The black swan (79 page)

"We be strong'rl" chanted the natives. "Mam'bo Luz be strong'r!"

Luz shook her assort, a calabash rattle. The spirits mumbled. Two attendants, supportmg Dulcie, forced her in a shuffling travesty of a walk into the inner chamber. Her head was placed at the foot of a large black cross. She lay naked on the mats covering the* coffin design. Her eyes were unseeing, her skin waxen.

Mam'bo Luz crossed Dulcie's entire body with ashes, placing small couis with burning candles in a triangle, one at her feet, one at each shoulder. Nearby burned sesame seeds, incense, and asafetida. On the altar burned a candle, its light flickering on couis —bowls—decorated with skull and crossbones, shovels, picks and axes, all dedicated to the barons and guedes who served Baron Samedi.

Mam'bo Luz invoked various gods, the saints, the dead, and the mysteres and loas to grant success. Next she addressed herself to certain mysteres whose business it was to aid the ritual.

Corn and peanuts were placed on Dulcie's belly, chest, and forehead, and in each upturned palm. Luz oriented a black duck to the cardinal points, then held it over the

grain, moving right to left, from abdomen to forehead, encouraging the fowl to peck at each pile.

Muttering incantations, Luz did the same with a white drake. "All dat be evil, depa't. All dat be good, enter. Ente, te, te." A magnificently spurred red rooster was induced to peck, then was placed between Dulcie's legs. The ducks were set on her breasts. Luz, still muttering, passed the fowls over Dulcie. After each passage the birds were shaken to remove the evil they had absorbed.

Dulcie shuddered, raising herself violently. She was pushed back down. Mam'bo Luz instructed the spirits to take Dulcie's soul, to permit her own stronger, wiser soul to enter the body.

The white drake was released, free to roam until the evil spirits made it vanish. The three couis were passed over Dulcie, moving from head to foot, then over her forehead in a circle.

The stone of Brise was passed over her, Luz chanting, "By the power of Brise of the Mountain, Break-bones, Break-limbs, Mam'bo Luz command evil speerit depa't, strong wise speerit enter. Ente, te, te"

The drums increased in tempo and loudness. The ogan-tier's bell clanked fiercely, deafeningly. The triangliefs instrument dinged. Luz shook her calabash asson, with its shells and reptile vertebrae swishing inside, its strings of beads tapping outside.

She swooped down to a basin, splashing handfuls of bath liquid at Dulcie's face. Others joined, splashing her with the odd-smelling liquid, while Dulcie moaned and squirmed. When the liquid was all used, Dulcie fell back unconscious. Luz's calloused hands clapped tightly at her breasts. The dead-spirits had departed.

Mam'bo Luz worked more quickly now. She filled her mouth with liquid from a coui on whose side was a graven image of Erzulie. With a spraying sound she quickly blew the liquid into the Nine Sacred Entrances of Dulcie's body, chanting, "Evil speerit, go live with Baron Samedi, strong wise speerit, enter the body of 'oman Child of the Guedes/'

In a frenzy now, Luz tore her clothes, screaming incantations. Dancing like Danbhala, the serpent god, she writhed, flicking out her tongue. She danced faster, faster. The drummers, the ogantier, and the trianglier played ecstatic accompaniment. Lithe and agile, Luz touched each

of her own Sacred Entrances to Dulcie's, eye to eye, navel to navel, genitals against genitals. Rising, she whirled in a brown and pink blur, circling Dulcie, faster, faster until, with a hair-raising scream of loa-ridden exaltation, the mottled woman fell to make a cross with Dulcie's body.

Mam'bo Caille guardian of the inner chamber, stepped forward. With ashes she outlined the bodies, chanting above the frenzied excitement, "Evil speerit of red hair 'omen, stay with Baron Samedi, Lord of the Cemetery. Strong wise speerit of Mam'bo Lu2, live in peace in 'oman fum de sea." She sprinkled ashes over the bodies. She sprayed liqueur over Luz and Dulcie. Mam'bo Caille screamed, "Mam'bo Luz! Is it Mam'bo Luz? Is Mam'bo Luz dar?" Mam'bo Caille lighted the liqueur and passed the burning liquid over the crossed bodies. Then she scooped up the blue flames and washed Dulcie and Luz.

Luz lay deathly still, foam dribbling from her slack mouth. Ceremoniously she was laid facedown onto a large mat and covered with ritual ashes, shells, and meal. Two candles were set in the earth to burn out, symbolizing the return of her body to the earth.

Mam'bo Caille perfumed Dulcie, massaging her, chanting, "Mam'bo Luz, rise! You speerit lives in 'oman fum de sea! Mam'bo Luz, dance!"

Dulcie struggled to her feet, water in all her limbs. Her head reeled. Dizzy, she staggered forward, her face and arms heavenward. Around her the celebrants danced and swayed, their expressions dreamlike and exalted.

The men approached her, offering themselves as her partner. Her vision blurry, she groped toward them. Then she stumbled and fell to earth.

The black duck lay dead. It was laid beside Mam'bo Luz's body, sprinkled with ashes. The red rooster had flown to the top of the cross where it perched in beady-eyed alertness. A blanket was held in flames until it was scorched, then her attendants placed it over Dulcie. She was carried from the inner chamber. She would remain in the outer chamber until she was well, or until she died.

On the third day the white drake vanished. Closely watched by the natives, he dived into a shallow pool and failed to come up.

Days later, free of fever, Dulcie began to feel hungry and restless. She chafed at her little-understood confinement. She was not allowed outside the room, nor could

she enter the inner chamber where Luz*s body lay guarded but untended. Day after day she was forced to wait—^wait for something.

Then Mam'bo Caille and several attendants appeared. She was led into the sunshine. It was warm and golden, edging every leaf and blossom, every shell, every grain of sand, with blessed light.

She was placed on a thronelike eminence at the head of a circle. Dulcie nibbled at ceremonial dishes. The gleaming brown faces split in approving smiles. Hesitantly they began to talk in their incomprehensible tongue that murdered English yet did little credit to either the Africans or Indians from whom they were said to be descended.

Weak and light headed, she watched these strange brown people. She was different from them, yet she seemed to be a part of their lives. Confused, she speculated on her presence here. She had no recollection of coming here. She had only a vague, fear-filled sense of having escaped something dreadful.

She was facing the oum*phor when a strange-looking woman came out. Her brown face was covered with cloud-shaped pale patches. She staggered, as one drunk, to the festive circle. Those by Dulcie gasped, their eyes bulging, too terrified to move.

The pinto woman greedily stuffed her mouth with the ceremonial food. Fearfully the others looked everywhere but at her. She said, "Mam*bo Caille gettin' shif less Mek mistakes. Ritu*l doan tek."

The words meant nothing to Dulcie. She moved away from the strange woman.

The woman looked hard at all her people. "I be de body ob Mam'bo Luz. I be de walkin' daid. No peoples kin kill me 'cause I daid."

The natives moaned in fear and shrank from Luz.

"I talk oV storee. I tell you whut you doan know. I got de power now, de power ob de walkin' daid. Baron Samedi come get peoples whut doan come to de fire dis night." Luz resumed her ravenous eating.

That night Luz built a fire in the barren space in front of her hut. For some time she sat, looking into the flames. Then she went in to Dulcie. "I mek you ready fo' oV storee."

She approached Dulcie, holding a bowl of the herbal medicine.

Dulcie backed away, her eyes wide in fear. "No! No! I won't drink that!"

"Mam'bo Luz say you drink."

"It makes me feel strange. I—don't know who I am!"

A ferocious scowl appeared on Luz's face. "You drink!" She struck a gong by the doorway. Pa Bowleg and another man hurried into the hut. At Luz's command the two men seized Dulcie, one holding her head back as Mam'bo Luz poured the mirage-inducing tonic down her throat.

Dulcie became docile, willing for Mam'bo Luz to slip off her gown and rub on ointment that made her body tingle. Then, clothed once more, she sat by the fire where Luz told her to.

Luz stood chanting.

Fire, burn! Light de da'k night

Brighter dan de Moon, warm lak de Sun.

Fire lak de 'oman hair, burn high an' never die.

Dulcie watched the flames. Something was happening to her vision. The flames became bits of brighter paper, drifting upward. As Luz flicked out her fingers, the fire leaped tall. Luz's flesh became transparent, providing a ghostly housing for the bones and the grinning skull.

The people glided forward, their eyes huge and white and rolling. They sat at a distance. Luz motioned them closer. The fire died down to a steady shower of sparkling metalic shapes. Dulcie seemed to rise, to be in two places, sitting by the fire and suspended above it.

Luz settled herself comfortably, prepared to amaze the natives as she pieced together the story Dulcie had revealed in her delirium. "I talk oV storee.

Once on a time, a very good time, Monkey chew tobacco an' spit white lime.

"Dis was a man got red hair. Now dis man he got black peoples do his wo'k. He got red-hair 'oman daughter. Seem to 'im her shif'less. Man say, 'Daughter, why ain' you do no wo'k?' She say, 'Poppa, I setten out ter be a speerit queen.' Man doan lak dat. So man put her on a big longboat. She sail up an' down, up an' down in de sea.

"She knows 'omans got to have man. She doan see no man what light her ey€. Fin'lly she see de longboat cap'm.

She say, *Cap'm, I goin' ter be de speerit queen. You come erlong me an' I mek you de speerit king.'

"De cap'm say, * 'oman, you too fool. I got me a boat ter sail.'

"Red-hair 'oman eye light up. Say, 'Cap'm, I goin' ter run off fum you 'til I cotches you.' Red-hair 'oman go home ter Poppa, an' she set an' she wait. Quick quick come de cap'm to git her. She run off, an' de cap'm follers. She run one place, an' she set an' wait. Run off, set an' wait. De cap'm he git weary, he say, * 'oman. I goin' ter mek you inter a wife. Dat be wo'k you kin do.'

"So 'oman mek inter a wife. All dis time she mekkin' plan to be de speerit queen. She say, 'Husban' Cap'm, tek me on de boat!' So Cap'm teks red-hair 'oman on de boat. She wo'k witch, an' de sea monster he eat dat boat. One man lef. He be Guede I'Orage, master o' de stawm. But Mam'bo Luz strong'r dan Lucifer. Drive Guede I'Orage inter de sea, back to de Ian' ob Ife.

"Red hair 'oman crawl up outen de sea. She sing.

Farewell, Poppal Farewell, Cap'ml

I got to be de speerit queen.

Mam'bo Luz tek me from de sea an' mek me queen.

Farewell, Poppa! Farewell, Cap'm! ^

"Mam'bo Luz hear de sing, 'omen's speerit be outen she body, hangin' up in de air. Speerit say, *Mam'bo Luz, how come you doan ten' ter me? I goin' be in limbo effen you doan safe me.'

"Luz say, 'Speerit, I come fas' I kin, so you doan be in limbo. You git back in de body, so de red-hair 'oman be de speerit queen.'

"Speerit he foxy. Say, *Mebbe not. Mebbe I pesticate Aunt Inuna.'"

An old woman at the edge of the fire pulled back, her eyes frightened. Her arms made an X on her breast. Those near her made the same motion.

Luz went on, "But Aunt Inuna foxy too. She keep speerit out Speerit say, *Mam'bo Luz, you pooty good Mam'bo. How come you doan mek de ritu'l so you speerit be in red-hair 'oman body?"

"Mam'bo Luz t'ink on dat She say, *Where my body goin' ter be?'

"Speerit say, *Mam'bo Luz, doan you know nuthin'?

Body be daid, but it still walk, talk, mek medsin, mek de ritu'l. Be strong, strong, strong'r, 'cuz you speerit got a new shell.'

"Luz say, 'Speerit, whut my new name goin' ter be?* Speerit say,

Mam'bo Luz ol' body walk aroun' daid, Luz done lef de earth. Red-hair 'oman tek Luz speerit, Red-hair 'oman born again. Call her name Guede Vi.

Luz stood, arms upraised, face to the brilliant stars. Those around the dying fire watched her, motionless. Luz looked dreamily at the black forest. Though no one moved, eyes rolled in fear and expectation, following the pinto woman's gaze. She crooned, "Speerit ob de speerit queen, de 'oman o' de sun an' de moon call you! Guede Vi, come fo'th." Luz's hands pointed upward. Every head followed her outspread fingers.

Dulcie, in her extraordinary duality, felt the eyes upon her spirit-self as she hung above the dying fire, felt the waves of their shock and terror as they saw her for what she was, a reddish mist spiraling up from nowhere, an element raw from the fire of rebirth.

She saw the triumph on Luz's mottled face. She knew the warmth of her spirit-self, the frozen chill of her body seated motionless upon earth. She was. She existed. She was not dead.

The pinto woman turned her hands with outspread fingers down. Dulcie's spirit-self drifted toward the fire until she was pulled into it. The fire blazed high, and Dulcie knew blackness, elation, and exhaustion so deep it carried her beyond death.

Afternoon light came weakly into the hut. Her head hurt. The light was hostile, a sword in her eyes. Her skin felt prickly, her tongue thick.

Dulcie eased out of the hammock. She would walk up to the Face, talk to it, tell it to stop staring at her. She reeled across the sandy floor. The Face was carved of wood. But it had moved. She touched its deeply grooved contours.

"Doan tetch dat!"

Dulcie jumped away.

"Dat de guardeen speerit mask. 01'! So ol' he come down to Mam'bo Luz fum she gran'fadder. Gran'fadder be a Bowleg Indian."

"I'm sorry." Dulcie was afraid of Mam'bo Luz. She was evil.

"Git back in de hammick, Guede Vi."

"That's not my name. My name is . . ." To her horror, she could not speak her name.

Mam'bo Luz smiled. "You name Guede Vi, chil' ob de guedes. You do t'ing Mam'bo Luz tell you."

"Who are you? Why do you keep telling me what I must do?"

Luz, pouting, pointed toward the hammock. Dulcie obeyed. She looked at Luz from the hammock, tears starting. If only she knew who she was or what this place was, perhaps then ...