Roots_ The Saga of an American Family - Alex Haley [212]
“How ol’ you was?”
“Sebenteen.”
“Dey ask yo’ mammy an’ pappy if’n you could go?”
Kunta looked incredulously at her. “Woulda took dem too if’n dey could. To dis day my fam’ly don’ know where I is.”
“You got brothers an’ sisters?”
“Had three brothers. Maybe mo’ by now. Anyways, dey’s all growed up, prob’ly got chilluns like you.”
“We go see dem someday?”
“We cain’t go nowhere.”
“We’s gon’ somewheres now.”
“Jes’ Massa John’s. We don’t show up, dey have de dogs out at us by sundown.”
“’Cause dey be worried ’bout us?”
“’Cause we b’longs to dem, jes’ like dese hosses pullin’ us.”
“Like I b’longs to you an’ mammy?”
“You’se our young’un. Dat different.”
“Missy Anne say she want me fo’ her own.”
“You ain’t no doll fo’ her to play wid.”
“I plays wid her, too. She done tole me she my bes’ frien’.”
“You can’t be nobody’s frien’ an’ slave both.”
“How come, Pappy?”
“’Cause frien’s don’t own one ’nother.”
“Don’t mammy an’ you b’long to one ’nother? Ain’t y’all frien’s?”
“Ain’t de same. We b’longs to each other ’cause we wants to,’cause we loves each other.”
“Well, I loves Missy Anne, so I wants to b’long to her.”
“Couldn’t never work out.”
“What you mean?”
“You couldn’t be happy when y’all grow up.”
“Would too. I bet you wouldn’t be happy.”
“Yo sho’ right ’bout dat!”
“Aw, Pappy, I couldn’t never leave you an’ Mammy.”
“An’ chile, speck we couldn’t never let you go, neither!”
CHAPTER 75
Late one afternoon, the driver for Massa Waller’s parents at Enfield brought him their invitation to attend a dinner party in honor of an important Richmond businessman who had stopped for a night’s lodging on his way to Fredericksburg. About a dozen buggies were already parked outside the Enfield big house when Kunta arrived with the massa soon after dark.
Though he had been there many times in the eight years since he and Bell were married, it had been only during the past few months that the fat black cook Hattie, who had been so smitten with Kunta, decided to begin speaking with him again—ever since he had brought Kizzy along with Missy Anne one day on a visit to her grandparents. Tonight, when he went to the kitchen door to say hello—and for something to eat—she invited him in to visit while she, her helper, and four serving women completed their preparations for dinner; Kunta thought that he had never seen so much food bubbling in so many pots and pans.
“How dat l’il puddin’-pie young’un o’ your’n?” Hattie asked between sips and sniffs.
“She fine,” said Kunta. “Bell got her learnin’ how to cook now. S’prise me other night wid a apple betty she done made.”
“Dat l’il dickens. Nex’ thing you know, I be eatin’ her cookies’stead o’ her eatin’ mine. She musta put away half a jar o’ my ginger snaps las’ time she here.”
With a last look at the mouth-watering three or four kinds of breads that were baking in the oven, Hattie turned to the oldest of the serving women, in their starched yellow smocks, and said, “We’se ready. Go tell missis.” As the woman disappeared through the swinging door, she told the other three, “I come after y’all wid a ladle if’n yo’ slops one drop o’ soup on my bes’ linen when you settin’ down de bowls. Git to work now, Pearl,” she said to her teen-age helper. “Git dem turnip greens, de sweet cawn, squash, an’ okra in de good china tureens whilst I wrestles dis here saddle o’ mutton onto de carvin’ bo’d.”
A few minutes later, one of the serving women came back in, whispered intently to Hattie at some length, and then hurried back out again. Hattie turned to Kunta.
“You ’members few months back when one dem tradin’ boats got raided somewheres on de big water by dat France?”
Kunta nodded. “Fiddler say he heared dat Pres’dent Adams so mad he sent de whole Newnited States Navy to whup ’em.”
“Well, dey sho’ did. Louvina jes’ now tol’ me dat man in dere from Richmon’ say dey done took away eighty boats b’longin’ to dat France. She say de white folks in dere act like dey nigh ’bout ready to start singin’ an’ dancin’ ’bout teachin’ dat France a lesson.