Thirty minutes later, I finish stowing my belongings and meet Robbie at the bottom of another flight of stairs. “Can we go to the Promenade Deck now?”
“You’ve been talking all morning about this meeting on the Promenade Deck. Why are you so anxious?”
“I haven’t met Mr. Hartfield yet.” I climb the stairs. “And after last night, Katherine, Vivian Jean, and I have become friends. We shopped at Ray’s Department Store and had dinner with one of Katherine’s dancer friends, and I was just one of the girls. Not an assistant or servant or anything like that.”
“So, that’s where you sneaked off to last night.” Robbie pauses, his hand resting on the railing. “If you’re such close friends, does she know your secret? Does she know mine?” There was a hitch in his voice.
“I wasn’t sneaking,” I say defensively. “And why do you sound jealous?”
He walks ahead of me on the stairs. “Because I am. Do you know what I did last night? I read a three-hundred-page book:Tropical Forestry in the Caribbean.”
“That’s not true. You went to meet the New York Black Yankees with Mr. Hartfield.”
“Oh.” He laughs. “You found out about that?”
“I told you I’ve made friends with Katherine and Vivian Jean. They told me everything.”
“But I’m not lying. Remember our agreement. I simply left out the part about the Black Yankees. I did read that book as well. I want to be prepared for our arrival in Accompong. Major Thomas covers our expenses so I can write a paper on plants and help his daughter and her friend Katherine have a fruitful expedition.”
“It sounds like an exciting book,” I say mockingly.
“It was,” he replies. “What excuse did you give to convince her to take you shopping?”
“I blamed you and the major for being stingy with personal items, like my clothes for the Katherine Dunham Anthropology and African Dance Expedition.”
“The what?”
“That’s our name.”
“We’ll have to include that on the papers we write. We’ll need to put the title on every page.”
“We write?” I ask incredulously.
“Don’t worry. I’ll tell you more in Jamaica.”
We pause for a moment to catch our breath when we reach the Cabin Deck. “One more flight to go,” Robbie says.
On the Promenade Deck, I immediately start searching for the Hartfields and Katherine. I quickly spot them: two elegantly dressed women and a tall, handsome man standing slightly apart. Leaning against the railing, he seems more interested in the sea than in the women beside him.
I hurry ahead of Robbie, rushing toward the Hartfields and Katherine, waving and calling, “Vivian Jean. Katherine.” I stop in front of them, grinning widely. They greet me with bright, shining smiles. Even Mr. Hartfield looks cheerful, but that isn’t easy to judge because this is our first meeting.
“Tully, this is the young lady I mentioned. Thanks to the major, she’ll be part of the expedition, but let me introduce you properly,” Vivian Jean says, stepping aside to give me and her husband the spotlight. “Tully, I’d like you to meet Othella Montgomery.”
I suppress the urge to curtsy, an unnecessary and inappropriate gesture, but these three seem as regal as any count or countess I’ve ever seen.
“And dear, you’ve already met Robbie Barnes,” Vivian Jean says. “He joined you last night with the Black Yankees.”
“Sir,” Robbie replies. “Thank you for that invitation. I had a grand time.”
“You’re welcome.”
A casual conversation starts about the staterooms—theHartfields’ and Katherine’s are nicer than mine or Robbie’s—and the activities the group could enjoy over the next four or five days. From shuffleboard to Mah-Jongg and writing letters to playing chess—Robbie and Tully find out they both enjoy that game—it all sounds terribly dull to me. I expected a jazz quartet, dancing every night, and a bar with gin and tonics.
Everything that everyone else is so excited about just sounds tedious to me.
Standing on the deck of the ship, I am mesmerized by my surroundings. The water. The sky. The wind in my face. I think about where I was just a few days before—in a bed next to a man who I might have hurt so badly that he died. Sadness and guilt stir in my chest, and I close my eyes, wishing for the nightmare to end. When I open them, something at the stern of the ship catches my attention.
A large crowd of passengers has gathered, and although the searing midday sun beats down, one figure stands out above the rest. What I see is unthinkable, unbelievable. I nearly chuckle at the absurdity of my imagination, but my laughter is fleeting. As I gain a clearer view, my heart pounds against my chest like a hammer.
