Stuart Woods - Palindrome

"Where have you been?" she murmured.

"Around," he replied, kissing her.

"I missed you," she said, throwing a leg over his.

"Not as much as I missed you," he whispered, moving on top of her.

They spoke in a patois no white person could understand, even though they were alone together at the old slave quarters. There were elements of both Gullah and Geechee, spoken by inhabitants of islands farther north in Georgia and South Carolina, but much of the dialect was peculiar to the slaves on Cumberland and their descendants, and now only Buck Moses and his grandson James spoke it. "Big changes coming," Buck said. "What kind of changes, Granddaddy?"

"A big wind going to blow through Cumberland. Everything change. I'm glad I ain't going to be alive to see it."

"You're not going to die, Granddaddy. You outlived four wives and everybody else on this island. I don't think you're ever going to die."

Buck Moses grinned toothlessly. "Tell you the truth, I just about believe that myself till right recent." His face grew sober again. "But I'm going to die, just like everybody else. I'll outlive your daddy, though."

It took James a moment to sort out who his grandfather meant, and then he was shocked. Buck had never spoken of this before. "You knowed, didn't you?" Buck asked.

"Maybe," James replied, still cautious of speaking about it.

"He won't never say it to you," Buck said, sipping the hot tea he had made from herbs.

"Not to your face. But he'll let you know. I knowed him since he was a baby; he won't let it pass. Could mean trouble for you."

"What kind of trouble?"

"Angus a rich man. He got a lot of kinfolk. Folks don't let go of money easy, and ain't going to be nobody to help you on this island."

"They going to think I want his money?"

"You crazy if you don't." Buck snorted. "You just like everybody else, you got to eat, got to have a roof. You going to need it."

"I can make my way," James said, offended. "You taught me all my life how to live off this island. If I can't make it on the mainland, I'll hunt my living here."

"Maybe, maybe not," Buck said. "They maybe don't want you here when they know you his son. They maybe run you off."

"They got to find me first," James said. Buck laughed out loud.

"That's right, they got to find you. You give 'em a hunt, eh?"

"Yessir." James was quiet for a moment. "Granddaddy, anybody else know about this?"

"Folks got eyes. Germaine might be guessing, Hamish and Keir, too."

"They like me, don't they?"

"Sure, boy, but you don't know folks when they fighting over money. Keir won't do nothing to hurt you. I don't know about Hamish and Germaine. Hamish funny sometime."

"What's the matter with those fellows?" James asked. "How come they don't like each other?"

"Those boys lovez each other; that's why they like they are."

"But you can't talk about one of them to the other one, or he'll walk off. That don't be the way folks act when they love one another."

"There's a reason," Buck said.

"What reason? What could be so bad they won't even know one another?"

"I know. I'm the only one who know. Sometime I think them boys don't know theirselves. But I know."

"Tell me, then."

"I ain't going to tell nobody," Buck said vehemently. "I'm taking it to my grave. But they going to come face to face before long, and I just hope…" His voice trailed off.

"Hope what, Grandaddy?"

"I ain't talking about it no more," Buck said. He finished off his tea. "I'll tell you something. When Angus die, you go see Miz Elizabeth."

"How come?"

"Angus in love with her. He do her right, she do you right."

"But Granddaddy, he's what-sixty or seventy years older than Miz Elizabeth."

"Don't make no difference. I know Angus; I knowed him since he was born. He like a pretty woman. Ain't been one around here for a long time, and he lonesome."

"Don't make no sense to me." James sighed.

"You listen to me, boy. When Angus die, you go see Miz Elizabeth. She help you."

"If you say so, Grandaddy."

Buck Moses got up and walked to the window. "Big wind coming to Cumberland," he said.

Liz stopped by the inn to leave her grocery order. It was late morning, the guests had been dispatched on foot, by bicycle, and by van to various parts of the island, bearing packed lunches, and there was no one about but the kitchen staff and Ron, who was mopping the stone floor in the staff dining room. Liz left her list on Germaine's desk and went looking for her. She had fallen into the habit of stopping by for tea or coffee. She trudged up the stairs, had a look around the deserted library and living room, and emerged onto the front veranda. "Good morning," a voice said. Liz turned and saw Hannah Drummond, Hamish's ex-wife, sitting on a big swing, a book in her lap.

"Join me for some coffee?" the woman asked. There were a pot and two cups on the table before her. "I got some for Hamish, but he and Aldred are out in the jungle somewhere."

"Sure," Liz called and joined her on the swing. Up close, Hannah Drummond looked even better. She was carefully but not heavily made up, perfectly neatly dressed in khaki trousers and a madras shirt, and her hair was still pulled back so tightly that Liz wondered how she could blink. "Hamish becomes a little boy again when he and Aldred are together," Hannah said as she poured the coffee. "I think he relives his childhood that way. They're probably out there right now getting snake-bit."

"No snake would dare bite a Drummond on this island," Liz said.

"You're probably right." Hannah laughed. She handed Liz her coffee. "I hear you've been spending time with a Drummond."

"Angus?"

"No, Keir."

"That's right."

"What's he like?"

"You've never met Keir?"

"No. Not quite, anyway. I saw him once."

"On the island?"

"No, in New York. I was doing some shopping on Fifth Avenue, and I stopped at the skating rink at Rockefeller Center for lunch. This was some years ago, when Hamish and I were still married, and I was pregnant with Aldred at the time. Anyway, I had just paid my bill when I looked up and saw Hamish on the ice, skating with a girl. I was absolutely floored-Hamish had never played around with other women-not that I knew about, anyway. They were skating around, quite gracefully together, and I just sat there and stared at them while I got madder and madder.

"Finally, I got up from the table and walked to the railing around the rink and just stood there. I wanted to see his face when he saw me. They came around again, and he looked right at me, and, to my astonishment, skated right past me. I stood there for two or three more circuits, and he went right past me just as coolly as you please.

"Then, they stopped skating, and he left the girl for a moment, went to the men's room, I guess. I walked over to her and asked the name of the man she was with. 'His name is Keir Drummond,' she told me."

"Did you speak to him at all?" Liz asked.

"No, I just left and went home. I was absolutely stunned. I couldn't figure out if it were some sort of weird practical joke, or if I had really caught my husband with another woman. That night, I told Hamish about my experience, and he dismissed it out of hand, said I must be hallucinating."

"Why didn't you know he had a brother?"

"He never told me. It wasn't until a month or so after that that Germaine visited us in New York and put me in the picture. I was mad as hell, and Hamish and I had a big fight about it."

"He wouldn't admit that he had a brother?"

"Not for a minute. I was beginning to think he was crazy."

"But you learned to live with it."

"Exactly. I mean, he was perfectly normal in every other respect. It seemed the only way to handle it."