Heading South (22 page)

“And that's how they were found?”

“No. She woke up shortly afterwards, before he did. And they ran away. Of course they didn't get far. Imagine: a slave and a young white woman. The master wanted to kill him with his own hands, but she swore she would stab herself if her father touched a single hair on his head. Two days later, he escaped, alone.”

“And they caught him?”

“No. Other events had come up in the meantime. More serious concerns . . . The War of Independence broke out. Santo Domingo became one vast, raging fire. Dessalines became the leader of the native army. My forebear commanded the Twenty-Second Half-Brigade, in the north. General Dessalines, as you know, carried the war right up to the final battle. They completely routed the army of Napoleon. Glory! Santo Domingo became Haiti on January the first, 1804. Then Des-salines ordered the general massacre of all the French on the island, and my forebear interceded with the commander-in-chief to spare the family of his beloved. Dessalines hesitated, but in the end he agreed, most assuredly in recognition of the heroic actions of my forebear during the final battle at Vertières. The family left Haiti on the first boat leaving for France, but the young woman stayed behind to live with her lover. It's a nice story, don't you think?”

“Very nice.”

The old woman suddenly breaks out laughing.

“Do you know what General Dessalines said to my forebear, when he granted him the young woman whose family he had just saved?”

“No.”

“He said: ‘I see you like the master's flesh.'”

“The master's flesh?”

“That's how he referred to the young girl . . . Strange, isn't it?”

“Very.”

“In the end,” she continues, after a moment, “desire is always what drives history.”

“You mean love . . .”

“No,” she insists. “I mean sex. The furious desire of the master's flesh . . .”

There is a long moment of silence.

“I'm a bit tired, Fanfan . . .”

I took my leave of her. The old servant came, moving as slowly as ever, and opened the gate. As I passed through it, I felt as though I was entering another world.