The butler

The car arrived at the plantation at midday, which is a time of sweat in the south. The help lined up in front of the house sweat running down their faces and their backs creating darker patches on their white uniforms. The air smelled of banana leaves.

“She the wife?” asked Myrtle, adjusting the headband on her head. Eugene didn’t reply.

The car stopped in the driveway and sprayed dust in the air. The colonel stepped out and opened the door for her and she came out holding her hat for protection against the sun. They walked up the stairs and in front of the help.

“This is the help, dear. Eugene here has been with us for more than twenty years. He is our butler.”, said the colonel.

Eugene looked at the girl, and she was a girl, twenty at most to the colonel’s fifty. Her skin was very white with red patches because of the sun. Her eyes were pale blue and large and with long lashes. She tilted her head to one side and smiled at Eugene. He smiled back.

The colonel introduced the rest of the help bruskly and energetically waving his hands as he talked. Myrtle gave a slight bow, tripped over her feet and Eugene caught her. The colonel regarded them with a frown and continued with the introductions.

He finished. He marched into the house, pulling the girl with him. The help went back to work. It was harvest season. There was much to do. The heat slowed everything.

The night brought cooler air and Eugene went to the library. He was the only one to use it. The colonel could read, but he had no interest in it. The help could not read and at times Eugene read to them but he preferred to read alone.

As he sat with his book he heard a drunken giggling from the corridor and he saw the couple in the doorframe embracing tightly, her wavering sideways because of their weight difference. She stopped and looked at Eugene with curiosity and a frozen smile on her lips.

“Oh, I let Eugene come and read here when he is done with his work”, said the colonel, looking away. Eugene stiffened and the colonel tightened his grip on the girl’s waist and dragged her, frozen smile and all, toward the bedroom.

As the days went by the help started gossiping. There were shouts of pleasure and shouts of pain coming from the bedroom at night. They could hear hard words spoken and they could hear crying. Myrtle said with admiration that the colonel was an animal. Eugene didn’t say anything.

The girl cheeks got redder because of the sun and she was more comfortable in the house talking to the help with authority but also with kindness and respect while the colonel made his rounds around the plantation. They went to the city together and they often had people over for dinner and the men drank whisky in the library while the women sit down and talked in the dining room. The colonel taught her how to ride and left her roses on her bed.

Eugene didn’t like any of it because it was too much and no flame can burn both bright and long. He looked at the girl and hoped she had good bones for what was coming but he doubted it because she was so slight. He thought about Evaline and her big bones and her big ass and how she died in the plantation when their third child was born.

Evaline was strong and she died strongly. She had a solid quality to her as if she occupied more space on this earth that her frame would allow. Evaline was gone and now there was this girl and he hoped she would be ok but he doubted it because she didn’t occupy any space at all.

One night Eugene saw them from the library door and the colonel wasn’t holding her waist quite as tight and they weren’t giggling and Eugene knew what was about to come.

After a while the trips started and the colonel was rarely home. There was always something in the city that required his attention and the plantation overseer was making the colonel’s rounds. Eugene found glasses around the house that smelled of whiskey and he knew the girl was drinking and he knew that she was not ok.

The girl was losing her kindness and she treated the help with little respect and Eugene thought that it was because she had no respect for herself because of the drinking and the loss of her man.

“What are you reading, Eugene?” she asked one night, words coming out of her mouth with fatigue. She took the whisky bottle from the cabinet and two glasses.

“I don’t drink, Madame”, he said hesitantly and she put one glass back reluctantly.

She poured a big one for herself, sat down in front of him, gulped most of it down and started talking: “You know Eugene that I can’t read? No-one taught me. Why would a belle like me read? I can’t read. Is it difficult? Am I still a belle now that I am married? It’s true, I can’t read.”

Her voice slurred and he couldn’t understand all she was saying and he didn’t reply. She gulped the rest of the glass down and her eyes widened with intention.

“Would you read to me, Eugene?”

“I am not a good reader.”

“But you can read, can’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Then read to me!” she spit out, with excessive force.

“What do you want me to read?” he asked.

“Something … something …” and her voice fell to a whisper “Something … you know … to make me better … smarter … I am not smart … They didn’t teach me smartness … just to be a belle … something to make me smart.”

Eugene was uncertain. These were dangerous waters, he thought, my reading to this girl or my refusing to do it. Either way it is unfit for my position. He looked at the girl and her watery blue eyes streaked with small red veins because of the whisky and her lips parted and her slim white arms. He looked at the girl and started reading.

As he read he watched the girl and saw that she was falling asleep. He tried to vary his tone and speak louder to avoid it but there was no avoiding it and she fell asleep on the chair. The nightgown had opened and Eugene could see her white legs coming out of it and he could see the top of her white breast.

He looked away but then looked back at her and his eyes narrowed and he couldn’t understand it because it had been such a long time without it. He shook his head to dispatch the feelings and reclaim clarity. He tried to wake her up but she just shuffled on the chair and her head fell to one side.

I cannot leave her like this but I cannot touch her either. He looked at the open door. What if someone comes in? What if they find us like this? The fear and the embarrassment and the dark room fueled his feelings and he felt hunger and desire for her and didn’t know why because she was so slight.

He stood up and walked to her and closed her nightgown. He picked her up in his arms and carried her to the bedroom. He put her on the bed and covered her with the blanket. He looked at her for a while, then left the room. He went back to the library and tried to read but couldn’t. He looked at the dark window and thought of nothing.

“Can you read to me, Eugene?” she asked the next night.

“I am an old man, Madame. I get tired from reading too much.”

“Please, Eugene. It would mean a lot to me.” she said petulantly.

“Let’s make a deal. You fill up the small glass because I am too old to last until you finish the big one and I will read to you until the glass is empty.”

She widened her eyes in surprise and poured the small glass full of whisky. Eugene started reading and she was very careful not to drink too much.

They went on like this for a while and she asked him if Darcy and Elizabeth were going to end up together and he said she had to wait a little longer and she asked him if they should end up together and he said that it depends on the reader and to be more careful with the word ‘should’.

“Darcy is a fool”, she said.

“Why do you say that, Madame?”

“Because he is proud and arrogant. He thinks he is better than everyone else.”

The girl’s eyelids were heavy and she was fighting to keep them open and the whisky was all gone.

“Good night, Eugene”, she said without looking at him and she went to bed.

Eugene sat in the library for a long time and thought about the girl and thought about the colonel and thought about Evaline and all his thoughts were jumbled and he couldn’t make sense of them.

The colonel was away for a long time and Eugene read to the girl every night and she drank less and less and the kindness and the respect came back to her.

“Why don’t they get together now, Eugene?”

“There are many things in the way, Madame.”

“But they are of no consequence!”

“There are many things in the way and they are of great consequence, Madame.”

“Maybe you are right. Life is not that simple, is it Eugene?”

“Life is not that simple, Madame, and there are things of great consequence.”

One night the girl told Eugene that the colonel was coming back the next day and they had to finish the book before that. Eugene read to her for a long time and she drank many small glasses of whisky and they were both tired but happy that the book was finished.

Before going to bed the girl kissed Eugene on the forehead and said: “Thank you, Eugene.”

Eugene froze because of the audacity of her and because he didn’t expect it and felt his face getting all warm and his stomach turning. The sun was coming up and he heard a rooster crowing and smelt the morning air coming in through the window.

The colonel arrived in a fury of dust, sweat and noise. The business in the city had been good and there was a lot to say and a lot to do. Plans had to be drawn for the harvest and the overseer had to be called and the workers had to be organized. The house filled with shouts and orders and the sound of feet stamping on the floor.

The night came and Eugene was in the library and he saw the colonel and the girl passing by the door. The colonel was holding her waist tight and she was laughing and they were both drunk. He heard the bedroom door slam and the colonel shout and the girl cry. He heard a loud bang and stood up and walked to the door of their bedroom. The door was ajar because they slammed it too hard and through the crack he saw them.

They were on the big bed and the colonel was on top of her and holding her arms down with his hands. The colonel was kissing her neck and the girl’s face was turned toward Eugene and her eyes were closed and her mouth was soft and her body was limp. Eugene stepped back from the door; clenched his fists and walked back toward the library.

He sat down and stared out the window. The night was dark and the crickets were singing. He sat for a long time until no more sounds came from the bedroom. He sat and thought about Evaline and her big bones and the white of the girl’s legs and her soft lips.

He stood up and opened the tall cabinet and took out the rifle. He got the bullets from the drawer and loaded it and got out of the library. The corridor was dark except for the light coming from the bedroom. Eugene walked toward the light, got to the door, stepped inside and stopped in front of the bed.

The lovers slept and the light came from the moon outside the window and the girl’s legs stuck out of the blanket and they were very white.

The help woke up to the loud bang of the gunshot and the dogs barked and the crickets stopped singing. The night went silent.