Tar Baby

Jadine tells Margaret she saw Valerian and the man laughing together in the greenhouse and is worried that Valerian will not evict the man. Margaret thinks Valerian is doing this to ruin the holiday and uses racist language to describe the man and his appearance. Margaret suggests that she and Jadine could fly to Miami to escape Valerian’s mess, and Jadine agrees to go along with the plan if needed. For most of the next day, Jadine stays in her room, but when she leaves, the man comes in and takes a shower, washing weeks of dirt and sweat from his body. He takes a robe from Jadine’s closet and leaves, thinking about how everyone but Valerian is afraid of him. He did not follow the women from the boat, and he never meant to stay at L’Arbe de la Croix. It was the aggressive mosquitoes, an avocado from a tree, and the sight of a piano in the house that drew him and kept him there. The piano stirred up memories of being ridiculed as a child for learning to play, and kept him up the entire first night, making him nocturnal.

He jumped his ship in the first place because of intense homesickness, and on the Streets’ property he stayed in the gazebo, coming into the house occasionally for food at night. Soon, he began exploring the house and watching Jadine while she slept, and he was taken by her beauty. He knows he needs to come up with a name and story for Valerian and the others, though his true name is Son. Still in Jadine’s room, Son sees Gideon outside and has an emotional reaction to watching Gideon work outside while he stands clean inside.

Valerian sees Thérèse at the washhouse and is reminded that he built it to keep a part of his childhood with him. He had a washerwoman growing up whom he would talk to. His father was ailing and unable to leave his bed, but every time he saw the woman, she would ask where his father was, and he would always make something up. When his father died and the woman asked where his father was, he told her he died. The woman let him scrub laundry with her, letting his emotions out. She was fired when the family’s butler found out.

The night before, when Son was discovered, Valerian saw a vision of Michael in the room, and Valerian believes it was Michael’s image that convinced him to let the man stay. He thought that Margaret was being hysterical and did not believe her claims of a man in her closet. He is then irked by everyone thinking he is proven wrong when Son is led in. He is shocked, after the fact, with how quickly Jadine, Sydney, and Ondine turned on Son. Son interrupts Valerian’s thoughts when he comes into the greenhouse. He tells Valerian that his name is Willie Green, and after Valerian says he won’t turn him in, Son assures him he meant to be in Jadine’s room, not Margaret’s. Son tells Valerian how to help his plants grow better and tells a sexual joke, causing the laughter Jadine witnesses.

Son goes with Gideon and Thérèse to Queen of France for a haircut because Sydney refuses to give him one. Thérèse boasts to everyone about their American guest, and they bring him to their home, where Gideon cuts his hair. Gideon explains that Thérèse is the only “Mary” and that every time Ondine asks Gideon to dismiss her, he just brings her back and tells Ondine she is a different person. Everyone at L’Arbe de la Croix believes him. Thérèse asks strange questions about America, and Gideon says not to listen, as she is one of the blind race. Gideon tells the legend of how a French ship carrying enslaved people, who went blind when they saw Dominique, foundered, and the people washed up on Isle des Chevaliers along with the horses from the ship. It is said that les chevaliers still ride blindly across the island. Thérèse expresses her hatred for Ondine and explains that she tried to help Son with food while he was hiding. Gideon tells Son that he could find work on the island but realizes that he has his sights set on Jadine. He warns Son about her position as the protégé of the Streets and calls her almost white.

Son returns to the house looking clean and sharp. He tries to apologize to Jadine, but she dismisses his apology, and he tries and fails to play the piano for her. She makes him apologize to Sydney and Ondine for the stress he caused them. Jadine feels attracted to Son but also books a flight as a means of escape after the holidays, hoping her life will return to normal. Son goes to Ondine and Sydney’s apartment to apologize and sees how different their living quarters are from the rest of the house. He tells Ondine that everyone in his life, including his wife, is dead and that he fled his home after a car wreck. Sydney refuses Son’s apology and rages about how Valerian plays with everyone’s emotions for his own amusement. He tells Son he will not wait on nor serve him. Son tells them that he just needs a day for Valerian to secure him papers to leave, and he asks in the meantime to eat with Sydney and Ondine and asks for a new place to sleep. Sydney agrees to this, and Son leaves, convinced that Sydney believes he is acting to obtain Valerian’s generosity rather than Jadine’s attention.

With tensions eased, a sense of camaraderie and holiday spirit rises. Son sleeps on the porch and thinks of his loner status in the world and his desire to be defined by no one. The next day, Son invites Jadine to lunch, and they picnic on the beach. She asks Son what he wants from life, and he tells her of the thrill he felt earning his first dime. She calls him lazy, caricaturizing him and saying he’s stupid for believing he is above money. He explains that he is from Eloe, an all-Black town in Florida and that he was last there eight years ago. Despite sharing personal details of his life, he still refuses to tell her his name. Son tells her that he left Eloe because he killed someone and feels shame for not looking into her eyes as she died. He explains that his wife was sleeping with a 13-year-old boy and that when he found them, he drove his car into the house to wreck it. However, the car exploded, and the bed caught fire. The boy survived the fire, but Son’s wife died from her burns.

Jadine is appalled and tucks her feet under herself, scared of him. She tells him he needs help, but he responds saying he loves her and wants her feet back. She brings her feet back out and is startled when he touches the arch of one of them, though he stops when she asks. On the ride back to L’Arbe de la Croix, she thinks of reasons not to sleep with him. They run out of gas, and as he walks to get more, she wanders into the forest to escape the sun. She steps into a swamp and sinks into the muck, only able to slowly pull herself out using the trunk of a tree. She is covered in tar by the time Son gets back, and when they return to the house, Margaret, who believes Son hid in her closet to rape her, asserts that he is bad luck. Jadine struggles not to tell Margaret that Son wants her, not Margaret.