Jagua gripped the arm of her chair. There was a girl in the troupe, and she had virgin breasts. She wore a garland round her neck and flowers in her hair.
‘Who’s de gal?’ Jagua asked.
‘Is me daughter, Nancy,’ Ma Nancy informed her, though the question was not addressed to her. ‘Since we come here she been rehearsin’ with de dancers.’
Envy swelled in Jagua’s heart. Her eyes were so wide open with surprise that she saw two Nancys. The two of them, out of focus, were leading the dancers, performing with an elasticity which drew cheers. Beside her, Jagua heard Uncle Namme cheering, saw him waving his glass. The double pictures became one. She sighed.
‘I kin dance better dan dat.’ Jagua said the words calmly.
‘Oh, your daughter Nancy can dance wonderfully,’ said Uncle Namme smiling across at Mama Nancy. ‘Jus’ like a Bagana girl. The more I look at her, the more I see why Freddie fell for her.’ He laughed loudly, then rose and went into the ring where the dancers were.
Jagua saw him take something out of his pocket and plant it on the brow of Nancy. It was some coin – a shilling perhaps. But to a dancer this was the highest honour she could win. The Yaniba Regent himself, gracing her with a trophy. As Uncle Namme came away, the cheering that greeted him sent the onlookers frantic. Only Jagua did not cheer. She realised that Nancy had made a great conquest of the Bagana people. Already they must be thinking of her as one of them.
Jagua turned to Uncle Namme. ‘Excuse me. I just goin’ to de house.’ She was not sure what she wanted to do in her room, but the air here had become suddenly unbearable. She saw Ma Nancy watching her with a sneer on her face and this sneer infuriated her.
‘Sit down, my dear; the programme is only just beginning. We’re here till midnight!’
‘I know. I comin’ jus’ now.’
Uncle Namme stared at her. ‘You’re not going to change and join the dancers? Jolly good, if you do! The more the merrier.’
The mere fact that he had guessed her thoughts took away the element of surprise. ‘No, I only goin’ to easy myself.’
It occurred to her then that just as Nancy had won over the Baganans by exercising her youthfulness, so she too must endear them to herself by showing her experience of life. She knew that as an older woman she must aim at something infinitely larger than excelling at Bagana dancing. But try as hard as she would no ideas came.
Nancy’s group had cleared off the stage, and now another group came in, the masqueraders. Jagua sat down and watched.
Jagua got up early and went down to the stream to bathe. She had spent a sleepless night, unlike her Baganan hosts who had not yet turned over once. To her surprise Nancy was already there before her and undressed. Jagua looked round the creek, silent and completely deserted. On the other side beyond the rocks Krinameh rested, a village in sleep except for the few fishermen perched on their canoes, slithering from one fish-trap to the other in search of a catch. She watched Nancy Oll on the water’s edge, coldly and without the slightest hint of admiration: the satin-smooth skin and elastic flesh, firm and young. Nancy was fuller in the hips than her clothes suggested. She was no innocent.
Jagua tiptoed to the water’s edge. She saw Nancy wade into the water, then stoop and feel the coldness. The water was not more than three feet deep at this end, but beyond it the treacherous rocks of Krinameh lurked. She kept her voice low but threw out the words.
‘Nancy what you doin’ on de waterside dis fine mornin’ when de birds never wake?’
Nancy turned and faced her. The morning light, foggy and vague, shrouded her in swirling mists. ‘What you think am doin’, Auntie Jagua? You think I come ’ere to make juju sacrifice, like some people use to do?’
‘Who use to make juju sacrifice, Nancy? You modder?’
‘Ah don’ call anyone by name. But some woman when she love some man, and de man don’ love her, she kin come to de waterside in de mornin’ an’ kill chicken, so de man kin love her.’
‘You got anyone in min’, Nancy? I comin’ to talk with you. I wan’ to hear what you got to say about dis interestin’ palaver. Sometime you kin explain what you done about Freddie Namme. Or sometime your modder got some idea?’
‘Don’ call me modder, Jagwa. You kin curse me as you like, but don’ call me modder ’cause she better’n you in every way.’
‘She better’n me?’ Jagua waded into the water after Nancy. ‘Wait me, dear. I comin’ to talk with you, so you kin tell me how Ma Nancy better than Jagwa Nana.’
‘You jealous of young gal like me. Me modder keep to man of her own age. She don’ run after small boy whom she kin born for herself. You only followin’ Freddie because you think he kin give you some young blood. But when person old, de remedy is differen’. You mus’ act old, so people kin respect you. My modder got respect, you got none. You wan to dance young like I do. You take corset an’ pull up you breas’ so, he kin stan’, so you kin deceive person who don’ know. But all dese thin’ come from Nature as blessin’, and person no get power to make dem. Ah better tell yo
u now, you wastin’ your time about Freddie. He already choose me. Freddie’s goin’ to pay you back all de money you spen’ on him. I goin to slave with him too till we pay all de money!’
It was not so much what she said, as the smile which angered Jagua. The cheek in Nancy’s manner penetrated all Jagua’s self-control. Jagua began quickly to take off her clothes. Nancy’s taunts enraged her, drove her into a fit of wildness. ‘You goin’ to learn a lesson in de water today, Nancy!’ She was taking off her clothes as she spoke.
‘Come now!’ Nancy waved at Jagua. ‘Come here an’ I will tell you what I say. I will show you how to move in de water!’ And with that she dived into the water.
Jagua was naked now. She dived into the water after Nancy. Nancy swam faster than a crocodile and Jagua pursued her with anger welling within her. Occasionally Nancy’s head surfaced, only to vanish again and when it appeared it was some fifty yards away. They were approaching the rocks now, in the direction of Krinameh, and although Jagua knew this to be the area which Uncle Namme had spoken about she dared not turn back but must catch Nancy and show her she was not all that old.
She paused for breath, steadying herself by lashing slowly out with her legs. Nancy had disappeared again. When her head re-appeared, she knew that the girl had entered the Krinameh half of the creeks. Like a conjuring trick a young man appeared on the rocks. Jagua had not seen him there a second ago. He raised his arm and flung something at Nancy. Then he dived after her. Nancy saw him too, and tried to swim towards Bagana. In that fraction of a second other young men—at least ten of them—dived from various parts of the rock. Jagua saw the intentness in their eyes. She knew they must be killers. The water was full of young men who had circled the helpless Nancy, some of them swimming with jaws split open like crocodiles about to strike.
Jagua turned quickly and swam for the Bagana shore. On the water’s edge she felt a sudden cramp and a wave of paralysis shot through her body. She gritted her teeth and with a last effort gained the shore. Her clothes were scattered on the beach some fifty yards away. There was more light on the beach now, and as she walked towards her clothes she saw a woman standing completely still, regarding her with an accusing eye. It was Ma Nancy. She must have seen everything. Jagua hated her.