Wormwood
“The log rolled with the sound of thunder, and when it hit the floor the whole ship shuddered. He scrambled down after it and saw that the log had split wide open. The heart of the wood was green. Green as a corpse.”
“I’m scared Nanu…”
“And it smelled queer. But he was a stubborn man. He heaved it up to the deck and began to carve. He made so many sparks he needed no lantern to work by. It took him six days to cut her rough form: her head, her body, her arms—”
“He made her beautiful, Nanu.”
”—and it took him seven days to carve her features: her eyes, her lips, her little teeth.”
“Thirteen days for bad luck!”
“When he was finished she was beautiful. He kept her beside him and at night he held her close.”
“He called her Plaisance.”
“That’s stupid! Plaisance! What are you thinking? No. He called her… Amadée.”
“Si. C’est mieux.”
“Amadée. But, now listen to this, that wood was strange. It was the strangest wood in the world. Because even though it had taken him ages to carve her face, hour after hour, her features had a life of their own. Soon his little bride’s smile was a sneer. The expression of her eyes changed also. Deep lines appeared—on her forehead and beside her nose and mouth. One morning when he woke up, Amadée was so hideous he threw her away in a corner where the ropes—”
“Coiled like snakes!”
“That night he went to sleep alone.”
“Le pauvre, pauvre con!”
“And he had nightmares. In the middle of the night he woke up screaming—”
“A rat! He was bitten by a rat, eh? Nanu?”
“He thought it was a rat. Until he lit his lamp and found Amadée back in his bed, scowling like a shark—”
“Green as death!”
“Cold to the touch, Cold—”
“As ice, Nanu!”
“Colder. Cold as brass. He picked her up—”
“Although she was so heavy he almost ruptured his kidneys, le pauvre connard—”
”—and he threw Amadée into the sea.”
“The sea swallowed her up whole! C’est fini?”
“Non. That night, a strong current pulled the ship back to the Java coast. In the moonlight the sailor saw that the ship was heading toward some immense rocks, so he dropped anchor. But the sea was too deep!”
“Bottomless! And Amadée sinking and sinking!”
“Helpless, he watched as the rocks—”
“Shining in the moon, black as Hell…”
”—loomed closer. Mountains of black stone.”
