The Ballad of Black Tom

Inside, Tommy realizes the mansion is in disrepair. Something about the layout strikes him as odd, “As if the mansion’s interior was larger than its exterior” (41). It is musty and seems to be stuck in another time. These descriptions foreshadow the supernatural events that will occur during Tommy’s visit.

As Suydam leads Tommy down a dark hall, Tommy feels someone is following him. They arrive at a large, brightly lit library, and Suydam closes the doors behind them. He moves to the far side of the room and sits in a large throne-like chair. Tommy notes that the library is empty, and Suydam tells him that tonight is a dress rehearsal for the party the following night. Soon after Tommy begins to play, Suydam interrupts and launches into cryptic speech. He says Tommy’s people live in “mazes of hybrid squalor” and “spiritual putrescence” (46). Tommy voices his affront but backs down so as not to lose his money. Suydam goes on to explain that the party guests will be a mix of races from all over the city, and he needs to practice his speech on someone like them.

Standing by the window, Suydam begins to talk about a Sleeping King at the bottom of the sea who will rise and wipe out most of humanity. As he is speaking, the window begins to ripple, and Tommy realizes he is looking at a roiling sea and a dark, massive form. Suydam claims that those who help the Sleeping King to rise will be rewarded. Suddenly the sea disappears, and the mansion seems to be floating in the night sky. Tommy tries to escape, but when he opens the library doors, he sees Malone standing in the hallway holding a gun. Tommy expects him to shoot but soon notices that Malone is standing in the hallway of a different building, as if he had opened a door into another time and space. Suydam slams the doors closed and asks Tommy if he saw the King, and Tommy says it was only Malone. Relieved, Suydam warns him that it is not safe to open the doors until morning, and they spend the rest of the night trapped in the library.

Throughout the night, Suydam explains that his library can travel through time and space into a liminal dimension he calls “Outside” (55-56). He uses the metaphor of a ball of cloth stuck to a piece of medical tape to illustrate how an object is usually affixed to a single point in time and space, but if you crumple the tape the cloth ball can touch many points at once. Suydam never explains exactly how he is able to control the library’s travel or how he harnessed his supernatural powers, but Tommy is does not want to ask any more questions.

In the morning, Suydam gives Tommy $200 and tells him to return that evening for the party. Once outside, Tommy has a difficult time getting his bearings. The stone he intended to throw at the boys is still in his pocket, and it becomes a reminder of his strange night. He decides that $200 is more than enough—it will support him and his father for six months—and that he should leave Suydam’s mansion and never look back. “Let the old man have his magic” (57), he thinks, and takes the train back to Harlem.