The River Between Us

It takes all morning for Delphine and Calinda to unpack. From downstairs, Tilly smells perfume, sweet grass, and other smells she’s never smelled coming from their luggage. In early afternoon, Tilly escorts Delphine into town while Calinda stays home. Delphine lends Tilly a bonnet when she learns Tilly does not have one. It’s the fanciest thing Tilly has ever worn, and she hopes the townspeople notice her in it.

Tilly takes Delphine to Rodgers’s store, the only one in town, but there is little that interests Delphine. She browses quickly and then stands outside. Across the street are Dr. Hutchings’s office and the hardware and ship repair where Noah works. Delphine wants to go there, despite Tilly’s telling her that women don’t go inside. Outside, two men, one from the North and one from the South, are arguing about the war. Tilly and Delphine sidle past them and go inside, where Curry is working at the counter. Undeterred by the high prices, Delphine orders matches and oil lamps, shocking both Tilly and Curry. No one but the doctor burns oil. Delphine ignores their reactions and tells Curry to deliver them to the house before nightfall.

After her quick tour of Grand Tower, Delphine wants to hike to the top of the Devil’s Backbone to see the view. She struggles getting to the top, but Tilly still admires her grace. They sit on the devil’s footstool and look over the town. Delphine points to the graveyard and asks if Tilly’s father is there. Tilly explains that Paw isn’t dead, so far as they know, but he works on the river like many other men, logging in the north during the winter and working on boats through the summer. Usually, the men return to town in the spring to plant and farm. Tilly doesn’t tell Delphine that it has been years since Paw last returned.

At Tilly’s request, Delphine talks about her papa. Monsieur Duval is a great Frenchman who owns many cotton fields in the New Orleans area. She paints a picture of her parents, Mama and Papa, leading a quadrille dance with everyone watching. Delphine thinks he could be Mayor of New Orleans by now, helping the city prepare for battle.

Tilly doesn’t say anything aloud, but she imagines that Delphine’s father will likely be hanged once the North takes New Orleans. As if reading her mind, Delphine asks if Tilly would be willing to destroy Delphine’s home and way of life. Tilly doesn’t want to talk about the war with Delphine and changes the subject to Cass, telling her that Cass sees things that aren’t there. Delphine considers Cass’s visions a gift, and Tilly struggles to explain that things aren’t like that in this part of the country. People would consider Cass mad if they knew.

As the sun sets, the girls make their way back to the house, where the lamps and matches were already delivered. Delphine teases Tilly about Curry, having noticed her crush on him. As they’re talking, Delphine smells food cooking inside and recognizes it as jambalaya. Inside, Calinda has taken over the kitchen. Cass is by her side, and Mama is sitting down shelling peas. Tilly can’t remember the last time she saw Mama sitting during daylight hours.

Tilly considers jambalaya a feast, though she recognizes that true abolitionists wouldn’t eat anything grown in the south. She’s conflicted because she enjoys the meal but feels guilty for eating it. Calinda seems to be in her element in the kitchen and happier than before. Night never comes to the house because of the new oil lamps. Tilly feels like an actress on a steamboat stage and studies the effect the light has on her home. She notices how handsome Noah is; she is jealous that although they’re twins, he got all the good looks. Delphine sews while Calinda lays cards on the kitchen table. Tilly is not sure if Calinda is playing a game with them or reading them. Though Mama would typically never allow cards in the house, she notices how much more alive Cass is in Calinda’s company and lets it slide. Tilly marvels at how different life feels after just one night with Delphine and Calinda.

Summer comes to Grand Tower in May, and the boats continue to stop there with shipments of cotton. Some people believe that the cotton trade will be enough to stop the country from going to war. Each boat from New Orleans brings a trunk from Delphine’s mother, and one contains a beautiful hand mirror carved with violets. Tilly loves the mirror, having never seen her reflection in anything but a window. Though she doesn’t consider herself particularly beautiful, Tilly feels much more real after seeing her reflection.

The town begins gossiping that Calinda is a fugitive from slavery and Delphine was her enslaver, but no one can figure out why the two would travel together if Calinda were indeed a fugitive. Mama hates that people are talking behind her back, but she is grateful that Noah is still living at home. Delphine gives Noah another reason to stay, and for that reason alone, Mama begins to warm up to her. In another trunk from New Orleans, Madame Duval includes a beautiful dress for Mama. Though she is grateful, Mama refuses to even touch the finery of the gown and tells Tilly to put it in the death drawer; she intends to be buried in the gown. As the narrator, Tilly says that no one ever wore the gown, and it is sitting in the death drawer to this day.

Calinda keeps herself and Cass busy, foraging through the woods and teaching her about herbs and vegetables. She begins cooking pralines in molasses and selling them to steamboat passengers from the docks. She dresses in her finest aprons and ties her hair in the fancy bandannas that Delphine calls tignons. She makes a lot of money and hides it in their well.

Tilly remembers this month as a golden time. War has already begun in other parts of the country, but the Pruitt house is full of light and warmth. There is money readily available. Most importantly, Noah is still home. Tilly is sad to see that Calinda and Cass have a stronger bond than she and Cass ever will, but she is happy to see her sister coming to life. Cass and Calinda speak a language Tilly doesn’t understand, conversing about visions, prophecies, cures, and medicines. Cass no longer has time to mope or watch people die in her visions. At night, everyone circles around the fire in the kitchen and listens to Delphine tell stories. Tilly realizes that this is what happiness feels like, but she also realizes that this feeling is perched like a bird about to fly away.

News continues circulating about increasing tensions leading to war. Twenty-eight men are killed in a conflict in St. Louis. Tilly feels things beginning to unravel and sees warnings all around her. One night, Tilly wakes up and sees Cass sitting by the window, rocking back and forth, holding her arm and crying silently in pain. About one day later, Curry leaves a note for Tilly on the steps, telling her that he joined the Confederate Army and will fight for Jeff Davis. He believes the South has all the best generals, and the war will be over by Christmas. He leaves her two ribbons he won in a spelling bee in school.

Delphine tells Tilly that men succeed best at leaving women, and every soldier must leave someone behind. She believes Curry chose the winning side. Tilly argues that if Curry wins, Noah must lose. Reading her mind as usual, Delphine notices that as much as Tilly cares for Curry, she’s happy that Curry is the one leaving, instead of Noah. In the middle of May, Lincoln’s blockade is enforced, and boats stop traveling from the South.

There is still some boat traffic, however, and Calinda continues selling pralines with Cass’s help. One day, Tilly is doing laundry, and Delphine is helping sort through the clothes. Calinda and Cass are preparing to sell their pralines, and Cass is wearing one of Calinda’s tignons. When Delphine sees this, she rips the tignon off Cass’s head, shaking it in Calinda’s face and saying that if she ever sees it on Cass’s head again, she will throw it in the fire. Tilly wonders if the tignon is a shameful thing for Cass to wear, remembering photographs of enslaved women wearing similar bandannas. However, when Delphine returns to the laundry, she says that Cass did not earn the right to wear a tignon. That same week, the first big battle of the war is fought in Virginia, the Battle of Bull Run. The papers call it a horrible defeat of the North. This news suddenly turns Grand Tower into a Republican town, so that everyone now supports the Union Army.

Delphine continues to walk downtown every day. The men wait to see her, hoping for a glimpse of her ankles. Rumor spreads that she never wears the same bonnet twice, so even the women always watch her. One day, after Delphine leaves for her downtown stroll, three women, including the preacher’s wife, visit the Pruitt house. Mama sits down with the women at the kitchen table, where they tell her that the Pruitt family is on thin ice for hosting Delphine and Calinda. The townspeople believe that because the women are from the South, they must be spies.

When Mama disagrees, the women say that Delphine is tempting the men of the town by displaying her ankles while she walks downtown. Mama replies that this must be a real concern for these women, since their husbands must be restless if they’re out looking for a glance at Delphine’s ankle. One woman retorts, saying at least they could keep their husbands, unlike Mama. Mama stands and tells the women to leave.

As the women walk down the hill, Tilly asks Mama if she wishes Delphine and Calinda had never come. To Tilly’s surprise, Mama says she’s glad the girls came when they did. Mama realizes that Delphine’s confidence rubbed off on her, Calinda helped Cass come out of her shell, and Delphine’s tidiness helped Tilly take better care of her own appearance.

Soon after this conversation, Delphine hurries up the hill with a flier, excited that a showboat is stopping in Grand Tower. She wants the entire family to attend the show. Tilly realizes that life in Grand Tower must be incredibly dull for Delphine, who is accustomed to the grand balls and operas of New Orleans. Mama decides that they will all go, and Tilly knows it is because of their visitors that day.

Later, news from Noah makes the family even more determined to attend the show. He comes home from work nearly shaking with anger and retreats to his room. In the past, Tilly would have left him alone, but Delphine’s confidence emboldens her. She enters Noah’s room and forces him to tell her what is wrong. At work, the men accused the Pruitt family of being spies, along with Delphine, and using the lights in their windows to send signals to the South. Noah cannot tolerate their condemnation of Delphine.

Delphine spends days fussing about what to wear to the showboat. She insists that Calinda come along, even when Calinda volunteers to stay home. When the day of the event finally arrives, Delphine spends all day getting ready and even dresses up Cass and Tilly. Delphine lends them clothes and bonnets and curls their hair. Delphine lends Mama tortoiseshell combs with diamonds in them.

The showboat is packed with people from Grand Tower and the surrounding areas; this is likely to be the last show anyone will get to see because of the war. Abraham Lincoln and his two fictional daughters, who represent the North and the South, are characters in the first play. There is great conflict between the daughters. When the curtain closes, the band begins playing the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” and an American flag unfurls from the ceiling. Delphine shakes her head and mutters under her breath in French. The next play is comedic, though Tilly doesn’t understand most of the jokes. She knows only that the white actors painted their faces to look like Black men. Delphine doesn’t seem to like this play either.

The third time the curtain rises, the stage is bare, and the audience is invited to dance. Noah invites Delphine to dance, and she accepts, leading him in a waltz in the center of the stage. Dr. Hutchings invites Tilly, who has never spoken to him, to dance. She nervously accepts, and he makes a joke, putting her at ease.

After the audience has been dancing for a while, one of the Black men in the orchestra recognizes Calinda and begins to sing to her in French, beckoning her to the stage. Delphine translates the song for Tilly, and it seems to be an invitation to “dance the Calinda” (71). Calinda ignores him for a short while but soon climbs to the stage and begins to dance in a way Tilly has never seen, making quick steps and thrashing her skirts around. Everyone is enthralled and claps in time to the music. Eventually, Delphine runs to the foot of the stage, cheering “‘Danse, CoinCoin!’” (71). Calinda continues dancing until she is dripping with sweat, and Tilly sees that she is crying. She runs off the stage, off the boat, and all the way back to the Pruitt house.

Delphine returns to her seat with the Pruitts, also crying. She tells them that Calinda’s true name is CoinCoin, but she is called Calinda because no one dances the calinda as well as she does. Apparently, Calinda is a famous dancer in New Orleans. Delphine says that the calinda and Calinda’s name, CoinCoin, originate in the islands, but she stops herself from saying anything further. The family returns to the house.

A few weeks later, on the night of his and Tilly’s 16th birthday, Noah leaves to join the Union Army. He leaves while everyone is asleep to avoid difficult goodbyes. Mama shrinks away from everyone after his departure, losing the bit of hope that remained within her. When Tilly puts a hand on Mama’s arm to comfort her, Mama jerks away as if she were burned. She wants only Noah.