Ruby and Rebecka- Chapter Five

Chapter Five 

All the world was black.

A song soared through the darkness. A dark and rich melody that came from long, long ago. It flowed like water in the inlet streams back to the ocean. Oh, I see, she thought, I am swimming in this song. I am this song and we are now in the ocean deep, deep, deep down below where light from the sun can reach us. And I can breathe here, and the water is warm. Fluorescent images floated in the black water, glowing in the dark, fluorescent fish, fluorescent Inez, fluorescent Granny. And the baby, oh the baby, the little girl baby, there for an instant, wavery, translucent. She reached through the darkness as if she could find her and catch hold of her. 

But as soon as she reached for her, the dark water began to roil and now she spun around and was spit out by the ocean and hurled back to shore through rough, swelling waves, and the baby was snatched away, back down into the deep, and she rolled in and out, dark then light, light and light, and then a circle of eyes stared down at her through the heaving waves. A circle of dark fish eyes. Many fish. Peering. And they made sounds. Murmurs and talking to one another in a language made of the wind and the earth and the ocean, woven into the song now. Heartbeats. And eyes. And stomping. And moaning and praying and waves crashing, what e be doin ya? And then she was cast upon the shore, spent and exhausted under the circle of fishy eyes. 

These fish are going to eat me, she thought, and flailed her hand at them. The circle scattered and there were murmurs and mutters of consternation. 

Well, hmm. Hope, I think we giving her too much too fast? 

Perhaps, Hope said. But there isn't much time. She hooked her arm through Inez's arm, and they floated in the song, above Becka, also peering at her lying prone amongst the graves in the cemetery. 

And then, weirdly, her grandmother's letter swam across her vision and then odd images of bulldozers and trees cracking and screaming, and birds flying with alarm up into the treeless sky and the baby, again the baby, crying. 

"Granny," she said. "Inez?" 

Something sharp and reptile-like landed on her chest and her eyes sprang open properly, and there was Ruby, precious Ruby, standing on her chest staring down on her. A small man with ebony skin and white hair knelt on the ground next to her, and on her other side a stout woman wearing a cotton dress with a pattern of small pink roses on it was on her knees, holding her palm against Becka's back. 

Becka rubbed her head. She wasn't under water at all, instead she had been lying on the ground surrounded by graves. And there were people. The people who'd been in the church singing, and now they were not singing. They were milling about, in small groups, under the live oaks, murmuring amongst themselves and stealing glances at her. And no Granny. No Inez. Hot shame, embarrassed shame, rushed through her. Oh my. What have I done now? 

She reached down and smoothed her Bermuda shorts and imagined, as she pulled herself into a sitting position, that she must look peculiar, all white and skinny and gangly against the dark ground. Peculiar and undignified. She pushed herself up to stand. 

Don't move too fast, Honey, the woman said, and her voice had the familiar timbre of the island. Honey and butter with some sand mixed in. 

"Let's get you inside," the woman said, and she and the man helped Becka to her feet. 

"We are just about to go inside for Sunday lunch. Will you join us?" 

"Oh. I don't want to bother y'all more than I already have." She wanted to get out of there as fast as she could. 

"You are no bother. You look like you need some sustenance," the man insisted. 

She noticed a small clutch of women eyeing her suspiciously. A few words floated over to her. "E take sick in the graveyard..." and then there was clucking and shaking of heads. 

Becka thought now that between Ruby and her fainting amongst the graves, these people knew for certain that she must be infected by the haints, and maybe she was, that was the entire problem. Maybe she needed to get off the island as soon as possible. 

Ruby landed on her shoulder then and tugged at her blouse. Inez and Granny swirled around her, and one of the ladies in the clutch stepped back and began muttering fast and furiously. 

Can she see us, Inez? 

Hmm, don't know, but she is worried about Ruby. And she is worried about the hag. 

Becka smiled then and gently took Ruby off her shoulder and set her on the ground. 

"She's not dangerous," Becka said to the man and woman beside her, as they seemed to be the leaders of the congregation. She laughed. "She adopted me and seems to be traveling with me right now." 

Ruby began a comical dance as if to prove she was not a portent of something sinister. 

The man laughed and said, "Well, I reckon you both need to come join us for the meal then before you get on your way. My name is Elijah, and this is Cornelia. And that over there is my grandson, Tyrone. You will sit with us." 

"I'm Becka Taylor, and this here is Ruby." 

"Well, Becka, you and Ruby are both welcome." 

"Thank you so much. I'm so sorry to cause such a bother." 

"You are not a bother," Cornelia said, still holding onto Becka's arm. "We heard singing coming from the cemetery and it sounded like angels singing." 

"I was singing? I don't remember singing." 

"I found you," Tyrone said. He was a skinny kid, puffed up and proud that he had found the stranger lying amongst the gravestones. 

A tittering sound came from the small group. Becka couldn't really tell if this was a friendly sound or not, but it seemed that if Elijah and Cornelia said it was okay then everybody went along with that. 

Inside, the small clapboard building was filled with Sunday lunch smells, of chicken frying and collard greens wound up with the smell of the marsh, threatening to swirl her off her feet again. Becka sucked in a big breath to steady herself as she realized she was starving. 

A long table covered with a white cloth was piled high with collard greens and butterbeans, fried chicken, red rice, sweating pitchers of iced tea, and pies. 

"Here, Honey, you sit next to me and Elijah." 

"Thank you so much." 

The other members of the congregation began filling the hall and scraping the chairs back from the table and settling in. 

Down near the church end of the hall, Inez and Granny wafted in and hovered there. 

Ruby gave a little caw as if she was going to fly over and join them, and Inez put her fingers to her lips and shook her head, and Ruby, as if understanding completely, settled down on Becka's lap. 

Elijah put a plate piled high with food and a glass of sweet tea in front of Becka and then sat next to her. 

 She began to reach for her food. Cornelia quickly grabbed her hand, and Elijah took the other, and the entire congregation bowed their heads, holding hands around the long table, and Elijah said grace. 

They ate in silence, Becka worked hard not to wolf down her food, and then the chattering and laughing began. 

"So, you are a nomad?" Elijah said. 

"Oh," Becka said, wiping her mouth with her napkin, "well, I don't think so." 

"You are driving around in a Nomad then." 

Becka smiled. "That's Bertha. My granny, Hope Bowen, just passed and she left me the car. I don't reckon I would have the courage to be a true nomad. But Granny left me some instructions along with the car. And a mysterious key." She decided to leave out the part about the money.  

"What were you doing in the cemetery, if you don't mind my asking?" 

"I was visiting the grave of Inez Polite. She used to bring me to this church when I was little. I had some amends to make. And then I don't know what happened. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to intrude." 

All eyes were on her now. Becka's words trailed off and she looked down at her hands and didn't move. Elijah cleared his throat. 

She looked up. He smiled at her. A simple smile, without expectation or judgment. She smiled back at him, shyly, and as she looked at him, she found herself overcome with a desire to tell him everything. About Bertha and Granny and Inez, about the envelope, the letter, and the money. Ask him if he knew this Pete. Tell him about the key. And about how her husband was not answering her texts or calls, and how she thought he maybe was stepping out on her. About the loss of babies, and about Blondel. And oh, Malcolm. Her heart squeezed hard then and no words would come out of her mouth and her cheeks pricked with self-consciousness. 

The silence around the table deepened and grew thick, like everyone was now waiting for what came next. 

"My grandmother wrote me a letter. She left me a phone number for a man named Pete. She said I needed to see him. And she left a key. I don't know who this Pete is, or why I need to find him, or what the key unlocks." 

Elijah pushed back his chair. 

"I had a sailboat," he said. He had the sonorous voice of a minister, and now he was giving his second sermon of the day. "Africa. I settled in Sierra Leone for a while to talk to the ancestors. When the Silver Raven and I sailed past Bunce Island there was a wailing in the wind that wouldn't let up. It was the most mournful sound. I almost lost the courage to seek out my ancestors. Didn't know if my heart could bear the history." 

Inez fluttered down behind Becka now. Elijah glanced up sharply, looking over Becka's shoulder, and then appraised Becka. 

"But I found the courage to stay in Sierra Leone, moored in Freetown, and I learned back before the sorrow, all the way back to who I am. One day, while sitting on the deck of the Silver Raven in the port in Freetown, I was sitting with my face turned to the ocean looking for a bit of fresh breeze, and it started to rain. A freak rain, falling from a small cloud scudding across the blue sky. A sunshine squall, I like to call it. A rainbow stretched from heaven and fell into the water right beside the Silver Raven. I could see the colors floating right there on the surface. The ropes clinked against the mast, and a pair of seagulls soared through the rainbow, and for a second their wings were stained yellow, indigo, and, orange. They screamed and wheeled out to sea, circling after a fishing boat heading for deeper water. And somehow they left me with a longing for home so powerful I thought I could smell shrimp frying." 

Elijah stretched his arms behind his head and laughed. 

"Yes, ma'am, I was overcome with a longing for some simple fried shrimp and a plate of biscuits and some collard greens and red rice. My stomach rumbled with homesickness. I wanted my own food. I wanted the pelicans loping across the sky. I wanted the marsh. My ancestors may have come from that place, but South Carolina was my home, so I sold the Silver Raven and flew back." 

"I have been so homesick for so many years that finding Inez's grave made me faint dead away. There is a story I have not allowed myself to remember." Becka blinked. The words had just fallen out of her mouth. She sat with her mouth a little bit open, like maybe she could just catch those words and press them back inside of her. 

"Mm-hmm, I thought we had as much in common. Sometimes you need to remember on things before you can move forward." Elijah rubbed his thumb along the table's edge. He looked her full in the eyes, no blinking, not letting her turn loose his gaze, not like he wanted anything from her but like he could see right inside her and he knew who she was and what she needed to do, until she felt a blush rising under her skin and she put her hands to her cheeks to cool the heat. 

It was like they were alone together in a snow globe and no one moved or made a sound around the table. 

Then Ruby, playing the jester, made a little craw craw sound and hopped onto Becka's shoulder then and began to tug at her hair, and Elijah laughed. 

Around the table a chorus of mm-hmms rose up, and then the place erupted into chattering and laughing, and the somber mood was broken. 

She’s good, Inez laughed, she’s very good. Come on, Ruby. Come on, Hope, let's get back to Bertha. It's time to go. 

Ruby gave another little cooing sound and flew out the open door with Inez and Granny close behind. 

All the eyes at the table looked at Becka, expectantly. "I guess that's my cue," she said. "Can I help y'all clean up before I go?" 

"No, ma'am. But please come back anytime and sing for us. I hope you find what you are looking for. And listen to the folks traveling with you." 

Becka furrowed her brow. "You mean, Ruby?" 

"I mean the others." 

"The others?" 

He looked at her quizzically. 

She figured he meant something she was supposed to understand but didn't, and out of habit, she smiled and nodded, and said thank you and I will be back. I am so grateful to all of y'all. 

Then she made her way out to Bertha. She slipped behind the wheel and turned on the ignition. 

As she began to pull out, Cornelia ran out after her, waving a piece of paper. She leaned through the car window, out of breath. "Here. I think this is the Pete you are looking for. Here's his address. Also you can text him here." She handed the paper to Becka. 

"Thank you." 

"I hope we see you next Sunday." 

"I hope so too. Thank you for everything, Cornelia." 

As they pulled onto the road, Becka turned to Ruby, who perched on the dashboard. 

"Well, Ruby, I don't really know what all is going on, but I guess we are going to find Pete and see what's up. Right now let's get back to the Flamingo Court and see if we can stay longer. I reckon we are staying a while."