Loneliness of a mother
Tulip Chowdhury explores death and sadness
Low Country
Anne Rivers Siddons
Harpertorch
"CARO" is short for Caroline Venable. A woman in her thirties, Caro lived in Peacock's Island, South Carolina. She was born there, grew up on the island and knew of no second home. Dayclear, a settlement of the Gullahs, was just a part of Peacock's Island divided by a marshland. To Caro both the places were like heavens in this world. She was in awe of the old civilization of the Gullahs. She wanted them to retain their own lifestyle and live on there in their own way. To her, the word Gullah was a beautiful word, a part of the strange and lyrical amalgam of West African and Colonial English once spoken by the handful of Gullah community. They were the descendants of the slaves brought here by the first white settlers of these archipelago marshes. Some of the elders still spoke the old patois among themselves. To Caro the Gullahs were a part of her home, part of her being.
While Caro's thoughts were often full with thoughts of the welfare of these people, her other being was constantly mourning the death of her daughter Kylie. She had died at the age of ten, drowned in the sea that surrounded her. Had Kylie been alive she would have been a teenager. Caro often went to Dayclear and spent the night all by herself in the cottage up there. Her nights would be spent in the company of wine and whiskey. Here Caro drowned herself for the night and tried to forget the unhappiness over Kylie. Her son Clark was away from the island pursuing his studies. Her husband Clay was busy roaming the country looking for vacation spots. While Caro played the good wife, in her soul she was lonely and miserable. She was an artist but she could no longer paint to her heart's content. Somehow her brooding self always made her thoughts go astray. There were days when she would spend hours just holding on to the brush and staring at an empty canvas. Her soul seemed to be empty, her heart dead somewhere. The spirit of her dead daughter seemed to hover over everything she did and everywhere she went.
Then one day, while Caro was in the island cottage, a little girl ventured up to her doorstep. Caro thought she was having hallucinations, for the girl was the perfect image of little Kylie. Caro imagined that her little daughter's spirit was there to meet her. While she stood spellbound, Luis Cassells, the little girl's grandfather, came over looking for her. When he heard of Caro's confusion he did not try to correct her but told her that it was just normal to envision her dead child in a likely situation. From this day Luis became Caro's friend, someone who seemed to understand her completely. Caro's tormented soul found refuge in this friendship. The little girl Lita grew fond of Caro and Caro sort of kept imagining that Kylie was there in the skin of Lita. Her soul refused to let go of Kylie, refused to believe that Kylie was gone.
While Caro was under all that emotional upheaval Clay was secretly planning to give out Dayclear and the Gullah community to be developed for a vacation spot. Luis one day revealed the plans to Caro. She felt as if her sky was coming down. She felt betrayed by the very husband whom she had loved and trusted. On a whim she packed up and went off to her cottage in Dayclear. The morning found her looking for the wild ponies that roamed the island. Then she walked to the Gullah community and promised that she would not let anyone make their home a tourist spot. While she was going through this emotional crisis with her Clark she found Luis was ready to be more than just a friend. In Dayclear Caro once again found refuge in alcohol and tried to forget her unhappiness over her husband. The little girl Lita fell sick just when Caro herself needed some nursing. Lita's needs woke the mother in Caro and she stood beside the little girl and her grandfather. Caro's determination to keep the Gullah community intact at last wins over Clay and he is forced to give in. But the battle for the land and the love for the Gullahs have to go a long way before Caro and her husband can be reunited. Clay too had to break up with his contracts with his partners and return to his wife and her wants. While Caro is fighting to save her island and to keep its originality she finally realizes that Kylie was gone from her. The realization that her island might have slipped through her fingers makes her all the more realistic. She knew that it was the island where Kylie had lived, where she had spent her last days. She grew closer to Lita knowing that the little girl had lost her mother when she was five. At last Caro found solace in this world, learning that she could give herself to others and love them. She took Lita under her wings knowing that Kylie would have loved her for it. Of course Kylie would be always there with her, on her own island. Her island was also safe for the Gullah community, the people she loved.
Low Country is a book that stretches the vision of the mind through its detailed descriptions of beautiful places. Anne Rivers Siddon's tapestry of the marshes and the islands is simply picture perfect. The portraits of the beautiful, lush places make the reader live in the places and make them feel as if the happenings are palpably real.
Tulip Chowdhury is a writer and critic.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments