Counternarratives (15 page)

Some time later, she felt something tugging at her
hand and foot. Carmel momentarily fought back until she realized it was Eugénie,
in the darkness, pulling her from under her bed's wooden slats. Carmel could
feel that the white girl's hair and clothes, what few she wore, were completely
soaked. Still partially asleep, she groped around the room for a spare blanket
and patted her mistress dry. In utter darkness, she rolled her mistress's wet
garments up, pressing them into a corner, and slid the white girl into her
nightgown. She stuffed the cape against the door and lighted a tiny tallow
candle, which took a few minutes, since she had to orient herself to find her
mistress's trunk, in which they kept the tinderbox and a few votives. Once the
flame spoke, Eugénie told Carmel of her adventure getting back to the convent:
out of nowhere the heavens tore open and torrential rains fell. The sky
thundered repeatedly, and then lightning struck as she was ascending the
half-mile long road between the town and the convent. The path and the little
bridge across the creek were swiftly and almost completely washed out behind
her. Tree limbs, uprooted bushes and boles lay strewn like chicken bones down
the surrounding hillsides. She had had to run as fast as she could to avoid
being swept backwards by the downrushing water, which was falling as if a
celestial dam had split. After hurdling the gate and crawling through the
basement window she always used, she had peeled off her muddy boots, stockings,
cloak, and dress in an alcove next to the coal room, bundled and hid them in a
secret compartment in order not to leave footprints on the stone floor. She'd
made her way to her bedroom in only her petticoat and undergarments. Exhausted,
Carmel wanted to pacify her mistress and put her to sleep, so she embraced her
and rubbed her back.

At that moment, the ringing of the alarm bell in the
front hall broke the girls' brief, silent spell. Outside the room, bare feet
scurried along the stone floors. Then the two girls heard the Mother Superior's
voice shuttling towards them: “Mesdamoiselles, emergency assembly in the front
hall!”

Carmel took her book and, as Eugénie searched for
her robe, quickly hid it in the trunk. Both girls opened the door just as the
Mother Superior's hand pressed from the other side: “To the front hall,
mesdamoiselles, immediately!” Eugénie and Carmel arrived to find all the other
girls, the nuns and novices, a few of the workers, and the enslaved young women,
in various states of night-dress, milling about.

The Mother Superior clapped her hands, and the
girls formed their well-known rows. The head nun took a quick headcount,
everyone was accounted for. She ordered the slave Hubert to check the cellar.
Because the convent and its acres sat on high ground that drained into the creek
and river, flooding in its buildings was unlikely, but she wanted to be sure.
Before Hubert could report on the status of the cellar Moor was ordered to
prepare cots in the upstairs library just in case. When they had gone, the
Mother Superior described what Moor, who had served as sentry that night, had
witnessed at the front gate: Clouds as huge as Hispaniola had anchored over the
hill and town below, then burst forth with rains the likes of which he'd never
seen in his entire life. As the river leapt its banks on the Gethsemane side,
he'd rushed in to alert the nuns and the other slaves, so that they could bring
the few field animals into the barn and secure the horses in their stables.
Turning back in amazement at the ferocity of the unexpected tempest, he'd
noticed a ghostly specter hurrying toward the gate, but by the time he'd been
able to go back outside, it was gone. You must, the Mother Superior continued,
now return to your rooms and stay there until morning prayers, but we shall each
appeal to the Heavenly Father and Our Most Blessed Virgin to ensure that little
harm is done to our neighbors. Ave Maria, gratiae plena, Dominus tecum. . .
.

Carmel and her mistress returned in silence to
Eugénie's room. Carmel closed the door, and promptly dropped to her knees. She
didn't have a rosary, but she knew the sequence of devotions well. Eyes closed
tightly, her body trembling, she launched into the Lord's prayer in her head, in
French. Behind her, she could hear her mistress pulling her blankets over her
head as the rain unleashed its curses upon the glass.

At a morning assembly several days later, after
the storm had dissipated, the Mother Superior delivered a short verbal report on
the state of the convent and grounds. She pointed out that according to the male
servants, nearly two dozen people in the town, whole portions of which still lay
under an icy blanket, had drowned. In fact, while conducting a walking
inspection Hubert had come upon the body of the convent's factotum Jacob
Greaves, grounded like a barge in the creek's new banks at the base of the hill.
A waterlogged sack of his clothes and a few personal effects moored at his side.
Though the convent had received no notice, Carmel overheard one white girl
telling another, it appeared as though he was quitting not only their employ at
the convent but his hometown as well. The nuns, Carmel later learned, had wanted
to attend his funeral in town, but they had been warned not to set foot on the
other side of the river; nevertheless, when the next priest came through they
would ask him to say a special Mass for Greaves and the other deceased, which
included one of the old milk cows. The students and most of the nuns, who were
quite fond of Greaves, erupted in tears. Eugénie bawled inconsolably. Carmel,
standing at the rear of the room with the other bondswomen, many of whom were
weeping too, stared at her mistress, who briefly turned around; her face had
contorted into a wet, stone grimace. Turning away, the slave girl noticed that
her fellow slaves, through their tears, were observing her, their expressions a
mix of emotions shifting so rapidly she couldn't fully grasp them. She trained
her eyes on her bare feet until the Mother Superior had finished her remarks.
After a recitation of the rosary, the girls were dismissed to prepare for
supper. Carmel waited until the nuns, the girls and the other slaves had
departed, then she returned to the room.

She immediately thought of her work. Were anyone to find
it, they would suspect the worst, and she might be punished and then sold off.
She wasn't even sure how Eugénie might respond. As far as she could recall she
hadn't experienced such an episode for the entire time that they'd been at the
Academy of the Sisters of the Most Precious Charity of our Lady of the Sorrows.
She entered the room cautiously. Eugénie did not acknowledge her. Silent, the
white girl continued balling up her dirty clothes to be taken down to the
washroom. Carmel perched on her cot and watched. When Eugénie was done with the
clothes, she sat at her desk and began to brush her hair, which had come loose
from its knot. Carmel did not move. When Eugénie had finished, she tied a brown
ribbon around the ponytail, smoothed her frock, and sat back down. She still
said nothing. Carmel crossed the room and started to re-sort the laundry when
she felt something rap the back of her head. She looked up to see Eugénie
stepping back, her forehead and cheeks dark as port, her eyes swollen.

“We never even got as far as the river,” she spat out,
preparing to strike Carmel again. From the folds in her skirt Carmel withdrew
her rosary. Instead of administering a beating, however, Eugénie pushed closer
to the door, whispering only: “Parce que le diable ne s'arrête jamais.” Because,
it is true, the devil, tireless, rests only for the devil. With that, Eugénie
snatched the rosary and fled the room.

the worst winter ever horrible cold mlle E still not speaking
to me except orders fais ceci fais cela as always do this do that a pere
malevo
^MALESVAUX
here since after the flood say mass every morning in the
chapel all of the S allowd to stand in the back i can say it by heart mlle E alw
talkg to him she tell the other girls he ws a good frend of mon oncle she workg
in the kichen i on garden detail we had to shovell snow off roof so v v cold
then knitting stockings for the winter first for mlle E then nuns she made me
promesse
^PROMISE
no
drawings no no none wrote out english sentences & sd 1 rosary befor slp

so v v cold the creek a knife of ice sky same color today we
shovelld off the roadway down to the fence and the town mlle E sd to me but not
to me bc she is not speakg to me parts of the town of Gethsiminy is froze over
the nuns send some breads & soup down but the revd mayor refusd I polishd
mlle E new boots from her tante Mme
François
^FRANCIS
& sweaters sewd her collars & tear
in her cape she haves anothr handmade book fr her tante on my cot but when I sd
merci she ignore me after a while she gone out quo puella fugit rido latin
sentences & 1 rosary bef slp

Frigidissima haec hiems est I overhrd one Sr say that the govnr
wd sending some help becouse the town sufferg so bad still they refuses bread
and soup today we scrubd the cellar floors & the attic of the convent not to
disturb the girls we clean the 1
^st
and 2
^nd
storeys on
Satrday the other S did not speak to me but sd to each othr pointing to me why
dont it save us the trouble and clean them with a spell they laughd mlle E still
not speakg to me say I shd keep my nose out of all those books a ngr with a head
full of figrs is as useful as a broom that know arithmetic I rolld my eyes mind
yrself girl english sentences & 1 rosary bef slp