Free Far Tortuga by Peter Matthiessen Page B

and den you grope de bottom to see if you come to de right place. Well, dem times, turtle pick up where dey is feedin and head straight back for dere coral head or pan shoal, straight, straight, straight! And de onliest way dey could do dis is turtle
eye
sight: dey must
see
through dat water with turtle eyesight, same as a mon would see through a hazy sun or something!
    Must be divine guidance, dat is how
I
would express it, ain’t dat right, Copm Raib?
    Raib contemplates Vemon for a long time.
    Need more den divine guidance for a job like
dat
.

    Still got duppies down dere at East End, ain’t dat right, Wodie?
    Wodie smiles, eyes closed.
    Y’know, I never seen a duppy, and dis is funny, for I born with a caul, and people dat haves a caul s’posed to see duppies better someway. But dey plenty in my family
has
seen duppies. My grandmother had a brother by de name of Billy, and one night he goin home in de full moon light. And when he got to a certain spot in de road, he seen a ruffly hen and chicks. So he say to hisself, Well, look, dis is some of de neighbors’ chickens, so before anything destroy dem, I will corry dem home, bring dem back in de mornin. So he take up dis ruffly hen on his arm, and go walkin down de road goin home. And when he got by de cemetery, he say de hen look up in his face like dat. (
grimaces
) Hen say, You ever see teeth like dis? Say, Take me and corry me back where you took me
from
! He was so frightened he wanted to throw her down. She say, No, don’t put me down; corry me back where you took me
from
! And he turn around and corry her back, and den he took off, cause dat hen had as fierce a set of teeth as he ever seen.
    A silence.
    Wodie opens his eyes wide, beside himself and shy. When he speaks again, his voice is high and singsong, sweet. The men stare at the stained white of his blind eye.
    Course, mostways you never see de duppies, dey just got dere little ways of lettin you know dat dey are dere, like knockin something down, and things like dat. And when you
do
see something, most de time it just a kind of fireball, shape like a egg. See dat mostly over gravestones, but fireballs are common by de side de road, or under eaves, or out by de front gate—just hangin in de air. Now dat fireball might be a duppy, somebody dat is just died, or it might be de night spirit of some livin person who is out haggin—left dere body behind, y’know. Dey takes de form of a fireball or a night bird. But usually dat fireball is de spirit of someone dat is crossin over. Most de time it just kind of a glow like you can see in rotten fish, but sometimes de person’s face is dere, and dey are times when de whole body is seen, like in dat famous case in de hurricane year of 1919. A fella on a ship way up in de Gulf of Mexico seen dis woman hangin in de cabin doorway, and when dey got back home to Caymans two weeks later dey found out dat on de very same night Vaney Bush had hung herself in Georgetown—
    Wodie! One thing we don’t need aboard of here—
    Oh, Copm, you was livin in dat hurricane year, you can tell dat tale better den me—
    I ’member dat goddom hurricane okay, I run right out de windward side de house—
    Don’t ’member about Vaney Bush?
    The men turn one by one to regard the Captain. He sucks his teeth.
    Well, it were a MacTaggart, I believe, who seen poor Vaney in de cabin door, and I got to say dat dis case were very mysterious. But you go talkin about hens with teeth …

    Half Moon Cay. A low cay of red mangrove, with a small beach inset in the limestone of the leeward shore. On the crest of the beach is a wind-worn lean-to and a catboat, but there is no sign of man. Sooty terns rise and settle.
    At the
Eden’
s rail, Will Parchment holds to his chest a package of coffee and cigarettes, canned fruit and comics.
    Dat boat of Will’s dere is a fine little boat. And dat boy just left her behind.
    Will? Nemmine, Will—we pick up dat boat on de way home!
    Copm Raib? Will tellin