Queen (47 page)

    had paid off the national debt incurred in those wars. It was Andrew who

    had broken the power of the central bank. It was Andrew who was the

    champion of their

280 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

right to rule themselves, it was Andrew who understood the power and purpose

of the original Constitution, because he personally knew many of the men who

had framed it, and it was Andrew, single-handedly, many believed, who was

ridding the country of the red-skinned savage, by whatever means necessary,

fair or foul.

    It was there that so many of the arguments began, old arguments that James

    had heard so many times before and wanted so desperately not to hear again.

    It was generally agreed that most of Andrew's methods for removing the In-

    dians were foul, but whether this was admirable or reprehensible depended

    on your point of view. What shocked James was the general acceptance that

    he had some proof of the illegality of at least one of Andrew's treaties.

    How can so many people know what is in a private correspondence? he thought

    angrily, and walked off into the night, to be alone.

It was Becky Perkins who saw him leave and pointed it out to Sally, who was

puzzled. James had been in a remarkably good humor when they had danced

together earlier, but Becky thought he had left angrily. When he'didn't

return after twenty minutes or so, Sally went looking for him.

    She found him at Rachel's tomb. She hadn't really looked anywhere else. She

    guessed that something someone had said about Andrew had made him angry,

    and whenever he had been angry with Andrew in the past, it was to Rachel he

    had gone. It was a pretty night, a cloudless, star-spangled sky, and she

    could hear the revelers in the distance, but it was peaceful here in this

    quiet cemetery.

    Sally didn't speak; she was sure James knew she was there. It was the first

    time she had seen the completed monument. It had a terrible finality to it,

    and for a moment she missed Rachel dreadfully.

    "She chose this spot herself," James said after a while. "I think she knew

    she would not make old bones."

    He was silent again. He looked at the stars, and then at his wife.

    "How can he bear to be without her?" he said suddenly. "I could not live

    without you."

Sally moved to him and he put his arm around her. Just for

    MERGING 281

a moment, she felt a spark of anger with his procrastination, but it quickly

passed, for his sensible caution in all things was one of the reasons why

she loved him.

    "You must finish it," she said. "Whatever it is between you and Andrew, you

    must resolve it, once and for all. -It is Andrew, isn't it?"

James nodded.

    "Put an end to it, my dear," she implored him. "For your own sake if not

    for mine."

James looked at her, and knew he had not treated her fairly.

"I promise," he said.

    34

The revels lasted until almost dawn, and some of the young bloods didn't

bother going home but bunked at the Hermitage, wherever they could find a

bed. So there was a slightly faded air about the guests when they assembled

at the Hermitage again the next day to witness the wedding; a little starch

had gone from their clothes, and because of the success of the previous

night, a little of the stiff formality from their behavior. No one took the

wedding quite seriously, except perhaps the celebrants. For the whites it

was only a couple of niggers jumping the broom, however well connected one

of those niggers might be, and for most of the blacks, it was the only real

party they had ever been invited to, no matter how restricted the

celebration was.

    They all assembled on the cleaned-up lawn and looked anxiously at the

    approaching rain clouds. Gracie, lovely in her white gown, was given away

    by Andrew junior, but Alfred, never nervous about anything, was in such a

    state of jitters he forgot her name in the ceremony and had to be prompted

    by Cap'n Jack. Everyone laughed, even the white minister conducting the

    service, and only Jass puzzled for a moment as to why two soulless niggers

    would have a church wedding. At

282 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

the end of the formal service, Cap'n Jack and Sarah brought the broom, and

Alfred and Gracie jumped over it into the land of matrimony. Married at

last, he kissed her, the crowd cheered, and the rain started.

    "Into the bam, " Andrew junior yelled, and everyone made a dash for

    cover.

    The huge barn had been made ready in case of this very eventuality, and

    everyone was in a jovial mood. The week had been a howling success, and

    on this, the last day of the festivities, they were all prepared to let

    their hair down, have a good party, and then go home. Nature had helped.

    Even amid all this benevolent goodwill, the rules of race absolutely

    prevailed; they were as natural as breathing to all these people, white

    and black. Some pretension had been abandoned though. When old Mr.

    Morissey's slave, pushing the Bath chair, tripped on his way to the bam,

    sending the old man sprawling into the mud, several young men, white and

    black, rushed out into the downpour to help, and together carried the

    complaining veteran into the bam.

    When the band started to play the first tune, a lively reel, Alfred led

    Gracie into the center of the bam, and everyone oohed and aahed, as was

    proper, but no one was sure of the protocol, and it was the blacks who

    broke the impasse and followed the dancing couple's lead, never for one

    moment crossing the invisible line that had been drawn by some unseen

    white hand down the middle of the room.

    "What the hell," cried Andrew junior. "Can't let the niggers have all the

    fun." He took Sarah's hand and they joined in the dance.

    It was all reels and gavottes and polkas, and a furious determination to

    have a good time. Jass was in the thick of it, and asked half a dozen

    young ladies to dance, and to his surprise, they all accepted. Lizzie,

    who was bored with her callow partners, became rather jealous, and

    eventually she did the unthinkable. During a small break in the music,

    she went to Jass, who was chatting happily with his most recent partner,

    and informed him that she had managed to squeeze him into her dance card.

    The band struck up again, Jass grinned broadly, positively glowing with

    perspiration, Lizzie thought, and he grabbed Lizzie and whirled her onto

    the floor.

    MERGING 283

    "I didn't say it was this dance," Lizzie protested, but Jass only laughed.

    "I don't care," he said, and suddenly Lizzie didn't care, for his

    enthusiasm was infectious, and she danced as enthusiastically as he.

    "My, but they make a handsome couple," Becky Perkins said, watching from

    the sidelines with Sally and some other older women. The fellow hens

    clucked approvingly.

    "Nonsense," Sally snapped, "they're both far too young." She looked at Jass

    and Lizzie, dancing with teenage energy, and thought she had never seen her

    son so happy.

Easter was miserable. She'd spent most of the time hiding from Reuben, whose

hands, she had discovered last night, were far too inquisitive. Every time

she'd sneaked a look at the dance floor, she'd seen Jass with a different

partner, and now he'd been with Lizzie three dances in a row. Jass was so

clearly having a good time that Easter was now jealous not of Lizzie but of

the good time. Something inside her snapped. She was young, here was a

chance to enjoy herself, and even if Reuben did have wandering hands, they

couldn't wander too far or else she'd yell for her father. She knew he was

looking for her, and moved to a position where he could find her.

"Bin looking for you everywhere," he said.

    Easter feigned indifference. "You ain't the only nigger I dances with."

    He grinned happily. "You ain't dancin' now," he said, and offered her his

    arm.

    Easter was about to accept, but she heard the music and saw that the dance

    was one she didn't know. She hadn't had much teaching, a few lessons with

    Sassy and the occasional improvised hop in the slave quarters, and while

    she could manage simple jigs, this was a dance she hadn't seen. It looked

    complicated: With lots of whooping and hollering, people would swirl about

    with one partner, and then at some signal Easter couldn't pick up, would

    change to another partner and swirl about with them.

    Reuben saw the tiny doubt in her eye, and correctly guessed the reason.

"It's easy," he assured her. "I c'n-teach you."

284 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN

    Easter, longing to dance, accepted his assurance. "I hopes yo'c'n teach

    yo' hands to mind their manners, too," she sniffed, and followed him to

    the floor.

    He taught her quickly, or she learned fast, and oh, it was fun. The

    general mood infected her: This was the last day, tomorrow they'd be

    going back home to dull normality, and Easter was determined to make the

    most of these last few moments. She threw herself into the dance with an

    abandon that rivaled Jass's energy, only partly in the hope that if he

    caught sight of her, he would see she didn't need him to have a good

    time.

    He did catch sight of her, and she him, and he waved happily, as if

    pleased to see her enjoying herself, and she waved back and swung toward

    her next partner, and into his arms, and into what seemed to be, for a

    few moments, the end of the world.

    For she had crossed the invisible line. She stared at the incredulous

    white man in horror, and immediately all her training leaped to the fore.

    "I so sorry, Massa," she said, and tried to get away, but he would not

    let her go. It was Easter's misfortune to have danced into the arms of

    Ralph Morissey, who had inherited all his father's intolerance and

    prejudices.

    "Does anybody own this nigra?" he roared, and the party came to a stop.

    Perhaps they had all been expecting it to happen, the whites anyway, and

    some of the blacks, or even wanting it. They had all been flirting on the

    very edge of the line, taunting it, daring it; it had added spice to the

    day, and it was as if they needed a sharp reminder, before going home,

    of the natural order of their lives.

    Easter sank to the floor, still held in Morissey's grasp. The dancers

    stopped dancing. The band stopped playing. The room fell silent. A white

    man was asserting his dominance over a black, and there was nothing

    anyone in the bam could do. The only man who could help Easter was not

    there.

    Cap'n Jack was in despair. His daughter was being humiliated there, and

    visions of Annie being torn away from the girl, screaming, to some

    unknown fate, flooded his mind. Shaking with shame and fury, he looked

    desperately for James

    MERGING 285

and tried not to believe that he wasn't there to save Easter, just as he

had not been there to save Annie.

"I say, who owns this nigra?" Ralph Morissey called again.

    It took Jass a moment to realize what was happening, and when he did, he

    looked around for his father. He could not see James, and then remembered

    him leaving some time before with Henry Clay, who had arrived in

    Nashville unexpectedly that morning.

    He looked at his mother, and she was looking at him. She nodded her head

    very slightly, and Jass understood that it was all up to him. His stomach

    lurched, but he could not shirk his duty-to himself, his family, his

    tribe, or to Easter. He was, at this moment, her Massa.

    He started walking toward Morissey. People moved aside to let him pass.

    The silence was deafening. His own footsteps thundered in Jass's ears,

    and Easter's gentle weeping. He heard a voice mutter behind him, "Flog

    the bitch."

    The walk lasted forever, but eventually he was there. He looked Morissey

    in the eye, and held out his hand to Easter.

    "Come along, Easter," he said. "I'm sure you have work to do. "

    She took his hand, and Morissey, honor satisfied, let go his grasp. The

    niggers knew who was in charge again.

    The silence continued as Jass led Easter away, he didn't know where,

    anywhere, just to get her out of there. Now they walked through the black

    section of the room, and the slaves, eyes downcast, parted for them in

    embarrassed silence as surely as the triumphant whites had done. Easter

    kept her eyes to the floor, to hide her tears and her shame, and Jass

    stared straight ahead.

    Cap'n Jack moved now. There was a small room attached to the barn, a shed

    or workplace, and he went to it and opened the door. Jass nodded to him