As Payne suffered, Bennie Blount peered into the hole of the Devil’s Box. “You ain’t got enough
possium
in your body. That’s why you crampin’ like that.”
The voice stunned him, yet Payne quickly replied. “No,” he groaned. “I’m cramping like this because I’m locked in a Rubik’s Cube in the middle of a heat wave, not because I didn’t eat enough bananas.”
“I don’t know. I still think it’s the
possium
.”
Payne continued fighting through his cramp, in no mood to discuss the merits of potassium. “Nothing personal, but I have a policy about talking to traitors.”
Blount turned on a small flashlight and placed it under his chin. He wanted Payne to see his face as he talked. “I sorry about that, Mr. Payne, but I didn’t have no choice. I wasn’t allowed off the island unless I agreed to do it, and I really wanted to see the fireworks. . . . As it be, I didn’t even get to see ’em.”
Payne shook his head in pity. Blount was just a helpless pawn in this, caught up in something that he didn’t know how to control or escape from. And even though Blount worked for the Plantation, Payne could tell he wasn’t as sadistic as the others.
“Hey, Bennie, I don’t want to get you into trouble, but I was hoping you could give me a hand.”
“You mean free ya? They’d never trust me with the key. I’d probably lose it.”
“That’s okay. I don’t need a key. There are other things you could do for me.”
Blount lowered his face to the top of the box. “Like what?”
“Some food and drink would be nice.”
Blount frowned, then suddenly stood from his perch.
Payne could hear the servant walking away and was afraid that he was abandoning him for a second time. “Bennie? What’s wrong? Come back! Where are you going?”
The servant’s face filled the top of the box one more time. “I wasn’t going nowhere. When ya mentioned you could use some vittles, it helped me remember something. The reason I came up here was to bring ya some chow, but with all the talking I forgot to gives it to ya.”
Food! Mouthwatering food! Payne couldn’t believe his luck. The image of a thick, juicy steak suddenly popped into his mind, causing his stomach to rumble like a subwoofer. “Thank you, Bennie. I’m starving.”
“First things first. I heard what Master Ndjai did to ya, and I thought ya could use a bath.” The dreadlocked servant held up a big pot of liquid, explaining what he had in mind. “Now, don’t ya be drinking this stuff while I pour it on ya. This ain’t normal water.”
“What the hell is it then?”
“Don’t ya be worrying none. I mixed up an old family recipe, one that we use to bathe babies when they be young. Not only will it makes ya clean, but it’ll make ya smell like an infant.”
“Thanks, but I already smell like piss.”
Blount smiled. “That’s not what I meant. You be smellin’ April fresh when I done with ya. I promise.” He carefully tipped the pot until the liquid flowed over Payne, surging through the grate like a great flood, washing away the stale scent of urine and the lingering stench of sweat.
“I’ll be damned!” Payne chuckled, suddenly feeling a lot better. He took a deep whiff, breathing in the fragrance. “You’re right. I smell like the goddamn Snuggle Bear. What’s in that stuff? It smells great!”
Blount’s smile quickly faded. “Trust me, Mr. Payne. You don’t wants to know. I know it made me sick the first time I found out. Yuck!”
Although he was curious about the secret ingredient, Payne quickly changed subjects. “Bennie, now that I’m clean, what do you have for me to eat?”
“I gots ya lots of stuff, but the most important stuff be the liquids. We gots to get ya full of fluid or you’s gonna melt away like lard in a skillet.”
Payne attacked his meal with zeal, smiling the entire time. Bennie Blount, the dreadlocked servant from the bayou, had saved his life-if only for the time being. Technically, Blount had only provided Payne with food, juice, and a much-needed shower, but in reality he had given Payne something even more important than sustenance. He had given him hope. “Bennie, I can’t thank you enough. I can’t even begin to explain how much I needed that.”
Blount grinned as he tidied the area around the box. He needed to make sure that there was no sign of his visit, or he’d get in serious trouble. “Well, I be feelin’ bad about the trick that we played on you and Mr. Jones. I figure it be the least I can do.”
“Speaking of D.J., how’s he doing?”
Blount took a deep breath, pausing ever so slightly. “I don’t mean to scare ya none, but I heard that Master Greene roughed him up somethin’ fierce.”
“What?”
“Before ya get too worried, I didn’t get a chance to find out if that be true or not, but I just thought it be best if I done told ya what I had heard.”
Payne considered the information. If it was true, it would make things doubly difficult.
“Where’s he being held? Is he in the main house?”
“No, sir. He be in a utility cabin near the slaves. It kinda stands out from the others, though, since it has plumbing and be much larger than the rest.”
“Is there any way you can visit him? You know, to bring him food and first aid?”
Blount shook his head. “Not without them knowing. The cabin is guarded, and it be locked from the outside. Since I ain’t got no key, I can’t get in with no permission. And I don’t think I be gettin’ any.”
“Is there any chance of him getting out? A window? A trapdoor? Anything?”
“You be watchin’ too much TV! There ain’t no such thing as trapdoors in the real world.”
Payne immediately thought of Levon Greene’s escape from the tattoo parlor, but he didn’t have time to explain it to Blount. “So, there’s no way in or out without the key, right? How about Ariane? Is she still in the same place as before?”
Blount wrinkled his face in discomfort. When he originally briefed Payne and Jones about the Plantation, he had given them bogus information. It was all a part of Greene’s master plan of deception. “I been wantin’ to talk to ya about that. You see, the stuff that I done told you before was a little off.”
Payne leaned his head against the Devil’s Box and groaned. “How off?”
“Kinda completely off.”
“Bennie,” he said.
“I be sorry, but Master Greene wasn’t about to let me tell ya the real stuff. He’s one of the bosses of this place, so I didn’t have no choice.”
“Yeah, but . . .” Payne stopped his complaint in midsen tence. He suddenly remembered that Blount had just saved his life, so there was no way he was going to make him feel worse about his earlier actions. “Okay, Bennie, you’re probably right. You didn’t have a choice. But I’d certainly appreciate it if you filled me in now.”
Blount nodded. “We gotta be quick, though. I don’t want to be gone too long from the kitchen. I might be missed.”
“Fair enough.”
“So, what do ya need to know?”
Payne grimaced. There were tons of things that he wanted to learn about the island, but before the opportunity passed, he needed Blount’s assistance on something else. “Bennie, I know you’ve done a lot of nice things for me, and I really appreciate them all. But there’s something I need that’s even more important than information.”
Blount brushed the braided hair from his face, gazing into the box. “Like what?”
“Well, I was wondering if you could scratch me.”
“Huh?”
“I was hoping you could scratch me. I’ve been in here for a pretty long time, and I got a number of itches all over my body that I can’t reach, so . . .”