The Book of Night Women (28 page)

But as she step down the stairs the same fire strike Lilith back and she jump. The fire cackle and mock her and leap for her skirt. She scream again and again as the fire hiss. She run down the rest of the stairs and trip and fall to the floor and get up to find her shoulder and chest soak with the mistress’ blood. The fire coming after her, hopping down from step to step like a impudent pickney. Lilith run.

19

MISS ISOBEL FALL TO THE GROUND AND STAY THERE TILL Massa Humphrey come. She bawl out, Lawd! Woi! like a nigger girl. One of the two mens who see her riding back to Coulibre say she scream all the way until she reach the house. She nearly fall off the horse and try to run to the door, but one of the mens hold her back. She screaming and fighting them off and cursing all kind of word ’bout niggers messing with her.—Don’t touch me! Don’t you dare touch me! she say and bawl out her little brother name. She scream, Maman! Maman, oh God! Oh, God! She try to run into the house again from the back but the mens hold her.—No, Miss Isobel, it too late, the fire bound to kill you for sure, he say.—I going to kill you, I’ll kill you all! Miss Isobel bawl again. She bawl until she keen and keen until she drop. The mens look at her on the ground but ’fraid to touch a white woman. One nigger jump on her horse and near fall off. He steady himself little bit and ride through the gate.

Coulibre burnin’.

Fire raging and hissing and cussing and bending and climbing and racing like a yellow-red-yellow snake from one window to the next. Fire run up to the ceiling and spread across like a spill to run back down one wall then the next and then a painting then the next. One window explode, then another, then another. Black smoke fly out the window like house spirit fleeing. Fire crackling like lightning and like laughter. So much in the white man house to burn. Carpet and curtain and book and letters, and chairs and tables and flesh. Fire hop out a window and climb up on the roof. A cloud of black smoke make the noon dark.

Two hour later the slave come back in a cart that Robert Quinn driving. Massa Humphrey ride him horse over and reach little earlier. The river too far and Coulibre have too few nigger to form a line to carry bucket of water. Massa Humphrey run to the house but Robert Quinn reach in time to stop him. The two struggle, but Robert Quinn stronger. —Damn it, Humphrey, I will not have ye make a corpse of yerself! he say. Massa Humphrey push Quinn off when he see Miss Isobel in the dirt. He lift her and put her in the cart, scowling at the niggermens who stand there and watch. Lilith see them. She wonder if they did see her first. A fit of fear did hit her when the fire take over the house and no matter how far she run, the heat chase her. Flame catch her back and some of her clothes burn. She watch Massa Humphrey trying to be gentle with Miss Isobel, wiping her face with him handkerchief. She look around to see Robert Quinn watching her. Robert Quinn left eyebrow raised, asking question. But Miss Isobel wake up screaming and he rush to the cart.

Miss Isobel screaming for her mother. She faint again and Massa Humphrey hold her like a baby. Robert Quinn whisper something and Massa Humphrey look up right away at Lilith.—Come here, you, he say. Lilith gulp. She move to them slow, feeling her bare foot cut through the grass. Robert Quinn lookin’ at Lilith, then whisper to Massa Humphrey again.

—Lilith? he say.

—Yes, massa.

—Of Montpelier.

—Yes, massa.

—Explain what happened here. At once, girl!

Lilith don’t say nothing.

—I said speak up, damn you.

—Me . . . me don’t know, me don’t know, sah.

—You don’t know? You don’t bloody know? What are you, the daftest nigger cow God ever let loose to torment me? Let me enlighten you, Lilith, there’s a little fire raging behind you, or are you blind as well as stupid?

—Yes, massa.

—How did this happen?

—Me . . . me was milking the cow, massa. Me didn’t even know the house be burnin’, sah, till me come back.

—You didn’t even know.

—Humphrey, it’s quite possible that—

—I’m capable of asking my own questions, Quinn. So, Miss Lilith—

—Me try to run in for the pickneys, massa.

—Don’t you dare interrupt me, you damn . . . Did anyone . . . Couldn’t you have... Had none of you the heart to . . . oh, Jesus. Kill us, that’s what you wish to do. You wish death on us all!

—Humphrey, Robert Quinn say and touch him shoulder. Massa slap him hand off. Quinn stare down massa but then look at Lilith. She wish down to the bone that she didn’t just jump. She know her jaw drop. She know it and he seen it.

—And yer sleeve? Did ye hurt yerself?

—Me was . . . me was trying... the pickneys—me was trying to save the pickneys but board fall ’pon me, sah.

Quinn go towards Lilith but Massa Humphrey stop him.

—Oh, for God’s sake, Robert. We have other priorities than a bloody nigger!

Quinn turn away but look at her again. Lilith feel like he might rip off her clothes and throw her into the fire when he see nothing. She walk away backward and stumble. She get up and run off.

 

 

By evening nearly every planter,
attorney, infantryman, priest and clerk in the county pay visit to the Coulibre house. Terrible business, some say. The preacher pray. Massa Humphrey send Miss Isobel off to Montpelier and give the mens instructions for Homer.—You stay, he say to Lilith when he see her heading for the cart.

The wall was stone and they stand firm though they black with soot. Everything else burn to nothing, including the roof. Some parts still burnin’ but most was now ash and rubble. The little fire that left in the corners and under the floorboard hiss. In what was the sitting room, half of a red chaise longue stand out around black and grey. Things that use to have shape in the world the day before is just mound of ash now. The bathtub fall from the top floor to the bottom. Robert Quinn see it first and step through the rubble to look closer. He cover him mouth quick. Massa Humphrey walking over but Quinn jump in the way.

—Humphrey, there are things ye can’t unsee once you’ve seen ’em, Quinn say. Massa Humphrey step past. Quinn grab him hand, but the massa push him away.

—I’m not a goddamn boy, Robby, he say. But when he see what left of Massa Roget, him legs get weak and he almost fall. Robert Quinn hold on to him tight until he done throw up.

Matraca wouldn’t leave the pickneys so she dead too. Bessy too old, so by the time she could wake up to feel herself burnin’, she burn to death too. Francine, the mistress lady in waiting, was not on the premises but didn’t get far. A soldier see her just as she turn her carriage around to ride away. They ride her down and demand to know where she was trying to get to with the mistress’ carriage. Then they beat her, even though she scream that she was coming, not going. They round up Habakkuk and the niggermens too, saying they was trying to rape Miss Isobel. More hour later the commander of the militia say they suspect that Francine was part of the plot and was trying to run away. People beginning to wonder how come neither the massa nor the mistress could save themself. They wonder how come nobody even try to run for the door and why Massa Roget body was in a bathtub.

For the next two day they strip all them niggers naked, wet they skin and whip them with the cowhide. They whip Francine leg first and she scream and bawl, then her back, then her belly. They push her down on the floor and pin her with they boots. She bawling that she didn’t do nothing. The commander say she should be a credit to her race and stop being a lying nigger cunt. The commander have the soldiers light corn husk and scrape off the burnin’ bits so that fire rain down on her belly, face and titties. Francine still screaming that is not she! Is not she! So they heat a poker and start to brand all over her body. When she still didn’t talk they spread her leg wide and brand her pussy. People at the far end of Spanish Town hear the girl scream. When she could finally talk, she beg for mercy for all her wrongdoing. Then they do the same to the mens, branding they balls or they arsehole. Every nigger confess. The commander lock them up in the gaol for trial.

Friends of Massa Roget storm the gaol, pull them out and beat them some more, blinding the girl in the right eye with a club. She scream so much until she could scream no more and all that leave was her mouth agape. Two white womens spit on her but even they couldn’t stomach what happen next. The men folk drag them all to the center of the Spanish Town square as evening come in grey. They pull them up with rope and the niggers swinging from a cotton tree. Then the mens stone them until they start to swing. The girl dead before they set her on fire. The mens did still alive but too weak to scream. The sour stink of burnin’ negro invade every window and doorway in Spanish Town. Lilith return to Montpelier.

She come back the same way she leave, in the back of the carryall that Robert Quinn drive.

—Are ye happy to be back, lass? he say.

—Yes, massa, Lilith say.

—Well, how anyone finds cause to be happy amidst this terrible business mystifies me, of course. Then again, much about negroes mystifies me.

—Yes, massa.

Robert Quinn sigh. Terrible, terrible business, he say. Miss Isobel is beside herself, of course. Do ye feel sorry for her, Lilith?

—Yes, massa. Me feel terrible sorry for her. And the poor pickneys.

—I’m sure ye do. Lucky you were to be out milking the cow and not asleep.

Yes, massa. Lucky.

 

 

At the estate,
Homer and Pallas was in the kitchen.

—Look who come back, Pallas say, but Lilith didn’t say nothing.

—You good, girl chile? Homer say.

—Yes, Lilith say, lookin’ down on the floor.

—Look like you goin’ need two kinda tea tonight, Homer say.

—One to sleep and one to forget, Pallas say.

—Me don’t have nothing to forget, Lilith say.

—Of course, Homer say. You have you bundle? Lucky you manage to save that in time.

Lilith don’t say nothing.

—You hear the news, Homer? They kill them Coulibre niggers that do it. Burn them right down to nothing. You know her, Lilith, the girl they say start the fire? Pallas say.

—Me and she was not friend.

—Me sure you and she wasn’t enemy, neither. Anyway, Homer, the white mens catch her trying to run ’way. Next thing you know, they say she confessing to starting the fire. Yes, me dear, they lock her up, but of course you know what happen when nigger get lock up in gaol.

—Lynching.

—Lynching is correct. No trial for that bitch. Not a baby killer. No she used to take care of the pickneys, Lilith?

—No, that be Matraca.

—Where she be?

—Dead. Where me sleeping?

—You forget already? Where you always sleep. You space waiting on you, Homer say. Lilith step past her and go down the cellar steps.

—Welcome home, Homer say.

 

 

Morning come and Miss Isobel
wake up in a fit. She clutch herself quick as if to make sure that she have on clothes. Miss Isobel jump out of bed and run down the stairs. Passing through the hallway, her movement wake up Massa Humphrey, who be sleeping on a chaise in the sitting room.

—Isobel? Isobel? Is that you?

—A heartless one you are, that’s all I can say about you, Humphrey Wilson. A heartless, heartless one.

—Pardon me?

—How could you, Humphrey? How could you have let me sleep in your room through the night? Do you know what would happen should this get out? A lady still needs her honour, Humphrey, her entire family’s standing rests on it.

—But Isobel.

—I must have lost all good sense, doing what I’m doing with you. Allowing you to have you way with . . . You must think me no better than the niggers. And look at me, maybe I’m not. We are sinning, Humphrey Wilson.

—Isobel, I beg you.

—No, we have forgotten ourselves, Mr. Wilson, and you have dishonoured me once too many times, but even this is going too far.

—Isobel—

—Oh, let me leave, Humphrey.

Isobel fix her dress bosom and head for the door. She nearing the doorway and stop. Just stop still, like Lot wife that turn back.

—Isobel? Massa Humphrey say. He run in time just to catch her as she nearly faint. Miss Isobel start screaming again. Lilith hear the scream from downstairs, the woman scream that she hear before from Massa Humphrey mother.
Serve her right, the bitch,
Lilith whisper to herself, over and over and over till she believe it.

Lilith wear the anger through the day, like she gnashing teeth. —Me peeling as fast as me can, pussyhole, she say to Pallas when Pallas ask her for the potato to put in the soup. Homer don’t say nothing and Lilith make sure not to look at her. Pallas put food on the tray and tell Lilith to carry it up to Miss Isobel. Lilith say she busy.

—Twiddling thumb don’t count as busy, Homer say, and that be that.

Lilith open the door to Massa Humphrey room. She don’t see Miss Isobel. She put down the tray with the soup and go to leave. Right then, Miss Isobel come out of the water closet.

—What is that you brought? Miss Isobel say.

—Soup, mistress.

—Soup? Who said I wanted soup? Tell Mr. Wilson that I do not have much of an appetite, not now.

—Yes’m.

—Maybe not ever.

—Yes’m.

—You killed them, didn’t you?

Lilith jump.

—You and all the others. You killed them. You watched my family die. Burn to death like . . . like . . . oh! Did you not hear a scream? Not a single scream?

—Ma’am?

—Nor a shout? Not even a whimper? You heard not one cry for help? Were you not in the kitchen?

—I . . . I was out milking the cows, ma’am.

—You telling me that you’re the one nigger in creation who don’t know what a scream sounds like? You want me whip the bloodcloth out of you so that you remember?