Daniel moved restlessly in the straw. He wondered whether Sanna would come to church, or whether the man who dragged her away would lock her in at home. Maybe he was like Father and tied her up.
The milkmaid was clattering the pails. She was singing. It sounded terrible, but he still liked her voice. Sometimes she would laugh and pat him on the head. She wasn’t like the other milkmaid, who never touched him and flinched if he happened to brush against her.
He got up from the straw. The girl was milking the last cow. He sneaked out of the barn. The yard was empty. He ran out onto the cart track. When he turned round he was surrounded by the fog. He tried to catch it in his hands. Then he listened. Sounds were louder in the fog. He turned round slowly and tried to listen for the sound of drums. From somewhere he thought he could hear beasts of prey growling or somebody laughing, but if he headed in the direction the sound was coming from they would move.
He was just about to go back when he stopped short. On the road in front of him lay a snake, frozen stiff. It was brown and had a pattern on its back. At first he thought it was dead. He took a few steps backwards without taking his eyes off it. It didn’t move. Then he realised that it was so cold that it couldn’t move. It had come up out of the ground too soon. Maybe it had dreamed of the sunshine and then, when it woke up, could not go back to sleep.
It was Father who once told him about the snakes. There weren’t any really dangerous snakes in this country. One of them was poisonous but people rarely died from its bite. From his description Daniel gathered that it was a snake like the one that lay before him on the road. He took a stick from the ditch and poked at the snake. It moved sluggishly, but didn’t whip about or coil. He hit it with the stick, but it still didn’t move.
He thought about the visit they would soon pay to the church.
He made a quick decision, ran back through the fog and fetched a wooden pail that no one was using from the barn. When he came back the snake was still lying there. Cautiously he bent over and grabbed it behind the head. When he lifted it up its body moved weakly. He shivered from the cold and dropped the snake in the pail. Then he hurried back to the barn, where he set the pail behind some spades that the hired hand used for mucking out. He covered the pail carefully so that the snake couldn’t escape if it livened up from the warmth.
He went in the house and sat down by the fire. Alma looked at him.
‘You’re not walking about with no shoes on, are you?’
Daniel shook his head.
Edvin stretched as he sat on the stool near the fireplace. ‘He’s learning fast. And now it’s time to go.’
Daniel got up quickly and ran out to the barn. The snake was still stiff. He wrapped it up in a piece of old burlap and stuffed it in his pocket.
The fog was as thick as ever when they reached the church. Daniel had a tight grip on the snake in his pocket. It hadn’t moved. He looked around for Sanna. Finally he saw her, standing behind the man who had dragged her off by the hair. She cast down her eyes when Daniel looked at her. She had a big bruise on one cheek. Daniel felt a violent urge to rush up to the man and stuff the snake down his shirt. Maybe the snake wouldn’t be able to bite and inject its venom, but the man would have a good fright and understand that there was someone who was prepared to defend Sanna. When the church bells began to ring Daniel tried to shift closer to her, but she moved away and shook her head almost imperceptibly. Daniel understood. She was afraid. The man who had pulled her by the hair had a firm grip on her arm.
Daniel sat between Alma and Edvin. The snake still lay motionless in his pocket. He wondered if he had been mistaken after all, that it wasn’t just frozen stiff but dead. Snakes were cold-blooded though. And he knew that when you least expected it they could sink their fangs into a person or an animal.
Hallén climbed into the pulpit. He looked at Daniel and smiled. Daniel looked down. Then Hallén began to talk about grace. It was a word he almost never used. Grace and sin. Daniel tried to comprehend what he was saying, but the snake in his pocket and the man with the chipped knee hanging on the cross in front were more important. He understood that someone had placed the snake on the road. It hadn’t got there by itself. Someone who knew where snakes hid had found it and laid it at his feet. No one had been as good at knowing where to find snakes as Be. She was the one who usually dug them up and caught them. Once she caught a snake that was more than twice as long as he was and as thick as Kiko’s arm. They had eaten it, and it was enough to feed everyone in the group for a whole day.
Be had placed the snake before him, and since it was Sunday that could only mean that she wanted him to give it as an offering. In this country people didn’t eat snakes. So there was only one possibility, and he knew what he was supposed to do.
He looked at the man hanging motionless on the cross. He too was an antelope frozen in the midst of flight, but he wasn’t about to take a leap. He was nailed fast and someone had stuck a sword in his chest. He had frozen at the moment of death, in the middle of his last breath. While Hallén was speaking, Daniel tried one more time to understand. Why did these people have a god that they nailed to planks? Why did they treat him like an enemy? Why didn’t anyone take him down from the cross and fix his chipped knee? But he could find no answer.
Hallén finished speaking and left the pulpit. Everyone stood up and prayed. Daniel had almost learned the entire prayer by heart. Then they sat down again. The whistling and wheezing organ began to play. Daniel felt the snake. The moment would soon arrive. Alma sat with her eyes closed. Cautiously he took out the coiled snake and held it below his knees. The two men who were carrying the long poles with bags at the end would appear soon. Edvin already had a coin in his hand. When the pole was thrust towards him Daniel quickly dropped the snake into the bag. He did it so quickly that no one noticed.
Then he felt that Be was right next to him. He closed his eyes and felt her warm breath against his neck.
Edvin gave him a poke.
‘I’m awake,’ said Daniel. ‘I believe in God.’
At the same moment he heard a loud howl. Hallén, who was kneeling before the altar rail, gave a start and stood up. One of the men with the poles came rushing up the centre aisle.
‘There’s a viper in the offering pouch!’ he yelled.
He held out the bag so Hallén could see. The organist had stopped playing. There was total silence in the church. Hallén stared. The man dropped the bag to the floor. The snake was no longer frozen; it wriggled out of the bag onto the stone floor. The man who had yelled was standing behind the pew where Daniel was sitting. He pointed at him and kept on yelling.
‘He was the one who put it in there!’ he shouted. ‘It looked like a rag. I thought there was money wrapped inside it. But it was a snake.’
Daniel’s stomach was churning. He hadn’t expected this. He had thought that the offering he gave, the fact that he had caught a poisonous snake, would be greeted with joy.
The snake wriggled slowly across the stone floor. People rushed out of the pews and the church door was thrown open. Finally a man who Daniel knew was an old seaman brought a spade and chopped the snake in two. Daniel had seen snakes cut in half many times before. The two halves usually kept moving very fast, whipping back and forth. but the viper just kept moving slowly and soon it was quite still. Hallén had come down from the altar and stood in front of Daniel.
‘Did you put the snake in the offering pouch?’
Daniel didn’t answer. He got ready to kick off his shoes and run out of the church.
‘You must answer,’ said Edvin. ‘The pastor is asking you a question.’
Daniel leapt up from the pew. But he didn’t get past Edvin, who seemed to be ready and grabbed him.
‘We’ll take him into the sacristy,’ said Hallén.
Edvin held him tight. When Daniel tried to bite him to get loose, Edvin shouted at him to settle down. The man who had carried the offering pouch and pointed at Daniel and accused him now took hol
d of his legs and held him so hard that Daniel screamed in pain. He managed to get his legs free and kicked the man in the face so his nose started to bleed. But Edvin didn’t release his grip until they were in the sacristy. Alma followed, but Hallén told her to wait outside.
‘I didn’t see any snake!’ she shouted. ‘It must have been somebody else.’
‘He’ll confess soon enough.’
‘I don’t want you to hurt him.’
Hallén shooed Alma away without replying and pulled the heavy door shut.
‘Let the boy go and give him a box on the ear,’ said Hallén. ‘That’ll calm him down.’
Edvin did as he was told. The blow was so hard that Daniel fell to the floor. His cheek burned and his eyes began to water.
Hallén bent over him. He was breathing hard, panting as if he had been running.
‘Did you put the snake in the offering pouch?’
Daniel thought that Hallén was a beast of prey and he had to avoid looking him in the eye at all costs. Next to him was a window and outside he caught a glimpse of Sanna, with her nose pressed against the glass.
For the first time since Father left he felt that he wasn’t alone. It gave him the same power as when he was small and Be or Kiko sat next to him. That was the first thing he had learned, that a human being who is alone is not a real human being. Sanna was waiting outside, his pain was hers, and he was no longer afraid to look Hallén straight in the eye.
‘I was offering to the gods.’
Hallén promptly stood up as if Daniel’s reply had given him a jab in the chest.
‘Did you put a snake in the collection pouch as an offering?’ Hallén shook his head and looked at Edvin. ‘This was the Sunday we were taking a collection to support the mission in Africa, and so this little black devil puts a snake in the offering pouch.’
Edvin stood with his cap in his hand. Daniel could see that he was afraid of Hallén.
‘He probably had no idea what the collection was for.’
‘He put a snake in the bag!’
Hallén was talking very loudly, as though he were in the pulpit letting his words hail down over the congregation. Edvin shook his head.
‘I’m sure he doesn’t understand.’
‘A snake in the offering pouch is not merely blasphemy. It is a mark of shame for you and Alma, who have not succeeded in teaching him how to behave.’
‘He probably doesn’t even know what behave means.’
Hallén pointed at Daniel’s feet in a rage.
‘He doesn’t have shoes on his feet. Even though it’s winter. He goes to church barefoot. And you allow this?’
Edvin tried to hold his head high when he replied. ‘He had shoes on when we came. He must have kicked them off in the pew.’
Hallén shook his head. ‘I’ve tried,’ he said. ‘I’ve spoken to him several times. But he says nothing. He only asks about the water.’
Daniel was sitting on the floor looking at Sanna. Each time Edvin or Hallén moved, her face disappeared, but then it would pop up again.
Hallén stood with his back leaning against the big wardrobe and regarded Daniel.
‘Next Sunday he will have to make a full confession in front of the congregation. He will have to beg their forgiveness.’
‘Perhaps we should realise that he doesn’t understand,’ said Edvin. ‘He comes from a place where there’s nothing but sand. Here we live in mud. Perhaps a person like him thinks differently.’
Daniel thought that Edvin was right. He had understood something that even Father had not grasped.
‘What do sand and mud have to do with snakes?’ Hallén enquired. ‘The boy must be disciplined. He does indeed come from a desert. But the mission has shown that people can become civilised. The most important step on this path is to give testimony and beg for forgiveness.’
‘I’ll try to talk to him. But I must still ask the pastor to help.’
‘I shall talk to him. Tomorrow. You can go now.’
They left the sacristy. Alma was waiting in the centre aisle. The man Daniel had kicked in the face lay on a pew with a rag over his nose to stop the flow of blood.
The snake was gone.
‘His shoes,’ said Edvin.
Alma looked under the pew where they had sat. She bent down and pulled out his clogs. Daniel bowed to the shoes and then put them on.
Alma looked at Daniel’s cheek. ‘Hallén hit him.’
‘No. It was me,’ said Edvin.
‘Was that necessary?’
‘How should I know what’s necessary? How can I make sense of what I don’t comprehend? Where are the hired hand and the milkmaids?’
‘I sent them home.’
‘And the church green?’
‘It’s probably full of curious folks.’
Edvin tossed his cap to the floor and sat down heavily on one of the pews. ‘Then we’ll have to run the gauntlet.’
Alma gave him an astonished look as she stroked Daniel’s hair. ‘Surely we don’t have anything to be ashamed of?’
‘I might get so angry that I punch some of them on the nose.’
‘There’s been enough hitting here today. We should be able to walk home without thinking of falling to the ground in shame, shouldn’t we?’
Edvin kept shaking his head. Daniel waited impatiently to go outside with them. He longed for Sanna. Even though he couldn’t talk to her, she would at least see his face.
Alma took Daniel’s hand. ‘We’re going now,’ she said. ‘You can either sit here or come with us.’
Edvin gave her an entreating look. ‘What shall we do? Maybe it was a mistake to take him in.’
‘We’ll talk about that later. Right now we’re going home.’
Edvin bent down to pick up his cap. The man lying on the pew sat up. He was holding the rag to his nose.
‘He just about kicked off my nose,’ he said in a thick voice.
‘There’s a doctor in Simrishamn,’ replied Alma. ‘If you hadn’t yelled and pointed so much this never would have happened.’
Daniel had never heard Alma speak so firmly before. The man on the pew said no more and lay back down.
When they came out of the church the green was full of people. Edvin groaned and Alma took a deep breath. A silent path opened before them as they walked, led by Alma. Daniel looked around for Sanna. When he didn’t see her he began to worry. Had he been imagining it? Was it not her face he saw outside the window?
When he finally found her she was standing on the churchyard wall. She waved cautiously to him. Daniel raised his hand but Alma pulled it back down. The people around them were silent. Edvin trudged along behind. He didn’t catch up with them until they reached the road.
‘Did you see?’ he asked.
‘I saw,’ said Alma. ‘And I felt it. But I don’t care. I care about understanding why he did it.’
Edvin stopped. ‘A viper in the middle of winter? Where did it come from?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Alma. ‘But I don’t want you ever to hit him again.’
Daniel wondered what had actually happened. He thought that Sanna was the only one who would be able to explain it.
Slowly he could feel himself filling with joy. He had found someone who pushed away his loneliness. Someone who might understand him.
He thought about the water, about the wet pelt that would grow accustomed to his feet.
Suddenly he was certain.
Sanna could show him where the sea was.
CHAPTER 23
A fierce storm was passing over the plain of Skåne. It was the night after Daniel had put the viper in the collection pouch. He woke up when Edvin shook the hired hand and said that the straw roof was starting to blow off the barn and that the animals were frightened. Soon afterwards Alma came in and woke the milkmaids. They had to help with the animals so none would be injured. When Alma leaned over Daniel with a candle in her hand he pretended to be asleep.
‘I don’t know why,’ she
said. ‘But you’re not fooling me. I can see you’re awake.’
Daniel opened his eyes.
‘Are you afraid of the storm?’
Daniel shook his head.
‘I would dearly like to help you. But how can I help someone that nobody understands?’
The wind tore at the walls of the house. Daniel felt the draught coming through the ill-fitting windows.
‘The sky is restless,’ Alma said.
Daniel sat up in bed.
‘You don’t need to help. You’re too little.’
Daniel stayed sitting on the edge of the bed and watched as Alma busied herself at the stove. He squinted his eyes so hard that his vision grew blurry. It might have been Be moving about in front of him. He whispered her name to himself but the roaring wind was too loud. He couldn’t hear whether she answered or not.
The next day the storm was still raging. It came in squalls. Ragged clouds raced across the sky. Edvin and the hired hand struggled to keep the straw on the roof of the barn. Daniel wasn’t allowed to go into the barn because the animals were skittish. He didn’t have to go to church either. Hallén could wait until the storm had passed. One of the trees blew down in the grove where the black birds perched. The birds screeched. Daniel stood and watched them. Sometimes it looked as if they were writing letters against the sky. He tried to decipher them but could not.
Edvin climbed down from the roof to piss. When he had buttoned his flies he went over to Daniel.
‘Alma says you aren’t afraid of the storm, is that right?’
‘I’m not afraid.’
Edvin touched the cheek where he had slapped him.
‘I won’t hit you again,’ he said. ‘That will never happen again. Even if Hallén tells me to.’
Then he clambered back up the ladder. Daniel watched him go and decided that Edvin meant what he said. If he raised his hand again the blow would never leave his arm.
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