“What do you think to Gideon?” asked Rutger. “That was my grandfather’s name.”
“Then he’ll be called Gideon Rutger,” said Elza.
Then Maisa came in bearing a tray with cups of cocoa, and Rutger was sent packing to the guest room where he would have to sleep that night, for, as she put it, it was high time that Misi Elza got some sleep at last.74
67 “San de fu du nanga mi pikin misi dan?”
68 “Tantiri, ke ba, mi gudu, tantiri ba.”
69 “Dyaso.”
70 “San du misi Elza, Ashana?”
71 “Kan de na en masra wan kan sabi san du en, masra Rutger.”
72 “Go nay u masra, mi gudu misi, na en musu luku yu.”
73 “Libisma san e du, leki den na dagu.”
74 “En nanga misi Elza b’o go sribi now.”
CHAPTER VI
SARITH
A few days later a tent boat stopped off at Hébron on its way to a plantation on the Boven-Suriname River. The boat’s bell rang, and an errand boy rushed to the jetty to see what was going on. Waving a letter, he dashed back to the house, where Masra Levi was already waiting on the veranda to receive it. Just a little later the house rang to excited shouts and chatter. The letter was from Rutger, and told that a few days earlier Elza had given birth to a son. A hefty, healthy boy, almost seven pounds. Mother and child were doing very well. A beaming Levi told his wife, Sarith and Ashana, who had come running. Within a few moments the whole plantation knew. Ashana wanted to know more. What was the child’s name? Whom did he most resemble? Had everything gone smoothly? Was there really nothing further in the letter? Did the child have any hair? What was the colour of his eyes? Uncle Levi had to laugh at Ashana, “I really don’t know, Ashana, but we’ll go to the town to see him. Come with us and then you can see them for yourself.”75 And Ashana, who hardly ever left the plantation and had been in the town only once or twice, decided to go along to see her misi and her son when the family left for Paramaribo in a few days’ time.
During all the lively talking and decision making, Sarith went outside and sat in the summer house. With a book on her lap, which she did not read, she sat gazing into space. So, the baby was born. Elza had a son. No, Elza and Rutger had a son. Rutger! In what kind of situation had the three of them landed? In fact, she herself did not really understand how things could have gone as they had, but the facts spoke for themselves.
During the past weeks at Hébron she had had ample opportunity to think things through. She had dreamt of the possibility of everything turning out all right for her, and that would happen if Elza died in childbirth. Of course that was possible. So many women die in childbirth. Hadn’t Elza’s own mother died in this way? Then Rutger would be free and would marry her. At first she had thought that it would be better if the baby died, too, but later on her imagination wandered towards the idea that it would be better if it survived, because with a baby it was obvious that Rutger would have to remarry. And wouldn’t people think how sweet it was of her to become the mother of her stepsister’s child. And a baby wasn’t a problem: enough slaves to look after it and feed it. And of course in that case she would not keep Maisa, but she would quite probably not want to stay anyway if her beloved Misi Elza were no longer around, or perhaps she would, because of the baby. Well, that remained to be seen. And now the baby was born, but not the slightest mention of illness in the letter; on the contrary, mother and child doing fine. But well, anything was still possible.
Sarith had often wondered whether she really loved Rutger. She had told him so, but did she truly love him? In fact, she had to admit to herself that he wasn’t really her type, and she sometimes considered him tiresome when he started talking about all kinds of things and when he became angry about the punishments dealt out to slaves and the injustice of slavery. Nonsense, of course. Everyone knew that negroes were put on this earth to be slaves, and you must well and truly punish slaves to keep them on the straight and narrow. But when, on the other hand, she saw how charming he could be and how full of courtesy and concern he was for Elza, then she felt jealousy stabbing at her heart and wanted him just for herself. She sometimes felt like going to their bedroom, slinging Elza out of the marriage bed and going to lie down next to Rutger.
She, too, sometimes wondered how Elza would have reacted had the roles been reversed. But time and time again she had to admit that she knew full well that Elza would not have behaved like this were she in her position. If she were married to Rutger, or anyone else for that matter, Elza would never have come to influence and steal her husband. It was simply not in her nature.