plum orchards, the peaches, the quinces, the vegetables crouched on the ground – everything begins to run together in a dull smudge, and disappears in front of your eyes, and nothing remains of all that has been sowed and planted here, until it all becomes void and without form as it must have been right in the beginning. As if there has never been any people around, as if everything we have built and made has been in vain, as if it’s only the wild world of the LordGod that remains, leaving no trace of people or animals, nothing at all.
VII
So they stand, without another Word, and with only the Silence brooding between them, like the Shadow of a Giant huddling there, and Philida feels the Words spoken by the tall, bony Man growing thick and swollen in her own Throat, and turning sour like curdled Milk, but there is no way she can swallow them, and then their Ways part, Francois to his Horse, Philida preparing to take the long Road back on Foot, with all the Thoughts gathered inside her
BUT JUST AS I get ready to leave, the thin man behind me say, Not so fast,
meid
.
I stop.
The man say: You made your Baas come all this way just to listen to a heap of lies.
How can it be lies? I ask. Didn’t the Grootbaas see the child for himself?
Shut up, he say. You’re a slave and you’ve done a wicked thing to tell all those lies. There’s only one remedy for the likes of you.
I keep silent, but I can feel everything settle in my stomach like a thick lump of porridge.
He come past me to the door and call outside. Four of his Kaffers appear so quickly that I feel they must have been waiting right outside.
Here’s the
meid
, say the thin man, rubbing his long hands with the thick knuckles together. She lied to the court. You know what to do about that.
My voice find it hard to settle in my throat, but all I can say is: Grootbaas, what about my child?
He call one of his helpers: You can give it to this man.
I want to stop him, but I know that this will only make things worse. To make sure that Willempie will not get hurt, I hand him over, but very slowly.
The two men in the doorway get ready to drag me off by the arms.
But just as they start to move, I hear Willempie whimper behind me and that make me stand still, even though I do not know where this come from. I can only hear my own voice as it break from my throat like a bird flying up from a bush.
Let me go! I shout so suddenly that it make them all stop. Don’t touch me!
Behind me the tall man speak very quickly. What’s going on here? he ask. These men are acting under my orders. They will do what I tell them.
Yes, the Grootbaas will tell them, I say, as if it is somebody else speaking in my voice. It is like a big juicy plum that suddenly appear on a branch in front of me, for me to pluck and stuff into me without thinking. I go on: And once they finish what the Grootbaas order them to do, yes, then we can all take the road to the Caab to find out what the Council of Justice and the Governor got to say about it.
All I really know about that thing they call the Council of Justice is what Frans tell me on that long-ago day when we first talking about the people in the Caab who got all the power. But after that day I forget all about it and it never come back to me again. Only now, from nowhere, it return and all I can do is to pluck it like a smooth, naked fruit and put it in my mouth. I look at the tall man and this time I can hear my own voice speaking very calm and fast as there is no fear left in me. And from the Caab, I say, from the Caab we can walk all the way to that England place where the laws come from. Then we can talk some more. Because I hear the law is now there to protect us slaves.
Where do you get that nonsense from? he ask.
They say the law in the Govment’s books and the LordGod stand together, I tell him, but I still got no idea of how it got into my head.
What on earth are you talking about? he ask.
I just talking about all the
VII
So they stand, without another Word, and with only the Silence brooding between them, like the Shadow of a Giant huddling there, and Philida feels the Words spoken by the tall, bony Man growing thick and swollen in her own Throat, and turning sour like curdled Milk, but there is no way she can swallow them, and then their Ways part, Francois to his Horse, Philida preparing to take the long Road back on Foot, with all the Thoughts gathered inside her
BUT JUST AS I get ready to leave, the thin man behind me say, Not so fast,
meid
.
I stop.
The man say: You made your Baas come all this way just to listen to a heap of lies.
How can it be lies? I ask. Didn’t the Grootbaas see the child for himself?
Shut up, he say. You’re a slave and you’ve done a wicked thing to tell all those lies. There’s only one remedy for the likes of you.
I keep silent, but I can feel everything settle in my stomach like a thick lump of porridge.
He come past me to the door and call outside. Four of his Kaffers appear so quickly that I feel they must have been waiting right outside.
Here’s the
meid
, say the thin man, rubbing his long hands with the thick knuckles together. She lied to the court. You know what to do about that.
My voice find it hard to settle in my throat, but all I can say is: Grootbaas, what about my child?
He call one of his helpers: You can give it to this man.
I want to stop him, but I know that this will only make things worse. To make sure that Willempie will not get hurt, I hand him over, but very slowly.
The two men in the doorway get ready to drag me off by the arms.
But just as they start to move, I hear Willempie whimper behind me and that make me stand still, even though I do not know where this come from. I can only hear my own voice as it break from my throat like a bird flying up from a bush.
Let me go! I shout so suddenly that it make them all stop. Don’t touch me!
Behind me the tall man speak very quickly. What’s going on here? he ask. These men are acting under my orders. They will do what I tell them.
Yes, the Grootbaas will tell them, I say, as if it is somebody else speaking in my voice. It is like a big juicy plum that suddenly appear on a branch in front of me, for me to pluck and stuff into me without thinking. I go on: And once they finish what the Grootbaas order them to do, yes, then we can all take the road to the Caab to find out what the Council of Justice and the Governor got to say about it.
All I really know about that thing they call the Council of Justice is what Frans tell me on that long-ago day when we first talking about the people in the Caab who got all the power. But after that day I forget all about it and it never come back to me again. Only now, from nowhere, it return and all I can do is to pluck it like a smooth, naked fruit and put it in my mouth. I look at the tall man and this time I can hear my own voice speaking very calm and fast as there is no fear left in me. And from the Caab, I say, from the Caab we can walk all the way to that England place where the laws come from. Then we can talk some more. Because I hear the law is now there to protect us slaves.
Where do you get that nonsense from? he ask.
They say the law in the Govment’s books and the LordGod stand together, I tell him, but I still got no idea of how it got into my head.
What on earth are you talking about? he ask.
I just talking about all the
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