Even the day after Sarith, Mini-mini and Jethro had left, it was no better. He was still ill at ease and wandered restlessly through the house. On the third day, during his ride through the fields, he decided that he must act quickly. He had been planning to buy Mini-mini free. That would be in about three months’ time when the coffee had been harvested and sold. But now he changed his mind: why wait? Why not borrow the money from someone, to be paid back in three months’ time, and begin the process immediately? Yes, that is what he would do: wait no longer, go straightaway, the next day, to the town, borrow the four hundred and fifty guilders somewhere and submit the application to the court. She could then already be free when the child was born. Then the child would also be free. Where could she go once she was free? She would not be able to remain at the plantation. But he felt at ease now he had made his plan, and resolved to go to town at the end of the week.
Returning home, he went to his office and opened the drawer where the slaves’ papers were kept. He could see immediately that someone had been rummaging around. The papers were not in their usual order. A terrible suspicion began to arise in his mind. Frantically he searched through the deeds of ownership. Where was Kwasiba’s? He was sure it had been there at the back. It was gone. So that was it! Good God! Was that what Sarith had been planning? Was she going to sell Mini-mini? The thought sent a chill through his whole body. He called, “Benny, Benny!”
When Benny came, he ordered him to get the small boat ready immediately. “Take twelve oarsmen, so that they can row in two shifts, and straight to the town.” Benny wanted to complain that they had to wait for the tide, but Julius had no time for that: they must leave immediately, against the tide.
The boat stopped nowhere along the way. Now and then Julius himself grabbed an oar to help out, but that didn’t amount to much, and he therefore had to make do with wringing his hands nervously while the oarsmen rowed with all their might. The whole afternoon and all the night they rowed without stopping, by ebb and by flood, and it was about half past nine the next morning that they reached Paramaribo.
In the Saramaccastraat Jethro had howled the whole day. He had eaten nothing, but had sat all the time in his nightshirt in the corner of his room, shouting for Mini-mini. During the evening he had eventually fallen asleep. Nicolette had put him to bed, but when he woke up and saw that Mini-mini still wasn’t there, he went downstairs, dragging his pillow behind him, and sat near a window at the back of the house, asking each slave who went by, “Do you know where Mini-mini is?”252 Everyone was full of pity for him and they all would answer gently, “No, my little masra, oh dear, no, I don’t know.”253
Jethro had started crying again, silently, when suddenly he stopped. Wasn’t that his father’s voice? He listened: yes, that was papa! In a few leaps he was in the front room standing with his father. “Oh papa, papa!” He stretched both arms out towards his father, who picked him up. With his arms around his father he screamed, “Mini-mini has gone, papa. Mama, mama has sold her!”
Esther had wanted to have a quiet talk with her brother-in-law, but he wasn’t listening to her. He put Jethro down and ran up the two flights of stairs with Jethro on his heels. Once in Sarith’s room, he stood in front of her and his voice was hoarse with rage as he shouted, “Where is she? What have you done with her?”
If Sarith was surprised to see her husband suddenly standing in front of her, she didn’t let it show, and answered, “I have sold her. She is my slave-girl. I can sell her whenever I want.”
“Whom have you sold her to – tell me who.”
Julius grabbed his wife by the arm. She pulled herself loose and said, “I don’t know. To a trader. He would sell her on. She’s probably already on some far-flung plantation or other.”
Julius was beside himself. “What kind of person are you?” with trembling voice, “You’re a monster, a monster! Her mother saved your life and you promised her on her deathbed that you’d look after her daughter, and then you go and sell the girl! You’re a wretch, that’s what you are! Julius shook his wife through and through. “A wretch, that’s what you are!”
“Do I have to take it lying down that your concubine is in my house then?” screamed Sarith. “Wretched monster!” cried Julius again, grabbing Sarith by the throat. But Esther came between them and pushed him aside.
“Julius, control yourself, control yourself! What Sarith did wasn’t right, but indeed a man really can’t keep his concubine in his house along with his wife, now can he?”