More Than Human

Bonnie’s clothes and walked out. I got Baby out of the bassinet and draped him over my shoulders.

It was better when we were all outside. It was getting late in the day and the air was warm. The twins flitted in and out of the trees like a couple of flying squirrels, and Janie and I walked along like we were going swimming or something. Baby started to kick, and Janie looked at him a while and got him fed, and he was quiet again.

When we came close to town, I wanted to get everybody close together, but I was afraid to say anything. Baby must of said it instead. The twins came back to us and Janie gave them their clothes and they walked ahead of us, good as you please. I don’t know how Baby did it. They sure hated to travel that way.

We didn’t have no trouble except one guy we met on the street near Miss Kew’s place. He stopped in his tracks and gaped at us, and Janie looked at him and made his hat go so far down over his eyes that he like to pull his neck apart getting it back up again.

What do you know, when we got to the house somebody had washed off all the dirt I’d put on the door. I had one hand on Baby’s arm and one on his ankle and him draped over my neck, so I kicked the door and left some more dirt.

‘There’s a woman here name of Miriam,’ I told Janie. ‘She says anything, tell her to go to hell.’

The door opened and there was Miriam. She took one look and jumped back six feet. We all trailed inside. Miriam got her wind and screamed, ‘Miss Kew! Miss Kew!’

‘Go to hell,’ said Janie, and looked at me. I didn’t know what to do. It was the first time Janie ever did anything I told her to.

Miss Kew came down the stairs. She was wearing a different dress, but it was just as stupid and had just as much lace. She opened her mouth and nothing came out, so she just left it open until something happened. Finally she said, ‘Dear gentle Lord preserve us!’

The twins lined up and gawked at her. Miriam sidled over to the wall and sort of slid along it, keeping away from us, until she could get to the door and close it. She said, ‘Miss Kew, if those are the children you said were going to live here, I quit.’

Janie said, ‘Go to hell.’

Just then Bonnie squatted down on the rug. Miriam squawked and jumped at her. She grabbed hold of Bonnie’s arm and went to snatch her up. Bonnie disappeared, leaving Miriam with one small dress and the damnedest expression on her face. Beanie grinned enough to split her head in two and started to wave like mad. I looked where she was waving, and there was Bonnie, naked as a jaybird, up on the banister at the top of the stairs.

Miss Kew turned around and saw her and sat down plump on the steps. Miriam went down, too, like she’d been slugged. Beanie picked up Bonnie’s dress and walked up the steps past Miss Kew and handed it over. Bonnie put it on. Miss Kew sort of lolled around and looked up. Bonnie and Beanie came back down the stairs hand in hand to where I was. Then they lined up and gaped at Miss Kew.

‘What’s the matter with her?’ Janie asked me.

‘She gets sick every once in a while.’

‘Let’s go back home.’

‘No,’ I told her.

Miss Kew grabbed the banister and pulled herself up. She stood there hanging on to it for a while with her eyes closed. All of a sudden she stiffened herself. She looked about four inches taller. She came marching over to us.

‘Gerard,’ she honked.

I think she was going to say something different. But she sort of checked herself and pointed. ‘What in heaven’s name is that?’ And she aimed her finger at me.

I didn’t get it right away, so I turned around to look behind me. ‘What?’

‘That! That!’

‘Oh!’ I said. ‘That’s Baby.’

I slung him down off my back and held him up for her to look at. She made a sort of moaning noise and jumped over and took him away from me. She held him out in front of her and moaned again and called him a poor little thing, and ran and put him down on a long bench, with cushions under the coloured-glass window. She bent over him and put her knuckle in her mouth and bit on it and moaned some more. Then she turned to me.

‘How long has he been like this?’

I looked at Janie and she looked at me. I said, ‘He’s always been like he is.’

She made a sort of cough and ran to where Miriam was lying flaked out on the floor. She slapped Miriam’s face a couple of times back and forth. Miriam sat up and looked us over. She closed her eyes and shivered and sort of climbed up Miss Kew hand over hand until she was on her feet.

‘Pull yourself together,’ said Miss Kew between her teeth. ‘Get a basin with some hot water and soap. Washcloth. Towels. Hurry!’ She gave Miriam a big push. Miriam staggered and grabbed at the wall, and then ran out.

Miss Kew went back to Baby and hung over him, titch-titching with her lips all tight.

‘Don’t mess with him,’ I said. ‘There’s nothin’ wrong with him. We’re hungry.’

She gave me a look like I’d punched her. ‘Don’t speak to me!’

‘Look,’ I said, ‘we don’t like this any more’n you do. If Lone hadn’t told us to, we wouldn’t never have come. We were doing all right where we were.’

‘Don’t say „wouldn’t never”,’ said Miss Kew. She looked at all of us, one by one. Then she took that silly little hunk of handkerchief and pushed it against her mouth.

‘See?’ I said to Janie. ‘All the time gettin’ sick.’

‘Ho-ho,’ said Bonnie.

Miss Kew gave her a long look. ‘Gerard,’ she said in a choked sort of voice, ‘I understood you to say that these children were your sisters.’

‘Well?’

She looked at me as if I was real stupid. ‘We don’t have little coloured girls for sisters, Gerard.’

Janie said, ‘We do.’

Miss Kew walked up and back, real fast. ‘We have a great deal to do,’ she said, talking to herself.

Miriam came in with a big oval pan and towels and stuff on her arm. She put it down on the bench thing and Miss Kew stuck the back of her hand in the water, then picked up Baby and dunked him right in it. Baby started to kick.

I stepped forward and said, ‘Wait a minute. Hold on now. What do you think you’re doing?’

Janie said, ‘Shut up, Gerry. He says it’s all right.’

‘All right? She’ll drown him.’

‘No, she won’t. Just shut up.’

Working up a froth with the soap, Miss Kew smeared it on Baby and turned him over a couple of times and scrubbed at his head and like to smothered him in a big white towel. Miriam stood gawking while Miss Kew lashed up a dishcloth around him so it come out pants. When she was done, you wouldn’t of known it was the same baby. And by the time Miss Kew finished with the job, she seemed to have a better hold on herself. She was breathing hard and her mouth was even tighter. She held out the baby to Miriam.

‘Take this poor thing,’ she said, ‘and put him – ‘

But Miriam backed away. ‘I’m sorry, Miss Kew, but I am leaving here and I don’t care.’

Miss Kew got her honk out. ‘You can’t leave me in a predicament like this! These children need help. Can’t you see that for yourself?’

Miriam looked me and Janie over. She was trembling. ‘You ain’t safe, Miss Alicia. They ain’t just dirty. They’re crazy!’

‘They’re victims of neglect, and probably no worse than you or I would be if we’d been neglected. And don’t say „ain’t”. Gerard!’

‘What?’

‘Don’t say – oh, dear, we have so much to do. Gerard, if you and your – these other children are going to live here, you shall have to make a great many changes. You cannot live under this roof and behave as you have so