Miranda and Caliban(24)

Papa emerges from his sanctum in good spirits and I am glad of it, even though guilt makes a knot in my belly and dampens my appetite.

From the beginning, it felt as though Caliban and I shared a secret.

Now it is true.

Belatedly, I think to pray that the airy sylphs that accompany us on our journeys tell no tales.





THIRTEEN





CALIBAN


Why?

Why-oh, why-oh, why, why, why?

Miranda says, is that why you hide from Papa and me? Is that why you hide for so long?

No.

It was before he put Umm in the ground.

Why? What did I think when I had no words to think thoughts?

I do not know.

Miranda says, do you remember anything else about when Papa and I came to the isle?

Yes … but. But, but, but … to say will make Miranda more sad, yes? I do not want to make Miranda more sad.

I do not lie, but I do not say.

But later I think.

Why?

I had no words to think thoughts when you and Master come here, Miranda, but I had eyes to see and now I have words to say. I remember I wake with a feeling like creepity ants on my skin. I remember after I wake I go to the high place where Setebos watches.

I watch, too.

I see a storm. I see waves and clouds and rain and lightning, and a thing coming over the water; a thing like a leaf on a stream, only big and made of wood, with things like bed-linens that hang from trees on it, and where it comes is a path where there is no waves. I see on it a man standing and holding a big stick with a shiny thing on top.

A man standing on water! Long hair comes from his chin. He holds his stick high and makes sounds, and the clouds go away and the waves lie down.

Now I know it was Master singing his magic words.

Then I did not know.

But I remember Master’s sounds come more slow and more slow, and the wood thing like a big leaf on a stream comes more slow and more slow. There are cracks in it and the water is going higher around it, but it comes, it comes until it cannot come anymore through the water because there is ground under the water that makes it stop. I watch Master put down his stick and pick up a thing in cloth. He holds it close to his chest like it is the very best thing. He goes into the water that is high as his waist, and carries it to the shore.

You, Miranda.

He puts you on the ground and moves the cloth. I see your little face, your arms and legs and hands and feet. You are asleep. He goes onto his knees and puts his hands together. He looks at you and then he looks at the sky and talks to it for a long time.

Praying to God in the sky, yes?

Master is more strong after the words. Master puts his head down and puts his lips on your head. Master stands and goes back into the water to the thing like a leaf to get his big stick, then comes back to the shore.

Master lifts his voice like it is a heavy thing, plants his stick, and says words that calls the little spirits, the earth and air and water spirits.

They come.

And I think …

No, I did not think, then. But I see. I see a thing change in Master’s face.

What?

I do not know what.

A thing that makes me remember Umm. Not Umm who is good and pets my hair and puts her lips on my face. Umm who is bad. Umm who hits. Umm who is hungry for a thing that is not food.

(What are you hungry for, Master?) Master makes a circle around you in the sand with his branch, Miranda. You sleep and sleep. The little spirits bring things to shore, things like the chest in your chamber, only many. They do not go near you sleeping in the circle. Master watches and smiles, but it is not a good smile.

I am afraid.

Master points his stick at the path to the palace and the gnomes begin to carry things there, but Master does not follow yet. He looks at the sea and opens his arms and lifts his stick and says more magic words. The waves come up and swallow the wooden thing.

When it is gone, Master says another thing. I do not think it is magic words because nothing happens, but there is a hard sound in his voice, and it is the sound of Umm’s voice when she is angry. Not hot and fast angry, but slow and cold angry. When Ariel is bad again and again and does not do what Umm says, she uses the hard voice that is slow and cold. And then she puts him in the tree.

Then Master picks you up in his arms, Miranda, and he carries you after the gnomes.

You are sleeping, still sleeping.

I run fast to the palace, faster than Master and the little spirits. I take Umm’s things that are shiny.

I go to my place and hide.

Why?

Because I am afraid.

I do not know what Master says, but I do not think he was talking to the sea, Miranda. I think there is another place beyond the sea, so far away we cannot see it, a place you and Master come from. And I think there is someone else there, someone that Master is very, very angry at.





FOURTEEN





MIRANDA


Papa needs a hare.

It seems the sylphs told no tales, for Papa’s thoughts are wholly occupied by the endeavor of freeing the spirit Ariel. He keeps his promise, and that evening for the first time, Caliban is not locked in his cell.

I imagine Caliban will be excited, but he has been quiet since we left the crag, and even the prospect of his freedom does not stir him. He only tests the door a few times as though to reassure himself that it is true before retiring with his supper, leaving the door ajar.