Stone That the Builder Refused - Madison Smartt Bell [228]
So I came then to the ajoupa of Jean-Pic, and his madanm killed two ducks for us that night, and stewed them with mangoes in an iron pot. There was rice and beans too and boiled greens, so all of Jean-Pic’s small children were happy, and sat in the firelight cracking bones for the marrow with the duck fat shining around their smiles. One of the boys turned over a pot and struck a drumbeat on it with one bare hand and a stick found on the ground. He was strong like a little bull in his neck and shoulders, though he had not grown very big, and I thought of Caco when I looked at him, and then the younger children. I wondered how I was going to get to Ennery again, and what might be happening there now. I know from the blanc officers at Port-au-Prince that the General Leclerc was planning a big attack on Toussaint at Gonaives at the same time that Boudet was going to fight Dessalines at Saint Marc, but I did not know what had happened in those battles, and I only hoped that Guiaou might be near Merbillay and the children, when Riau was far away.
I did not say much to Jean-Pic about the business that brought me to the camp, only that I had a message to Lamour Dérance from the French generals at Port-au-Prince. In the morning when we had each eaten a small piece of cassava, Jean-Pic signaled for me to walk with him. We climbed a little distance into the hills, high enough that tails of mist were lifting where we walked, till we came to a place where a stand of bamboo made a sort of arbor, a tonnelle. A pile of stones was on the ground beneath the bamboo, and at each of four corners around it stood a small clay govi.
In a moment a couple of strong men came in from another direction than us, looking all around the place, but turning their eyes from the pile of stones and the govis as they passed. Their fingers kept brushing the handles of the pistols in their belts, but Jean-Pic knew them and called their names, and they spoke to him in a friendly way. Then soon after came Lamour Dérance, stooping to enter the tonnelle and then straightening where the bamboo gave a higher space. He folded his arms tight across his chest and looked at Riau with hard eyes across the pile of stones.
I knew that Legba was inside the stones, and maybe lying underneath Legba would be Maît’ Kalfou. I knew those four govis were there to mark the crossroads, though I did not know what pwen were held inside them. Also I knew that Lamour Dérance did not very much trust Riau.
“Ginen maman nou,” I said at last. Africa is our mother. I said this because I thought I knew that Lamour Dérance had come out of Africa a bossale, as Riau did, instead of being born in Saint Domingue, a Creole like Toussaint. When I had said it, Lamour Dérance grunted and loosened his arms, then sat crosslegged on the ground. I sat down too and nodded at the stones. I knew the crossroads had been marked to judge Riau, but maybe it would also judge Lamour Dérance.
“Now you have come to this kalfou with all your people,” I said. “Let your spirit show you the best way to cross for them and you.”
“I am listening,” said Lamour Dérance. As he spoke, a little black kitten came wandering in under the bamboo and climbed up onto his knee. With one hand Lamour Dérance rubbed the fur of the kitten, always looking at Riau. Jean-Pic and the other men stood sideways to us, by the opening of the tonnelle above the plain—they listened though they did not look.
“Well, it is simple,” I said. “There is a French general at Port-au-Prince now. His name is Pamphile de Lacroix. If you go to him now, he will receive you gladly. You have only to help him beat Toussaint and Dessalines, and all your people will remain free as you are now—”
“How is it certain?”
I had brought a proclamation paper from Port-au-Prince with me and now I brought it out from under my shirt and unfolded it and read the words to Lamour Dérance, pointing to each word with my finger as I spoke it.
IF ANYONE TELLS YOU,