black MAIDS OF PEACE AND POWER.

Colette ran her skinny fingers on the luxurious carvings of a giant coffin, her hand melting in the dark shades of fine wood, she gazed down at the mirrored face on its surface. Soft brown skin, long coal-colored hair, high cheek bones and dazzling olive eyes with a hint of brighter seaweed-green flecks drowned inside them. At age fourteen, she was indeed very young for a servant. Despite the fact that she now worked at one of the largest, most luxurious palaces in France, still, she was treated to hard bread and leftover food every day. She let out a weary sigh, this coffin seemed far, far more luxurious than any bed she had slept on. She picked up the duster to her left and brushed the wooden surface one more time as her right hand slid down to touch the end of coffin’s lid. Looking down, she wondered how it would look like from inside, for a fine looking coffin was sure to have a matching interior.

“Just a glance” she thought, after all, she had spent the previous two hours dusting and shining it. She stuck her fingers inside between the golden framing of the coffin lid and the matching golden framing of the bottom and lifted it with a soft groan. It was more than heavy, she wondered how many men in would take to carry it. But to her luck she managed to open a few inches for a brief peek.

 The interior was far more stunning than she had expected, in fact, she much rather sleep inside the coffin instead of her cold, creaking metal bed. Inside, royal-red cushions were lined perfectly to every side of the coffin’s interior, pressing down into them were diamonds framed with gold. Despite the brief peek she had inside, a sweet scent of camphor flooded out into swirls and wriggled into her nose sending her mind into an outer world beyond human imagination.

A loud knock blasted from the nearby door pulling her out of her daydream. She swung the lid shut and stood up to smooth down her pale beige apron. The sound came on again, it was obvious that whoever was out there was definitely impatient.

“Colette” called a voice from the next room “Open the door will you!”

The knock went on a third time, Colette rolled her eyes and tutted “Coming!” she called out, careful not sound annoyed.

Marching towards the door she swung it open only to find Madam Adélaïde –an old women with dusty green beady eyes, blood-red painted lips and a grumpy expression- standing in the rain with an umbrella above her head. She wore a maroon gown with criminally puffed sleeves, a huge hat, and noisy high heel shoes. Beneath her umbrella, Madam Adélaïde’s face was not pleased.

“Your behavior is absolutely disgraceful young lady” she shrieked, storming in without an invitation “How disgusting!” her high pitched voice seemed more irritating, yet almost deafening.

Colette hung her head down and mumbled “Sorry Madam” hating the apology as much as she hated her.

Madam Adélaïde shoved her hat and umbrella to Colette’s face and marched high headed toward the capacious living room. On her way, she paused, eyeing the place with bloodshot eyes. Colette turned and scanned the room for anything suspicious.

With a moment of sudden she froze, her heart skipped a beat –perhaps two- as she saw the duster’s handle suck between the coffin lid and the bottom of it. She closed her eyes and prayed it wasn’t what Madam Adélaïde had noticed. Unfortunately it was.

“Why is this coffin on the on the floor?” Demanded Adélaïde, swinging her eyes to Colette and scrunching her face into a growl.

Colette opened her mouth to talk, for a brief second nothing came out, then “I-I was cleaning it Madam” , she felt the cold droplets of water from the umbrella trickling down her neck and spine. She shuddered, not because of the cold. She knew that she was caught, and that she was in big trouble.

Madam Adélaïde eyed Colette carefully before kneeling down and picking up the duster “Who instructed you to clean it?” she demanded again swaying the duster from hand to hand. Her eyes full of fury.

Colette gulped “I…uh” she wiped a drip of nervous sweat from her forehead “It was my turn to … clean here today”.

“Were you instructed to clean inside the coffin?” she stepped closer to Colette, her shoes once again caused that annoying *tick-tick* sound, she was, however, aware of how much she was playing with Colette’s nerves.

“No Madam Adélaïde”

“I predicted so” with the flicker of the next second, Adélaïde swung the duster at Collet’s face, its wooden handle collided with her lip and it begun to bleed. “You filthy cow!” Shrieked Adélaïde “ … You bloody black filth! . . .” and she went on, yelling every swear word she could remember, everything she said included “black” or “slave”.

Colette did nothing about it, she couldn’t argue, she couldn’t explain. Everything she did caused her more trouble. Behave. Sit still. Be quite, was the story of her life. standing there with her hands to her sides and her bleeding lip sucked in.

“Have you any idea how valuable this is?” She bellowed “Do you expect it to be as cheap as you? … you –my dear- aren’t’ worth a penny!” she marched towards a large sophisticated painting of a handsome man hanging above what used to be the coffin’s place “This coffin is a precious royal masterpiece , for the royal  family, Not for black servants. Not for black slaves it is completely off limits, UNTOUCHABLE”. She went on, shrieking and yelling “black”, “slave”, “filth”. Until Colette could take no more.

“Well I beg your pardon Madam, but I was doing no harm to ‘the precious royal gift” she snapped, Adélaïde froze silent, Colette went on “I am instructed to keep the royal palace clean and I am working with every energy I have been blessed with to do so”

“Oh are you!” Madam Adélaïde looked shocked, It was indeed the first time a servant had raised their voice at her “If you are blessed with so much energy that you are cleaning the interior of a coffin, let me see you clean the royal horse stable”

Colette gasped and cringed, not only was the horse stable stinky and filled with turd, the horses were not taken out of the stable while it was being cleaned. Female servants were never instructed to clean the stable, the job was only done by male servants who were thought to be capable of surviving the kicks and bruises caused by the royal horses.

 “Although” add Adélaïde “I doubt that you clean your own filth” she sneered as if she had read Colette’s mind.

Colette’s face tuned bright pink, she felt her cheeks flush “How dare you!” she yelled out furiously, for a second she felt like she had spoken from another human’s throat.

“How dare you!” exclaimed Adélaïde clapping her hands to her chest and looking astonished.

 A neat figure stormed into the room and marched towards them “What is all this racket?” he asked looking from face to face. He was the prince

“Prince Joseph” exclaimed Adélaïde “ I highly apologies for this young lady’s misbehavior. Please, do allow me to extinguish her once and for all.” She said sweetly, as if she hadn’t been arguing for what seemed like hours.

Prince Joseph fixed Colette with careful – dazzling blue – eyes and frowned at Madam Adélaïde. The faintest hint of a grin snaked across Colette’s face and she stared to the floor to cover it. She knew that Prince Joseph hated Adélaïde as much as she did, in fact she wondered if everyone in the palace shared the same feeling towards Adélaïde. Joseph cleared his throat and spoke “May I know why?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at Adélaïde.

Adélaïde pointed down at the coffin “Yes, she had messed with a precious royal masterpiece, almost damaged it in fact!” she sniffed “Luckily I caught her just in time”.

“Of course you did” he mumbled rolling his eyes “Is that true Colette? … have you damaged the coffin?”.

Colette was flattered for a moment, with so many servants around the palace, he had remembered her name!. “I’m afraid not Prince Joseph, I was only cleaning it… I would have never caused it any harm”

“Liar!” snapped Adélaïde. “I saw her with my own eyes picking the diamonds inside”

“I did not!” Argued Colette, that moment she realized just how much she hated Adélaïde.

Prince Joseph raised his palm for them to be quiet “I will inspect it myself” with that he crouched down on his knees and slowly heaved up the lid. It looked more beautiful under that light of the gleaming chandelier and the scent of camphor flooded out once again. Sure enough there was nothing damaged, the cushions unripped, the diamonds unstolen and the interior and exterior wood safely secure.

“Well, It looks fine to me” said Joseph, Colette agreed.

Adélaïde tutted “It does not to me!” she snapped. The prince looked annoyed “Are you doubting me Adélaïde?”

She gasped and swung her hand to her chest “Certainly not your majesty”

“Is there something I missed?” he said, stepping backwards and gesturing for Adélaïde to show him. She knelt down and examined the coffin. Colette wished if she could shove her inside and bury her under the horse stable, and to her surprise, the prince seemed to think the same. He lifted up the lid and slowly placed in position as Adélaïde quickly stood up and smoothed down her dress.

“It is fine Adélaïde, don’t worry” he turned to Colette and smiled “You may leave now Colette thank you” Colette smiled back and bowed her head thankfully, as she turned to leave a loud shriek from Madam Adélaïde pulled her back “I have not yet approved your cleaning Colette.

Colette looked shocked, Joseph looked annoyed “You are not to leave this room until you clean every square inch of marble in it” added Adélaïde bitterly.

“I have done that indeed Madam” said Colette, silently cursing Adélaïde under her breath.

Adélaïde yelled again “You do what I instruct you to!” she glanced at Colette’s hands and wrinkled her nose in disgust “And for heaven’s sake, wear some gloves, will you?, I left some old gloves in your room, please do use them”

Colette stared at the ground and felt a huge lump forming in her throat, she knew that Adélaïde wasn’t arguing about the coffin all along, something darker, yet disgusting was in her mind the entire time. Colette felt weak, she felt like crying and perhaps faint. Joseph, on the other hand, was unaware of the hidden truth, he looked puzzled “Why gloves?” he asked, eyeing Adélaïde who was eyeing Colette.

Adélaïde didn’t have words to reply, so Colette did it for her “Can’t you see prince Joseph?” she said, in a hoarse voice, then slightly more than a whisper “It’s because I’m black” She raised her had to wipe the escaping flood of warm tears trickling down her face. Black skin. Does it matter? In a perfect world it shouldn’t, but they weren’t in a perfect world. Yet, Adélaïde saw things from the vision of a child, white is clean and pleasant, black is dirty and sickening. She didn’t know that what was more sickening was her attitude and her lack of consideration for others.

Adélaïde looked disgust, Joseph stared at Colette for a moment, putting himself in her shoes, and in her pale beige apron, and her creaking metal bed. He felt sorry for her, and yet he was more than furious at Adélaïde. Colette lifted her head and pushed back her long hair, her green eyes more mesmerizing than ever before.

For a second Joseph realized something “What happened to your lip?” he demanded, already knowing the answer. Colette shrugged “It doesn’t matter your majesty” she smiled unwillingly at Adélaïde “I hope god will forgive you”. She picked up the duster and walked towards her room to get the gloves. “Stop!” called Joseph. Colette turned around.

“Oh for heaven’s sake let her go and get herself cleaned!” exclaimed Adélaïde bitterly. Joseph glared at her, fire shot from his eyes “You know what I think should get cleaned?” he threatened “You bloody attitude… It’s disgusting… awfully disgusting Adélaïde, and so disgusting it could make any living soul nau-sea-ted”, he turned to Colette who’s heart skipped a beat “Colette, please get rid of her, I find it hard to breath in her presence”

Colette couldn’t hide her smile “Right away prince Joseph” she said walking back to them. As she held Madam Adélaïde’s wrist to guide her outside Adélaïde shrieked and wriggled, swinging her hands at Colette. Blood-hurdling insults flooded out of her mouth. Joseph burned with anger, he clasped Adélaïde’s arm and shoved her outside. Rain beat down on her head as she staggered backwards and fell down the steps. Joseph yelled “Just so you know, your services are no longer needed in here” with that he slammed the door shut in the middle of Adélaïde’s shrieks.

Colette rushed away and returned with a dry cloth “You are wet sir, please allow me” as she reached out to dry his suit, he stopped her.

“I think you’ve had enough maid work for the day” he smiled and patted her shoulder “let us see what I can do for you”

To be continued . . .