She kept her face turned to the side, her jaw tight, her eyes narrowed, trying to look fierce, but she was certain that Little Man could hear the pounding of her heart in her chest. It was a well-known secret that he had forced himself on girls before. She thought of the kitchen drawer with the knives. It was too far away to be of any use.
“So, you’re a shy girl, are you? Or are you just pretending?” Little Man lowered his voice. “I wonder, are you this modest when you go down to the beach with that Grant boy?”
So this was what people meant when they said your blood ran cold. Covey didn’t think anyone knew about her and Gibbs, except for Bunny and Pearl, who’d eventually found out. But Pearl once said that Little Man and his brother had people in every cove and village of the parish who owed them something. And when you owed something to someone dangerous, you were willing to spy for them. You might even be willing to hurt someone else, if it kept your own family from being harmed. The important thing was to keep the Henry brothers from taking note of you. But Little Man had already taken note of Gibbs. The mere sound of his name on Little Man’s lips was enough for Covey to understand that Gibbs might be vulnerable.
“What yu doing wasting yu time wit dat boy, eh?” Little Man hissed, releasing her wrists. He stepped back but hearing Gibbs’s name had left Covey’s legs so weak, she didn’t dare to move.
“You think Gilbert Grant is going to help your father to get out of debt, Coventina? You think Gilbert Grant, more interested in university than going out and earning himself a decent living, could ever come up with the kind of money your father needs to keep someone from cutting him open with a cutlass?”
“My pa…，” Covey began.
“Your pa,” Little Man said, “is a gambling man who couldn’t even keep his woman at home. Couldn’t even keep the titles to his stores. Did you know that, Coventina? Did you know those shops don’t even belong to your pa anymore? Oh, no? Well, it’s true. They belong to me. And if you don’t want your father to lose this house and don’t want to find yourself living in a shack, or worse, then you will watch your manners around me, young lady.”
Little Man turned away and stalked out of the kitchen without another word. The next evening, when her father told her that Little Man had asked for her hand in marriage, Covey couldn’t even muster her anger. She only whispered, “No, Pa, please, Pa.” This was a strange, new feeling for Covey, this feeling that had stolen her voice.
She sat alone in her room for how long, she wasn’t sure. She stepped outside and listened to the buzzes and clicks of the garden, to the sound of her father’s snuffle spilling from his bedroom window. She breathed in the moisture that was starting to settle on the leaves, that was turning the ripened fruit to rot. She slapped away a bug, wiped away a tear. Everything was the same, but nothing was the same. She wanted to find Gibbs and tell him, but she knew she couldn’t. Not now. Though he would hear about it soon enough.
The stunned feeling was starting to wear off. From below that came something that felt like thunder in the distance, like a howling wind coming off the sea, like a wild animal approaching. And now she was that animal, and she was unlatching the gate and running into the street, tears wetting her face, wetting her neck, wetting her shirt. She was running up the road, her voice coming out of her like a growl.
Covey and Gibbs
Covey didn’t know how she was going to tell Gibbs about Little Man, but Gibbs had already heard. Covey was leaving school with Bunny the next day when she saw Gibbs hurrying toward her from across the road that ran between the high school and the bluffs.
“Is it true?” Gibbs said loudly.
“Shhh,” Covey said, looking straight ahead and walking fast down the road.
“Well, is it true?” Gibbs said, lowering his voice. “Is it true what dem saying about you and Little Man?”
“Wait, wait,” Covey said. They walked for a while with Bunny, both closed-mouthed, until Bunny finally said likkle more and kept going straight while Covey and Gibbs doubled back on a road that led down to the beach.
“When were you going to tell me about you and Little Man?”
“There is no me and Little Man, Gibbs, this is all my father’s doing. They have this idea in their heads that I am supposed to marry Little Man, but of course I’m not going to marry him.”
“If Little Man wants to marry someone, he will marry them.”
“But it’s ridiculous, don’t you see? My pa will realize that soon enough. And Little Man? Can you imagine him, married? He’ll forget about it, he’s just showing what a big man he is, that he can get whatever he wants. I am not going to marry that man, Gibbs.” Covey wrapped her arms around Gibbs. “But please,” she said. “I need you to be calm for me. We need to let some time go by.”