Summary
Antoinette serves as bridesmaid when her mother weds Mr.
Mason in Spanish Town. She sees smiling white guests, whom she has
overheard earlier at Coulibri Estate condemning Mr. Mason's choice
of bride. These guests called Antoinette's mother a penniless widow, whose
first husband was a drunken lecher and whose children are either
odd or idiotic—although the guests do concede that Annette is a
beautiful dancer. Antoinette remembers overhearing that Mr. Mason
only came to the West Indies to make money.
While her mother honeymoons in Trinidad, Antoinette and
her brother stay with their Aunt Cora in Spanish Town. When they
all return to Coulibri, the place looks pristine and dignified.
Mr. Mason employs new servants, whom Antoinette fears for their
talk of Christophine's obeah (voodoo) practices; they speak of blood, curses,
and death.
After a year of marriage, Annette and Mr. Mason begin
to argue about whether to leave Coulibri. Annette pleads with her
husband to move because she feels hated at the Estate. He laughs,
assuring her that the servants are harmless, that the blacks are
too lazy to be threatening. As Antoinette explains later, Mr. Mason,
an Englishman, cannot understand Creole fears and apprehensions.
One night on the glacis, Annette and
Aunt Cora tell Mr. Mason that Coulibri is no longer safe, and that
they must leave immediately. Again, however, he dismisses their
worries. Antoinette goes to bed and awaits Christophine's goodnight,
but Christophine does not come. Frightened, Antoinette wishes she
still believed in her magic stick, a shingle that served as her
protective talisman. She awakes in the middle of the night when
her mother rushes in and orders her downstairs to the drawing room.
Downstairs, Mr. Mason tries to calm the gathering household. When
he opens the door to the glacis, a roar of angry
voices fills the room. Black servants congregate outside, beneath
the glacis, and throw rocks at Mr. Mason when he
tries to pacify them. As Annette frets over whether to leave Pierre
sleeping, the servant Mannie notices smoke emerging from the children's
rooms. Annette immediately runs to rescue her son, returning with
Pierre in her arms and her hair partially burned. Annette had trusted
Pierre to Myra's care, but the servant had left to join the protest
outside. Just as Annette had feared, her servants have been disloyal—even
dangerous—and she screams at Mr. Mason for his naïve trust in the
blacks.
With the house in flames, the family rushes out onto the glacis to the
roars of the assembled crowd. Annette, however, stays inside in order
to rescue her parrot, Coco. Mr. Mason struggles with Annette, finally
dragging her outside to the horses that their groom, Mannie, has
prepared for a speedy escape. Suddenly, the screaming stops and Antoinette
looks up to see her mother's parrot fall off the glacis railing,
ablaze and attempting to fly on wings that Mr. Mason had clipped.
The bird falls to a fiery death as the stunned rioters begin to disband.
Scrambling to enter the carriage, the family is stopped by an angry
servant, but Aunt Cora curses him and he steps aside. Turning back
to look at the house, Antoinette sees Tia and Maillotte; she runs
to them, hoping to stay with them at Coulibri. Tia throws a jagged
rock at Antoinette, who stares at her old friends in horror as blood
pours from her forehead.
