Island Songs (11 page)

Levi paused, for secretly he was wondering whether he should cultivate cannabis. He decided to change the subject. “Joseph, me will help yuh clear de water,” he offered. “We cyan till de land once more an’ plant new seed. Me know so if David alive him woulda help yuh, so me offer me labour.”

Placing his right hand upon Levi’s shoulder, Joseph squeezed it and managed a smile. “Isaac don’t know him ’ave ah Godly son.”

For six weeks, Levi and Joseph worked tirelessly from sun-up to sun-down. At first they forked the land, enabling the excess water to escape. When it was dry, employing the family donkey and a rebuilt plough, they grooved new channels for the seeds that were carefully placed. Levi always sang his favourite spiritual as they toiled. Following a few days of hard graft, Joseph joined him in song.

In the evenings, by the light of a kerosene light, they rebuilt Levi’s home with wood, mortar and stone. During this time they only slept for four hours a night. Amy sensed a dogged, urgent determination in Joseph’s eyes. In the little time he spent with his daughters, he asked them what they had learned at school. A first for him. Jenny immediately went into a long detailed description but Joseph cut her short, saying, “yuh two ah big woman now an de time will come when yuh affe look after ya parents instead of we looking after yuh. An’ yuh will affe learn to be responsible fe we land.”

“Papa, why yuh ah say dat?” Jenny asked. “Yuh don’t reach old age yet an’ ya back nuh ben’ yet.”

“Fate has strange t’ings in store fe we. Who knows wha’ madness might bring tomorrow?”

“Me alright, Papa,” Hortense grinned. “Jenny will look after me if Fate bring ah nex’ badness. Besides, wha’ cyan Massa God do to me now?
Him
tek away sweet David already.”

Smiling, Joseph ruffled the hair of both his daughters before marching off to his plot of land. Hortense thought nothing of the
conversation and returned to feeding the guinea fowl, but Jenny remained rooted to the spot until her father disappeared from her vision. She sensed a dark foreboding.

Even though Joseph slept little, Amy would sometimes wake up in the dead of the night and discover that Joseph wasn’t beside her. She would find him in the kitchen, sometimes talking with Kwarhterleg but mostly smoking his pipe, staring ahead blankly, lost in some past terror that he dare not speak of. Amy put it down to David’s passing, thinking that Joseph, like her, had a tortuous time getting over the tragedy.

As the first sproutings of the new corn leaves appeared upon Joseph’s plot, he turned to Levi and said, “Levi. Me woulda never know wha’ to do if yuh never did ah help me. Me will be t’ankful ’til me laid to res’. But now me gwarn ask yuh fe ah even mightier favor. Me hope yuh don’t t’ink it’s ah liberty me teking. But me affe ask becah me affe do somet’ing. Me nuh know how yuh gwarn to judge me but me mind made up. De time has come. Levi, come sit down, mon, so me cyan tell yuh me story so yuh understand. Wha’ me tell yuh mus’ never escape to ah nex’ mon ears – especially ya fader Preacher Mon. It cyan’t even escape to Kwarhterleg or even Amy’s ears. Not yet anyhow. Me ’ave ah liccle rum fe yuh an’ some tobacco. Mebbe ya wise head coulda understand de troubles inna me mad head.”

Seven hours later, Amy was serving out a dinner of boiled beef, callaloo, yams, scallion and sweet potato. Carmesha was mashing the evening meal for Daniel as Hortense and Jenny waited patiently for their drinks of guava juice. For nearly a minute, Levi watched the family scene silently, remembering his own childhood. He saw his own mother in his memories. “Miss Amy! Miss Amy! Me affe talk wid yuh most urgent.”

Amy presented her two daughters with their plates and told them to pour their own drinks. She walked over to Levi with a wooden ladle in her left hand. She looked beyond Levi. “Where Joseph?” she asked.

Levi shook his head.

“
Don’t
tell me yuh don’t know! Now tell me where him der! It’s about time him spent more time wid him family!”

“Him gone,” Levi answered. “Him gone to do somet’ing him shoulda do t’irty six years ago. Dat’s all me know. Him did ah feel too guilty to tell de news fe himself. Him say one day him will come back but don’t know when. An’ also him did say him don’t ’ave de strengt’ to tell yuh himself de reason why. Like David did. Me sorry to tell yuh dis, Miss Amy.”

Dropping the ladle, Amy crossed her arms and looked out to the southern hills. There she gazed for the next ten minutes as Levi explained to her that until Joseph’s return, he would gladly work the land. Half an hour later Amy calmly told the rest of her immediate family what had occurred. Hortense rushed up to Levi. “Wha’ yuh do wid me papa? Yuh kill him? Me never did ah trus’ yuh! Blackheart mon yuh are blackheart mon! Move away from we house before me pick up rockstone an’ fling it after yuh!”

Levi dropped his head, turned around and walked away. He knew there was no sense in trying to reason with Hortense at this time.

Meanwhile, Jenny, her composure intact, simply walked away into a nearby field where she sat down amid the long grass. There was a controlled expression upon her face, refusing to yield to any emotion. She began braiding her hair while humming a hymn. She only returned when the three-quartering moon was high in the sky. Amy was sipping coffee at the kitchen table, sitting beside Hortense. A dog was snoozing by her feet.

“Ya alright, Jenny?” Amy asked. “Me don’t really know wha’ we do to de Lord to mek Him t’row tribulation inna we face. Me really don’t know.”

Picking up a mango, Jenny took a small bite and gazed at her mother in such a way to make her feel uncomfortable. “David dead an’ now Papa gone,” she said calmly. “Me surprise dat yuh nuh gone wid him an’ leave Hortense an’ meself ’pon we own. Me an’ Hortense are orphans now.”

“Jenny! How coulda yuh say such ah t’ing?”

“Becah yuh care more about family reputation dan Hortense an’ meself! Remember dem time Preacher Mon would give me licks
inna church? Yuh jus’ ah sit down an’ say not’ing! Only when Papa ah lick Preacher Mon down him ah stop trouble me. Now Papa gone. As me see it only Hortense ah care fe me.”

“Jenny, ya upset,” said Amy, her eyes incredulous. “Yuh don’t know wha’ ya saying. Everybody’s brain inna mangle an’ mebbe when de sun shine inna de marnin we could t’ink more clearly. Why yuh don’t gwarn to ya bed an’ res’ yaself? Everybody has had ah cruel day ah tribulation.”

Displaying a perfect poise, Jenny eyed her mother coldly, like a boxer meeting his opponent for the first time at the weigh-in. “When de las’ time yuh come ah school an’ talk wid de teacher dem?” she asked. “When de las’ time yuh kiss me goodnight? When de las’ time yuh say t’ank yuh after Hortense an’ meself strip corn fe yuh? Ya heart made of rockstone! Ya feelings cool like de water dat ah flow down up where Levi live. Ya eyes still only see David. Me cyan’t remember yuh ever frying fe me an’ Hortense Bluedraws an’ yuh don’t like we going to Gran’papa Neville. But David did enjoy all dem t’ings der wid ya blessing… It’s like yuh never like breeding two daughter. Sometimes me t’ink me don’t ’ave nuh mama.”

Looking on wide-eyed, Hortense thought her mother would surely beat Jenny but Amy was too shocked to do so. Instead, Amy tutted, stood up and went to feed the guinea fowl, although she had fed them an hour previously. She secretly admitted to herself that David was her favourite. ‘
Love de bwai chile an’ prepare de girl chile dem to love her mon
,’ Amy recalled her father telling her when she was a teenager.

Offering her mother a dismissive glare, Jenny joined her sister at the table.

“Why ya start ’pon poor Mama?” Hortense asked.

“Me don’t care wha’ Levi affe say,” answered Jenny. “Papa mus’ ah run away becah Mama mus’ ah do somet’ing to vex him.”

“How yuh know dat?”

“Becah Papa don’t even like laying down wid Mama. After de midnight hour me see Papa ah rise up an’ go ’long to de kitchen where him ah spend de res’ ah de night whispering wid
Kwarhterleg. So dey mus’ ah been going t’rough some kinda contention.”

“But yuh cyan’t say dat fe true. Sometimes Papa behave inna him funny ways an’ me see it dat if Papa gone fe good, den nuhbody ah push him out. Mebbe Mama was right dat ya upset an’ don’t know wha’ ya saying. Well, she upset too. Ya t’ink dat all becah yuh never see eye-water ’pon Mama face dat she don’t feel it?”

Biting another chunk of her mango, Jenny thought about it. Tears were forming in her eyes. “Now me know how yuh feel when David gone,” she revealed. “Me jus’ pray dat de Most High will nah offer sweet Papa de same fate.”

Hortense took Jenny’s face into her palms and kissed her upon the forehead. She then embraced her. Jenny was now crying uncontrollably, her tears dampening Hortense’s frock. Amy looked on from the chicken coop, feeling helpless.

“Now it’s just de two of we,” sobbed Jenny. “We against everybody else. We cyan’t rely ’pon nuhbody to love we. Nuh, Hortense! Better dat we jus’ care fe each udder. Promise me dat yuh will be always standing beside me.
Promise
me!”

“Of course,” whispered Hortense, not wanting her mother to hear. “Of course.”

The next morning, Amy fried Bluedraws for everybody. As Jenny accepted her dish she kissed her mother formally on the left cheek in a gesture of sorrow. Her eyes expressed no emotion and Amy found Jenny’s lips almost cold. Amy hugged her eldest daughter with the realisation that she couldn’t remember the last time she had held Jenny in this manner. Her embrace wasn’t returned and Jenny quickly walked away.

Over the following months Amy watched her daughters form an unbreakable bond. They walked to school arm in arm together and their school friends soon realised they only had time for each other. Hortense and Jenny maintained their daily visits to Neville, taking Daniel with them; sometimes Neville would ignore Jenny’s and Hortense’s presence and take Daniel for long walks into the fields, just as he had done for David when he was a child. Melody’s Anancy story-tales no longer captivated Jenny, she was only
interested in what Melody thought about her father and where he might have disappeared to. Although Jenny enjoyed her grandparents’ company, she would refuse to stay over for the night when invited to do so. “Nuh, sa,” she would protest. “If Papa come back inna de middle of de night me waan to mek sure me der to see him.”

To Jenny’s dismay, Hortense would happily accept sleeping over at Neville’s and whenever she did so, Jenny would return home in a sulky mood and start rows with her mother on the slightest of whims.

During one early morning, comforting Hortense after a nightmare when she imagined Jenny being murdered and buried beside David, Neville hugged her close to his chest and said, “love is nah de one t’ing dat define de human condition. Nah, sa. For animals an’ creatures cyan display love also. Nuh, Hortense. Wha’ defines we is we reaction to ah love lost or ah love never felt. Yes, Hortense! From ah love lost or never experienced is bred vengeance, jealousy, rage, sorrow, guilt an’ so many udder t’ings. One of de first sins was committed becah ah mon never felt he was loved. Me know yuh miss David but remember dis. Yuh would nah feel so much pain if he never loved yuh so greatly. So rejoice in dat fact. An’ be kind to ya sister, for she don’t know if she has lost her fader’s love for ever or if it will come back. An’ her soul will bruise from dat.”

Wiping her tears away, Hortense asked, “why don’t Papa love me like him love Jenny?”

Neville looked away from Hortense, as though he was remembering something from long ago. “De decision was made fe him by ah higher being. He had nuh choice. Yuh woulda affe understan’ ya papa childhood to truly find de reason. But becah ya fader’s love to Jenny was great, she will suffer now he’s gone. Now go back to sleep.”

When the sisters were at home together, they shared the cooking and washing duties. At night they sat up in bed whispering into each other’s ears. They giggled at jokes in church and shared secrets to each other while strolling in the fields. They washed each
other’s hair in the river and journeyed home upon their donkey’s back, Jenny always in front and Hortense clinging around her waist as she sang a song her grandfather taught her. If a school girl wanted to fight one of the Rodney sisters, and they often did, they also had to combat the other. Unable to tolerate taunts like, “ya papa must’ ah gwarn to Old Screwface backyard!” and “David dead becah him fader de son of Jezebel!” no quarter was given. Hortense would often say before combat, “if ah blood appear den mek it run, if yuh ’ave ah piece of wood, den me will pick up rock, if yuh pick up rock, den me will find me gran’papa cutlass. Now, who waan come, come!”

Despite Amy having to explain her daughters’ actions to irate parents, she thought Jenny’s and Hortense’s close attachment was a positive outcome, borne from testing family circumstances. But as she watched her daughters arrive home from school arm in arm, only to acknowledge Amy with a quick nod before they changed clothes and disappeared into the surrounding fields, Amy couldn’t help feeling excluded.