colonel beauregard courtney sat on the terrace of his home in the suburbs of nashville and enjoyed the warmth of the sun on his grey head. the steady hum of automobiles on the superhighway half a mile away was a droning background to the songs of birds in the trees of his big back yard.
the "colonel" was an honorary title bestowed on him by the governor, for beauregard never had worn a uniform. he had been governor gentry's representative at the fateful memphis conference forty years ago, he had been governor of his state, he had been united states senator from tennessee, he had been chief justice of the state supreme court. now he preferred to think of himself as beauregard courtney, attorney, retired.
where was lucy? probably sitting in front of the television screen, nodding, not seeing a bit of the program. she should be out here in this glorious sunshine.
beauregard's gardener, a wizened little negro man, came around the corner of the house.
"adjaha, you black scoundrel, why don't you die?" demanded beauregard affectionately. "you must be twenty years older than i am."
"fully that, colonel," agreed adjaha with a smile that wrinkled his entire face. "but i'm waiting for you to die first. i'm here to keep watch over you, you know."
he picked up the hoe and went around the house.
curious thing about adjaha. beauregard never had understood why an able, well-educated man like adjaha, in a free and successfully integrated society, would be content to spend his whole life as gardener for beauregard courtney.
beauregard leaned back comfortably in his lawn chair and thrummed his thin fingers on its wooden arm. absently he whistled a tune, and presently became aware that he was whistling it.
it was a haunting little melody, from long ago. he didn't know the words, only one phrase; and he didn't know whether that was the title or some words from the song itself, that song of old new orleans: "... my pretty quadroon...."
"piquette," he thought, and wondered why that name came to mind.
piquette. a pretty name. perhaps a name for a pretty quadroon. but why had that particular name come to mind?
he never had known a woman named piquette.
