Shakespeare McNab is summoned to the office of the Vice-President of the Republic of Guyana where he waits for over half an hour before he is called into his office. McNab is a radio broadcaster, a poet, and a folklore expert (sounds familiar?), and he imagines (in one of the more positive scenarios) that he has been summoned to be appointed as the Vice-President's official biographer.
When he finally enters the Vice-President's office however, the following occurs: The Vice-President rose to his feet and came around from behind the desk. Despite his weight, his hips swivelled freely, like those of a spoilt schoolgirl. He came unhesitatingly forward and delivered a resounding slap to the left side of Shakespeare's face: 'Be more careful what stories you broadcast in future, Comrade McNab. That's all. Good morning.'
Later that same day, McNab is also fired from his job at the radio station.
As it turns out, the offending story he'd read on the air was an Anancy tale with details resembling those of a rumour being circulated that the Vice-President had poisoned and killed his wife. And although it appears McNab told the story without any pre-planned intention to cause trouble, that doesn't matter. He doesn't claim innocence; he instead hatches a daring and strange plan to free himself from the humiliation of the slap, and the firing--a plan he hopes will get him back his job.
The plan is set in action with a call to the Vice-President's office with the message that he is in imminent danger. What follows then is a carefully planned scene on a dark road.
McNab cuts down a Casuarina tree and uses it to block the path of the Vice-President's chauffeur-driven vehicle on his way home one evening. When the driver stops to try to remove the tree, McNab, dressed as a mythical woman (La Diablesse) causes the superstitious Vice-President to fall on his knees in fright. After a quick change of clothing, McNab (appearing as himself) chases the woman, and gets into the Vice-President's vehicle telling him, "Lord a mercy. All these years I bin tellin' stories about these things an' I never really believe them. Now I know is all true. Lucky I was there. I fought her off."
But, in a "folklorish" twist, it appears the Vice-President wasn't scared because he thought the woman was the mythical creature La Diablesse, but because he thought he was seeing the ghost of his dead wife.
Despite McNab's misdirected scene of self-deliverance however, the Vice-President is spooked enough to recognize him as a Savior of sorts, and offers him the job of Personal Advisor to him, which McNab gladly accepts.
Far-fetching connections?
Now granted the act of deliverance which believers acknowledge from somewhere around the Lenten period through the Easter celebration occurring this weekend is certainly mightier than the scope of McNab's act of self-deliverance in this story, nevertheless I do see some connection here.
Some have theorized that those who greeted Jesus upon his arrival in Jerusalem with shouts of Hosanna (save us), and with Palm branches were not looking for a spiritual Savior, but rather a political Savior; Palm branches were a symbol of freedom and defiance. Some of those theorists add that Jesus wept because he realized that they did not understand the purpose of his coming.
The connection I make this particular Easter as I read about the troubled, but hope-filled worlds of Pauline Melville's Guyanese characters, that of ancient Jerusalem, and as I live through the reality of our troubled times, is by way of these questions: Are we in need of spiritual saviors, or political ones? Would we recognize the differences between them?
A collection for any time of year
The connection I implied between the fallen Casuarina tree which McNab uses to waylay the Vice-President, and the Palm branches used to pave Jesus' path and greet his arrival in Jerusalem is that ultimately they may both have been props used to stage largely misinterpreted scenes of deliverance. And yes, there is an element of brazen far-fetchedness in the connection I make, but Melville does not shy away from making bold spiritual and political statements in Shape-shifter. For that reason alone (they are certainly others) I recommend the collection. It's a thought-provoking collection of stories well worth reading at any time of year.
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