a now angry Elza, “And next time she’ll succeed in getting you so far.”

  “Elza, Elza, think about your promise that you’ll not be a jealous wife,” said Rutger. Now or never, thought Elza. I must – absolutely must – act now, and she thought of what Maisa had said about fighting. If she couldn’t remember exactly how Rutger had replied when she had asked that such a relationship should not happen in her own house, then Rutger probably did not remember, either. “Why must I keep to my promise when you don’t?” she asked sharply.

  “What do you mean?” Rutger had already lain down, but sat up again.

  “Don’t you remember, when you said I must promise not to be a jealous wife? Then I asked that such an incident or relationship should not happen in my house. And what did you say?”

  “I will have said no, it wouldn’t,” replied Rutger.

  “Don’t you have to do what you promise, then? Is the relationship with Sarith not in this house, or is this not my house?”

  “Of course this is your house, Elza,” replied Rutger, now thinking that she was in fact quite right: the conversation had gone like that. And, indeed, he had not kept his word.

  “Well, since this is my house, I don’t want Sarith lodging here any longer, and especially I don’t want my child to get fyo-fyo.”

  “Oh, stuff and nonsense, that fyo-fyo. Don’t start believing in all this black superstitious nonsense.”

  “Superstition or not, I don’t want Sarith staying here any longer.” Elza sounded most decisive.

  “Tell her, then,” said Rutger calmly.

  “No, absolutely not: it’s you who must tell her. After all, it’s you she’s here for.”

  Rutger got out of the bed and said, “All right. I’ll have her called right now.” He opened the door and called to Mini-mini, who was sitting at the top of the stairs, “Mini-mini, ask Misi Sarith to come here.”108

  A little later Sarith stood there with them in the room, still dressed in the thin shirt. “Sarith, Elza does not want you to stay here any longer,” said Rutger.

  Sarith looked at them both and then said to Rutger, “And what do you think?”

  “Well, I think my wife is right,” said Rutger.

  Sarith’s inside froze with anger. So she was being sent away, simply expelled. “Right, I shall go. I shall go right now and never come back. Of course everyone will be astonished, and will wonder why I’m suddenly no longer welcome in the house of my dear stepsister.” The last words were spoken really hatefully.

  “Tell them the truth, Sarith.” Elza sounded really calm. “Just tell them the truth. Tell them that your dear stepsister doesn’t want you in the house any more because you keep trying to get her husband into bed. Tell them that, and then everyone will understand.”

  Furious, Sarith turned away and left the room.

  Voices had been decidedly not soft, and Maisa and Mini-mini had heard everything from the stairs. Maisa danced down the stairs. “Just what she deserves. Misi Elza has got that skunk good and proper now.”109

  From her room, Sarith called Mini-mini to pack her things, and she herself made so much noise throwing things around that no-one got any rest that afternoon.

  When Rutger came out of his room later that afternoon for his bath, she was waiting for him in the passage, and said, “Rutger, when I’m somewhere else, will you come and visit me?”

  “Certainly not, Sarith, that’s something I shall not do.”

  “So I won’t see you again?” Sarith’s voice was tearful.

  “Oh, Paramaribo is so small, we’ll be sure to see each other.”

  “But you’re sending me away. Everything’s over and done for, isn’t it?”

  “I think this is better for all concerned. Good bye, Sarith.” And Rutger hastened towards the bath-house.

  An hour later Sarith left the house in the Wagenwegstraat. She had never felt so humiliated. Oh, she would get her own back. She would find a way to repay this rejection and insult.

  SARITH

  Still angry, Sarith arrived back at Hébron Plantation a few days later. Mother Rachel was surprised to see her daughter back at the plantation so soon, but, used to the girl’s whimsical nature, she enquired no further. Sarith grumbled around the house, threw things around in her bedroom, continuously scolded Mini-mini, who could do nothing right. In short, she was abominable.

  Ashana rejoiced. She had heard exactly what had happened. Mini-mini had told her mother, Kwasiba, everything, and Kwasiba had in turn told Ashana. Although Kwasiba and Mini-mini were in fact mother Rachel’s slaves, they really liked Elza because she treated them so pleasantly, quite unlike the spoilt Sarith, who regarded slaves just as creatures who must serve her and always be there for her, never taking into account that they were people, too, and people with feelings. The domestic slave-girls knew what had been going on and all had taken Misi Elza’s side.

  Sarith had now been back at home a few days and was sitting at the breakfast table one morning. She was alone. Her mother was upstairs and Uncle Levi had left on the boat, visiting a plantation further upriver. She had given Mini-mini a thick ear because she came to say that there were no oranges to make juice. Ashana came in, and hearing Sarith going on, said, “The pig says: what’s yours remains yours.”110

  “What did you say, Ashana?”111 cried Sarith, realizing that this was meant for her.

  Ashana repeated what she had said.

  “What do you mean by that?”

  Ashana replied really calmly, “I’m happy that Misi Elza has come to her senses and has chased the scorpion out of
her house. Tyakun, tyakun, what’s hers is hers.”112

  Before Ashana had finished speaking Sarith sprung up and gave Ashana two mighty slaps in the face. “You foul nigger woman: how dare you insult me like that, how dare you!”

  She grabbed Ashana by her smock and shook her. But Ashana was a sturdy woman and stood firmly on her feet. She looked fixedly at Sarith and said, “It is never good to do evil.”113

  Sarith became increasingly furious and began to scream, “You wretched slave, just wait, I’ll … whatever are you thinking…I’ll make sure you’re punished for this. Punished, I say.”

  She rushed to the rear veranda and said to a small errand boy sitting on the doorstep, “Boy, call the basya, and hurry.”114

  When the basya came a little later, Sarith pointed to Ashana and said, “Basya, tie this woman to a tree and give her a whipping.”115

  Shocked, the basya took a step back. “No misi,” he said, shaking his head. In his view this was impossible. How could he whip Ashana – Ashana who was as it were head of the household, with almost more authority than the misi herself. Ashana, who had never ever been whipped? The masra would certainly not agree to this.

  But Sarith grabbed the whip from his hand and gave him two cutting lashes, screaming, “Whip her, basya, do what I say, or I’ll have a few strong nigger boys whip you.”116

  All the tumult had brought Mother Rachel downstairs. She saw her incensed, yelling daughter standing there with a whip in her hand, ordering the basya to whip Ashana. “What is going on, Sarith, calm down now.”

  But Sarith did not calm down. She screamed, “This nigger woman, she’s insulted me, insulted me. She shall be punished; I swear she’ll be punished.”

  “Is this really necessary?” asked Mother Rachel, recalling with some trepidation that this was Ashana, whom everyone in the household respected, and that Levi Fernandez would certainly be most angry.