When Alki returned home at lunch they all came over and we saw the wonder on their faces. Alki and Marian were happy to have him tease them, but their kids could not believe their eyes. They have grown up thinking of Robbie as someone the opposite of what he is now.
4401
He gathered Theodora, Tania, Khalid and Julia, gesturing that he wants to share a secret with them. They came together, wondering what he is up to now. “You do realise Alki is pappou to all my loves? Yes, even Meli and Bernie, though he is also their father. That makes you their uncles and aunts. How do you like having them as your nieces?”
“That would make you our nephew in law.” Julia teased.
“Also your brother since he is my adopted father.”
Khalid has those big liquid brown eyes so many Arabs have. They looked at Robbie in a calculating way. “What of from Marian’s side? Is she also your mother?”
“Marian! My mother! What an idea! Of course not, she is my mother in law but also…well, that’s a secret.”
They pestered him to tell his secret and his eyes were laughing as he looked at Marian when he told them, “Inside her is a little girl that should have been my wife. Unfortunately the adult got grabbed by Alki, so the poor little girl is stuck in some horrible limbo, not belonging to anyone, waiting for me to save her. What do you guys think, should we save her?”
Amid all this nonsense and laughter, Hettie appeared to ask his opinion about a request from the government of India. He would not let her explain.
“Hettie my love, I am on holiday for as long as I can be. You decide.”
“You mean there are times when you work?”
He kept his smile. “No Hettie, there are times when I forget why this all started. It was not to handle politicians and comb the universe for species to save. It all had one reason and those reasons are in this room. My sole purpose was to love my family and enjoy being with them. We will be staying here some of the time, but we will also travel, there are so many beautiful places on our world that my loves and I have not been to.” He turned serious for a moment. “Hettie, you can always contact me if there is an emergency, but please do not choose to do so lightly.” She stared into his eyes as if hypnotised and nodded her head, agreeing.
Thus began a time of sweetness for all of us. Before leaving our home we looked at an atlas, chose the places we wanted to visit and then we all went to the void. From there, as the void, Robbie went back to Earth and visited each spot. When possible, if accommodations were available, we would stay the nights or else jump back home to sleep. None of us use credit cards, not even Dommi anymore, so we had to carry enough cash with us. Since we keep a large sum at home we were not worried; should an unexpected need arise for more, one of us can jump for it.
Robbie got up and went to the bathroom. Since he did not need to, we knew he had gone to return with as many of him as were needed to give us all a lovely night of passion. What we got was a surprise though.
The bathroom door opened and we could sense a multitude of Robbies, but we did not see them at first. The first one stuck his head around the door and waited, grinning, for our reactions when we see him. For a stunned moment we thought he is coming to us as a toddler. Then we saw he looks as he normally does, but is tiny! About eighteen inches high! We got the giggles. The eighteen inch high manikin has a penis of eight inches! Even the testicles are of normal size. Our first and common reaction was, ‘Grotesque!’, which made him laugh.
Robbie had divided himself so that there were three for each of us!! I wondered how Roula would see him. Dommi’s thoughts went elsewhere and she lay back and putting her arm over her eyes said, “Jesus!! We’re truly fucked!” Only then did everyone understand.
*Cherine, keep it low key for me please. Just feeling myself climax one hundred and thirty five times simultaneously will blow my mind. Let the feelings of the girls be soft and in the background, just enough for me to know they are enjoying it.*
*Dampen your linking to yourselves then.*
All Robbies felt foolish; they do not care to feel each other, only us, and yet they had asked for us to be dampened. I guess that with a penis that size (compared to their bodies) they cannot get enough blood to their brains to think clearly.
My three climbed onto the bed and sat looking at me with a naughty look in their eyes. I found it funny the way all three of them cocked their heads sidewise and laughed.
4402
“You are supposed to be overcome by lust, not laugh.” I was admonished.
“What gave you this crazy idea?”
“Roula did, when she saw my true size when I split.”
“Are you thinking of all three making love to me at the same time?”
“What do you think Sam?” They leered at me, but they were also laughing inside.
“I think it won’t work. Your bodies are too small.”
“Would you like to try?”
How can I describe six tiny hands all over me, three tongues licking? The novelty of it was fun and got me excited, but I could sense it is not something I will want to try again. Poor Robbie had thought like a male, thinking of his penis as being the fantasy that he is making come true for us. I’ve seen his pictures by an artist called Strange, a series about mother and son. It had looked ridiculous to me, a tiny son with a huge penis having sex with an adult woman. To me, much of the pleasure (tactile wise) is feeling his size, me as a preteen or adolescent sized girl and him as an adult. I enjoy his weight on me. If he had come to me as a three year old I would have found it exciting just because it is my Robbie as a child. This was too outré. Having him in my mouth, vagina and anally at the same time was weirdly exciting, but not something I have fantasised about.
<Claudia: I had not realised you are so conservative Sam. I enjoyed it, like playing a game, and my orgasm blew my mind.>
<Agapi: I enjoyed it. Feeling him come in me in all three places was wonderful.>
<Athia: What a pity Sam, you missed out. If you had allowed yourself to sense him it would have blown you. >
<Jade: I agree with Sam; it was fun, but not something I want to do again, at least, not too soon.>
My Robbies compromised. After we came, one of them grew back to normal size. That was much more fun and then I enjoyed feeling the other two much more. Unfortunately I thought of something and got the giggles.
“What’s so funny?”
“You know how people tell you to go fuck yourself when they are angry? You could actually do it by splitting yourself in two, making one of you female.”
“Why would I want to do that? I am very particular about who I make love to.”
Robbie paid for his night of fun by having to take it easy for two days and slept for over ten hours.
We started off with the Seychelles, from there we went to Disney World in France. From there we went to St Petersburg, Denmark and Finland. Since we were doing that area we decided to go to Sweden for Claudia to see her home town. She felt like a stranger there and was nervous about meeting her parents or old friends.
Robbie pulled her to him and she sat on his lap. “They will be expecting an adult, not a little girl, relax. Claudia baby, you do not realise how much more beautiful you are now, we could sit at a table next to your parents and they would not recognise you.”
“They are still alive? You did not kill them, you kept your promise to me?”
“I let them get very sick so that they would suffer and then we returned and healed them. They should be alive - but I have not taken any special precautions to ensure they stay alive.”
She hugged him. “Thank you.” We did not sense her wanting to know how they are, so that was the end of it. Later on, Andrea admitted that Britta has not shown any interest in seeing her parents again and he thinks she does not care. Should they? I do not think I would want to, after all, they betrayed their children, doing the worst they could have done to them.
Why didn’t Claudia ask about her parents for so many years? In the beginning she was angry and did not want to think of them. As she got over it, she began to feel guilty at wanting them dead. Then she recalled Robbie saying they will suffer, he had not said he will kill them, so she asked him under privacy not to kill them and then never mentioned them again. Returning to Sweden had more or less forced her to confront the past. We felt a change in her, the lightening of her soul.
4403
From Sweden we went to Dar so as to play on the beach and relax. We invited John for lunch, he no longer is a cook and it was sad to see how quickly he has aged now that he does not work. He was in a good mood and drank two big bottles of beer.
“What would you like to be in your next life John?”
“Not a cook.” We laughed. “With your new machines, I would not get a job.”
“If you want to cook you will always be welcome to cook for us. John, in your next life, what would you like to be? Male, female, white, black?”
“Will I remember who I am?”
“Not at the beginning. At about five years old we will help you go to the void and release your memories. That means you will be a mix of who you are now and the child you will be.”
“I better be black then and male. I would not be comfortable being a white girl.”
Cherine was in a naughty mood so she projected him, turning him into a white man in his twenties. He stared at his white arms and legs with amazement so we lent him a small mirror and he stared at his face for a while.
Cherine said to him, “That too is inside you John, it makes no difference what colour you are, nor whether you are male or female.”
He nodded politely. “Robert asked me what I prefer. Thank you for doing this, it was interesting.” She let go her projection.
“Do you understand why we have not made you a Cherinian?”
He nodded, a smile on his face. “You are afraid of me. You want me to be born again so that I lose the powers I have. They are too primitive for you.”
It was as if John had mentally tripped Robbie and, for the first time on this trip he became serious and sat up. “Explain that.”
His rheumy eyes became intense as he watched for our reaction to his words. “You make the same mistake so many white people make. Because I come from a culture you consider primitive, you label our powers and myself as ‘witchdoctor’ and dismiss us. Where were your powers that night you were attacked Robert? You had a healer, why didn’t you use it to knock out the men?” He took out some tobacco and paper and rolled a cigarette. “May I?” He lit it and smiled. “The question was pointless since the answer is obvious; you did not think of it. What I am really curious about is how you explained to yourself the fact that I was able to stop them with a couple of words. Surely you did not think they obeyed me because I was a chief or something silly like that?”
“No, you did explain that you had some power over them, you even said they were your people and Hettie could not keep her control because of that.”
“And you dismissed it that lightly? It is understandable, you were under pressure at the time. You are more calm and able to think now?”
Robbie gave an embarrassed laugh. “I hope so. Give me a moment.” We waited, curious as to how this will turn out. “You have powers that are taught to you by your elders. Because of that I sort of assumed they were magical, supernatural, not natural like ours. That was my first mistake, wasn’t it?”
“They are mostly magical. Do you think practising magic does not require development of some abilities within the mind? You said your first?”
“Yes. I saw a black man, a villager and cook, so I thought of you as uneducated.”
“I am uneducated Robert. I learnt to read and write and do simple arithmetic, that is all. When I find a book I do read it, or I did before my eyes began to fail me. I know my own culture, so I studied yours.”
“Which in a sense makes you better educated than me.”
4404
That made him laugh. “Knowledge on its own is not important, understanding is. Knowledge does not always bring understanding, especially when the basics of education are missing. There is much of your culture, of the way the white people think that I do not understand.”
“There is much of my culture that I do not understand. Do you understand yours John?”
Robbie spent time talking with John and we spent much of our time teaching him. We’d expected it to be easier opening doors in his mind because of him already having powers, but it was the opposite. What we had a big problem with was helping him find his healer. It was there, in front of our noses, but even John did not realise it for a while. He had some healing powers, but they were unreliable, sometimes able to heal someone almost dead and at other times unable to heal a simple headache. His healing abilities, we discovered, have been strongly influenced by preconceptions he’d inherited. Unravelling that mess was handled by the others while I concentrated more on the conversation of the two men.
“How did you first meet Eddie and Hettie?”
“That was a frightening day for me Robert. Luckily Eddie was on his own. As you have seen, I did most of my cooking here, in front of our guests, not in the kitchen. When the guest gives his order, the waiters usually do not understand what it is the guest asked for, especially if the guest asks for specific ways of cooking his meat for instance. I learnt to use my powers to sense the guest while I cooked his meal and knew when the meat is just right for him.
Eddie had just come and as is often the case with people who have hair blonde, almost red, his skin was an ugly white and it burnt quickly and looked raw. When people are suffering like that they are quick to anger and I was extra careful to sense how he would want his food.
At that time he was not the man you know. He was still finding out what was wrong with his way of life and it made him easy to anger. He sensed my mind reaching out to his and he reacted strongly. He thought I was attacking him. You see this scar on my cheek and the shiny skin? It was from being burnt. When he reacted to me, he made me fall unconscious and my face landed on the grill for an instant.” He stopped and looked at me. “Is there no way I can make the healer leave the mark?”
“If it does, it will be much uglier than it is now. You will regenerate, your skin will look smooth and fresh. The scar will stand out.”
“I will think about it then. If I am to be young once more then there will be women in my life again. Some like my scars, but the young women of today mostly do not. They have been to school, watched television and cinema and want to be like the m’zungu (the white race). When I fell, Eddie realised I had not been attacking, I was far too open to him, so he ran to me. Soon as I opened my eyes he began to shout at me in great anger. The staff did not understand and since many of them looked up to me, they became angry with him. I got to my feet and stood submissively as a good black man is supposed to when a white man shouts at him. Eddie is not one to allow that and nearly got attacked by my men. He put his hand to my chin and sharply pulled my face up and stared into my eyes. He went silent. ‘Heal yourself, you are burnt.’ I told him I could not. I think we became friends because of what I did after that. Can you guess what it was Samantha?”
4405
“You forgave him?” Ashia asked. He laughed and shook his head. All the girls were listening by now and a few ventured their guesses, but all were wrong. He grinned at my silence.
“I cannot guess, but I’d say it is likely you did something he did not expect.”
“I asked him why he did not heal his sunburn.”
“But he didn’t have a healer before he met us!” Nicole said. “That was why they had to keep on finding new bodies.”
“True, but I did not know it then. At first he was angered by my question, thinking I was taunting him. Softly I asked him to return to his table as his meat was ready and promised to meet him later. I had to make him back off as we were surrounded by men who were angry that he had touched me. It would not have worried him if they had tried to attack, but he discovered something humorous in the situation and laughed. We met later and talked and over the years we became close enough for him to be able to contact me by his mind from his camp, hundreds of kilometres away. He has taught me a lot about Western cultures and in some ways I think of him as a father.”
Robbie surprised all of us. “I miss the Eddie that was.”
“What do you mean?”
Robbie laughed. “It will sound silly and petty of me. When we spoke at that time he gave me the feeling he was a wise man and I listened closely to all he said. Now he gives the impression of being a bright young man; it is more difficult to think of it as wisdom when he almost looks like a teenager.” I gave our man a warm look of love in appreciation of his gentle warning to John and he sent me a slurpy wet kiss, his mind still intent on teasing us.
We stayed longer in Dar than we’d intended because of John, but we left with a good feeling. It seems Robbie wanted to ‘do’ Africa; we stayed for three days in a safari camp in Kenya and saw lots of animals. Half of us went as men as we did not want to cause anymore gossip, but we did change at night. We stayed away from Nairobi as it has been declared a crisis centre and is full of Cherinians and aliens trying to help the crowds. The city that had once been the shining example for all of Africa is now in ruins and overcrowded. Crime is so virulent that even diplomats stay out of the city, the further away the better, they say.
Cherine jumped to Nairobi on her own and we all tensely waited for her. She was back within minutes and none of us asked why she had gone there. She told us anyway. She asked the Cherinians who are healing the locals to have their healers reduce the fertility of their patients. If they do not, it means, with full health and food to eat, their population will have doubled within a few years to ninety million and then again and again, faster and faster. The message went out to all Cherinians, despite our feeling uncomfortable with what Cherine has done. I hope that my readers, of the future, know (I’m hoping it is in their history books, as it should be, so that the crime is never forgotten) that one of the most wealthy men of our time, a software engineer, paid for the girls of Kenya to be vaccinated with chemicals that will make it impossible for them to have children. Luckily a number of bishops became suspicious and sent samples of the vaccine to be tested at a laboratory and they learnt they are meant to sterilise the females. I have also seen a television interview where that same man was confronted with a question about it and he first claimed it is saving millions of lives, but then admitted that they can stop poisoning and sterilising everyone once the world populations are at a ‘manageable’ level. The videos should still be available in the archives of YouTube (under the titles: ‘Kenyan Bishops Discover Mass Sterilization in Bxxl Gxtxx Vaccines’ and ‘Vaccination - to reduce population’ (Bxlx Gxxex admits)’. We had previously reversed the damage to the girls, but at least with what Cherine did, it is only temporary and has no bad side effects - such as brain damage, alterations to their DNA, etc. She has also not asked that any be sterilised, only that their fertility is reduced - so if they are really determined to have a child and they enjoy trying, they will succeed.
Robbie chose this moment to tease her. “So, what happened to all those daughters and daughters of daughters you were to give me, to love me as you do?”
She struck a cheeky attitude, “Do you think us females are like you males? We think first before doing what we want.”
“I will not concede you the point my love. In many things I find you girls superior, but not in this. Your instincts and need for babies normally makes you act before thinking.”
Her look became even cheekier, “Aren’t we even more admirable then? To have such a need and control it?”
4406
Laughing, he agreed.
We spent a day at Victoria Falls, ate a meal at the hotel and jumped to South Africa. In one way that was another bad move by us. We could see everything has gone downhill, poverty far more obvious now. The traffic is terrible and we were repeatedly warned it is dangerous to walk around outside of shopping malls. We traced George, the friend of Allan, and he agreed to join us for a meal.
Those of us who remembered him from before all flared up in anger with Allan. How could he have let his friend age like this? Gone is the twinkle of good humour in his eyes, replaced by a deep weariness and pain. It made all of us very gentle with him.
He spoke to Robbie. “Seeing you again has brought back memories of my friend Allan. It is such a pity that he died so early. He spent so many years suffering and once he made some money he died.”
“Did you receive the money he sent as commission?”
“Commission? For what?”
“For introducing him to me.”
He smiled. “That is not how Allan used to think. He gave me a lot of money, without it I would have struggled to pay school fees and so on. He did not think in terms of paying for introductions, to him it was more of a case of sharing what good fortune came to him.”
Robbie rudely said, “If I may be blunt George? If he shared, why is it I get the impression you are not wealthy?”
He looked embarrassed, but spoke with self-irony. “I had a brother who helped me spend it on his projects.”
“I think I’ve heard Allan speak of him - where is your brother now?”
“He is not here.” We did not press.
Cherine startled him by taking his hand and holding it, she closed her eyes as she went deeper into him than she’d done with others. She smiled.
“You are a strange man George. You are cynical and see the weaknesses of others and yet, you are soft and help those who often do not deserve your help.”
“Are you talking of my brother or Allan? Not all people are good at ordering their lives and need help because of their own weaknesses - as I too have had those times when I needed their help. It is not wrong to help them.”
She answered sharply, “It is not right if your own family suffer because of it.”
He winced. “My children understood.”
Robbie steered the conversation in another direction and George relaxed. He told us he is driving to Port Elizabeth and from there to Cape Town. Theresa asked whether that means he will be doing the ‘garden route’.
George said, “It is not much of a garden anymore. The government lost control and shanties appeared everywhere. It is not even safe to drive there anymore.”
“We were thinking of hiring a small bus to go to Cape Town. Why don’t you come with us - we would not mind going to Port Elizabeth first.”
He was not happy about Robbie driving around with so many young girls and he said so. Before it became an issue I asked him what he thought of the aliens arriving on Earth.
He shrugged, disinterested. “It will take a long time before ordinary people like myself are affected directly. Perhaps they will make life better for my child and his children.”
“I was of the opinion they were concentrating on the ordinary person?”
4407
“The food machines? The government wanted to ban them, but they were afraid of the reaction. Our population is nearly one hundred and fifteen million and with the food machines it will soon pass two hundred. How long before it is a billion?”
“That is a problem the aliens are aware of.”
“They are aware of it? Does that mean they have a solution? Will they provide water, houses, transportation, clothes and all the luxuries we consider necessities now? Where does it end? When we are packed like rats without space to move?”
Dommi said, “You sound very bitter.”
“My one child, my son, he was killed by such a rat for his comwatch. The killer had a food machine.”
That explained a lot of what we’d been feeling from him. “When did it happen George?”
“Less than two months ago.”
Cherine decided how she wanted this matter dealt with and we agreed. We let Allan know.
Two days later we piled into a small luxury bus, the driver a cheerful but tough looking man. The company that hired us the bus insisted we also take with us an armed guard, they would not hire us the vehicle without a driver and guard. The first thing the guard told us was meant to reassure us. He showed us a logo on the windows and informed us that they are bulletproof.
We left at two in the morning and since we had George and the two strangers with us, we had to control ourselves and try to be normal little girls. By dawn we were deep into what used to be the Free State and we called out for the driver to stop. He pulled over and we rushed out to stand in the bush and look at the unearthly beauty of the peach-pink light over the strange looking hills.
The terrain was uneven, so we told the driver and guard to wait and taking the hand of George made him follow us into the bush. Once we were out of sight of the driver we sat in a circle, making George sit in the middle. He was curious by now and was trying to see all of us, looking around with a half-smile.
“Are we having a ceremony?”
“Sort of. George, please close your eyes.” Since it was Goldi who asked, he gladly complied. Solace jumped and returned with Allan; Eleni and Jessie decided to come with. Allan had prepared, altering himself to look the same as when George knew him.
“Giorgo filé mou, gia sou.” He stood just behind George and as he turned, startled, Allan smiled. “Don’t have a heart attack, we don’t want you dying on us.”
“You are alive!! How is it possible? I went to your funeral, I saw your body in the coffin!” He crossed himself a number of times.
“Ask the girls and Robert. Do you remember the story I was writing?” He took hold of Cherine’s hand. “This is Cherine, the protagonist of my story. She was real George, real! Can you believe it?”
George swayed, “The Cherinians! They are of the story you were writing!?” he turned to Robbie. “Your real name is Robert?”
“I’m sorry we lied, we still have to keep our existence as secret as possible under present circumstances. Allan, take your friend for a walk and explain to him.” We sat and watched the light turn harsh as they walked out of earshot. Jessie sat with her friend Robyn and the two of them giggled and chatted, still as close as they have always been. Eleni sat with Aganthi, but stayed part of our circle, listening to us talking.
Allan pulled a face as they came back and let us see in his mind. George has somehow got it into his head that Allan is a god; that he created us and Allan has found logic cannot convince George otherwise, especially after he made things worse by telling him about Arthur. George’s argument had then been, “He is a god then, creating us, and you are here as his human form, so that he can walk among us.” This got too much for Allan and he returned to us for help in dealing with his friend.
4408
“George, perhaps our god is a very modest god and prefers to be thought of as a normal person?” Robbie teased.
“He stayed in my home and allowed me to feed him!”
Allan exclaimed impatiently, “Oh for god’s sake George! Why would I have had to wait for Cherine and Robert to find me to have a good life?”
George kept his voice soft. “Perhaps your father Arthur wanted to show his love for them that way?”
“He is not my father, he is just another idiot like me!” he shouted in exasperation.
George turned to us. “At least in that he has not changed. Always impossible to understand.” He laughed, his sense of humour resurfacing. “Do you know that I had to buy him a couple of tins of sweetened condensed milk every week? He suffered if he did not have chocolates, but he compromised because the tins were cheaper.”
“He’s still a chocoholic.” Eleni answered with a grin.
I grinned at Allan and saw the dismay in his eyes as he realised what I was thinking. Soon as we bring his son back to life, Allan will have lost his last chance to prove he is a normal human being.
We did not try to see in their minds what the driver and guard thought when they saw us return with three additional men and two girls. They were openly curious as to why George was hugging the young stranger, tears on his cheeks.
We stopped at a village that has a hotel and relaxed the rest of the afternoon and evening. Diana went for a walk with Robbie and spent a lot of time in antique shops, spending quite a bit of money. As is to be expected, she had more of an interest in the history of the objects she bought than their rarity and told us about some of them in passionate detail. One of the stories stuck with me and it may be worth repeating, my only problem is that for it to be ‘real’ to you the reader, I will have to presume a few details, flesh it out for you.
Koos was an Afrikaans farmer, what his people call a Boer. He was in his forties in the year 1927, which is when he left the farm to see the young man he had been informed is his son. He arrived in Bloemfontein on a Saturday morning and he went to the address he had been given.
“Jakob van der Walt, you are Koos Eccles? Before I take you to meet your son, I have something to show you, come in.”
Jakob is a big man, bigger than Koos, but his tight belt only accentuates his softness as his belly folds over it. Koos tells himself that even though he is small and does not have the weight, he can beat him if they should ever fight. His farm life has kept him trim and his responses are as fast as those of a man twenty years younger than him. Jakob is not behaving in a threatening manner, it is just that Koos spends much of his time thinking these kind of aggressive thoughts, running them like a tape, hoping something will happen for him to prove himself. He wishes more people would challenge him.
He looks at the letter and the badly faded photograph attached to it, but the woman in it means nothing to him. He reads the letter written by the woman and finally he vaguely recalls her. Jakob takes him to the orphanage and a fifteen year old boy is brought to him. He has exactly the same pale blue eyes as Koos, but his hair is not as blond, it has a tint of red in it. Koos is pleased that his son has his wiry frame, but is not pleased to see that he is taller.
“Your ma says you are mine. What do you know about it boy.”
The eyes coldly stared at him, unimpressed. “Nothing. She is probably wrong.”
Koos turned to Jakob. “I’m not interested in the boy, do what you will with him.”
The eyes of Jakob turned colder and he explained. “You have been identified as his father and we know you have forty sheep and a farm worth six thousand Rand. The State only looks after children who have no parents, or their parents are destitute. If you leave the boy with us, then you will be sued and the State will demand you reimburse the full amount spent on your son. If we have to, we will auction your farm.”
For the first two hours they rode in silence, then Koos asked, “What is your name?”
4409
“Malcolm.”
“She gave you a fucking English name!? I will call you Hennie - and don’t you tell anyone that you are called by that ugly English name.”
“I have been baptised with the name my mother gave me and I will not change it for you.”
Koos stopped his horse and climbed off. “Get off your horse.”
As Malcolm did, Koos told him, “I am going to beat that shit of a name out of you and I will not stop until you tell me what your name is - as a proper Afrikaner.”
He struck the boy a few blows. He only tried to cover his face, but otherwise did not hit back. Koos paused so as to tell him, “Even when you accept the name I gave you, I will not stop beating you, if you do not fight back.”
“If you are my father, then I am not supposed to.”
“I’ve warned you.”
Koos beat his son, breaking his nose and tearing his flesh with his hard knuckles, but his son would neither speak the name he demanded of him, nor would he fight back. Finally he had to stop, for his son lay on the ground, unconscious. He gave him a contemptuous look and went about preparing to camp for the night.
To any third person watching them over the next few months, it would look like they have declared a truce, but are circling each other, looking for weaknesses to exploit. Malcolm kept clear in his mind what his name is and repeated it to himself every time he had to respond to being called Hennie, and he slowly prepared himself for the day he can leave and live the life he had originally planned to live.
With Spring around the corner, there was a lot of work to be done, but Koos did not forget to see to the education of his son. He rotated him from one job to the other, wanting him to know how to run a farm on his own. Where he had not wanted his son, he was slowly growing to see him as an answer to his problem. All other farmers have large families and know that even if they lose one child, they have more for inheriting and continuing what they have sweated blood to improve and keep for the family. Many good farmers, especially in those days, do not just think of the land being something they own. They see it as a trust, held by them for future generations - as their grandfathers did. Koos had never felt that way, for he had not had a child, but now he was changing. It did not make him softer, nor did he try to grow closer to his son. To the contrary, he was harsher and more demanding.
“The small field to the east of us, hitch the ox to the small plough and prepare the land, it is nearly time for us to plant potatoes.”
“I’ve never done it before. Why not use the big plough?”
“I’ll be using the big plough, the mealies are more important. You can learn the same way I did, teach yourself.”
Wisdom, the senior worker and most experienced of them, helped Malcolm hitch the single blade to the ox and ploughed a few metres so as to show him how. With a troubled look on his face he then went to Koos to receive instructions for the day. The face of Koos was grim, a tight look about his eyes, so Wisdom kept quiet, not warning him as he had wanted to about the danger of allowing Hennie to work the plough without an experienced hand to help him, recognising the look and knowing how easily the rage inside Koos explodes.
Malcolm found the work hard, but he had already developed calluses and was used to farm work, so once he had learnt how to keep the plough going in a straight line, he allowed his mind to drift off to his usual dreams of moving to a city and making a life for himself there.
The large curved blade hit a rock. It caused the plough to jar, stopping for maybe a second, then it climbed up and over the rock, the blade no longer fighting the resistance of the soil. The ox took a few surprised quick steps before the blade fell back to the ground, jerking Malcolm forward. When the blade came down, it sliced through his leg, just in front of the ankle, slicing through it without slowing, and digging into the earth.
4410
Everyone on the farm heard the scream, Wisdom being the first to drop the tool he was holding and running towards Hennie. Koos was immediately behind him and arrived to find Wisdom trying to staunch the flow of blood.
The first time Koos tried to visit his son, Malcolm got into such a state that the doctors asked him to leave and suggested he does not return until the boy is much better. He waited three weeks and then arrived during visiting hours. Malcolm did not throw a tantrum, he only stared at Koos with a cold hard look.
Koos spoke first. “I am to blame for what happened to you, I should not have allowed you to use that damn plough without an experienced helper.” He paused. “Malcolm, do you still want to leave - and where do you want to go?”
“My fucking name is Hennie - and you know I cannot go anywhere…you just want to get rid of me because I am a cripple now and won’t be of much use to you.”
Koos was taken aback, for he had been sincere in his intention to help his son do whatever it is he wants. “This is your home and you may stay for as long as you wish. I only asked because I had a feeling that you prefer to live in a city.”
“Crippled? So that all can either laugh at me, or pity me? Here there is work I can do, what can I do in a city?”
“You will then stay? Son, if you change your mind, do not hide it from me, I will help.”
Malcolm needed years to pass for him to understand that the change in his father was because of feelings of guilt, for he knew he had been wrong to allow him to learn how to plough on his own. Koos also admired the way he handled himself, never blaming him, nor trying to stir pity in others. Perhaps it was that finally he was able to see the pride in him that made him slowly grow to love him.
Malcolm never loved his father, not even when he sat by him as he died. To the day he himself died, he hated life on the farm and felt he had been forced to sacrifice his dreams by an unfeeling father. For many years he hated the plough which had sliced off his foot, but once he could make a decision, he asked the foreman to break it to pieces and to sell it for scrap. The man knew he could get a better price from the antique shop (at that time it had only been a shop that sells second hand goods), so that explains how it was seen, touched and the past ‘shared’ by Diana.
By the way, none of us understand her gift, but Robbie insists it is the same as our other gifts, an opening of a psychic talent in her.
We arrived in Port Elizabeth the next day and we were dismayed to see how it also has decayed, very few new buildings exist and most of the rest have not been maintained. George was asked to take care of his business as quickly as possible, as we did not wish to stay. We drove out in the evening and stopped at Jeffreys Bay for the night.
Like an army of red ants, shanties have spread out along the road, destroying what little beauty there had been. There are no longer any forests, gone are the elephants and the holiday homes of the rich have been taken over by squatters and stand dilapidated, no longer symbols of wealth, only reminders of a past which had never been part of the lives of the people living there now.
We could also see the first signs of neglect as we drove past the vineyards. It no longer makes economic sense for farmers to struggle to grow crops and they have moved to the cities. Cape Town has struggled to resist the changes as the population grew out of control and water shortages is causing a lot of misery. We could see it does not have much longer before it too is only a memory of what had been - though some of the outer wealthy suburbs are still maintained, but now are heavily guarded. Robbie was depressed and George tried to help.
“We struggled to feed ourselves when the population was under fifty million and we were short of water. If you had not brought the food machines, the starvation in South Africa would have been worse than any seen before. Our economy was collapsing and we could not afford to import fuel. Our government attacked and took over Botswana in the hope it would provide us with resources - there was a rumour they’d discovered oil, but they were not in much better condition than we were, they’d been bluffing in the hope of attracting foreign investors. Thanks to you, at least we now have food, water and energy.”
I hope you enjoy reading this story of fantasy, adventure and love - and should some of it be true for our reality, I hope you will love our Cherine.
Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου
(Alexander Zenon Eustace)31st December, 2019
- posted: 31st December, 2019
If you wish to read from an earlier book, from Book 01 to Book 06, use this link button to open the LC Book Index:
https://steemworld.org/