Ah! Canada! There had just been a free election in Canada. The Liberal party had won 141 seats in the House of Commons. There was a picture in Time of the Prime Minister standing next to his wife, she holding his hand, he looking down as though his sharp Indian nose would bump her forehead. There was a big sign over the archway where they stood, written in Halloween letters: CONGRATULATIONS.
His wife said of him: “He’s a beautiful guy, a very loving human being who has taught me a lot about loving.”
11
QUICKSKILL WENT OVER TO the address that Stray Leechfield had given him. It was located in the old warehouse district of Emancipation City. He looked at the directory. “Leechfield & Leer.” Their office was located on the third floor. He got off the elevator and walked down the hall. The door was ajar, so he walked in. He heard some people talking. One man seemed to be giving directions, telling people to move into certain positions. What was going on? He walked into the hall from the outer office and came upon an area closed off by some curtains. He opened the curtains and took a peek.
Oh my God! My God! My God! Leechfield was lying naked, his rust-colored body must have been greased, because it was glistening, and there was … there was — the naked New England girl was twisted about him, she had nothing on but those glasses and the flower hat. How did they manage? And then there was this huge bloodhound. He was licking, he was … The Immigrant was underneath one of those Brady boxes — it was flashing. He … he was taking daguerreotypes, or “chemical pictures.”
“Hey, what’s the matter with you? The sun, there’s too much light. Quickskill, what’s wrong with you?”
Leechfield said, “Damn.” The unclothed girl looked up. She had a strange smile on her face. Her eyes were glassy. She was panting heavily.
“I want to talk to Leechfield. It’s important.”
“I have to deliver this film to a distributor tonight. Make it quick,” Leer told Leechfield.
“Wait outside,” Leechfield said, annoyed.
Quickskill went outside. Soon Leechfield came through the curtains. He was dressed in a robe he was tying around the waist.
“What was that?” asked Quickskill.
“None of your goddam business, Quickskill. Look, man, don’t you worry about me. We supposed to be free, aren’t we?”
“That’s true.”
“Then don’t handcuff yourself to me.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s my bi’ness what I do. I ain’t your slave, so don’t be looking at me with those disapproving eyes and axing me questions.”
“I …”
“Shit, everybody can’t do anti-slavery lectures. I can’t. I have to make it the best I can, man. I don’t see no difference between what I’m doing and what you’re doing.”
“What do you mean?”
“You have to get evil-smelling eggs thrown at you, and I heard up in Buffalo they were gettin ready to throw some flour on William Wells Brown. Remember when those mobocrats beat up Douglass? Even Douglass, knocked on the ground like any old vagrant.”
“I don’t want to go into it. I was just shocked because I didn’t expect it.”
“You shocked? What you shocked about? I’m not watching no houses for nobody. I’m not feedin nobody’s cats and forwarding nobody’s mail. I get it this way. I pull in more in a day than you do in a whole year. You green, man. Brilliant but green. You one green Negro.”
“Listen, Leechfield, I didn’t come in here to get in an argument—”
“House nigger. Yes ma’am, no ma’am — you and that Uncle Robin. I see you coming down to the field village, putting on airs and shit. I used to watch you.”
“If it wasn’t for us, they would have discovered your game a long time before.”
“What?”
“They knew about the poultry. They asked us about it when we made inventory of the eggs. We told them it was a mistake the Texas calculator made. We knew it was you. I saw you over in the other county when I was doing errands for the Swille family.”
“What? And you didn’t say nothin?”
“We covered for you all the time — made excuses for you and sometimes did the work ourselves that you were supposed to do. And when some of you ran away, we provided you with a map, and so some of us are traveling all over the country pleading for the Cause. So what if we get eggs thrown at us and are beaten unconscious? Swille was the one who stirred up rivalry among us. Don’t you think I knew that when Swille was flattering your kind, he was making fun of us. Look, Leechfield, the reason I came up here is because, well, Swille is on our trail. Today I was visited by a couple of Nebraskaites.”
“So what you bothering me for?”
“Don’t you think we all ought to try to stop them?”
“Look, man”—he pulled out a wad of bills—“I sent the money to Swille. I bought myself with the money with which I sell myself. If anybody is going to buy and sell me, it’s going to be me.”
“That doesn’t make any difference to him. I don’t think he really wants us to pay for ourselves. I think he wants us. He thinks by sending the Tracers after us we’ll be dumb enough to return, voluntarily; he thinks that a couple of white faces with papers will scare us. Why should I have to tell you all of this? You of all people. You were their hero. They egged you on when you took your stolen hens, went into business. At that time they didn’t want us Mints anywhere near the business. You worked one right under their eyes. Man, Stray, you were our greased lightning, our telegraph wire, our wing-heeled Legba, warning the woodsmen and the rootmen about Barracuda and Cato’s plan to replace all of the cults with one. You were the last warrior against the Jesus cult. And when they caught up with you, how extravagant your departure was. How glorious. And now, here you are with this Leer; I don’t trust Russians. How can you—”
“Aw, man, Mel’s all right. Look, I just want to be left alone. I’m not no hero, I just have bravado.” That’s what Mel said: Bravado, striking a flamboyant pose. “See, Quickskill, the difference between you and me is that you sneak, while I don’t. You were the first one to hat, but you did it in a sneaky way. What kind of way was that, we thought. Just like a house slave. Tipping away. Following a white man and his wife onto the boat with a trunk on your shoulder, and when the guard ax you where you going, you say you with them. You house slaves were always tipping around, holding your shoes in your hands, trying not to disturb anybody. Well, Leer has done more for me than any of you niggers. Any of you. Always rooting for somebody, and when you do it, say we did it. I got tired of doing it. ‘We did it’ wasn’t paying my rent. ‘We did it’ wasn’t buying my corn, molasses and biscuits. Where was ‘we did it’ when I was doing without, huh? When I was broke and hungry. So I decided to do something that only I could do, so that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing. What I’m doing is something ‘we did it’ can’t do, unless we did it one at a time. You follow? Besides, I sent Swille a check. Look, Quickskill, money is what makes them go. Economics. He’s got the money he paid for me, and so that satisfy him. Economics.”
“Hey, Leechfield, we have some more shooting to do,” Leer says, peeking through the door.
“Look, man, if you want to buy yourself, here’s the money. You can pay me back.”
“But it’s not that simple, Leechfield. We’re not property. Why should we pay for ourselves? We were kidnapped.”
“Yeah, you may think so. But this is a white man’s country. It never occurred to you because you thought that since you were working in the Castle …” He started to return to the room; he was combing his hair. “Hey, look, Quickskill, come by the pad sometime. Don’t stay away.” He closed the door on Quickskill.