The Ten Incarnations of Adam Avatar by Baldeosingh Kevin

Author:Baldeosingh, Kevin [Baldeosingh, Kevin]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9781845232269
Publisher: Peepal Tree Press Ltd.
Published: 2004-10-31T16:00:00+00:00

III

When I came to my senses, I found myself squashed awkwardly behind some barrels. For some moments, I could not recall who or where I was. Pushing my way out, I adjusted my hat and dusted off my dress. My parcels were all gone. My memories of being attacked were vague: a rough hand clamping over my mouth from behind, the red-bearded sailor appearing in front me. But it was the broad-shouldered Negro behind him who had struck terror into my heart: a tall, bald man with slitted eyes. Shadowman, I remember thinking, just before the red-bearded sailor had struck me in the chest. I looked down. My dress had a small slit in it, just below my left breast. The front was stained and stiffened. Luckily, the dress was crimson-coloured, so the stain was not noticeable in the dimming light of evening. The flesh underneath was whole.

I made my way back to the main street, where I found Anne-Marie and the driver waiting for me. Anne-Marie, her face pinched with anxiety, ran forward when she saw me.

‘Way yuh was?’ she almost shouted. ‘I tought yuh was dead!’

‘Not for long,’ I said, and got into the carriage, laying my weary head against the cushion. I was very quiet on the journey back to the plantation. It was not the shock of being attacked. I had already dismissed that. I was not even bothered at losing my trinkets, which could be easily replaced. But there were strange thoughts flickering like quick fish along the bed of my mind. I could not grasp them. Everything was strange, even the familiar countryside. I felt as though there were too many buildings, that the road was too rutted and too wide; even the vegetation seemed too sparse. Anne-Marie plied me with questions. I told her only that I had been robbed. But I did not tell her by whom, although I always told her everything.

We arrived home just after dark, and I bathed and changed and had a slave put my bloodstained dress in the fire. I then called Anne-Marie to my room. She kept asking me if I was all right. I assured her that I was fine.

‘You not behaving like yuhself,’ she said.

I shrugged. ‘I’m all right,’ I said. ‘But we don’t have much time.’

‘Much time for what?’

I told her. She objected, of course, saying I was mad.

‘You go never fool dem.’

‘I will fool them,’ I said.

This was why I had not told her who had attacked me. Even so, she harangued me long into the night about returning to the ship. If I could not make them believe I was a Lady Victoria Asquith, how would I make them believe I was a common sailor? It would be much less trouble just to go and ask Edward why he disguised himself to go sailing. I told her that was not the romantic way to do it. Also, Edward would undoubtedly lie; I could discover the real truth only by surreptitious means. Yet the truth is, these were no longer my main reasons.

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