mi fren dis, Mama," he said, introducing them shyly. "Shi name Arrii-Arrienne." He gave her his special friend name, Arrii, as well as her full name, her right name, just in case.
With enigmatic eyes, his mother surveyed the large girl. "Yu a Miss Dulsie daughter?"
The large girl nodded her head yes.
Rachel did not rebuke her for shaking her head at an adult. Instead she asked, "An Maas George Christie a yu fadda?"
The large girl nodded again yes.
His mother looked at the large girl for a long moment, and he could not read his mother's eyes. The expression in the large girl's eyes was not afraid as she looked back at his mother. It was frank and open and unwavering, and afterward, when he was old enough to understand the meaning of the word, he said it was without guile. His mother's look at the large girl was strange—it was a dawning look of wonder, and reserve, and an odd relief.
"Mi wi tek care-a him mek nobody nuh trouble him, Miss Rachel," Moshe said, when the introductions were over. He didn't know how he knew it was what his new friend was thinking, or how he came to say it in her voice, like a ventriloquist's double, or how he knew that she had sent him her words and given him permission to say them, but that was what he did, and the large girl seemed satisfied.
His mother did not say anything, but the look of wonder remained on her face when she told them goodbye and left.
Years later, he knew that this beginning of speaking each other's words was not the real beginning of their twinship. That began from the beginning, when they were able to read without error the same books on the first day of school.
In the evening he disobeyed his mother. He did this not intentionally, but because he didn't know what else to do. Miss Yvette had removed him from her class and put him in the man-teacher's class—the man-teacher's name was Mr. Brown—and he thought Miss Yvette had forgotten him, and since she was no longer his teacher he was ashamed to remind her that his mother had said he should stay with her until his mother came to collect him. But school had dismissed earlier than the time set, and he now had a friend, the large girl, his friend Arrienne, to walk on the road with him, and so, after the bell rang for dismissal and the whole school had stood up and sung the evening hymn and chanted the prayers in unison, and another bell, the final bell, was rung, Man-Teacher holding it high to make a small, apologetic ting as the last echoes of prayer died away, as though Man-Teacher were apologizing to God for making a secular sound at such a holy moment—after all this had taken place, he put his hand in the hand of his friend and together they walked out of the schoolyard through the front gate.
That evening she fought the first of the fights she was to fight on his behalf.
The memory of the scary morning came back in full force at the sight of the big boy running in the road. He was throwing a foootball to another boy and the two of them leaped to catch it, while other children scattered out of its way.
And the boy shouted his question of the morning again, "How dat-deh bwoy look so funny, like smaddy bwile him?" and his friend, snickering, called out, "Bwile baby!" How strange he looks, as if he has been boiled!
The friend was pleased with his own wit. Exhilarated, he cried, shouting into the air as he leaped after the thrown ball, "An him look like maggish too, enuh, bwile maggish!" And moreover he looks like maggots, a nest of boiled maggots, communicable abominations.
The other screamed with laughter. "Maggish bwoy!" He bounced the ball over to the two silent children walking hand in hand. The other big boy followed. They planted themselves in the middle of the road, blocking Moshe and the large girl. The two children's hands tightened in each other. The large girl pulled Moshe aside and continued on, walking along the side of the road.
The first boy, the boy with the ball, pushed Moshe in his chest. "Pickni, a wha do yu? A wheh yu come from? Mi know bout yu. A yu a di white man baby wha Miss Rachel find inna Ora bush."
"Tek yu hand offa him," Moshe said, in the large girl's voice.
"Yu want mi put it pon yu instead?" The boy chucked her in her chest. He thought Arrienne had spoken.
The large girl let go of Moshe's hand and dropped her books on the ground, the free issue exercise book and the reading book the teacher had loaned her for the day because her first teacher had put her in a different class. She took off her uniform belt and pushed Moshe behind her, and then she bent in the classic elementary school fighting pose, a crouching position like a wrestler, legs splayed wide, imaginary sleeves rolled up, arms cocked and fists at the ready, and she danced on her feet and brandished her fists like a boxer, and Moshe did not know what happened after that except that a sudden host of children appeared and began screaming, "Fight! Fight!" and jumping up and down and pushing and craning to see who would win, and the crowd quickly swelled and the screams changed to, "Murder! Two pon one a murder!" and then again to, "Woie, woie, di gal a-win! Di gal a-kill dem-bwoy wid licks, wid kicks, di girl a-karate di bwoy-dem, yu ever si gal karate, rahtid, a John Wayne, a Stewart Granger, bwoy oonu dead now, oonu bitch oonu dead now!" and several of them ran back down the road calling out for Man-Teacher, Man-Teacher, and suddenly Man-Teacher was there and so was Mr. Brown, and the two boys were being held by the seat of their pants by Man-Teacher and Mr. Brown, and Man-Teacher was demanding to know what had happened, and the crowd of excited children were chorusing to tell the story, but Moshe and Arrienne stood there not speaking, though Arrienne was panting hard as if she had run a very long race, and her uniform belt and one of her shoes were missing and dirt was on her face and one of her knuckles was bleeding, and one of the girls found her shoe and helped her put it back on her foot, and the two boys were all swollen in their faces and one of them was holding the front of his pants and crying, and Man-Teacher said Arrienne and Moshe could go home, and he and Mr. Brown made the two boys walk back toward the school with Man-Teacher and his cane and Mr. Brown in their wake, holding them by the backs of their pants so they could not run away, and it was over and the crowd of children were chattering with awe and excitement and wanting to know where the large girl learned karate like that, and someone said her father, Maas George, was a karate king, a black belt, from when he was in the Royal Air Force in England, and someone else said did you know di two of dem bright-bright, teacher skip dem today, put dem in First class, and another one said him a dundus but him bright-bright, and someone offered to walk them home, but Arrienne shook her head no and some of the children tried to walk them home, to spread the news and see what their mothers and fathers would do, but Arrienne-Moshe said, "Mi nuh want no tail backa mi," and the children who were offering stepped back, and Arrienne took Moshe's hand and walked with him home to his mother.
"Si mi car' him home, Miss Rachel," Arrienne said.
"Mi wi come fi him a mawnin," Moshe said in Arrii-Arrienne's voice, speaking Arrii-Arrienne's words. I will fetch him again in the morning. Always I will fetch him in the morning.
And she waved goodbye and left.
And the morning and the evening were the first day.
iii
She never asked him why he looked the way he did. She never asked him where he came from. And though she spoke, on average, more words than he, she hardly spoke any words at all, and those only to him, when they were alone, and mostly she placed the words in his head, so that they came out at his mouth, in her voice.
Chapter V
i
This is how princesses are born: Relatives gather, from far and near, and the princess is tested to see whether
