Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys [8]
I thought, Pierre is dead. He looked dead. He was white and he did not make a sound, but his head hung back over her arm as if he had no life at all and his eyes were rolled up so that you only saw the whites. My stepfather said, ‘Annette, you are hurt – your hands …’ But she did not even look at him. ‘His crib was on fire,’ she said to Aunt Cora. ‘The little room is on fire and Myra was not there. She has gone. She was not there.’
‘That does not surprise me at all,’ said Aunt Cora. She laid Pierre on the sofa, bent over him, then lifted up her skirt, stepped out of her white petticoat and began to tear it into strips.
‘She left him, she ran away and left him alone to die,’ said my mother, still whispering. So it was all the more dreadful when she began to scream abuse at Mr Mason, calling him a fool, a cruel stupid fool. ‘I told you,’ she said, ‘I told you what would happened again and again,’ Her voice broke, but still she screamed, ‘You would not listen, you sneered at me, you grinning hypocrite, you ought not to live either, you know so much, don’t you? Why don’t you go out and ask them to let you go? Say how innocent you are. Say you have always trusted them.’
I was so shocked that everything was confused. And it happened quickly. I saw Mannie and Sass staggering along with two large earthenware jars of water into the bedroom and it made a black pool on the floor, but the smoke rolled over the pool. Then Christophine, who had run into my mother’s bedroom for the pitcher there, came back and spoke to my aunt. ‘It seems they have fired the other side of the house,’ said Aunt Cora. ‘They must have climbed that tree outside. This place is going to burn like tinder and there is nothing we can do to stop it. The sooner we get out the better.’
Mannie said to the boy, ‘You frightened?’ Sass shook his head. ‘Then come on,’ said Minnie. ‘Out of my way,’ he said and pushed Mr Mason aside. Narrow wooden stairs led down from the pantry to the outbuildings, the kitchen, the servants’ room, the stables. That was where they were going. ‘Take the child,’ Aunt Cora told Christophine, ‘and come.’
It was very hot on the glacis too, they roared as we came out, then there was another roar behind us. I had not seen any flames, only smoke and sparks, but now I saw tall flames shooting up to the sky, for the bamboos had caught. There were some tree ferns near, green and damp, one of those was smouldering too.
‘Come quickly,’ said Aunt Cora, and she went first, holding my hand. Christophine followed, carrying Pierre, and they were quite silent as we went down the glacis steps. But then I looked round for my mother I saw that Mr Mason, his face crimson with heat, seemed to be dragging her along and she was holding back, struggling. I heard him saying, ‘It’s impossible, too late now.’
‘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!