Read Online Spirited Away - A Novel of the Stolen Irish by Maggie Plummer - Free Book Online Page B

knives and
valuables…"
     
     
    Una
could not rise from her pallet in the kitchen. In the glow of pre-dawn, as
Freddy and Birdie began grinding the day's corn, they checked on her and gave
her water as best they could.  Sweating and shaking with fever, she tossed from
side to side.
           "Mam,
I'm cold! I need my woolly jumper!" Una suddenly cried out in a little
girl voice, shivering more violently. Freddy ran and gathered the three light
blankets they had in the cookhouse. "Ooh, my head hurts…I hurt all over,
Mam."
           "It's
only me," Freddy murmured as she covered her with the blankets. She pulled
the covers up to Una's chin and tucked the edges in around her. Looking closely
at her friend's face, she realized that her skin was yellow. "Birdie, come
look. Perhaps we should get Mrs. Pratt…"
     
     
    Birdie
believed that mobby, the popular island drink, would help Colin and Una more
than anything else. She and Freddy set to work making a colossal batch of it.
They boiled sweet potatoes in massive iron pots, then mashed and soaked them.
Then they strained the liquid off through a woolen bag into stone crocks, added
sugar and lemon juice, and set it aside on a shelf to ferment. That night they
would sneak some of it to Colin and Una.
           Birdie
also wanted to feed Colin some perino – a drink made from the cassava plant –
that had been fermenting in barrels in the cool cistern. It tasted like strong
beer, and was Birdie's favorite drink.
           "We
to feed him papaya," the native woman told Freddy. "It heal."
           The
sooner Colin could keep down solid food, the better.
           As
they worked in the steamy kitchen, they kept watch over Una. She was still out
of her head with fever, begging her Mam to help her. But occasionally she
seemed to rest more easily now. The yellow tint of her face frightened Freddy.
Mrs. Pratt had sent for the plantation doctor, for all the slaves who had taken
ill with fever and dysentery. The doctor was across the island, but would be
here as soon as he could, the housekeeper said.
     
     
    Colin
was sitting up on his pallet, leaning against the wall and waiting for them
that night. In the candlelight he was still terribly pale and emaciated, but
appeared alert. The rain had let up and was no longer dripping into the hut.
           "The
doctor is coming soon," Freddy told him, setting down the bowl and jug
she'd carried. "Una has also taken ill…"
           "Is
it the rains that bring on so much illness?" he asked faintly, shaking his
head.
           The
two women sat on the damp dirt floor next to his pallet. Colin grabbed each of
them by the hand. "Thank the good Lord for you two, for your friendship
and for your health, your strength." His face creased into a wide grin.
"…and Freddy here with the bloom of the rose in her cheeks." 
           She
smiled at him, unable to hide the two bright red circles that appeared high on
her cheekbones. "Ah, Colin, that sterling tongue tells me you're much
improved this night. Thank the good Lord is right, may we all pull through."
Freddy touched her own forehead, chest, and shoulders in a rapid Sign of the
Cross.
           "Drink,"
Birdie mumbled, leaning forward and handing Colin a coconut bowl that held
herbal syrup. "Then mobby."
           "Mobby?"
Colin grinned again and sipped the medicine. He was sweating, which meant his
fever had broken. "I have a terrible thirst."
           "We
make much mobby, lucky boy." Birdie grinned back.
           "How
is your stomach?" Freddy asked him. 
           "Better,"
he said. "But it still hurts." 
           "Mmmm."
The Indian woman reached over and pressed the palm of her hand into his swollen
belly.
           "Oww!"
           "This."
Birdie handed him the ceramic jug of perino.
           Colin
took a swig and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
           Birdie
held up the papaya she'd