the pressure of snaring Jass was off), but she could not understand why
Jass didn't do what she yearned for him to do.
Nor did Jass entirely understand. He wanted to be married and, more
important, he wanted to be a father, and if he was going to marry anyone,
he guessed it would be Lizzie. In many ways, he thought, his relationship
with her paralleled his relationship with Easter. He had grown up with
Easter, known her all his life, and the progression from friends to
lovers seemed natural to him, without any dividing line, so that somehow
they had always been lovers, whether bedding or not, and more important,
they had remained tremendous friends. He had not known Lizzie as long,
but he had known her as long as he had known any white woman outside his
family, and they were friends, even if their friendship was of a
different nature from his with Easter. Lizzie made constant demands on
him, while Easter made none. He put this down to the differences in their
respective stations and personalities, and assumed that one day he would
cross a similar line with Lizzie and take her to bed as his wife.
368 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN
The difference was that he had an urgent desire for Easter and he didn't
desire Lizzie.
She is more beautiful than ever, he thought, when he first saw Easter on
his return home.
Which she was. Then a girl, now a woman, she had an extraordinary grace
and elegance about her, which dazzled Jass.
The girl he had known had been his friend, and when he had taken her, or
she had given herself to him, on the night his father died, it had not
felt as if he were seducing an acquaintance. He'd had a need, and he went
to his friend and she had fulfilled it. Her body had been no secret to
him, for he had bathed with her when they were little, and his no secret
to her, for there are no secrets between such friends as they. That he
had found new depths to their friendship, inside her body, was simply an
extension of what they had always had, and what they were always destined
to discover. Even the small separation that had existed between them when
he had first been dazzled by Lizzie seemed proper, for it had made him
appreciate Easter even more. He had no sense of her as "lover," for that
had a sense of the temporary to it, and he knew that his love for her
was, as with his mother, the most permanent aspect of his universe. She
was, to him, home.
This recent separation, of four years, was the great test of this love,
and when he had been with her in the weaving house on the first night of
his return, he had been a little scared, for he did not know if her
feelings to him had changed. And while he could take her as his right,
he didn't want that, he wanted it to be as it always had been.
She had been scared of him, too. She had no way of knowing if he had
found some other woman while he was away, or if his taste for her had
changed, and the loss of her baby had caused a sadness to her soul, which
she carried with her as if light had faded from her heart, and made Jass
ache to comfort her.
He came into the weaving house and smiled that silly grin, and sat in the
rocking chair and puffed on his old cob pipe, and suddenly he wasn't
scared of her, or of anything, anymore, for this is how it had always
been and always would be and
MERGING 369
if she had changed a little physically, it was only in the way that he
knew he had grown. She was still Easter, only more beautiful now, and he
wanted her as much as he had ever wanted anything.
They had sat until dawn, talking some times, silent others, neither
wanting the security of the moment to end, and then, without speaking,
they had undressed and climbed into the rickety cot. He put his arms
around her, looked into her eyes, and those eyes told her what she knew
he would never, could never, say. She gave her mouth to him and it was
as soft and yielding as ever, limitless as ever, and he mounted her and
filled her with his seed, and prayed with all his heart that the seed
would take hold, and nourish and grow, and give her the priceless gift
that both of them so sorely wanted, even as he knew it was not now, this
was not the moment, for no matter how deeply he went into her, she still
seemed infinite to him, and there was something just beyond his reach,
which he longed, with all his heart, from the very core of his soul, to
grasp.
45
The slaves were staring at the night sky in awe. Some cried out in fear.
Others fell to their knees and prayed.
Tiara began to sing a spiritual, believing that her love of the Lord
would save her from the destruction of the world that was so imminent.
Sally stood with the Trio on the veranda and watched in wonder. Sally's
rational mind told her there was nothing to worry about, but the
superstitious Sally, the religious Sally, was disturbed by this evidence
of the majesty of nature. A star shower had fallen on them some years
ago, and the river had flooded, devastatingly, soon after. What new
catastrophe might this be, an omen for? The Trio whooped and hollered and
played on Sally's fears. Polly and Pattie hid downstairs, their
370 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN
heads covered by their aprons, weeping. Other house slaves peeped out from
windows.
Cap'n Jack was moved in profound ways that related to the knowledge he had
acquired at college. He thought this must be how Galileo felt, as he
contemplated the heavens. His mind ranged and roamed over centuries of
learning, and he felt at one with the classical scholars, as his learning
had provoked him to be. He walked with Claudius Ptolemy through the library
at Alexandria, imaging the world from God's point of view.
Parson Dick was in his room, gibbering a prayer to a little African totem,
eyes wide with terror. He had known it was coming. A few years ago, the
stars had fallen from the heavens, thousands of them, scattering over
Alabama, but Parson Dick had not been frightened then, for they were only
a harbinger of the fateful day that was to come.
It was now.
Jass and Easter stood together in the clearing outside the weaving house,
looking at the black heaven.
Some others had joined Tiara in the spiritual, and the lovely choir filled
the air around them, counterpointed by the sobs of fear they heard.
A comet blazed through the sky, a bright sliver of light dazzling toward
earth.
They had known it was coming, the newspapers had been full of it for days,
but no one knew what it presaged. Clergymen thundered the doom it would
bring, the vengeance of a wrathful God upon an iniquitous world. Others
believed it heralded the second coming of the Lord. Scientists denigrated
all this-it was only an astral phenomenon-but few were inclined to believe
them.
They stood in awe of it.
" Some people say it means the end of the world," Jass said, and moved
closer to Easter.
She knew he didn't believe it, he had told her so, but she knew he was
fascinated by the reaction it caused in others, and knew he was entranced
by its beauty.
For Easter, it had another meaning.
MERGING 371
"An' some folk say it is the star that guided the wise men to Bethlehem,"
she whispered softly.
Something in her voice made Jass turn to look at her. She looked wonderful
in the moonlight, the starlight, her face enthralled, without that
mysterious sadness that she had carried with her. He could almost see the
comet reflected in her eyes.
"I's gwine have a baby," Easter said.
As soon as Jass heard her, he knew that he had known before she told him,
for he had known without knowing the night that it had happened, one night
not so very long ago, when he knew that he had reached inside her and
touched the outer edges of her soul. He felt a vault of exultation that
pitched him to some other place, riding on a comet in the sky perhaps,
through the celestial heavens.
His silence bothered Easter. "Ain't you got nuttin' to say?" she whispered
angrily.
How could he tell her of his bursting heart? The only possible way to
express his feelings was in simple, teasing domesticity, as if she had just
taken in a stray dog.
"Oh, plenty," he said, and didn't smile. "Another damn mouth to feed."
For an instant, Easter was furious with him, the salt sting of tears in her
eyes. She had expected so much more of him, and yet this is how he always
was in moments of deep emotion. She longed for the words of love he would
never say. She turned away.
"They say it hurts like the devil, you know," she heard him say, and heard
the laughter of happiness in his voice. "And you never could stand a lick
of pain."
She knew now that it was all fight. His love was almost tangible to her.
She turned to him, and he had a grin on his face as wide as any cotton
field, and his arms were open in the most welcome invitation she had ever
received in her life.
She moved to him, into his strong embrace, and he held her against him and
hugged her hard, so hard she thought the tiny thing nestled inside must
feel the strength of his arms, and his love, and she wanted to cry out with
happiness, and let the sweet tears flow.
372 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN
Locked in each other's arms, they were one being, the three of them,
oblivious of the night and the world, oblivious of some slaves
watching them curiously from nearby, and oblivious even of a comet,
glistening in the sky.
46
if Jass rode a comet when he heard Easter's news, Cap'n Jack was over the
moon. He had only learned of Easter's previous pregnancy and subsequent
miscarriage when he returned to The Forks of Cypress, and was devastated
for his daughter. And for himself, for he was lonely. He had devoted his
life to Easter and had lost a great part of her to Jass, and he missed
what he had once had. He was furious with Jass for not telling him; he was
sure the Massa had known, and if he hadn't known, he wasn't a good Massa.
"She's my chile," he said to Tiara. "He should a tole me. I had a right
to know."
"Massas is Massas," Tiara shrugged.
The new pregnancy gave Cap'n Jack a purpose again, in a life that was
otherwise empty. New knowledge blazed inside him, but he had no one to
share it with. He could not teach any of the other slaves what he now
knew, or even tell them of it, for learning was a dangerous thing to
them, and they were scared of it. Few things seemed to infuriate a Massa
more than knowledge that a slave could read and write. There were some
exceptions to this, such as Cap'n Jack, who had acquired his original
ability secretly, before he was bought by Massa James, and a very few
Massas actually taught their preferred house niggers some basic skills
of arithmetic, the better to keep the household accounts, and the
alphabet, to make lists. Generally though slaves could expect a whipping
if they mouthed words from a book, or had ability with a pencil.
Despite this, Cap'n Jack decided that the new child would have learning,
in preparation for that better day that Cap'n
MERGING 373
Jack was sure would come. He no longer believed that he, or his generation,
would ever be free; he was not even sure that he wanted it for himself, and
Easter was slave to something, and someone, that manumission could never
release her from, but the child was different. Cap'n Jack had seen the
future at the Pritchard home in Delaware, and he had heard the strident
voices of the Northern abolitionists and knew they were prepared to go to
extraordinary lengths to achieve their purpose. He believed that freedom
must come, someday, somehow, though when and how were unfathomable to him.
When it did come, though, he was determined the child would be ready for it.
Sweet Lord, let the chile be free!
Sally was less pleased. That Jass had a slave mistress was one thing. That
he would now have a slave child was something else. It happened everywhere;
they were called "children of the plantation," a euphemism for bastards got
by their white Massa, and you saw them running around, coffee-colored rep-
licas of their sires, who had no real place in either world. Sometimes
paternally shunned and despised or, more often, ignored, sometimes taken in
by their white families, they still had no expectation of a future other
than slavery. Often they were as despised by the black communities. Slaves
and black, they were also something else, something apart, something
separate and different. Their parentage was also the source of much
malicious gossip behind the fan, and Sally did not want her son to be the
butt of scurrilous jokes from idle, illintentioned busybodies, at least not
until Jass was married and had heirs.
Essentially, Sally did not want her first grandchild by Jass to be black.
No one had officially told her of Easter's first pregnancy, but she guessed
quickly enough, for she was attuned to the slave grapevine, as far as
domestic matters were concerned, and Easter's condition quickly became
apparent. Sally had sighed in relief when Easter miscarried, and found
herself praying, and hating herself for doing so, that a similar mis-
adventure would occur again.
If it should not, something else had to happen, but she bided her time
until the moment seemed right.
374 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN
On a warm spring day, Sally and Jass went to Florence, and spent several
hours with Tom Kirkman in his office. They were doing well. Tom had
divested them of most of their holdings in other states, at good prices,
and the fortune James had left them was intact. She could tell that Jass
was relieved and knew
that he had been worried. The relief came from his
sense of duty to the estate, and the worry from the fact that now almost
everything they owned was invested in cotton. Long ago, Jass had insisted
that it was dangerous to be completely reliant on one crop, and he raised
that same fear now. Tom handled it beautifully. In many ways, Sally
thought, Tom was more like James than ever Jass would be. Yes, the price
of cotton was down, but not to a point of any serious concern, and it
would rise again. They still owned enormous amounts of land and had
considerable sums of money on deposit in several banks. The risk is
spread, Tom comforted Jass, when he wondered if banks were safe.
Elizabeth came by at the end of the afternoon, with young Sam and her new
boy, John, and Jass happily dandled the little fellow on his knee, while
Tom and Sally wrapped up the business matters. Fatherhood is what he
needs now, Sally thought, although she was not considering Easter's child
as part of that paternity.
They drove home in the open landau, enjoying the pleasant ride. Jass was
in exactly the mood that Sally had been waiting for. He had been worried
about the meeting with Tom because he fretted about the estate, but had
been reassured by the figures he had seen. He had still the smell of
infant, the baby boy John, about him, and he seemed abstracted, and
talked about John when Sally asked him what he thought of Tom.
Sally let his mind drift for a while and then asked about Lizzie.
"She's fine," he said. "I was with her two days ago."
Having planted the seed, Sally gave it time to take hold, and then moved
closer to the heart of it.
"You've known her for a very long time," she said, casually.
"Years," Jass agreed.
"Don't you think it would be fair to her to come to a decision? You can't
leave her dangling like this forever."
MERGING 375
Jass did not look at his mother. "I know," he said.
-Of course, if you'd rather it was someone else-?" Sally doubted this
would be the case. Jass had no interest in any potential bride other than
Lizzie.
The landau had turned into the drive of The Forks. Jass stared at the
house on the hill, hopefully, Sally thought, imaging Lizzie as mistress
of it. She was not exactly thrilled by the idea herself, but mistress
there had to be, and if it was to be Lizzie, she would make the best of
it. But. it had to happen soon.
"It would be such a pity to lose all this." She waved a hand at the
estate as she spoke. "And if anything were to happen to you-"
Jass knew she was right, and that he had to take some action, soon.
"Yes, it would," he agreed again. "And Lizzie's the one. It's just-"
"Then what are you waiting for?" Sally saw little point in
procrastinating now.
It was a good question. Jass did not know what he was waiting for. He
wasn't sure he was waiting for anything. Except, perhaps, some spark of
the fire that Easter kindled in him.
"I don't know," he muttered, and found a vague and inadequate response.
"Love, I suppose."
"Love can come later, dear," she said, and took his hand, without looking
at him. "Duty must come first."
It was what his father had said to him, years ago, on a warm night when
they had drunk port together and first discussed the concept of matrimony
for Jass. With Lizzie. Perhaps it is destiny, he thought, with no real
enthusiasm for his fate.
He got out of the carriage and helped his mother down.
"You go on in," he told her. "I need some exercise."
Sally kissed him lightly on the cheek, and went into the house. Jass
strolled to the edge of the lawn and looked out at the newly planted
cotton fields. The sun was setting, and the gangs wending home, the work
song drifting to him across the balmy evening. He imagined Lizzie walking
beside him, her arm in his, a slave nurse following them, toting a baby
wrapped in a shawl. To his surprise, the image came easily,
376 ALEX HALEY'S QUEEN