The House Of Mr Christus

Chapter Seven - Priscilla

"Come yah," she beckoned with her finger, "ah gat sohnting fi show yu." With hunched shoulders, Samuel went to her side. She held out her stout arm, her fists closed, concealing something.

"Dah weh eena mi hand?" She looked at Samuel's confused face unable to contain her glee at having an innocent victim to toy with. Samuel smelt the sweet stickiness of boiled sugar and guessed correctly that in her palm she had a small plug of fudge.|

"How yu noa dat!" she said menacingly. "Nobadi nevah guess right." She opened her dirty palm, and the squashed lump, runny at the edges, was exposed to daylight. "Yu haftu eat it. Dat dah di rule."

Samuel realized then why no one ever guessed what was in her palm, but, too frightened not to do as he was told, he took the sweet and ate it before her. When he had swallowed, she said, "Mek wi play dat again." Samuel shook his head. He did not want to play the game again and, thinking that perhaps she was done with him, he sidled past her.

"Dah weh yu di goh?" she said, frowning. "An who seh di game finish." She pulled him to her side and Samuel, not prepared for the strength of her grip, stumbled, hitting his chin on the edge of her chair. A sharp pain suffused the side of his face, stunning him into silence, and there on his knees, speechless, he faced his first childhood friend.

 "Yuck," she muttered rudely, "yu gat blod pan yoh face." And before he could wipe the smarting area with the edge of his sleeve, she had him up on his feet and was dragging him into her home. She pushed him into a room, pungent with the smell of perfume and unflushed toilet, then turning to a wide, low sink, filled it with water.

"Come yah," she said, "mek ah wash it off." She picked up a scrap of waterlogged soap and proceeded to scrub the wound while he squeezed his knees together and clenched his fists. When she was finished, had dried the area, she said, slightly exasperated, "Bwai, yoh blod still di poar owt." Just then the door was pushed open and Mrs Christus, black umbrella in hand, stepped in. Samuel felt a flood of relief but, fearing a reprimand from the girl, remained rooted to the spot. Nausea, due to the reek of the unflushed toilet and exacerbated by the sight of blood streaming through his fingers, made him sway, want to retch, then, without warning, the room dimmed and the wide, dark contours of Mrs Christus's person began to undulate like umpteen little waves licking the side of the door frame. He woke sometime later in a strange room. He was lying on cushions arranged on the floor, and, from a long, wide window, the sun emptied itself, filling the room with constant yellow light. This was where Lazario lived, he knew this, and then he remembered how he had come to be there. 

The room was simply furnished with a round, wooden table, four chairs, an old radio on a long sideboard and a bright, red rug over the worn floorboards. Dust motes, dancing in the sunlight, were suspended across the room like layers of soft gauze, and, through the haze, he made out the figures of Mrs Christus and Lazario. They were drinking tea. On the table was a cake Angelita had made. He heard the sound of their voices but didn't try to make sense of the words. He was too comfortable. His chin, he felt, had dried to a scab, and, easing himself back onto the cushions, he stared aimlessly at the ceiling, feeling suddenly happy. Taking three marbles out of his pocket, he placed them in an even line on the floor. They were as round as the fingers of the girl he had just left. Two were bright blue and one was green. He took them up, one at a time, and rolled them across his chest and then across the floor. They rumbled like miniature cannonballs, filling the room with noise.

Mrs Christus, poised with the cake halfway to her mouth, watched as the marbles were thrown repeatedly, colliding every now and again. She took a bite of the cake thoughtfully, then as Samuel rushed by her chair she caught his arm. "Enough!" She drew a chair out for him. "Here, sit and eat your cake."