Queen (121 page)

    needed the help. She went into the dining room, where Queen's outburst

    was the main topic of conversation, and the insulted guest was demanding

    Queen's dismissal. Mr.

738 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

Cherry promised that he would have strong words with Queen, and looked at

Dora, but another guest managed to calm things down.

    "She could be right though, Daphne, old girl," he said happily to the

    victim of Queen's wrath. "You never know what your father or grandfather

    might have got up to with those slave girls."

    A few others chuckled, and the atmosphere calmed down a little, but Daphne

    was doubly insulted now, for it was true. Her grandfather had got up to

    some nonsense with a slave girl. It was the shame of her family.

"Don't be vulgar, Charles," she said.

    After his guests had gone, Mr. Cherry called Queen to him, and gave her a

    stem lecture.

"She insulted me," Queen said sullenly.

    "Be that as it may, it is not your place to berate my guests, no matter how

    they behave," Mr. Cherry insisted. "Unless you can keep your temper under

    control in future, I shall have to make other arrangements.' I

    Which is what Queen had thought would happen from the moment she got the

    job. It had happened to her so many times before, and she was ready for the

    inevitable.

"That suits mejus' fine," she said, and left the room.

Dora was ready to go after her and give her a piece of her mind, for she

could not tolerate ingratitude, but Mr. Cherry stopped her. As always, his

heart got the better of his common sense, and he, despite all appearances to

the contrary, liked Queen, and had admired the logic behind her outburst, if

not the way she had done it.

    Edgar Cherry's position had always been something of a paradox, even to

    himself. Raised in the South, he had owned slaves, and they had helped him

    make his fortune, but he had enjoyed a lib~ral education in the North, and

    despised the practice. He could not understand why any human being could

    believe others inferior simply because of their race, or the color of their

    skin. He was good to his slaves, and gave several their freedom, but

    believed that only wealth and influence could bring about change, and the

    slaves were the key to his fortune. Like Queen and so many others, he

    puzzled constantly

    A WIFE AND MOTHER, LOVED 739

that it only took one tiny drop of black blood to set someone apart from

their peers, and Queen's claim that she was actually as much Irish as

black had amused him greatly. He had became a devout abolitionist, working

to subvert the system from within, to bring his fellow Southerners to an

understanding of the terrible injustice they were inflicting on the black

race, but made little headway against the pervasive, ruling system. The

war gave him the chance to put his ideals into action. He welcomed the

Union troops, allowed his house to be used by their officers, and sent

some of his slaves behind Rebel lines, to act as spies. He freed his

slaves with the announcement of the Emancipation Act, and it pleased him

that many chose to stay with their former Massa. It depressed him that the

attitude of most whites had not been changed by the war, but while he

applauded Queen, he could not tolerate her rudeness, for he believed that

such behavior encouraged intolerance, not diminished it.

Queen sat in her room, shaking with tangled emotions, and rocking Abner,

who sensed his mother's distress, and cried. His distress only added to

her own, for he would not be comforted, and Queen could find no way to

alleviate her own distress. Her life was following its usual pattern, and

she believed it was only a matter of days before she would be dismissed

and on the road again. To heaven knows where.

    What distressed her most was that she did not want to go. Somewhere deep

    inside herself she understood that this job, this house, and this place

    represented the best chance for some small security in her life. The

    possibility of that chance being snatched away from her, largely by her

    own intemperate actions, caused her mind to cringe in fear for the

    future. But she did not understand that she could change that future, for

    she did not know how to change herself.

    She stared at the empty fireplace, and suddenly flames exploded in it,

    and burst into life, flames of the torches of relentless pursuers, and

    flames of a burning barn, and flames engulfing the body of the man she

    had loved, who was father to her son.

    86

Dora had her say the following morning, when she took Queen into town to

shop. As usual, Queen brought Abner with her, and her obsessive refusal to

be parted from the boy began to annoy Dora. He would have been quite happy

back at the mansion, in the care of one of the gardeners, but when she

mentioned it, Queen became sullen again. Expertly driving the small gig,

Dora flicked her whip at the horse to relieve the frustration she felt with

this obstinate woman.

    "Gwine have to let go of the boy some day," she said, and saw Queen's face

    redden. "He cain't go through life thinkin' his mammy is his only home."

    "I'm all he's got. I'm the only one who loves him," Queen muttered.

Dora saw her chance, and turned on Queen.

    "Now you may not know who you are, missy," she said, "black, white, yalla,

    or sky-blue pink, and it don't matter a hoot the color of yo' skin, because

    I know what you are. If'n you think you c'n keep that boy in a glass case

    the rest of his life, then you are a fool, girl. The biggest dang fool on

    this earth, that's what you are."

    Queen was equally angry. "Abner the only one who love me," she cried. "No

    one going to take that away from me."

    "It's high time you worked out who your friends are, missy," Dora snapped,

    her frustration with Queen flooding out. "Massa Cherry's a good man, who's

    been kind enough to give you a job and a home. Well, home is where you are

    loved, and there's folk here would love you, if'n you gave them a chance.

    So it's high time you let go the pain that's eatin' you. It's time you let

    someone love you."

    She brought the gig to a halt outside the butcher's shop and the boy came

    running out to hold the horse's head.

    740

    A WIFE AND MOTHER, LOVED 741

    "You wait here," Dora said to Queen. "Y'ain't good company today." She

    heaved her vast self out of the gig, and turned back to Queen for a

    parting shot.

    "Y'ain't good company too many days," she said, and went inside.

    Queen sat in the gig and pulled Abner closer to her. If everyone was

    going to be angry with her all the time, it might be better to leave the

    job now, of her own volition. But she didn't want to do that. If she had

    to go, she'd rather be sacked, for that would feed her resentment and her

    pain. But, oh, she wanted to be rid of the pain.

    She glanced at the boy holding the horse's head. He was very

    light-skinned, and could have passed for white, but Queen guessed that

    he was not. Two middle-aged women passing by didn't have such good

    eyesight.

    "I'll never get used to it," one said to the other. "White boys holding

    horses, and white girls working as mammies to pickaninnies. "

    It was said loudly enough for Queen and the boy to hear, and it was meant

    to hurt. But it had the opposite effect. The butcher's boy glanced at

    Queen and smiled, for he knew her blood was similar to his own. She

    smiled back at him, as if they both shared a great secret. Then both of

    them started to giggle, and to laugh.

    Dora, waiting for the butcher to select his choicest cuts, glanced out

    of the shop window and saw the happy Queen.

    "Lord a' mercy," Dora said to no one. "She almost pretty when she laugh."

She told Alec about that laughter when he called in for his usual Saturday

visit. He was tired. Keeping house without Little Bit was only marginally

more difficult than keeping house with Little Bit, but he needed someone,

and couldn't find anyone to take her place.

    "You need a wife," Dora said. "Yo' chillun needs a mammy."

    She'd said it before, a thousand times, and would go on saying it until

    he did something about it.

    "The silly thing is," she added, as if the idea had only just occurred

    to her, "I know a Fil boy that needs a pappy. An' a woman that needs a

    man."

742 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

    Alec started at her. She couldn't mean Queen, that meantempered, moody,

    no-account critter who wouldn't give him the time of day. But he knew she

    did, and for all Queen's faults, the idea was not completely alien to him.

    "I ain't in the market, I tol' you," he said, apparently dismissing the

    subject, but actually wondering what Queen looked like when she smiled.

    He didn't convince Dora. - Uh-huh," she groaned. "You tol' me a thousand

    times, an' I still don't believe you."

    Alec lost his temper. "She don't even give me the time of day!

    "P'raps you ain't asked her right." Dora was very smug. She'd only thought

    of the possibility of a union between Alec and Queen as a bolt from the

    blue, but having had the idea it made absolute sense to her. "Lovey-dovey

    stuff ain't gwine get to her. She needs someone as mean-tempered as she

    is."

    She looked at her friend with enormous affection. She thought of him as a

    gentle grizzly bear.

    "An' Lord knows, you can be the meanest-tempered man in this county."

    Alec snorted in derision, and then smiled, because he knew he could be

    irascible. Even if he dismissed the idea of Queen as a potential wife, she

    might make an excellent housekeeper, especially if a small part of the love

    she directed so completely at Abner could be at least partly shared with a

    few other children. His children. He had no idea how this could be

    achieved.

Abner solved the problem for him. It was a warrn day, and Queen had put him

in the garden, on the rug. She thought him safe, for even if he could toddle

to the garden gate, he couldn't unlatch it, so she went back in the house to

finish some chores. She did not intend to be gone for very long, but she was

gone for long enough.

    Alec walked through the garden on his way home, and Abner saw the nice man

    that he liked, and toddled after him. Alec opened the gate and told Abner

    to go home to his mammy, but Abner wouldn't be told. He took Alec's hand

    and walked with him through the gate. Alec looked at the house, in two

    minds what to do. He knew that Abner's absence would make Queen even

    angrier than usual, but there would

    A WIFE AND MOTHER, LOVED 743

be nothing unusual in temper. He believed that the boy needed to get away

from his mother's apron strings, and Abner seemed to be of the same

opinion. And if Abner was absent for a while, and then was found, it might

persuade Queen that other people could be trusted to look after him. On

balance, and with a lot of rationalization, he decided that no harm could

come from it, and perhaps a little good. He would send Minnie to tell

Queen, or Dora, where the boy was. Still, he left the decision to Abner.

He began walking slowly down the track, and Abner stayed with him,

chattering to himself in a language that only he could understand.

    But a mile is a long way for a toddling boy, especially when there are

    so many interesting things to see, and a nice man to talk to. He

    inspected every tree and looked at every flower, and after a little while

    he got tired, so Alec picked him up and carried him the rest of the way

    home.

Queen came out of the house and saw that Abner wasn't on his rug.

Immediately, her heart beat a little faster, and she went searching for

him through the garden, calling out his name. When she couldn't find him,

she went back to the house and burst into the kitchen, calling for Abner.

Dora had not seen the boy, and was concerned on his, and Queen's, behalf.

    "Cain't be too far away," she said, and went out with Queen into the

    garden to continue the search. Queen ran through the property crying out

    his name, and begging him not to play games with his mammy. When she saw

    that the back gate was unlatched, her heart almost stopped, for the path

    beyond the gate led to the river. She saw the gardener coming up the

    path, and called out to him, but he scratched his head; he hadn't seen

    the boy. Queen was sure that something untoward had happened to Abner.

    If he'd wandered down to the river, he might have fallen in, and he was

    only little, he couldn't swim.

    "Oh, sweet Lord, no," she begged, and ran down the path to the river.

    There was no sign of Abner anywhere. She saw George helping passengers

    onto the ferry, and called out to him and them.

    "My little boy's lost!" she cried. "Has anybody seen him? "

744 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

    George and the passengers shook their heads, and fell into a discussion

    about what might have happened to the child, and everyone looked at the

    river. Queen was becoming frantic; she ran up and down the shore calling

    his name, and passengers tried to help her and calm her. They promised to

    organize a search.

    Then Minnie appeared at the top of the hill, and George asked her if she

    had seen Abner.

    "I see'd him," Minnie confirmed, and Queen ran to her, grabbed at her, and

    begged where.

    "At my pappy's place," Minnie said, surprised at the commotion. Abner had

    come home with her pappy, and was perfectly all right. She'd been sent to

    tell Queen and Dora where the boy was.

    With the news that Abner was safe, Queen's emotion changed. She became

    immediately suspicious.

    "What's he doin' there?" she asked, but Minnie was slightly frightened by

    the fuss, and shook her head.

    "Don't rightly know, m'm," she said. "But he there, safe as can be."

Abner was indeed safe and happy and having the best time. He was sitting on

the nice man's knee, on a chair that rocked backward and forward, and the

nice man was telling him a story. Abner didn't understand what the story was

all about; he didn't know what a tortoise was, nor a hare, but it was fun.

Alec had given him lemonade, and played with him, and then settled to tell

him fables. He was at the end of the one about the tortoise and the hare

when he heard a furious yelling of Abner's name in the distance, and Queen

appeared, running down the track.

    Queen hardly paused when she saw Abner, but ran to him, and grabbed him

    from Alec's lap.

"Jus' tellin' him stories," Alec said calmly.

    But Queen didn't want him to tell Abner stories; she wanted him to keep

    away from her boy, and demanded to know how he had got here. He couldn't

    have toddled all this way on his own.

    "He's here, ain't he?" Alec said, filling his pipe with tobacco. His

    resolute calm in the face of what had been, to

    A WIFE AND MOTHER, LOVED 745

Queen, a considerable crisis, infuriated her. She lost her temper, said

she was sick of the whole world knowing what was better for her child than

she did; she was sick of this place, and as soon as she had enough money

saved, she would be on her way. With Abner. With that, feeling she'd had

the satisfactory final word, she stomped away.

    "How much do you need?" Alec asked quietly, and that made her madder

    still. She rounded on him, because she'd told him before that she didn't

    want charity, and if he was still worried about the nickel she owed him

    for the ferry ride, he'd get it back with interest. This riled Alec, but

    he did not forget his purpose.

    "We'll all be right glad to see the back o' yo' bad temper," he snapped.

    "An' if'n it'll get you on your way a little quicker, I need someone to

    work for me."

    Queen laughed in derision. She wouldn't work for him if he was the last

    man on earth, but what did it involve? Alec shrugged that he needed a

    part-time housekeeper for his children.

    "Tho' why I'd wish yo' mean ol' ways on them, I surely don't know."

    Queen had stopped walking away, but she wasn't sure why. She didn't want

    to stay in Savannah, but she didn't want to leave. She was suspicious of

    Alec, but she didn't know why. She was sure there was more to Abner's

    disappearance than he was telling her, but he had been kind to her, and

    found her the job with Massa Cherry. She had no intention of working for

    him, because she didn't need a job, she had one. But she still cherished

    the fantasy that as soon as she was back on her financial feet she could

    move on, and a few hours part-time work would speed that day. And she

    wasn't sure how long she would keep her job with Massa Cherry, for she

    knew she was on trial with him. She was doing her best to be pleasant to

    him, but she wasn't sure how long she could keep that up.

    "How much?" she asked cautiously. They negotiated in anger, and settled

    on a figure that was sufficient but not large, and agreed on a starting

    time, which was now. Queen had a few conditions of her own.

    "But I don't want to talk to you, 'cept when I have to," she insisted.

    "An' you keep away from my boy."