laughing with the other first-class passengers.”
“They have Chinese stewardesses, these days?” Dots wondered.
“Progress,” Boysie commented. “That is one reason why I like this country, and hate Amer’ca so blasted much. Things tough, here. That is true, ’cause I been trying to track-down a job for eight months now. Still, you could see a star o’ progress, here. And that Chinee on that plane is one.”
Estelle was very excited. She talked and she talked; and she told them about the small boy in the plane who called her Aunt Jemima. “What really made the devil get up in me, was that I was waiting for that child’s mother to scold him.”
“You still waiting!”
“Boysie, this is one time you utter a mouthful, boy,”Dots said. “White woman apologize to you? Well, gal, you just come and you got a lot to learn
and
unlearn. One thing I going tell you, in case this sister o’ yours forget to tell you. And it is this. You weren’t born here. You were not born in Canada. And furthermore, the people who born here, they ain’t black, eh, gal!”
“Be-Christ, Dots! if I wasn’t behind this steering wheel, I would kiss you ’pon your mouth.”
“Look, niggerman, mind your manners, eh?”
“Dots is right, Estelle. We were not born here. We in captivity here.”
“All the time,” Estelle said, continuing her story, “all the time, I could see my five fingers printed plain plain in that boy’s behind. That is the way we treat children where I come from — if they don’t have manners.”
“Huh!” Boysie sniggered, “you try it here!”
“Rudeness is rudeness,” Estelle said. And she said it as a final pronouncement on children, and upon the whole world.
“The childrens in this outside-world is a different breed o’ beasts altogether, from the ones I uses to know back in Barbados,” Boysie said. All the time he was talking, he never once left the road with his eyes. “They watches too much damn television. Everytime you pass near somebody living room, beChrist! all you hears is
bang-bang-bang
!”
“Violence, gal!”
“But that is children, though, Dots.”
“Children, my arse — excuse me, Estelle — you mean this brand o’ children.” Boysie was really mad. His words affected everybody in the car; and for some time, there was a general re-shuffling of positions and comfort. Estelle took out a package of Barbadian cigarettes, and made a big stage-show in lightingone. Bernice made a mental note that she wasn’t going to smoke in her apartment, oh no!
“I would never forget how, one day, Mrs. Burrmann’ second girl-child nearly caused me to go to the gallows,” Bernice said. She paused there, while a little more attentiveness crept imperceptibly into the car. You could hear everybody breathing, as they settled back to listen. Bernice herself had to think hard to remember what she was going to say, because the fact of Estelle’s smoking worried her greatly: she never thought Estelle was a woman who smoked. It was too much. She couldn’t stomach Mrs. Burrman’s drinking and smoking; and Estelle’s smoking, too. She recalled her story, and said, “ ’Twas during the first days I was working for that princess, Mrs. Burrmann. One day … I think it is the first time, too … she ask me to bathe them two brutes o’ hers. Well, I got the firstborn, Serene, in the bath tub, and she licking all the damn cold water … those two children love cold water! they are like eskimoes, heh-heh-heh! … Serene throwing all the blasted cold water up in my face, all in the bathroom, and making the water into waves as if a storm brewing up in the tub. The soap burning my eyes. I feel I losing my sight, but I still laughing with the child all the time,
hee-hee-hee-water-water-water cool, cool water!
me and she playing we are two children playing. But I vex as bloody hell, and any moment now, I feel I going strangulate or drown the blasted unmannerly child …”
“Ho-ho!”
“They have Chinese stewardesses, these days?” Dots wondered.
“Progress,” Boysie commented. “That is one reason why I like this country, and hate Amer’ca so blasted much. Things tough, here. That is true, ’cause I been trying to track-down a job for eight months now. Still, you could see a star o’ progress, here. And that Chinee on that plane is one.”
Estelle was very excited. She talked and she talked; and she told them about the small boy in the plane who called her Aunt Jemima. “What really made the devil get up in me, was that I was waiting for that child’s mother to scold him.”
“You still waiting!”
“Boysie, this is one time you utter a mouthful, boy,”Dots said. “White woman apologize to you? Well, gal, you just come and you got a lot to learn
and
unlearn. One thing I going tell you, in case this sister o’ yours forget to tell you. And it is this. You weren’t born here. You were not born in Canada. And furthermore, the people who born here, they ain’t black, eh, gal!”
“Be-Christ, Dots! if I wasn’t behind this steering wheel, I would kiss you ’pon your mouth.”
“Look, niggerman, mind your manners, eh?”
“Dots is right, Estelle. We were not born here. We in captivity here.”
“All the time,” Estelle said, continuing her story, “all the time, I could see my five fingers printed plain plain in that boy’s behind. That is the way we treat children where I come from — if they don’t have manners.”
“Huh!” Boysie sniggered, “you try it here!”
“Rudeness is rudeness,” Estelle said. And she said it as a final pronouncement on children, and upon the whole world.
“The childrens in this outside-world is a different breed o’ beasts altogether, from the ones I uses to know back in Barbados,” Boysie said. All the time he was talking, he never once left the road with his eyes. “They watches too much damn television. Everytime you pass near somebody living room, beChrist! all you hears is
bang-bang-bang
!”
“Violence, gal!”
“But that is children, though, Dots.”
“Children, my arse — excuse me, Estelle — you mean this brand o’ children.” Boysie was really mad. His words affected everybody in the car; and for some time, there was a general re-shuffling of positions and comfort. Estelle took out a package of Barbadian cigarettes, and made a big stage-show in lightingone. Bernice made a mental note that she wasn’t going to smoke in her apartment, oh no!
“I would never forget how, one day, Mrs. Burrmann’ second girl-child nearly caused me to go to the gallows,” Bernice said. She paused there, while a little more attentiveness crept imperceptibly into the car. You could hear everybody breathing, as they settled back to listen. Bernice herself had to think hard to remember what she was going to say, because the fact of Estelle’s smoking worried her greatly: she never thought Estelle was a woman who smoked. It was too much. She couldn’t stomach Mrs. Burrman’s drinking and smoking; and Estelle’s smoking, too. She recalled her story, and said, “ ’Twas during the first days I was working for that princess, Mrs. Burrmann. One day … I think it is the first time, too … she ask me to bathe them two brutes o’ hers. Well, I got the firstborn, Serene, in the bath tub, and she licking all the damn cold water … those two children love cold water! they are like eskimoes, heh-heh-heh! … Serene throwing all the blasted cold water up in my face, all in the bathroom, and making the water into waves as if a storm brewing up in the tub. The soap burning my eyes. I feel I losing my sight, but I still laughing with the child all the time,
hee-hee-hee-water-water-water cool, cool water!
me and she playing we are two children playing. But I vex as bloody hell, and any moment now, I feel I going strangulate or drown the blasted unmannerly child …”
“Ho-ho!”
Similar Books
