My grandfather ordered the man to be put in the stocks. We went to see
him, stretched out on the ground, feet placed in the holes. The stocks were not
used often. Once I had seen a horse thief placed in the stocks, after his
capture by soldiers in the town. Now, however, Chico Pereira was there, with
his feet in the round holes.
"She's a liar, the shameless bitch. She's laying on me what she's
being getting up to with others. She can go marry the devil, not me. You can
kill me if you like, Colonel, but I'm not going to tie myself to that bitch.
I'd rather rot in jail than live with that shameless whore. I don't fill holes
that other men have dug."
The man, lying on his back, his feet lying in the stocks, impressed me
with his spirit. Chico Pereira was a ruffian, much attached to the bottle, and
foul mouthed. Everyone believed it was he who had got Maria Pia pregnant. The
girl's mother had made a complaint to my grandfather, blaming Chico Pereira.
And he was to stay in the stocks until he agreed to marry the girl.
The next day I went to see the prisoner. His legs were already swollen,
pressed tightly into the holes. When he saw me he called me over.
"Go and ask Miss Maria to help me."
But Aunt Maria said to me, "If he owes, he must pay."
At lunch time I took the prisoner his meal. He was lying there
listlessly. That immobility, lasting more than twenty-four hours, had slowed
his circulation.
"I'll die here rather than marry that bitch. She can go to hell.
The Colonel might as well just knife me and have done with it.”
I stayed by Chico Pereira's side, not playing that day with my cousins
and the black boys. I didn't go to the pond to wash the horses, so I could stay
with him, talking, listening to his stories, hearing his sorry tale. It was an
injustice what they were doing to him. Why would they believe the girl?
Everybody on the plantation had been with her. If someone had wronged her then
they should pay, not Chico Pereira.
Chico Pereira could count on me, no one else.
That evening my grandfather was seated in his chair on the porch when
Maria Pia and her mother turned up, crying, the pair of them. The mother ran
straight to Aunt Maria, kneeling at her feet.
"Protect my daughter Miss Maria," she implored. My grandfather
ordered her to be quiet, and sent for a book that was kept in the
sanctuary.
"You are going to swear on this holy book that you are telling the
whole truth. The man is in the stocks. He denies it all. He would rather die
than marry. Here, girl, put your hand on this book and tell me the name of the
man who wronged you."
He held out the red book with the gold cross on the front cover for the
girl to put her hand on. The girl and her mother were terrified, which was the
whole point of producing the book. Then Maria Pia's mother spoke, as if a knife
were being held to her breast.
"Don't send your soul to hell, Maria!"
Everyone was crowding round the girl, waiting for her word.
"Come on, let's be hearing it," my grandfather said, in a tone
of command.
And the girl, scarce able to breathe, said,
"I swear........I swear that.......it was Mister Juca who wronged
me."
My grandfather said nothing to this. He just said,
"Release the man!"
I ran to see Chico Pereira, anxious to see the innocent man whose cause
I had espoused. His feet were too swollen to walk.
"I've got pins and needles everywhere. Didn't I say that the girl
is worthless? Mr. Juca's got another one to see to."
In the house the matter was only talked about in whispers. Aunt Maria
said nothing to me. At dinner my grandfather scarcely spoke. Uncle Juca was not
at the table. My grandfather finally spoke his silence.
"I don't know what's the use of all that study. You spend a fortune
on them and then they come back home and do idiotic things like this."
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