Jazz

Thirteen years later, rumors about the woman on the bed—known as Wild to the people of Vienna—are still circulating. People believe she can curse babies, so pregnant girls are frightened of her. But grandfathers are also susceptible to Wild’s haunting presence, caught off guard when she touches them or whispers in their ears while they work in the fields.

The man everyone calls Hunter’s Hunter—Henry Lestory—thinks back on the first day he met Wild. After she awoke, she was gentle and laughing; for the few days she stayed at Hunter’s house, she used to spend much of her time with Golden Gray. And though Wild is mostly an urban legend now, Hunter knows she is real.

When Golden arrives at the small cottage in Vienna, Hunter is anxious to have a white man in his house; suddenly, the house no longer feels like it belongs to him. Hunter notices that Golden has drunk his liquor, and he is shocked by this white man’s familiarity. Hunter asks if they know each other, and Golden replies, “no, Daddy. We don’t.” Hunter assures his son that he never knew he existed before this moment, as Vera Louise never told him (because she wanted Golden to think he was white).

Shortly after this exchange, Wild goes into labor. As Wild struggles through a difficult birth, Golden explains how True Belle helped him find Hunter, and he chastises Hunter for not being more involved in his life. Hunter will have none of it; he snaps at Golden that he needs to choose whether to deride his Black parentage or accept it, asserting that “a son ain’t what a woman say. A son is what a man do.” Hunter knows that no matter what Golden says, the main reason he has come is to “see how black” his father really is.

First, Golden considers shooting and killing Hunter. But something—the narrator suspects it was Wild—makes Golden change his mind. The narrator reflects that women often have that impact on men. She wonders if Joe could even find the walnut tree where he met Violet, or if it burned down. She thinks Victory, Joe’s closest companion in the world, might be able to find the spot where the tree was.

The narrator reflects again on the fires and violence that drove the relatively prosperous Black population out of Vienna. Hunter refused to leave, but Victory and Joe decided to seek work elsewhere. Before they could leave, though, Joe wanted to find Wild—the woman Hunter had hinted to him was his mother. Joe spent much of his childhood looking for this woman, the source of so much shame and anger. Sometimes Wild was in the woods, sometimes in the sugar cane, but her favorite spot was a hibiscus patch by the river.

The first time Joe ever tried to contact Wild, he went to the hibiscus patch and called out to her. He heard a sound in the flowers and smelled something (what he thought was a mix of honey and excrement), but Wild never responded. When he returned to this hibiscus patch, after the fires, Joe could not be sure if Wild was dead or alive. He called out for her—“you my mother?”—but she never responded, not even to deny it. Though Victory tried to comfort him, Joe could not quite make peace with this mother who was “everywhere and nowhere.”

Now, on a winter day in New York, Joe is thinking about all of this as he tries to track down Dorcas. He recalls Hunter’s words about Wild: “she is not prey.” The gun is in Joe’s pocket—he is “hunting,” and so a gun feels like “a natural companion”—and he is sweating, despite the fact that it is cold outside. 

Joe gets on the subway. He sees three young women dressed up, flashing a “power” that Joe thinks these women will later exchange “for the right to be overcome, penetrated.” Joe thinks back to the last time he tried to find Wild, after he was married. The story slips into Joe’s perspective, and he wonders why Dorcas prefers the young “rooster” of a man she has started going out with.

Joe’s thoughts move back and forth in time. One moment, he imagines Dorcas forgiving him, promising him exclusivity and tenderness. The next moment, he recalls the day when he finally found the cave where Wild lived. There was a green dress there, a doll, and some beautiful linens and silver objects. But Wild herself was nowhere to be found.