SARITH
Sarith could survive no longer at Klein Paradijs. She had now been on the plantation for more than six consecutive months, for the first time since she was married. In the beginning the recent events, and especially the death of Rein Andersma, had cast their shadow over her such that amusement held no appeal forto her. She stayed in her room, thought things over a lot. She felt guilty that it was because of her that Rein was now dead. Often in the dead of night she would awake in terror, dreaming yet again of that ghastly day, shut up in the cupboard, that terrible Agosu pacing up and down in her room, and Rein lying dead in the passage. And then there was Julius. Julius, who was perhaps not angry any more, but just totally indifferent to her. She didn’t know which was worse. He gave her hardly a glance. Now and then they had visitors on the plantation, people travelling to plantations further afield who would stop awhile. Her mother had also come just after the birth and had stayed a few weeks there.
She had also heard how Fourgeoud’s forces, reinforced by the Zwarte Jagers Corps, had combed the Cottica region and had managed to destroy some villages and crops that were still left. The Bonis had left for the other side of the Marowijne River and were now in French Guyana. The colonists breathed a sigh of relief. At last! Finally they were rid of that rabble in the bush. They now had nothing more to fear, and that expensive army could be got rid of, and quickly. Away with all those soldiers, officers and lieutenants who were costing them money and were furthermore getting off with their women.
Julius never looked at the baby. It was Sarith’s child, not his. When Sarith said in the month of June that she wanted to go to the town for a while, he said, “Just go, I don’t care.”
“I’ll take the child with me, and Nicolette.”
Julius replied, “Please yourself.”
And so Sarith left and installed herself again on the top floor of her sister’s house. Esther’s boys found the baby great. Sarith began to go out again, seeking amusement in evenings out and visits here and there. She did, however, notice that she was no longer invited by some people, and that some of the rich plantation owners were most decidedly no longer rich. But she noticed most of all how people were whispering about her. Often people would ask after her little daughter, Eva. Eva was growing, and hair was growing over that little bald head: blond hair, while in neither her family nor that of Julius had blond hair and blue eyes ever been seen. No, everything was different now, and when it was becoming so hot and dusty in the town at the end of September, Sarith decided to return to Klein Paradijs.
When she arrived back home, she immediately noticed the intimacy between Julius, Jethro and Mini-mini. Jethro could already read quite well. He and Mini-mini would read happily together from a sheet on which Julius had written something, while he himself smiled along. One morning when Mini-mini was busy in Jethro’s room and Sarith came in, she suddenly realized: Mini-mini was pregnant. “Hey, Mini-mini, are you expecting?”237 asked Sarith in surprise.
With some embarrassment, the girl answered, “Yes misi.”
“Who, then – who is the father?”238 Sarith asked.
Mini-mini hung her head and remained silent.
“Who is the father – is it one of the slaves here?”239
“No misi, misi doesn’t know him,”240 came the sheepish answer.
Sarith assumed that it must anyway be one of the slaves, or a chance guest. Well, that Mini-mini – and she had always thought that she was so shy and withdrawing. She had obviously misjudged the girl.
But Sarith noticed more during the weeks that followed. If she had already suspected that there was something between those three people, something from which she was excluded, now she saw how Julius looked at Mini-mini and she had also seen on occasion how Mini-mini had returned the look. Those were no glances between master and slave, but between two lovers. At first the thought scared her. No, that was not possible. That was nothing for Julius. But she began to observe more closely, and noticed especially that Julius was massaged every afternoon and that he and Mini-mini spent a long time in the office. That would always happen around siesta time, when Mini-mini had first sat next to Jethro’s bed with a fan, until he had fallen asleep.
Sarith was angry. She wanted to know the details. She waited for her chance, a moment when Julius and Mini-mini were together in the office. She went to the door and turned the knob silently, but the door was locked. She tried looking through the keyhole, but the key was in it and she could see nothing. She just had to know, had to know what was happening in there.
She left the rear veranda silently and walked round the house. On the side there was the open window of the office, but it was too high for her to look in. What now? Then, still making no sound, she went inside again and upstairs. The office was under a small room that was hardly ever used and where various baskets and boxes with clothes and all kinds of things were piled up. Sarith looked at the floor. Fortunately for her there was a chink here and there between the floorboards. Very carefully she lay down on the floor and put an eye to one of the gaps. She saw the two of them on the couch and knew enough: so what she had suspected was true. She kept on looking. This was no wild Julius taking advantage of a slave-girl. No, this was tender cuddling, caressing and loving whispers.