Small Island

Queenie knows that she owes Bernard an explanation, so she tells him her story. After the war, she resigns herself to waiting for Bernard to come home, knowing that their cold marriage was in part her fault, and resolving to try harder when he returns. In the meantime, however, she’s filled with “boring leaden yearning.” She can’t get a job because there are too many soldiers returning from war, and without Arthur, she has no one to talk to at home.

In the middle of the night, Queenie hears a knock on the door. Answering, she finds Michael Roberts on her doorstep. Instantly, she feels like a beautiful and desirable woman again, rather than a bitter and dowdy housewife. She welcomes him inside.

Michael tells her that his plane was shot down in France. The two soldiers who previously stayed with Queenie died. Fortunately, Michael had a soft landing. After a few days of foraging in the woods, he found a farmer who hid him because his dark skin made him an interesting oddity. At the end of the war, the farmer helped him return to the British. He tells Queenie that he’d been anxious about the fateful raid because he was flying without his wallet, which was a good luck charm. Queenie is thrilled to tell him that she’s saved it. As he looks at the faded pictures, he tells her that he lost his family in a hurricane.

His mood changing, Michael asks Queenie if she’s ever felt the force of a hurricane, and takes her upstairs to bed. For the next three days, they huddle together inside the house, only emerging from the bedroom for haphazard meals. However, Queenie knows this affair is only temporary. Michael is heading to Toronto, which promises more opportunity than Jamaica, and he never asks her to go with him. When he finally leaves, she hopes he’ll be hesitant or sad, but he’s purposeful and confident as always.

Soon, morning sickness strikes, and Queenie knows she’s pregnant. At first, she wants to get rid of the baby, and she jumps down the stairs and takes scalding hot baths in hopes of inducing a miscarriage. However, the first time she feels the baby kick, she imagines that it’s scared of her, and she knows that she’s the only one who can protect it. She resolves to carry on with her pregnancy. Still, she wraps up her stomach to prevent her nosy neighbors from gossiping about her illegitimate pregnancy and making it “sordid.”

At night, Queenie discusses plans for the future with her unborn baby. She considers using her savings to immigrate to Canada. In the postwar chaos, an unwed mother and a mixed-race child might be unusual, but not frowned upon. However, Bernard’s return home puts an end to these plans.

Bernard listens to Queenie’s entire story without interrupting or reproaching her. When she finishes, he stands up and leaves without saying a word.