The Cost of Sugar(45)

81 “Fa mi kan seni en gowe Maisa? Ala sma e denkti dati un de leki tu sisa, mi no kan seni en gowe.”

82 “Yu musu fu seni en gowe, meki sma sabi taki en a no yu sisa, a no yu sisa nono, a no lobi yu srefi srefi, noiti a no ben lobi yu, mi kan taigi yu dati. Now a no ten fu prakseri sisatori misi Elza, now yu musu feti, ai feti.”

83 “Luku, efu yu no wani feti gi yu srefi, dan feti gi en. No meki a asema soigi en p’pa.”

84 “Fa mi o feti dan Maisa?”

85 “Taigi mi dati yu wani feti, dan mi Maisa o yepi yu.”



86 Black magic.

87 “Ma yu n’o du wisi toch Maisa?”

88 “Yu no afu frede, mi a no wisiman.”

89 “Dan sribi now.”



94 “Dan suma na Maisa dan, mi no sabi yu.”

95 “Mi na misi Le Chasseur srafu. Mi ben libi na pernasi fosi. Na pas-pas mi kon a foto, ma na Ma Akuba mati, Néné Duseisi seni mi dyaso.”

96 “Hmmm, we sidon dan.”

97 “Taigi mi san de fu du.”

98 “Mi o meki wan sani gi yu, ma dan yu musu tyari wan fowru, dri eksi, wan batra switi sopi, nanga wan pis krosi fu yu masra nanga wan fu na tra uma. Tyari den kon tamara neti.”

99 “Gran tanyi baya Ma Akuba, gran tanyi.”





CHAPTER VII





SARITH


An angry Sarith walked along the street, so fast that Mini-mini, who was holding a parasol above Sarith’s head, almost had to run to keep up with her. When she left the house she had no idea where she was going. She had wondered for a moment whether it might not be better to go to Rebecca’s, which was just around the corner. But she had immediately thought better of that. Rebecca and Abraham were real sweethearts, focused entirely on each other. They would certainly be amazed if Sarith suddenly appeared like this. No, she went to Esther’s. Her mother was still staying there. As she continued walking along in the direction of the Saramaccastraat her anger steadily increased. “Do feel free to go,” Rutger had said. If only he were here this minute! She would gouge his eyes out! She no longer felt like going visiting. When she arrived at the De Ledesmas’ it turned out that her mother Rachel was planning to leave for Hébron in about two hours’ time, taking her son-in-law’s boat when the tide began to come in. Her mother assumed that Sarith knew that she was leaving and had come to say goodbye. Sarith left it at that.

“Aren’t you staying at Elza’s any more?” asked a curious Esther when, after Rachel had departed, she heard Sarith telling Mini-mini that after the afternoon rest period she must go with an errand boy to fetch her belongings from the Le Chasseurs’.

“No, I prefer to stay here,” replied Sarith, “I can’t sleep because of the baby’s yelling.”

And so she remained at Esther’s for a few days; here and there a visit, now and then with Esther and Jacob to a party or an evening with acquaintances.

When one morning she was at Rebecca’s and heard that Abraham and his wife would be going to Joden-Savanna the next day and would stay some days at Hébron, Sarith decided to go with them. Once at Hébron she didn’t carry on to Joden-Savanna, but stayed at home, bored and getting irritated and grumbling about anything and everything. Since there was no-one to talk with, she talked with Mini-mini. Mini-mini had to give her a massage every day and time and time again answer the question: wasn’t her Misi Sarith oh so beautiful. Patiently, Mini-mini would say each time, “Yes Misi Sarith, you are beautiful.”100

Now and then she would go by boat to a neighbouring plantation or go visiting with her mother for a few hours. Sometimes there were visitors at Hébron itself: passing tent boats that had to wait for the tide, passengers who sometimes stayed overnight. But in general it was pretty dull. Sarith was continually worrying. She was twenty years old, exquisitely beautiful, unmarried, not even engaged, and could not really think of anyone she would readily marry. And then you had Elza and Rutger playing the happy young couple with their baby there in that little house on the Wagenwegstraat. But wait a moment: she would change her tactics. She would return to Paramaribo and be really sweet to Rutger. Of course he would fall completely for her charms, and once she had him well and truly caught, she would make it plain that the role of happy father was nothing for him.





ELZA


Little Gideon was growing apace. He was now four months old, a high-spirited baby who hardly ever cried and often lay playing in his cot. Elza still fed him herself. When Rutger came home from work he would often spend hours playing with his son on the large bed. Elza often had to laugh, moved as she was at how convinced Rutger was that there was no child more handsome and intelligent than his.