Ditta Sylvester, Contributor

"Mi want fi go dig up di pot! It inna mi way!" the old man shirked.

The children passing on their way to school had become familiar with the voice of the bed-ridden, elderly man who repeated these words every day. It meant nothing to them. Older people like Ruby Pearson passed and heard it too, but to them it spoke of something sinful of which they seldom spoke and only then in whispers.

Arthur Chambers, the speaker- was the father of James 'Jimmy' Chambers, head teacher of the Winslow School. James' mother, Janis, was now a retired teacher, who still loved her husband and was greatly embarrassed by his outbursts. Jimmy attributed the "gibberish" spoken by his father to senility and never allowed it to bother him too much. But he began to wonder whether if this conclusion was correct, the day he overheard the cooks talking in the school canteen:

"Hurry up, Grace!" urged Miss Enid, the one in charge, "Lunch late again an I don't want Jimmy come to mi bout it today you know."

James smiled, amused. He knew that most of the people of Winslow called him "Mr Chambers" only to his face but it didn't bother him.

"It soon ready," he heard Grace answer, "An you don't have to fret bout you job. Jimmy don't wicked like him puppa!"

"Mine you business an' share di food!" Miss Enid instructed. But Grace continued, "Miss Janis mus' be well want Arthur fi dead an stop shame dem off! A poison she fi poison di ole ..."

"Shut you mout' ooman!" Miss Enid interrupted, "Suppose Jimmy a pass an hear?"

That evening, James asked his mother why she seemed so deeply disturbed by his father's ramblings. The woman gazed in silence at her thin, nervous hands before telling him that she was simply exhausted by his father's prolonged illness. He had been attempting to tell her about what he had overheard that day when she abruptly excused herself to "go for a rest".

During the days that followed, James became a more frequent visitor to the canteen, always lingering in the spot where he had first overheard the cooks talking. But he heard nothing more as the women had picked up on his trying to eavesdrop on them.

It was about a month later that he decided to install some bookshelves in a room at the back of the school to encourage the children to spend some of their recess time, reading. The men he had hired had been his boyhood mates and they still remained his friends. It was the middle of the morning and he decided to check out how things were going. He was almost at the door to the room when he heard them and stopped:

"You hear him dis mawnin?" That was Paul Pearson. "'Mi want fi go dig up mi pot!'" They were mimicking his father and laughing.

"A which pot him a talk bout?" Eddie, the other carpenter, enquired.

"Me don't too sure," Paul told him, "But my madda say is a duppy pot him bury somewhere."

"A wha you a chat bout now?" Edie asked.

"She say him fix it so dat only fi him pickney can pass exam an get government job," Paul explained.

"A lie!" Eddie exploded.

"Is so me did say too," Paul continued, "But you don't notice say is only Jimmy alone out a all a wi, who get fi go a college?"

The two were silent for a while. James stood frozen to the spot.

"So is which part Arthur bury dis pot?" he heard Eddie ask.

"Only him alone know," Paul answered, "Jimmy nevva even born when dat happen."

"Wha! But don't dat ole man too sick to go look bout dat now?" Eddie asked.

"Him can't manage dat now," Paul agreed, "Das why him sufferin' so long. Mama Ruby say di pot have to dig up before him can dead."

"A lie!" Eddie said again.

That night, James confronted his mother with what he had heard. As she wept and denied having anything to do with it, he heard his father yell:

"Mi have fi go dig up di pot!"

James walked into his father's room. Arthur gazed vacantly at his son. His eyes were wild and saliva drooled from one side of his mouth.

James sat on the edge of the bed.

"Dad?" he said.

Arthur answered nothing.

"Tell me about the pot, Dad."

And Arthur Chambers dragged himself out of the world of pain and guilt in which he had imprisoned himself and told his son the story of how the long-deceased Fredrick Pearson and others of his friends had berated and laughed at him for marrying above his station. He was a "feisty show-off" they said, and any child of that union would turn out to be a worthless illiterate just like its father.

Arthur had been incensed and fearful for the future of any offspring he would father by Janis. He had concocted and buried the evil thing where every child in Winslow, except his own, would walk by or over it and be condemned to mediocrity. Then he asked his son to forgive him, told him where the pot was buried and begged him to find and destroy it.

Much later that same night, James left his father's house carrying a flashlight and a pickaxe. Finding the pot was much easier than he had dared to hope.

Arthur Chambers died before the morning broke.

- Ditta Sylvester