Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys [9]
‘Wants her jewel case?’ Aunt Cora said.
‘Jewel case? Nothing so sensible,’ bawled Mr Mason. ‘She wanted to go back for her damned parrot. I won’t allow it.’ She did not answer, only fought him silently, twisting like a cat and showing her teeth.
Our parrot was called Coco, a green parrot. He didn’t talk very well, he could say Qui est là? Qui est là? and answer himself Ché Coco, Ché Coco. After Mr Mason clipped his wings he grew very bad tempered, and though he would sit quietly on my mother’s shoulder, he darted at everyone who came near her and pecked their feet.
‘Annette,’ said Aunt Cora. ‘They are laughing at you, do not allow them to laugh at you.’ She stopped fighting then and he half supported, half pulled her after us, cursing loudly.
Still they were quiet and there were so many of them I could hardly see any grass or tree. There must have been many of the bay people but I recognized no one. They all looked the same, it was the same face repeated over and over, eyes gleaming, mouth half open to shout. We were past the mounting stone when they saw Mannie driving the carriage round the corner. Sass followed, riding one horse and leading another. There was a ladies’ saddle on the one he was leading.
Somebody yelled, ‘But look the black Englishman! Look the white niggers!’, and then they were all yelling. ‘Look the white niggers! Look the damn white niggers!’ A stone just missed Mannie’s head, he cursed back at them and they cleared away from the rearing, frightened horses. ‘Come on, for God’s sake,’ said Mr. Mason. ‘Get to the carriage, get to the horses.’ But we could not move for they pressed too close round us. Some of them were laughing and waving sticks, some of the ones at the back were carrying flambeaux and it was light as day. Aunt Cora held my hand very tightly and her lips moved but I could not hear because of the noise. And I was afraid, because I knew that the ones who laughed would be the worst. I shut my eyes and waited. Mr Mason stopped swearing and began to pray in a loud pious voice. The prayer ended, ‘May Almighty God defend us.’ And God who is indeed mysterious, who had made no sign when they burned Pierre as he slept – not a clap of thunder, not a flash of lightening – mysterious God heard Mr Mason at once and answered him. The yells stopped.
I opened my eyes, everybody was looking up and pointing at Coco on the glacis railings with his feathers alight. He made an effort to fly down but his clipped wings failed him and he fell screeching. He was all on fire.
I began to cry. ‘Don’t look,’ said Aunt Cora. ‘Don’t look.’ She stooped and put her arms round me and I hid my face, but I could feel that they were not so near. I heard someone say something about bad luck and remembered that it was very unlucky to kill a parrot, or even to see a parrot die. They began to go then, quickly, silently, and those that were left drew aside and watched us as we trailed across the grass. They were not laughing any more.
‘Get to the carriage, get to the carriage,’ said Mr Mason. ‘Hurry!’ He went first, holding my mothers arm, then Christophine carrying Pierre, and Aunt Cora was last, still with my hand in hers. None of us looked back.
Mannie had stopped the horses at the bend of the cobblestone road and as we got closer we heard him shout, ‘What all you are, eh? Brute beasts?’ He was speaking to a group of men and a few women who were standing round the carriage. A coloured man with a machete in his hand was holding the bridle. I did not see Sass or the other two horses. ‘Get in,’ said Mr Mason. ‘Take no notice of him, get in.’ The man with the machete said no. We would go to police and tell a lot of damn lies. A woman said to let us go. All this an accident and they had plenty witness. ‘Myra she witness for us.’
‘Shut your mouth,’ the man said. ‘You mash centipede, mash it, leave one little piece and it grow again … What you think police believe, eh? You, or the white nigger?’
Mr Mason stared at him. He seemed not frightened,