Queen (122 page)

746 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

"Suits me fine," Alec agreed.

    Queen looked at him for a moment, deciding if he could be trusted, and

    reached a positive conclusion. She went into the house, and had things

    summed up in a trice. She put little Julie in charge of Abner, and when

    Minnie came home, somewhat nervously, Queen put her in charge of Julie and

    Abner.

    Alec sat rocking on the porch, puffing on his pipe, wondering what he had

    got himself into.

    87

Within days, Alec's children adored her. She was careful and cautious with

them, but firm and kind. It was an enormous relief to Minnie and Julie to

have a woman to talk to, and they almost swamped her with an accumulation of

love, and adored Abner, and played mother to him. George accepted her

happily and willingly, for she represented a longed-for maternal figure in

his life, and only Freeland resisted her presence, but not for long.

    Dora was pleased by the new arrangement, and gave it her blessing, provided

    it did not interfere with Queen's duties at the mansion. Queen assured her

    it would not; she would work evenings and Saturday afternoons for Alec, and

    work doubly hard to make sure her duties at the mansion were attended to.

    Mr. Cherry was a mildly dissenting voice, worried that Queen would not be

    able to do the two jobs, and that she would not have any time to herself,

    but the almost immediate change in Queen's attitude persuaded him not to

    interfere.

    - Good Lord," he said to Dora. "She's almost pretty when she smiles. " Dora

    nodded smugly.

    Her relationship with Alec took longer to improve. She kept her word, and

    spoke to him only when she had to, and he kept his part of the bargain,

    except at night, when she left the shack to go home, and he always spoke to

    her first.

He sat on the porch every night, puffing on his pipe and

    A WIFE AND MOTHER, LOVED 747

rocking in his chair. Queen came out of the house, and he thought she

looked tired.

    "Take the weight off yo' feet," he said, indicating the other rocking

    chair. Tennie's chair.

    Queen was very tired and very tempted, but she wasn't ready to relax with

    him, and refused.

    "Jus' askin' you to sit!" he grumbled. He wasn't going to bite her; he

    was just asking her to sit for a while. Or was she too scared of him to

    do that?

    The truth of it hurt Queen, and she began to lose her temper for the

    first time since she had started working for him, so she sat on the very

    edge of the rocker.

"Happy?" she said angrily.

"At least you sittin'," he said.

There was silence.

"What you want to talk about?" Queen demanded.

"Nuttin'," Alec said gruffly.

    They sat in silence and talked of nothing, and Queen relaxed, and leaned

    back in the chair. They rocked together in silence, and it was pleasant

    to both of them. Then Queen got scared because it was too pleasant. She

    got up to leave.

"How's the savings goin'?" Alec asked her.

    "Getting there," Queen replied steadily. "I'm getting there. "

The hours were long and the work was hard, but it was rewarding in ways

that had nothing to do with money. Queen's heart went out to the

motherless children, and she identified with them, for she remembered her

own desolation and loneliness after Easter died. She understood why

Freeland resisted her, and she did nothing special to try to win his love,

but treated him with scrupulous fairness, as she treated the others. It

was not that Freeland didn't like her. but he was shy of this new

authority figure in his life, who was not his real mammy. He longed for

love from her, but did not know if she could give him what he needed,

because he perceived her as hired help, not as family, and was frightened

of opening his heart to her. She might leave, as his real mammy had done.

He played challenging games of discipline with her, to try her, and to his

surprise she always passed his tests. The longer she

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stayed, the more he trusted her, and the more he tried to work her into the

fabric of his heart, but he was still confused. He didn't understand why he

had to have a bath in front of her, for example.

    It was bath night, Friday night, and Queen was soaping Abner in the big old

    bathtub. Minnie and Julie were done, and tucked up in bed. George was

    fixing a broken chair-his bathtime was later-and Freeland was slowly

    removing his clothes.

    "Why cain't I have a bath on my own, like George?" he asked, reluctant to

    take off his pants.

"Coz George is older," Queen told him. "He's a man."

    "I's nearly a man too," Freeland insisted, and Queen understood his

    problem.

    "I guess you nearly are," she said sympathetically, although Freeland was

    still some way from puberty. "All right. I'll turn my back."

    She turned away from him, and the grateful Freeland dropped his pants and

    slipped into the soapy water. Queen turned back and lifted Abner out to dry

    him. Freeland still felt the need to confirm his manhood to Queen.

    "Couple of years, I'll be old enough to work on the farm," he said. "Then

    no mo' school. I hates school."

    George, working on the chair, chuckled, and Queen was surprised.

    "I sorry to hear that, Freeland," she said. "Why you hate it?"

"Jus' coz," he shrugged.

    "Jus' coz he ain't too good at it," George murmured, the devil in him, and

    Freeland flicked some soapy water at him.

"Am too," he muttered.

    Queen, drying Abner on her lap, chatted to him about school. She suggested

    he play a game with school, and Freeland was intrigued. He liked games.

    " 'Stead of going to school thinking you're going to hate it," Queen

    suggested, hoping she didn't sound as if she were preaching. "Why not go

    wondering if there's anything interesting you can learn? Will you do that

    for me?"

    Freeland shrugged. It wasn't the most exciting game, but he'd give it a

    try, even if only a halfhearted one.

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    "Good boy," Queen said. "And in return, I'll let you bathe yourself, and

    stay up later each night, like George." Freeland thought that was a

    pretty good bargain.

    She tucked him into bed, in the shed, kissed him good night, and came

    back into the main room of the shack. George had finished the chair and

    was testing it.

    "Freeland ain't never gwine like school." He smiled at Queen. She sat

    with him, and found out the way of it. Boys went to school because they

    had to, up to fifth grade, or sixth grade at most, and then they left and

    worked the land, sharecropping for their fathers, or entered a trade.

    "What if he's good at school?" Queen wondered. "What if he likes it? What

    if he ain't good at farming?"

    "Don't happen," George shrugged. "Be a terrible waste of a good pair of

    hands."

    Queen's primary concern was for Abner. She had no idea what he would be

    when he grew up, but she was determined he was going to have a good

    education. She remembered Cap'n Jack, and how he had taught her, and she

    regretted she had not had the opportunity to learn more.

    She said good night to George, picked up Abner from the cot, and went

    outside, to go home.

    Alec was sitting on the porch as he always did at night, puffing on his

    pipe and staring at the stars. Queen came out to him and sat in Tennie's

    chair, as she always did. They rocked in unison, and talked of the

    children, and of the farm. It was going to be a good season.

"You work hard for it," Queen said.

Alec nodded. "I do," he agreed, He looked at Queen.

"So do you."

She nodded her agreement.

    They tdiked of Massa Cherry, and Dora, and the mansion and the town, and

    then Queen got up to leave.

"Best be on my way," she said.

"How's the savings going?" Alec asked her.

"Getting there," Queen said steadily. "I'm getting there."

Christmas came and it was the most wonderful festival she had ever

experienced. For the first time in her life she had a family who loved her

to share her Christmas with. She gave

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presents to everyone, and they gave gifts to her, and she cried a little at

the mutual generosity. Minnie and Julie helped her cook a special Christmas

dinner, a fine big turkey with all the trimmings, and everyone helped wash

up. Abner fell asleep on Alec's bed, and Queen didn't see the point of

waking him up to go home, so she tucked him in with Minnie and Julie. She

went outside and sat with Alec.

    "Where's Abner?" he asked her in surprise, and she told him that there

    didn't seem to be any point in waking the boy, that Minnie and Julie would

    look after him until tomorrow. Alec nodded in satisfaction, for he knew

    this was a major step for Queen.

    " How's the savings going?" he asked her, to make her feel secure. Queen

    looked at the stars, and nodded her head slowly, but she did not speak.

    It was odd to go home without Abner, but she knew he was in good hands, at

    home. She laughed, and thought that she had two homes, a little room in the

    mansion where she slept, and a wooden shack down the road where she lived,

    and was loved. She began to think that one day she might have to make a

    decision as to which was ' her real home, but thought perhaps she already

    knew. The immensity of that decision and its ramifications frightened her,

    and suddenly she wanted to run back to the shack, snatch Abner away, and

    bring him home to his mammy, but she didn't. She consoled herself with the

    thought that it was all out of her hands. She was happy with her life as it

    was, and unless Alec did something to disturb that, she didn't have to make

    a decision of any kind. If anything were to change, she still had her

    escape. The lifeline that he threw her every night by asking about her

    savings, which indicated that he accepted she would one day leave, was her

    salvation. Even if she knew it was a pretense.

    She glanced at the little fire in the grate, and the flames were steady and

    calm, and did not leap into her mind. She knew that the fire demons inside

    her were not dead, only sleeping, but that, in itself, was a considerable

    advance.

The cold days of winter gave way to spring, and now Queen was such a

permanent fixture in Alec's shack, her working positions were reversed. She

worked full time for Alec, and

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part time for Massa Cherry. To an extent she maintained her job with Massa

Cherry so she could keep her room in the mansion, for that, like Alec's

constant questioning about her savings, was an escape from something she

was not yet ready to commit to.

    She loved to take the children shopping on Saturdays, for then they

    seemed like a real family. Alec changed the work schedule so that

    Freeland could have the day off, with George, while he ran the ferry.

    They'd buy the weekly provisions, and talk with all their friends in

    town, and Queen would take them all out to tea, or find them a treat.

    Candy apples were their favorite, and although Queen could make them

    better, buying them from the store was a favorite, tiny extravagance. On

    the Fourth of July she took them all to the fair, and Alec gave her a

    special allowance, so they could go on all the rides. They had a splendid

    day, although Abner was sick from eating too much, and in the late

    afternoon they headed for home, to eat with their father and then come

    back to see the fireworks.

    Scores ofcarriages and carts were lined up outside the fairgrounds, with

    people coming and going, and suddenly there was a cry for help.

    Someone had let off some premature firecrackers, and a frightened horse

    had broken loose and was dragging its young white rider with it, the

    boy's foot caught in the stirrup,

    People were screaming and running out of the way. Without a moment's

    hesitation, George ran at the horse, grabbed its reins and hung on,

    trying to drag the terrified animal to calm. The horse, bucking and

    rearing, smashed George against a fence, but he held on.

    Others came running to help, subdued the horse and rescued the boy, who

    was scared and bruised, but otherwise unharmed. Queen's only thought was

    for George. Followed by her children, for she thought of them all as her

    own, she ran to him. He was lying on the ground, grimacing in pain, his

    leg broken.

    The white boy's hysterical mother had found her son, and was clutching

    him to her. He, shaken by his adventure but rather proud of it, insisted