The Book of Night Women

by Marlon James

  —Satan! Satan! Get behind me, Satan!

  —Confound it! I’m a man, sir! Robert Quinn shout out but Tantalus keep calling him devil.

  Tantalus say, White man, white man, ye be of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye will do.

  Robert Quinn raise him cane to strike Tantalus. Tantalus wail and pull off the sheet and when Robert Quinn see the foot he stagger back and nearly fall down. Robert Quinn see Tantalus cut foot moving and what moving be maggot. Robert Quinn call himself a hard Irish bastard who was never handed nothing in life but he grab him belly and vomit and when he couldn’t vomit, he bowl over and hack like more soon come.

  Soon Robert Quinn take to walking from him quarters to the kitchen at night like he haunted. Seeing Tantalus’ foot make he sick to him stomach. Not many day pass before he sick for real. First he coughing then he wheezing then he shivering, even though the night hot like fire. One night he walk up to the kitchen in him nightshirt and see the moonlight shine through the window on a drum full of water by the counter. Robert Quinn dip him whole head in it. He look up with water running down him face and see a shadow lookin’. Quinn go to grab for a pot when he see the shadow be woman shape.

  —Fer fuck’s sake, does any negro sleep at Montpelier? What business have ye at this ungodly hour, Homer?

  The next night he come through the door Homer ready for him. She sitting on a stool by the table. Drink this, she say and push a teacup across the table. Robert Quinn ponder a little but then grab the cup and drink. He spit out the whole thing and scream that she be witch trying to kill him with poison. He go to grab her but something ’bout Homer sitting up straight and not raising her voice make him stop. Homer go over to the stove and pour more in the cup. That tea not easy to make, she say. No more leave if you waste this cup, she say. He look at her for a long time.

  —It not any good cold, she say.

  Robert Quinn drink, rubbing him throat.

  —God curse you if... he say to Homer and go back to him quarters.

  He didn’t come back for a while. But from the day he see Tantalus’ foot, something come over Robert Quinn that make him eye darker and him voice quieter. Massa Humphrey don’t like it. He ask if the man go take too much fancy for a negro wench, and who is the unlucky miss. But Robert Quinn not fancying no negro girl. Nigger see this in white man before, when he realise that he don’t like how blood taste. They catch a boy in the boiling house stuffing sugar in him breeches, but Robert Quinn don’t whip the boy, not even one little lash. Robert Quinn threaten to kill the boy next time but he don’t whip the nigger. People too young to remember the last time that an overseer never wicked. Everybody but Homer. Robert Quinn eat in the kitchen with Homer sometimes and everybody but he find that mighty uncanny.

  Then one morning Tantalus dead. Tantalus dead to everybody but one. Homer know who. Night come secret like witch and there be no moon to light up the kitchen. But he know the way by now. Homer at the table waiting for Robert Quinn, the goat weed tea steaming.

  Massa Humphrey mother come out of her room when she think it be her birthday. Homer tell her that that day gone six months before and carry her back upstairs. Miss Isobel tell Massa Humphrey that there be places the mistress can go where she will be at peace. Now that she get the massa to buy all new decoration, she call for a seamstress to make all of the house slave new uniform with blue trimming. Miss Isobel choose a new set of slaves to serve at the ball and don’t pick Lilith. Lilith fling some potatoes ’gainst the wall.

  —But what the hell, Homer say.

  —Is what? Is blind white woman blind?

  —You must be the blind one to think you can lose temper in the massa house, Homer say.

  —Me have wart in the middle of me face? Me eye them cross? Me fat like sea cow? After nobody can talk to white people like me, Lilith say.

  The other nigger in the kitchen look ’pon her. Some laugh and Lilith see.

  —Me give any of you stinking nigger joke? Lilith say.

  —Stink me could be, but me still get pick and not you, Andromeda say.—Mayhaps is you who should smell under you arm again, she say and laugh.

  —Go smell under you cunt!

  —Lilith! Enough out o’ you. You think the mistress owe you something?

  —She not the mistress.

  —Neither be you. Now go peel two potato and settle youself.

  —She goin’—

  —Me say go settle youself, damn girl. You must still be a pickney.

  —Why you don’t go breed another one and stop call me pickney. But that can’t happen since you damn pussy dry up.

  Homer silent. She open her mouth slow.—You sure you can handle big woman chat, pickney? You sure you ready for that journey? You think good before you answer. Because some people about to forget that me be the head bloodcloth nigger in here. Now, go peel two potato and don’t draw me tongue out in this place.

  —It not fair.

  —Nothing fair, you dumb girl. Is nigger you be, Homer say.

  Lilith think this was Homer idea to cut her down to size. Homer don’t want to see anybody rise up from they station in negro life. She say if Homer have her way, she would be back in the field cutting cane and running from field negro who get tired of fuckin’ cow. Homer say nothing. Lilith wait a little to go over to Homer and tell her that she want to come to the meeting tonight.

  —You and me be combolo? Homer ask.—Why me must be going anywhere with you?

  —Me want to come with you. Me want to meet you and the other womens. Me want to learn, Lilith say.

  —Learn? Me did think you know enough already. What learning you want to be learning? Homer say.

  —The things you say me must learn to put me over other woman, Lilith say.

  —You didn’t hear? There be three thing that don’t come back. One is spoken word.

  —Me not goin’ beg you if is that you lookin’.

  —Me not lookin’ for a thing from you. They bury Tantalus yesterday. Right near where they bury Circe.

  —So?

  —Not a tear for Tantalus, eh? Not even a little sniff?

  —Me don’t care a damn ’bout that damn mad nigger.

  —That be the pity. ’Cause he be the only nigger round here who did care for you.

  Homer leave her.

  Now the ball coming and Lilith mouth can’t shut. Homer see what happening and let her stew. Every day Lilith saying how that clumsy idiot Andromeda can’t handle china, and how Dido can’t boil water and how Pallas can’t be around backra company smelling the way she smell. She point out which female slave have too much wart, who too fat, who too skinny, who walk like duck, who lip too big, who smell like she don’t wash her cho-cho and who just look like any common nigger. Lilith say she be better butler than Apollo and Chiron, even though Homer tell her that the mistress train them two herself. Homer tell her that if the matter burnin’ her so bad, she should take the matter up with the new mistress.

  —Montpelier done have a mistress, Lilith say.

  —And lo and behold, she not you. Second time me telling you that, Homer say and look straight at Lilith until Lilith look away. Lilith go down to the cellar.

  Homer used to teach Lilith how to read but stop when she turn her back to the womens who meet in the cave. Lilith hiss and say she don’t need nobody but lonely feel worse than a night in Circe hut. Everybody hate her, and if everybody hate her, she goin’ hate them back. Lilith was goin’ to get the love she want. Lilith know from the day she see the page with the sleeping princess. Back then, she believe that one day she would wake up with gold hair. Lilith don’t remember when she get green eye so she used to think it be true. Magic was goin’ happen when she sleep. But negro girl can’t sleep too long. Lilith see the new massa in him jacket, breeches and boots and go to sleep waiting for him to wake her up. Lilith don’t tell nobody so nobody could warn her that she thinking crazy. Lilith don’t want to accept things as them be, like a good negro.

  Few day
s before Christmas, Lilith walking round the back of the house despite Homer warning ’bout Johnny-jumpers. Robert Quinn see her but he make her pass. She feel him watch her all the way till she reach the little dirt hill and turn around the corner out of him sight. Lilith walk until she come up to a row and row of pretty flowers and little trees all waiting to plant in the massa garden. The plants under a big shed that make out of a thatch roof and four post. A woman be watering the plant in the back, where the flowers and trees almost hide her.

  —Uppity nigger bitch, I can smell you fishy from here, the woman say before she turn round and face Lilith, who clutch her dress and try not to look frighten. The woman study her from head to foot and hiss. How de mistress favourite nigger? She find special work give you yet?

  Gorgon get up from the ground and go over to three clay flowerpot that just get water.

  —Rose, Gorgon say.—My plant dat. Pretty like frock but will stab the shit out o’ you. Like woman be sometime.

  —Me never come—

  —Den what you come for? Fi make friend, sister? Me no keep friend. See dem flowers? Dem be the only thing in the world that need soft hand to touch it. Hand that can’t kill nothing. Dats why white man can’t grow flowers, them kill everything dem touch. Even Papa Jack.

  —Papa Jack? You call the man Papa Ja—

  —What you want, nigger? Gorgon say.

  Lilith go back to the cellar after she talk to Gorgon and look through her second dress that wrap in a bundle to use as pillow. She find two earring that Jack Wilkins give Circe, earring that she thief. Lilith go up to the kitchen and join the womens getting the lunch ready because Miss Isobel complain about saltiness two day before and Massa Humphrey slap Pallas and some other negro. Lilith see Andromeda over by the counter shelling gungo peas. Make youself busy, Homer say to Lilith. She grab a pot full of water and walk over to where Andromeda be. Just when she get near, Lilith trip and pot and water fly and slam into Andromeda back. Andromeda scream and slip and fall. Lilith scream she sorry, she sorry and grab Andromeda to pull her back up.

  —Bafan! Fool-fool pussy-eye bitch! You ruin me frock, Andromeda shout.

  —At least now it finally get a good washing, one of the mens shout out and everybody in the kitchen laugh except for Homer.

  —Pallas, mop up this mess, and you, clumsy nigger, go fetch more water. Backra not here to wait on negro, Homer say.

  Lilith go outside but leave the bucket at the well. She look around for Robert Quinn but he gone. She turn round the hill again and go back to the garden house. Gorgon waiting. Lilith pull the two earring out of her left pocket and a clump of Andromeda hair out of the right.

  People think you light like you eye, but you blacker dan midnight, Gorgon say, then laugh. Lilith don’t look at her for a while. Then she look up and green eye meet green eye.

  Tomorrow, Gorgon say.

  Next morning, Lilith wake up with fever and think Gorgon trick her. She go upstairs to see the sun come through the window and hit her in the face. Lilith know right away what a bitch this Gorgon be and regret that she go mess with her. Then she hear screaming. The screaming wake up everybody, but Lilith reach the slave quarters first. Lilith jaw drop and she grab her mouth. Andromeda little girl screaming as she watch her mother on her mat. Andromeda mouth coughing up blood. Her eyes crying blood. Andromeda nose breathing blood. Andromeda dress hitch up over her waist and between her legs spitting blood. Andromeda cough up more blood and fall back on the mat. She jerk like she having fits, then stop. She dead. Andromeda little girl run out the room screaming until Homer catch her. Homer don’t come in the room. Lilith turn round to see Homer looking straight at her.

  10

  WORLD SPREAD THAT ANDROMEDA DAUGHTER RUN ALL OVER the estate, screaming and cawing and dropping and rolling round in the dirt like mad goose. Homer try to hold on to her, but when she see Andromeda, death rattle in her throat already and Lilith looking over her, the girl pull away and run off, screaming down the passage and waking everybody up. Andromeda dead less than an hour, but her body already dark and bluish, as if she lying there for a day. Homer look at Lilith. Lilith know she looking and don’t dare look back. The room still until Andromeda body jerk again and Lilith scream. Homer move in closer but not right up to the body and Lilith turn and leave so that Homer couldn’t grab her.

  Andromeda daughter running round in front of the great house making big commotion. Robert Quinn, who did very upset that he get drag out of him slumber, didn’t even stuff him night shirt into him breeches before he step towards her with him musket. She flapping and bawling and when she see him turn to run. He chase after her and strike the back of her head with the musket. She drop flat on her face. Quinn grab her by the leg and start to drag her away, but then coming riding up be Miss Isobel, who frown at him.—I see the courting methods of the overseer have not changed in fifty years, she say but Robert Quinn don’t pay her no mind. Then Massa Humphrey come out on the terrace and say, Robby, what is that God-awful commotion.

  —One of yer young slaves, Master Humphrey. Her senses have all but taken leave, I fear.

  —Really? What could have caused such a thing?

  Quinn look below the terrace and see Lilith running to the front door.

  —I think I’m about to find out meself, Quinn say.

  —Confound it, has it happened again?

  —Massa Quinn?

  Robert Quinn circle the body like Homer do before but don’t move in close. One could never trust the bloody flux; even a dead body was—as some people think—more deadly than a live one. It don’t take no time for a body to bloat up with gas and for the earhole, nosehole or pussyhole to spit blood at you. Word was that sometime the whole body explode and cover the room with blood and pus. Quinn make a step closer, then think better of it and step back. He look at the body again, then look at Homer. Sun was just getting up and orange light sneak in through the window. That’s when Quinn see that he was stepping in blood.

  —Oh, fer fuck ’s sake! he say and scrape him boots on the floor, cussing still.

  —God be damned should we have the bloody flux upon us, he say.—’Tis the second one, I said. Is it not?

  —Massa?

  —After the other one, Circe was her name, am I correct? Same thing, blood bursting from her insides. Upon me word, I’ve never seen such nasty, brutish business. And what’s Lilith’s stake in all this?

  —Massa?

  —Come now, Homer, I saw her running out as if to catch that poor child. This woman was the child’s mother, yes?

  —Yes.

  —Horrible, of course, seeing one’s mother die of the flux.

  —Or perhaps something more nefarious.

  Both Homer and Robert Quinn look round, like they both get stun by the same blow. Coming in the room be Miss Isobel with Massa Humphey running behind, like a papa trying to catch him young’un. Miss Isobel fan him away.

  —Surely, Miss Isobel, this isn’t the place fer the likes such as yerself.

  —I’m well aware of my place, Mr. Quinn. Be so good as to remember yours.

  Miss Isobel step in the room and when everybody see how far she be from upset, it upset everybody. She step closer to the body than everybody else, holding up her hand when Massa Humphrey step to her. She cover her nose with her fan and kick at Andromeda foot. Lilith in the hallway, not far from the door, but afraid to come in after Robert Quinn ask what she have to do with all this. She hate how him seem to know her, and scared too. From where she be, she see Homer standing still and both Quinn and Massa Humphrey protest every time Miss Isobel get closer and kick the body.

  —Really, gentlemen, I hardly think she’s in a state to make much protest, she say.

  —Ma’am, I must insist that ye leave at once. Ye never can tell with the bloody flux—

  —Bloody flux? she say very loud.—Surely you’re not so ignorant of the island ways, Mr. Quinn. Were you not born in Barbados, then?

  —I think I damn well know the flux when
I see it, ma’am.

  —Robby, Massa Humphrey say.

  —If you think this is the bloody flux, then you’re a bloody fool.

  —Really, now, Miss Isobel, Massa Humphrey say. Both him and Robert Quinn getting redder because of her but mayhaps not for the same thing. Quinn getting redder like he about to stomp into the floor.

  —How little of the island ways you know, especially for a man who all but grew up nigger.

  —Then let us be friends, ma’am, seeing how identical our backgrounds be.

  Miss Isobel quick to cover her mouth with the fan. She look at Massa Humphrey but he looking at Andromeda body.

  —And you’re convinced ’tis the flux, Robby?

  Lilith look at Robert Quinn, who look at Massa Humphrey like he know the massa don’t know the first thing ’bout the flux.

  —Aye.

  —And I maintain that it’s not. This is not connected to any malady. Certainly none known by people with little understanding of island ways. Is that not so, Homer?

  Is not every day that Homer jump. She look away from the three of them and clear her throat. Lilith look at Homer trying to not look at them looking at her. Lilith know she should leave. Right now, right then before they see her or before something evil happen. Andromeda body rising to spit blood in Lilith direction and mark her out. She start to tremble again. Her heart threaten to beat it way right through her breast. Miss Isobel say something twice, as if she know Lilith didn’t hear it the first time.

  —This is not flux, this is Obeah. Homer looks like the sort of nigger that can tell you all that you wish to know, and much that you wish not.

  Quinn tell Homer to cover the body in a sheet and and have two mens take it away through the back door. He still saying to Massa Humphrey that it be the flux but Massa Humphrey see Homer face when Miss Isobel say Obeah. Lilith watch him watching the two womens talk without saying a word. Man not fool. They know when woman, even a white woman and a negro woman, go off into their secret talking.