In the Castle of My Skin

Amid the screeching of parakeets, G. and his friend Bob walk to the beach. They pass through Belleville, “where the white people lived, and the streets bordered by palm trees were called avenues. Here the houses were all bungalows high and wide with open galleries and porticoes” (109). The morning star shines bright and beautiful in the sky, but as they walk without talking, G. realizes that something is wrong between him and Bob. Bob suggests that they take separate routes to see which one is shorter. G. agrees, then dismisses the idea and runs back to spy on his friend. Likewise, Bob turns back to spy on G., and the two crash into one another. Due to Bob’s peculiar behavior, G. again surmises that something is wrong. While walking, G. guesses at various cloud formations, with some looking like men and others like beasts, and says, “The sky was like a great big bully choosing the life and death of these tottering shapes” (111).

G. finds Bob, who’d gone ahead earlier, cracking sea eggs on the beach. When he approaches, however, Bob runs off. G. gives chase but loses him. He then dives into the sea and wonders what’s wrong. Earlier in the week, he’d gotten in trouble for talking to Bob. Bob was sitting at a street corner known for gang activity, and G.’s mother found him there with Bob. She beat him for it, reminding him that “hard ears you won’t hear, hard ears you mus’ feel” (113). The following Sunday, Bob sat on the same dangerous corner, and G.’s mother made him walk by his friend without talking. G. wonders if these past interactions have anything to do with Bob’s current demeanor. He wants to talk to Bob about whatever’s wrong, and he wishes desperately to be one of the boys, so he sets off to find Bob and clear things up.

G. visits a rougher portion of the beach that’s separated from the main stretch by a lighthouse. On the safer side, boys often fight for coins thrown into the water by white tourists. The fighting consists of two boys atop the shoulders of another pair of boys, and they splash water until one of them surrenders. The waves are agreeable when they fight, but the waves on the rougher side are deadly. Only fishermen go into the waters on the rougher side, and most who do end up dying when their boats capsize. The villagers always speculate about the rough sea:

Some people said it was the submarines which made the sea erupt […] Others said it was the works of God manifested in different ways. On one side the calm and the peaceful signified he merciful life-giver, and on the other the tempestuous and destructive meant the tormentor of evil spirits. (117)

G. spies Bob, Trumper, and Boy Blue playing a game on the rougher side. All three face the water, and Bob’s hand is raised as if he’s blessing fish. G. gets closer without the others hearing his approach. Trumper reminds Bob not to forget the words he must say, which are “Sea Come No further” (118). The three squabble, and it’s revealed that they’re playing King Canute. They learned about King Canute in their history book. As they argue about the veracity of King Canute, a large wave comes. Though Bob shouts the words, he chickens out and runs away. G., Trumper, and Boy Blue laugh at him as he flees.

While staring at the sea, the boys share an epiphany: “Tis always like this at home,” says Trumper, “The way we is here […] An’ you get the feelin’, you know, that everything’s all right. ’Cause of the way everybody sittin’, just sittin’ there, an’ for the moment you feel nothin’ ever change” (121). Boy Blue adds that he often feels like he hasn’t aged in these moments. The conversation then steers to the pros and cons of both old age and infancy. After another span of silence, Trumper relates an odd story about weddings. In the story, a man named Jon lives with a woman named Susie and has kids with her. He then finds religion and turns his life around. In doing so, however, he falls in love with Brother Bannister’s daughter, Jen. In time, he gets Jen pregnant. Brother Bannister threatens to shoot Jon if he doesn’t marry Jen. Jon relays this to Susie, who then threatens to poison him with arsenic if he doesn’t marry her first. Jon is afraid of dying, so he doesn’t want to trick Brother Bannister or anger Susie. In the end, he agrees to marry both women. Two weddings are held, but Jon doesn’t show up to either one. He hides in a tree in the cemetery that has a view of both churches. Then he disappears.

As the boys laugh about Jon’s predicament, G. assesses Trumper and Boy Blue’s skin color. Boy Blue’s skin is the shade of black that no one wants to be, and Trumper is fair-skinned. Also, Trumper’s eyelids are strange. The rumor is that his eyelids were burned off when he was in reform school, though he doesn’t admit or deny this. Though they’re all black, being “simply black” is looked down upon, while being brown is desirable. “No black boy wanted to be white, but it was also true that no black boy liked the idea of being black” (127). The villagers use skin color as an insult when fights break out, equating darkness or blackness with stupidity and inferiority. Despite this, Boy Blue never gets angry when his skin color is made fun of.

The conversation next steers to people who are locked away for mental illness, while Boy Blue continues to fixate on Jon’s story. The boys also agree that death makes everyone act human in the end. As the trio watches crabs scuttle over the sand, the conversation becomes more and more philosophical. The boys don’t have the right words to explain their thoughts, but they try. Trumper suggests that Jon knew the wedding had to be, so he went to see it play out. This suggests that Jon knew that someone would take his place. Trumper likens this belief to looking at the sun. If there’s a sun, there has to be light. Likewise, even if you have a boot on and step in water, you know there has to be wet without feeling it. In this way, if there’s a church, a priest, and a bride, there has to be a wedding. Boy Blue disagrees with Trumper’s logic, suggesting that his line of thought would mean that there are three different versions of Jon: one in the tree, one in the church with Susie, and one with Jen. Boy Blue’s anxiousness stems more from an existential crisis than anything; he reveals to Trumper and G. that he often believes he will remain alive even after everyone else in the village is dead.

As the boys watch crabs fight, Boy Blue wonders aloud if things just connect randomly for the others. To explain himself, he relates his own story, about Bambina, Bots, and Bambi. Bambi was in love with both Bambina and Bots, and he had children with both women. The village marveled at how the two families lived together in perfect harmony, with no one jealous, angry, or remorseful. One day, however, a white woman came to the village. In time, she convinced Bambi that he had to live a righteous, sinless life by marrying one of the women. Neither woman cared which of them he chose to marry because he loved them equally. Bambi spun a coin and chose to marry Bots. After the wedding, however, Bambi began to change. He stopped talking and took to drinking more. One night, he got so drunk that he beat both Bots and Bambina. The beatings got so bad that the police were brought in, but Bambi wasn’t arrested because he was considered a good man. In time, however, Bots accused Bambina of cursing Bambi, while Bambina accused Bots of wrongdoing. When Bambi later died from alcoholism in Bambina’s house, she arranged a funeral. Bots demanded the body, however, but Bambina refused. Bots then tried to steal the body, only to awaken Bambina and start a fight over the corpse. Boy Blue finishes the story and admits that he can’t understand why people fight over the dead. This conversation reconnects to the concept of going crazy. Trumper and Boy Blue are both scared of the thought that someone can just “go off pop” (142) in their head. Trumper, however, is reassured that not everyone can go crazy like this because the village is connected; they lean on each other.

The boys watch a fisherman near the shore. The fisherman is a larger-than-life figure to them, and they watch as he tries to dry a net. The waves hamper his efforts, but his stoic assessment of his failure causes the boys to idolize him more. When he leaves, Boy Blue attempts to catch crabs with his bare hands. Many boys and men in the village catch crabs, especially after the floods, but it takes special skill to be considered a good crab-catcher. Though Boy Blue is an excellent crab-catcher, he fails this time. Suddenly, a wave sweeps him out to sea. G. and Trumper yell and rush after him. Their cries alert the fisherman, who grabs his net and manages to pull Boy Blue to shore, but his anger frightens the boys. His anger reveals that he is simply human, not a giant as they imagined him earlier. He tells them to get off the beach and leaves. The boys head back to the safe side, and as they walk, G. thinks about the limits of their language. Everyone wants to be educated because they can say what they feel without effort. Though he and the others talked for hours, they had a hard time expressing themselves.

Boy Blue warns G. not to tell Bob about him almost drowning. He admits that Bob didn’t want to hang out with G. The trio finds Bob on the beach, and though they mention the crabs, they leave out all their philosophical talk and the near-drowning. As the boys look out at boats, Bob reminds them that there’s no other body of water or any other land apart from Barbados. His father is a fisherman so he thinks he knows the truth. Though the others contradict him, he sticks to the fact that the ships all move in a circle, beginning and ending in the same place. The boys then head home while trying to determine what they’ll tell their parents about being gone for so long.