Part 33 (2/2)
”Ball and chain,” Allegra said. ”Beware.”
”Who?”
”Him.”
”Is that the one!”
”I told you, didn't I?”
”You didn't tell me. You kicked me. But I guess that's a quibble. I do declare,” said Hugh. ”I do absolutely declare. Do you duel?”
”I beg your pardon?” William said.
”Sir, I ask if you duel. Choose your blades.”
”Blades of gra.s.s,” Allegra t.i.ttered, chewing one.
”I am in love with your wife,” said the Negro.
”You see?” Allegra said helpfully. ”Now you've got to kill him, William.”
”That's your Justice, I suppose,” the Negro said.
”There! That's William to a T,” Allegra cried, admiring the other's mimicry. ”He's all for the dead hand and things.”
”And life, liberty, and the pursuit of property,” said Hugh; ”add that.”
”Oh pooh! Really, is there anyone vainer than a black man? Talk of property!” Allegra said. ”n.o.body's pursuing you any more.”
”That's what you think, girl. Enoch is.”
”Is he? What'd you do?”
”It's what I didn't do. Sin of omission. Those notes on the Scandinavian organizations I promised him.”
”Haven't you sent for them yet!” Allegra marveled. ”If it depends on you we'll never get to Moscow. -Lazy and s.h.i.+ftless you are.”
”Terrible indolent race, us Swedes,” the Negro said. ”Here, gimme my s.h.i.+rt to sweat in. That's another reel starting-carries me back to old Virginny, where my old black grand-mammy used to mix a.r.s.enic juleps for the Squire. There was a revolutionary!” He jumped to his feet and offered a slim hand to William. ”You want to come, man? You look's though you could use an aeration of the blood vessels. 'Legra won't, she's got the curse.”
”Go ahead, William,” Allegra urged. ”You know how to do it. You can kill him in the do-see-do, when his back is turned. -All right. d.a.m.n it, Hugh, take your filthy s.h.i.+rt.”
He plucked it on the fly-”My corpuscles are as white as the next man's, miss”-and swung off into the pack of dancers.
”Hugh's awfully defensive about being educated,” Allegra explained.
”Is he?” William said.
”Terribly. Being so defensive is what makes him act that way, sort of self-attacking. You know. It's because he's so defensive.”
”Is he educated I meant.”
”That's his whole trouble, he's got a Ph.D.-he's older than he looks, lots of their men are. Anyhow he's afraid people will get to thinking on account of the Ph.D. that he's forgotten all about the sharecroppers down South.”
”And he hasn't?” William said drily.
”Well look, if he had, he wouldn't've joined the Movement, would he? It's social justice we're after, isn't it?” Indignation lit her; triumph lit her. ”And you know what? Hugh's practically the only person in the whole Movement who can write Swedis.h.!.+ At least around here he is, isn't that remarkable?”
”I suppose it immensely increases his value,” William murmured. ”When the millennium comes the black races will recite the Eddas to the white races.”
”Don't be nasty, William. We have lots of correspondence with Stockholm, I told you.”
”I thought it was Moscow that was the Mecca,” he said; his knees were beginning to ache.
”That doesn't mean we can't have anything to do with the Stockholm groups, does it? We have groups everywhere,” she announced positively. ”All over the world. Even in South America and Africa. It's because we're against the imperialists. You have to be really international to fight the imperialists.”
He sighed. ”Allegra.”
”Hugh sings in Russian too. But Enoch said his accent's no good.”
”I think it's been enough, Allegra. I think you ought to come home,” William said.
”I am home.”
He could not contradict her. ”Then I think you ought to come with me.”
”You're not going anywhere.”
”And you?”
”I'm going everywhere!”
”It's definite then,” he said.
”It's definite about Moscow anyhow. As soon as we got coordinated with that Swedish bunch. Enoch's trying to negotiate a date with them. The Norwegians are O.K., it's just the Swedes, they don't see why people don't like to go North in winter.”
”I didn't mean Moscow,” he said heavily.
”You asked if it's definite-”
”That this is what you want. This kind of thing.” He waved out at the patterns of the reel and the trellises croaking with every thump and the voyaging moon, and meanwhile Allegra s.h.i.+vered; her skin was sleeveless now, and broken out into tiny moles of cold-it was the wind that blew up from the beach, full of sea. ”You don't know what you want,” William said.
She kneeled forward. Then she stood. ”But I know that I want,” she told him. ”I want and I want and I want and I want.”
”I won't come up again.”
”You will. I bet you will.”
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