As I come up over the hill, I see Eliza and Stella on the riverbank doing the washing, close to a grove of tall bamboo trees and where some big boulders piled up. Is a pretty spot them choose, green everywhere, orchids clinging to the tallest trees. Smell of jasmine on a sudden breeze. A bright doctor bird, green and black with a long tail, moving quick, from flower to flower. Even the sunlight on the river pretty today, bubbling cross the water. I stop, look pon them. Eliza a strong little Stella the way she move, the way she hold her head up high, but her body slim like Massa. Them holding the end of a sheet, squeezing it tight, can’t see me watching. Notice how Stella act different, not have a look that say ‘Me too busy, don’t bother me’. So I creep up a little closer, hide behind one of the boulder them.

‘Hurry up, girl,’ I hear Stella say. ‘We not got all morning. Put the clothes on that bush over there.’

‘Yes, Mama,’ I hear Eliza say. ‘Clothes going dry in no time.’

Then is only the sound of the river. The slapping of cloth against rock, till I hear, ‘Mama, me can ask you something?’

‘Yes, child,’ Stella say sweetly because try as she might, she find it hard to be stern with Eliza.

‘What this day call?’

‘Washing day.’

‘And the next day?’

‘Cleaning day. Scrub all the floors. Dust and tidy everyting.’

‘And the day after that?’

‘Sewing day.’

‘And the day after that?’

‘Is when we polish all the silver. Make the knife and fork and spoon and teapot dem all bright and shiny. Mistress Margaret want to see her face in dem.’

‘Why we not call dem the way Mistress Margaret call dem? She say, Monday is cleaning day. Tuesday is sewing day. Wednesday is …’

Stella stop her right there.

‘Listen to me Eliza. Listen to me good. We and dem is not the same. You hear me? Not the same at all. You must know that by now, child.’

‘What you mean, Mama?’

‘Backra live in one world. You, me, live in another one.’

‘World look no different to me,’ Eliza say.

Stella sigh. Some crows call out to each other in the distance. I wait to hear how she going answer.

‘In slave world, every one of the day dem is a day of work. Make no difference if you call it Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Make no difference at all,’ she say, before she turn stern. ‘Now hush up, help me wring the sheet dem out.’

Eliza ask a lot of questions, just like I used to, but Stella, she no good at answering them. She need Calla to tell these things.