‘I love you,’ he said.
‘Vincent.’ She leant over and kissed him.
They could hear the Coast Guard before they saw it. It cast its beam long and low, scanning the shore. They ducked as the low beam crept towards them.
When the drone had faded, they pulled out from under the sea grape branches. They could hear shouting in the distance. The tassa drums beat in bursts, changing with the wind.
‘Do you hear the drums now?’ She kept her hand on his leg as he leant towards her pulling on the oars.
‘There won’t be sufficient local police to hold them back. And they’ll be cautious given what happened last time.’ Vincent’s mind was back on Saint Damian’s.
‘What do you think will happen then?’
‘The Americans will intervene. I’m sure that’s what the Governor will agree to, what Mother Superior will ask for.’
‘I hope not.’
‘It looks like that, but we’ll have to see. We must get there fast. You can stay by one of the women in the huts where we pull in. Say you’ve come to see how they are. Stay with the older women. They won’t be joining the crowd. It’ll be useful and will give you some cover. I’ll make my way to the hospital and try and find Jonah and Singh.’
‘Your hands must have blisters.’
Vincent paused, resting the oars on his knees. She held his hands.
‘We’ll soon be in sight of the women’s huts. There’s a small beach where Jonah keeps his fishing pots.’
‘I should go to the children, Vincent.’
‘No, keep low to begin with. I’ll look in on the children’s ward. I can be anywhere legitimately.’
‘I can’t put my own safety before the children’s.’
They could hear the crackle of the fire, the smell of gasoline and burning rubber.
‘I understand. Please let’s see how things are at first. Remember there are other risks here. Risks for you and me. We must be careful about everything.’ Vincent started rowing again the short way to the beach where they were going to disembark.
‘I don’t care about my safety in that way. I’m a nurse first of all.’
Vincent heard her make her choice, but he begged her to do what he asked. ‘I’ll come back for you when I see what is going on. We must not be seen arriving together.’
Now they could hear the voices of the people clearly. They could hear the slogans. They were singing Invader’s calypso. ‘Mother and daughter working for the Yankee dollar’.
They were carrying flambeaux. It was the pitch-oil flames they could smell.
When Vincent reached the yard in front of the hospital, he met Ma Cowey.
‘What’s going on?’
‘They can’t treat we so, Docta.’
There were a group of children banging biscuit tin covers with sticks and stones, carrying stakes of bamboo creating their own tamboo bamboo band, pounding the earth. Other children had smeared themselves with molasses from the stores and were playing jab molassi from carnival time. They mimed the gyrating carnival imps.
‘Pay de devil, jab jab.’
Vincent ignored their terror. He was hailed from the crowd.
‘Eh Docta, eh Docta!’ Ma Taylor shouted. ‘You see people? Come and join the people. Where you is when we looking for you? Jonah looking for you long time. Singh looking for you.’
Ma Taylor and the band of children were the vanguard. ‘Is like cannes brulées, you remember cannes brulées, Doctor, long time on the sugar estate. I come from Harmony Hall, you know Doctor? We did have cannes brulées there.’ All the patients were mixed together, Indian and African, children and grown-ups. He thought of Michael Johnson.
He looked for Ti-Jean. Then he saw him, as indomitable as ever on his crutches, despite his unhealing sores. He avoided him. He had to find Jonah and Krishna, particularly Jonah, whom he thought he might be able to speak to more easily. Thank God Theo was not here. ‘Ma Taylor, where’s Jonah? You say he looking for me?’
‘He done gone, Docta. Gone long time. I ent see where he go. He say, “Where the docta? Docta Metivier should be here,” he say.’
‘Thank you, Ma Taylor.’
‘The Lord bless you Docta and keep you safe.’
Vincent cut through behind the pharmacy to get to the almond tree. The crowd’s anthem was, ‘The Governor say no mas, the Governor haul ’e arse’. What had happened to Mother Superior’s peaceful day? He smelt the burning rubber.
The huge tyres which were slung alongside the jetty as fenders for the boats had been piled up and doused with gasoline and set alight. He could see another fire starting in the stores.
‘This is irresponsible. Who started this?’
No one answered Vincent. Where were Jonah or Singh?
‘Me ent see them since this afternoon, Docta,’ someone took the care to answer as Vincent passed through the crowd.
He could not find anyone to tell him how the riot had started.
Off the jetty, two American water launches were pumping out and spraying sea water onto the jetty where the fires were threatening the the nearby stores. A line of Marines passed buckets along to where the hoses could not reach.
‘Lal, what you doing here, man?’ The old man was sitting nursing one of his sore feet. Vincent sat down next to him. ‘Help me, Lal. How did this happen.’
‘Is some of those young fellas who help Singh organise a meeting under the almond tree, after the Catholics have Benediction. The Archbishop preach. He preach about suffering, they say, and offering it up for their sins. The people who there say that is what spark the whole thing off. You know Basdeo and Ram. They come round the wards saying, safer for people to be outside because they might be fire. So, people get scared and come outside. People just massing and moving where they hear things going on. So, first they follow the drumming, up Indian Valley, then down here, because of the fire. You must know about these things, Doc?’
‘Tell me what else you hear.’
‘Doc, I wasn’t there, but Jonah pardner, Aaron, he tell me the thing start with fellas pelting bottle and stone by Mother Superior office, late afternoon.’
‘Pelting bottle and stone. Man, I think Singh had this thing under control. What else, Lal?’
‘I only telling you what I hear. I ent see nothing.’
‘Yes, I not blaming you, Lal.’
‘There was a service. And when the Archbishop walking back up to the Mother Superior office after the service, they say the children sing sweet. So Doris tell me. But anyway, is then some young fellas, they head hot, begin to pelt stones.’
‘Pelting stones!’
‘They have that new fella with them that just reach from Laventille, the one who playing one of them new steel pan, they say people up Laventille making out of the oil drum. They was to bring it out on the streets for carnival and the Governor ban the carnival. Anyway, they have this fella under the almond tree playing he ping pong.’
‘So?’
‘Well the local police, they tell him to stop, as they having service and he making too much noise.’
‘And?’
‘The fella say he not stopping. He say this is a free country and he playing he ping pong.’
‘Just so.’
‘Just so. You know how them young fellas stop! When the police move to push him on, right so the fight start. Then the fellas who start the marching earlier, come and join in, even more come and join in. They say they lucky to get the Archbishop and the Governor Secretary down to the jetty just in time to take them to the police launch that bring them, otherwise nobody know what might’ve happen to them. But that ent stop the pelting and the cussing. Mother Superior try and talk to some of the more reasonable ones, and then she take she boat for the convent. Is when it get dark that the real business start.’
‘I tell Singh to take it easy. And now the Yanks involved with the fire fighting. We lucky for that,’ Vincent said.
‘Yea, but first they come in with guns, you know, walking aro
und the place with guns, threatening to shoot poor people, yes. You should’ve be here, you know, Doc.’
‘They can’t shoot people. But we must put out the fires. This is one of the biggest risks for all of you, as you know, Lal.’
‘I know what you saying Doc, but people ready to die, you know. Them young fellas ready to die.’
‘Well, at least I hope they put out the fires.’
‘Yes, but now they’ll think the place is their responsibility. To come in here any time, like is their yard, and sort things out. They say the British Governor ask them to come in and deal with the matter. You know the British. Them is talk. But the Americans, since the Japs in their tail, they ready to go anywhere they see trouble.’
‘You take care of yourself, Lal.’
‘Yes, but now they’ll think the place is their responsibility, Doc.’
Vincent saw the dilemma.
‘You can’t do nothing, Doc.’ That was Lalbeharry’s verdict.
‘There must be something Lal.’ But where would he start.
Then he thought of the pharmacy, the records of their research, the painstaking records kept by Thérèse. Would they be going up in flames? He decided to leave Lal and go towards the hospital.
Many were afraid of fire and that was why they were out in the paths, and staying in the open. He had to agree that that was sensible.
If you abuse a people this much, they will abuse themselves and others. Vincent was encouraging some of the older patients to take the children with them to their huts. Of course, all the segregations which they had organised against the spread of the disease were now destroyed. Maybe this would prove something, that quarantines did not affect anything, which is what they thought anyway.
There were screams coming from the direction of the stores. While part of the building was in flames, other rooms were being looted. The screams were because the Marines from their launches were now turning the water hoses on the people rather than on the flames. They were landing on the shore, beneath the jetty, and aiming the powerful water hoses on the looters.
Vincent decided to intervene in this. For while he could see the point, it was dangerous. Patients would be killed, and he did not want this added intervention by the American Marines. He sought out the sergeant in charge of the operation. His pleas were ignored. In the end he had to enter among those being hosed down. He decided to stand at the front of the line, taking the brunt of the pressure, which was forcing him back.
It was then that Vincent saw Jonah coming from among the looters who had transported foodstuffs in a wheelbarrow away from the stores. There was Singh as well. If they were not leading the riot, they were at least supervising it.
‘Jonah!’ His voice was lost among the screams and the power of the water. He was helping up patients knocked to the ground, and singlehandedly trying to keep back the soldiers, telling them to concentrate on the fire and leave the patients alone. Eventually, Singh and Jonah saw him and joined his efforts. They were beginning to make some headway in their persuasion. The hoses stopped being trained on the patients.
‘Everything gone ole mas.’ That was Jonah’s estimation. Singh looked worried, but kept silent.
‘Why was I not called earlier?’
‘There was no time to come by you, Doc. What? Get boat, get donkey? Things take off, and before you know it, the people rampaging around. Them children, they not easy, you know.’
‘So what was it?’
‘When people see the preparations for the Governor secretary and the Archbishop, they boil over. They see for themselves. They don’t always understand the things that we does talk about. But when they see how the government and the church can make things happen for a visit, and they can’t produce food and medicine, they boil over. Women and children the most violent. They pelt the Archbishop you know, right down to the jetty. As they singing Come Holy Ghost Creator Come, they pelt him with rock stone. They pelt the Governor secretary. They still keep some control when Mother Superior beg them to stop. We stay right out of it. She tells us to stay out of things today. We stay out.’
Vincent stared at his comrades gravely. He believed them. But he wished it had not happened. He wished that they were not now going to have to start all over again, with trying to get the supplies of medicine and food. But maybe this would do it. Otherwise, they should let the patients die.
‘They should let we die, Doc.’ He turned round. It was Ti-Jean on some self-made crutches from guava wood. He looked terrible. He had lost a lot of weight. Vincent could smell his putrefying sores. The poor child!
‘Ti-Jean,’ he stopped himself from reprimanding the boy. ‘You look out for the smaller children. Then, I want to see you back at the ward. Do that for me.’
‘Is that I doing the whole time. But…’
‘But?’
‘But pushing fire too. You see them big people, Doc? Where you is all day? We look for you. Someone say Sister Thérèse gone to look for you. She find you?’
Jonah and Singh, who were listening, looked at Vincent to see what he was going to say.
‘Sister Thérèse?’ Vincent sounded defensive.
‘She take Elroy donkey and say she going to look for you. She take the back track. She get permission from one of the Yankee fellas,’ Ti-Jean continued.
‘I think he take a liking for her. I see him helping she up on the donkey.’ Jonah laughed.
‘Jonah.’ Jonah loved the picong.
‘Easy, Doc, you know is joke. I joking.’
He and Singh winked at each other. Vincent was examining Ti-Jean’s crutches, ignoring the attention paid to Sister Thérèse. He did not want to have to lie that he had not seen her.
‘So you see she?’ Singh asked, casting a glance at Jonah.
Ti-Jean looked on.
‘I think she’s down by the lower huts with the older women.’
‘Is so?’
‘I rowed over, leaving the dinghy down by that small beach. I’m sure she’s down there helping the older women.’
‘You row?’ Singh sounded surprised.
‘Yes.’
‘Why you didn’t come on the back track? So she didn’t reach you with the donkey?’ They were putting him through his paces.
‘I’m sure she’s by the huts. In fact, I think I’ll go and see her, and see how the women are. Ti-Jean you come with me.’
Singh and Jonah watched Vincent, they smiled.
‘Don’t play with fire, Doc,’ they called after him.
Vincent turned and waved. He knew what they were saying. He and Ti-Jean changed direction to visit the pharmacy. So Singh felt that he had something on him, Vincent thought. That was it. That was why he could be bold with Christiana. He had kept the girl on the island for love. She was ready to risk it.
As Vincent and Ti-Jean approached the pharmacy, they saw the light on. Vincent’s heart leapt. Just what he had imagined, the place had been ransacked.
‘Ti-Jean, you wait here.’
On entering, he discovered Thérèse.
‘Madeleine!’ He wanted to take her in his arms. Ti-Jean was at the door.
‘We had the same thoughts.’
‘Is everything alright? Let me have a look.’ He joined her at the files with the results of their tests and their detailed records on all the patients.
‘No one’s been here, thank God. This has not been their target. This is not what they’re against. We should’ve known that. They’ve sense. They know who’s responsible for their plight and who wants to do something about it.’
‘You’re right, but sometimes I think we get identified with the authorities. We’re on the front line.’
‘Well, thank God everything is fine here.’
‘Ti-Jean is outside, maybe we should go to the hospital together. Is everything okay with you, about being here? Or are you feeling that you should be at the convent?’
‘I stayed with the older women for a while, and then I got anxious about here. I got anxious just st
aying there, not knowing what was happening.’
‘What will you do now?’
‘I don’t know. We’ll have to wait for tomorrow. I don’t know what this night will bring. What has been seen, what others know?’ She knew the risks she had taken.
Once Vincent and Thérèse had got up to the hospital, they saw that the night’s riots were quietening down.
The children were wandering back from the excitement to their beds. No curfew or blackout restrictions were in operation. This could have been the night for the German U-Boat invasion. Vincent and Thérèse went around the childrens’ wards tucking up the boys and girls into bed. Thérèse read one of the children’s stories. The lamps burnt in the huts on the hills.
She changed Ti-Jean’s bandages. When Vincent went out onto the verandah to smoke a cigarette, she took over the nursing, soothing his brow with Limacol, giving him water to sip. He was becoming delirious with a very high temperature.
Vincent asked Jonah to go to the house to see how Theo had been. Then he came back onto the ward and sat with Ti-Jean again. He and Thérèse kept watch on the ward till dawn. He worried that the boy might develop an infection he could not fight. ‘Oh Alexander Fleming!’
‘What did you say?’ Thérèse looked up. She had her eyes closed.
‘Nothing.’
As quiet descended, a gunshot was heard detonating over the island, echoing across Chac Chac Bay.
Girl at the Window
The Wagnerian concert at Father Meyer’s was blaring from the gramophone on the verandah. ‘Like he going mad, Doc,’ Jonah laughed aloud over the drone of the motor and the strains of the Gotterdammerung!
A mine-sweeper was passing just across the front of Chac Chac Bay. Never, now, could they delude themselves that they were not at war. The wake was flecked with flame.
Jonah was quiet, and Vincent remained with his own meditation, after an inconclusive meeting with Singh, Mother Superior and Major McGill over the shooting of Eldrige Padmore, one of the young patients. He had not heeded the warning not to trespass into the base. Because of the night of the riot, the troops were taking no chances. This was how the argument ran, as Major McGill described the circumstances of the shooting the night before. Some, thinking back to the burning of Michael Johnson, saw it as a life for a life.
Night Calypso Page 26