Free The Last Warner Woman by Kei Miller

off the bandages from Maas Johnny. But when he go over to Miss Lily she lean over in her chair and kashai! she thump him in his face. One almighty thump like she did have yam and dasheen and cassava in her fist. Have mercy! He never expect it. Never see it coming at all, at all, and he howl out. Listen nuh, anytime they tell me this part of the story they all laugh and laugh just to think of Monsignor Dennis rubbing him face and looking so frighten. They say he jump up to his feet and bawl out, What the devil has gotten into you lot of monkeys? Yes, that’s what he call them to their faces. Miss Lily push herself as far up in her wheelchair as she could go. She looking like a man who just step out of the rum-bar and suddenly unbalanced by the night air. She rocking back and forth but she looking on him steady, so steady that him cannot look away from her. Miss Lily was a schoolteacher once upon a time and she draw for that same sharp voice that used to make pickney stand up straight and behave themselves. Miss Lily herself never once repeat this speech to me, but the other fellows repeat it for her. And maybe they add to it, and maybe they subtract, but she never correct them. So if don’t go so, it nearly go so.
    Shhhhhhhhh
    Look here, sir, Miss Lily start, I know you do not know what it is like to look in a mirror and see a face as ugly as mine. And even if you did have what I have, you would be white so you would still be able to make a way in this word. So since you don’t know, I will tell you: I seen a man eat him food and throw it back up just because he catch sight of me. And another time a whole set of children throw dog shit at me and bawl out leper, and then they run away and laugh. The men were nodding like it was church. Tell him, Lily, tell him. She continue. But I wasn’t born looking like this, sir. There was a time when I was a schoolteacher. I have my diploma from Mico Teacher’s College to prove it. Furthermore I was a pretty young thing, and a tall gentleman better looking than even you was courting me in those days. We was supposed to get married. But then all on a sudden this thing start happening to me. The three men agreed, Yes, yes. That’s how it start. All on a sudden. Miss Lily was getting bolder, her voice rising and breaking at the same time, So I said to myself, Lily, you can’t go to church and turn Mrs. with this bad case of eczema. That is what I did think it was. So I wait for it to clear. It is twenty years now and I still waiting. The man leave me of course. Who could blame him? And furthermore I lose my looks. Furthermore I lose my man. Furthermore I lose my teaching work. Furthermore I lose every Godalmighty thing a person can lose. So see here now, Monsignor Dennis, it is a long long time now that I don’t feel good bout myself. But take a long look at this ugly woman before you. Miss Lily spread her arms to show the heap of purple that was covering her body. All of this is making me feel beautiful again. And no way josé you going to take this from me. She finish by spitting on the floor. You, sir, is nothing but a cantankerous stinking old john-crow. The three men repeat this with feeling, Yes, yes, a stinking old john-crow.
    Shhhhhhhhh
    Is like the words hit him harder than the thump him get. Like maybe he couldn’t handle the thought of people like that, lepers, standing up to him like they was somebody. So from that day he leave them alone. He don’t say nothing. He don’t business. And his age come upon him hard. When I did get to know him years after, he was just a shadow of a man—a senile old priest who did sometimes seem even worse off than the lepers. I remember one day Mother Lazarus sigh a heavy sigh and march outside to him, like something was on her mind and she had to speak it even if he never have the ears to hear it. You know how old I be? You know how old I be, Missa Dennis? I is one hundred and one years old. You can’t count that. I supposed to be in the