It was siesta time. Around one o’clock they had lunched royally, and now it was half past three. Everything in the house was still silent. Next to her, Reindert also awoke. He looked at her, smiled and began to run a finger over her bare stomach.
“Rein, I think I’m expecting, did you know?” Sarith asked gently.
“Oh yes?” asked Rein. “Who do you think the father is?”
“I don’t know. Terrible, eh?” said Sarith.
“We’ll consider that your husband is the father. That will be best for all concerned,” said Rein.
“Aren’t I a really bad woman?” Sarith now asked.
“A fine, lovely, bad woman,” laughed Rein, taking her in his arms.
Suddenly there was uproar outside. Shouting, screaming, “Oh heavens, bush-negroes, bush-negroes.”182
Footsteps in the corridor downstairs. Rein was out of bed in one leap, pulling up the only piece of clothing he was wearing: thin pyjama trousers. He opened the bedroom door, ran onto the passage, and looked out of the window, that reached to his middle. At that same moment a shot rang out and he collapsed onto the floor of the passage, mortally wounded. Her eyes wide with fear, Sarith sat up in bed, pressing her thin batiste nightdress to her naked body. She had heard the shot. What had happened; where was Rein?
Then she heard Jethro crying and calling, “Mini-mini.” The next moment Jethro was on Mini-mini’s arm with her in the room, followed by Kwasiba, who, gasping, closed the door and whispered hoarsely, “Go and hide, my God misi, go and hide. The bush-negroes are here.”183
She pulled Sarith from the bed, opened a cupboard door and pushed her, Mini-mini and Jethro in the cupboard, closed the door and quickly shoved a screen in front of it.
Immediately after that there was a lot of noise in the corridor and on the stairs, footsteps, shouting. The room door was flung open and five Alukus raced in.
“Where are they, where are the whites?”184 one of them shouted to Kwasiba.
“Whites? There are no more whites. Haven’t you killed him already?”185 pointing to Rein’s body that lay in the passage.
“The others, where are they hiding?”186 they shouted again.
“There are no others; they’re all in town.”187
Kwasiba said this most calmly. Meanwhile a group of the plantation’s slaves stood outside. One of the Maroons called from the window, next to which Rein’s body lay, “All you slaves, we have killed the white man already. You can leave. Run away. You are free.”188
A loud cheer rang out and the sound of running feet could be heard.
Suddenly a loud voice came, “Well, then I will sleep here tonight! Aren’t you leaving, woman?”189 “Oh, no,” said Kwasiba. “If you are sleeping here then I can better stay, too, and you can eat a good meal.”190
“Yes woman, you are right. Cook for me. Cook for all of us.”191
“So who are you, brother?”192 asked Kwasiba.
“I am Agosu.”193
The slaves had often of late heard the name Agosu. He was one of the new leaders. When Kwasiba heard the name she was afraid, but she let nothing slip, and continued, “So you are Agosu, eh? I have heard your name. You are a great man.”194
Agosu laughed, “You have heard it, eh? Well, now go and cook. The great man is hungry. I will stay here.”195
Sarith and Mini-mini in the cupboard heard how Kwasiba left the room and they also heard Agosu pacing up and down the room, sometimes silent, sometimes talking to himself. They were both frightened to death. It was pitch dark in the cupboard. At first they stood up, trembling, Sarith still naked, with the nightgown pressed against her. Later she carefully put it on. Mini-mini had sat on the ground with Jethro on her lap. She whispered very cautiously in his ear that he must keep deadly still, must make no noise and must not cry, or they would be discovered and murdered. Jethro, who was four years old, had already heard so much about those terrible Maroons who went around killing people that he understood that this was now a matter of life and death, and there wasn’t a peep out of him. Sarith was so scared that she had to muster all her self-control to ensure that the sound of her teeth chattering would not be heard, or they would be discovered and murdered. It wasn’t true, she kept trying to persuade herself. This wasn’t really happening; it was a nightmare. Soon she would wake up and everything would be normal and safe again. But the nightmare went on. Now and then they heard footsteps, now and then the sound of a chair being moved and a voice saying something. And Rein, where was Rein; what had happened to him?
She didn’t dare ask this of Mini-mini, afraid that her voice would be too loud. She began biting her fingers and had to force herself not to burst out sobbing. Mini-mini held Jethro pressed against her. Oh, as long as nothing happened to this child. If only this negro would leave. Perhaps they would all leave quickly now, now they believed that there were no further whites. That officer, the lad who was carrying on with the misi, was certainly dead. She had seen him lying there on the ground in a pool of blood. If they just remained dead still here in this cupboard, then the men might leave without discovering them. She understood that her mother was now busy cooking. Perhaps they would leave after they had eaten.