If we could afford it I would hand in my notice, Sofie says. I cannot abide the Madame any longer and I think it would do her good to have someone else instead. Your sister doesn’t go there either, after the accident.
Bertel has thought upon the matter. If she stopped working for the Trader they would have to make ends meet on twenty rigsdalers a year, as well as doing without the food she brings home with her from the colony house. If they were on their own, he would say she should give notice, of that he is in little doubt. But the boy has need of the extra butter in his diet and the sugar and meat that is left over from the meals.
Sometimes I think we would do better to join them, says Sofie.
Join who?
Habakuk and his wife. It is said they share everything there. No one is allowed to go to bed hungry.
You shouldn’t believe everything that’s said. They probably say the same things about us. My sister was not treated well when she was there, you remember that, I hope? They very nearly drowned her.
Perhaps it was her own fault, says Sofie. She can be difficult, your sister, in case you were unaware of it. Besides, that was before their new faith.
Their false doctrine, says Bertel, correcting her. If you, who are christened, were to join them, the Church could punish you and put you in the pillory. But life here in the colony is harsh, she complains. We are not free, we Greenlanders, we are like slaves. If you stood chained to the whipping post you would soon have another conception of freedom.
Question: What may be noted in general about the movement of the Earth?
Answer: The Earth moves once around the Sun in one year and revolves once every twenty-four hours around its axis, like the wheel around its axle as the wagon is propelled forward.
The trip into the skerries lasts three weeks. He and Falck are alone. They travel by whatever boats happen to come by that have room for them. They have taken the chessboard along. In good weather they sit outside the tent in the evenings with their game between them. He can see that the colour is returning to the priest’s cheeks. His own outlook brightens; he sails out in the kayak to shoot birds with small arrows like the old natives; his wrist recalls the fine technique he learned from his father, or rather from his stepfather, Jens. Magister Falck gathers eggs of the long-tailed duck, skua and black guillemot, and for dinner they boil the eggs and pluck a bird to roast over the open fire. Bertel savours being away from the colony and its problems. A small measure of ill-feeling still lingers between him and the priest, who seemingly continues to suspect him of stealing his gold. He hears it in Falck’s voice when he speaks of his lost fortune, how he washed the nuggets from the shallows, how much he had anticipated selling them for on his return home, the things on which the money could have been spent. Bertel ignores him. If the priest wants to suspect him of being a thief, then let him!
When they return to the colony in June he sees how the boy has changed. He has gained weight and is almost ruddy with good health. He greets his father joyfully and shows him the schoolbooks he has been given by Madame Kragstedt. It would seem the Madame has taken it upon herself to educate him, and according to Sofie it is at least as beneficial to her as to the boy.
But I am the boy’s teacher, he says. I don’t want him going there to become fine and mighty and confused.
The Madame will be sorry to hear it, says Sofie.
The boy is furious when Bertel informs him that he must cease his visits to the colony house. You want to decide everything! he shouts, with tears of indignation. You don’t care if I’m happy, as long as you can decide!
I only want what’s best for you, says Bertel, astonished.
Then let me go to school with Haldora.
Haldora?
Madame Kragstedt.
Hm. Soon you’ll be telling me the two of you are to marry.
You can’t decide over me, says the boy. If I want to go there, I will.
You must understand, Bertel tells the boy, who now turns his back on him in the cot, they are not like us, they are our guests here, they do not belong. In a few years they will be gone, but we will still be here.
He’s so happy to go there, Sofie says, smoothing things over. What can be wrong about it? And he eats well. You can see for yourself how much better he looks.
And you, he says, turning to face her. Do not make yourself master of your own husband! He lunges forward and strikes her on the cheek. Immediately he is overcome by remorse and wants to apologize, but feels it would make him look weak in the boy’s eyes, so instead he says: Make us some dinner. I’m hungry. For the rest of the evening Sofie is as cold as ice and shuns him. He has never struck her before.
The next day the boy lies in bed. He refuses to get up, refuses to eat and narrows his eyes when Bertel speaks to him.
He is upset that he cannot go to the house, says Sofie.
Thanks for your help! he says, and she steps back in fear that he will strike her again.
The boy’s protest lasts for three days. Then Bertel submits.
If you are home by three o’clock each day and show me what work you have done with Madame Kragstedt, he says, then you may go there.
The boy gets up. Bertel is annoyed by the triumphant, conceited look on his face, but makes an effort to be especially kind to him that evening.
The next day at three o’clock the boy has yet to return home. Bertel sits waiting for him. At four o’clock he still has not come. When the clock says half past four he can no longer endure it. He puts on his cap, walks up to the colony house and knocks on the door.
Sofie opens up. He can tell she feels guilty.
Where is he?
Dearest, he is enjoying himself so much with the Madame. She is teaching him to write.
Call him out. Otherwise I shall come and get him myself.
She vanishes inside. He hears voices from within, Madame Kragstedt’s and the boy’s. The boy’s laughter, a chuckle. Eventually he appears in the doorway. He ignores his father completely, edges past him and walks home.
Question: What are the bodies that belong to the animal kingdom?
Answer: To the animal kingdom belong all such bodies on Earth as have organic structure, life, senses and discretionary movement.
In the evening, when Bertel asks him what he has learned from the Madame, he relents somewhat and shows him his exercise books. The Madame is teaching me script, he says.
You write neatly, says Bertel.
I’m to write something for tomorrow.
What will you write about?
My family.
I see, he says, rather curtly. Does the Madame wish to know about your family?
It’s one of the exercises in the book.
None of your nonsense about a Danish grandfather, do you hear? says Bertel.
Yes, father, says the boy obediently. He remains seated at the table until late in the evening, writing in his exercise book.
Tomorrow he is to be home by three, Bertel says to Sofie.
Every morning his wife rubs between her legs and puts her fingers to her nose to pensively sniff. I think I am with child, she says. I have not bled for two months.
He feels happy. How long have you known?
I’m not certain of it yet. But if there is a child it will come at the beginning of the new year.
He kisses her. Thank you, he says.
You must not hit me again, she says.
No, I shall never hit you again. The Lord is my witness and my judge. Forgive me.
Dear man, Sofie says, and places a hand cautiously on his cheek.
In the afternoon the boy fails to appear at the appointed time. At four o’clock Bertel goes from the colony and sits down on the rocks to stare out at the sea until his temper has cooled. On his return the boy has still not shown up. Not until evening does he come, together with his moth
er. He has put plates out for them. They eat their porridge in silence. The boy sits down to write, apparently unmoved by the tense air. Bertel feels his anger gradually subside.
What are you writing about tonight? he asks.
About a person I admire, the boy replies. It’s my exercise for tomorrow.
And who might that person be? Bertel enquires in the frail, forlorn hope that it is he.
Moses, says the boy.
A good choice, Bertel says, relieved that he has not chosen someone living.
But later, after the boy has fallen asleep, he steals a look at his exercise book and sees that he has not written about Moses at all, but about Crown Prince Frederik.
The Prince Regent is a good and loving person. He cares inordinately for his children, including those who inhabit his colonies, among them Greenland and the colony of Sukkertoppen. Whenever someone in his great kingdom dies, His Royal Highness weeps heart-rendingly and prays for their soul.
Bertel closes the exercise book. The boy has lied to me, he tells him self. It is a sin he must confess and repent for the sake of his salvation. He leaves the exercise book open on the table, but when the boy rises the next day he picks it up without any sign of a guilty conscience. Perhaps he has forgotten that he lied, Bertel muses. He says nothing.
The next day the boy remains at the colony house until evening. Bertel refrains from questioning him and risking more lies. Perhaps it is I who am in need of absolution, he thinks to himself, since I have such an effect on my son that he feels he must lie to me. He considers speaking to Mr Falck on the matter, but the priest is keeping himself to himself at the moment. Days may pass without a sign of him, and when eventually he appears he resembles a wild man and stinks of aquavit. He asks his sister if she lies with him, but she denies it. The priest lies in the ship and drinks, she says. He has a whole keg of aquavit there.
Where did he get it?
He found it after the explosion, she says. It flew over the fell.
Then it belongs to the Trade, says Bertel.
She gives a shrug.
She still lives in the communal house. It is there she always returns, there she feels most at home – or perhaps it is the only place where she feels safe. He realizes that he does not know her at all. She grew up with an aunt, her mother having died giving birth to her. They lived like all other natives, wintering inside the fords, remaining in the skerries for as long as possible in the months of summer. When she told him she was a daughter of Oxbøl’s he felt annoyance, hatred, compassion, disgust, a chaos of emotions. She had already guessed they had the same father; she had sensed it, she said, and Sofie had known for some time. It is about time you found out too, brother. His own mother is still living, further north at Holsteinsborg, where the old priest still wreaks his havoc. He cannot understand how she can endure to live in the same colony as Oxbøl. But it is several years since he last saw her. Most of his life he has avoided the place in which he was born and grew up. He receives the occasional greeting from his mother, by the kayak messenger that serves the two colonies.
Bertel wonders who it was who decided he should become a catechist. His father – that is, the man who in official respects was named as such, the hunter, Jens – enjoyed seasonal employment by the Trade at Holsteinsborg. Most probably he was aware of who the biological father was, and so presumably they found the catechism to be in some way appropriate. Whatever the reason, at the age of fourteen Bertel Jensen became a pupil of the catechist at Old Sukkertoppen, which is now all but depopulated. Later he came to the new Sukkertoppen and has remained here ever since.
Question: What are the planets?
Answer: Round, dark bodies having many mountains and valleys upon their surface, surrounded by atmospheres and presumed habitable by living beings.
Bertel dismisses his speculations as to the past. The present demands his attention. He goes over to the carpentry shop where he meets the smith. He shows him the materials he has collected and asks if he may use some tools.
What will he make? asks the smith.
A kayak. For my boy.
Ah, Madame Kragstedt’s little fancy man? says the smith and laughs. He can use what he likes as long as he clears up after him. And if he breaks anything he must make sure it’s replaced.
I won’t break anything.
I said if he does.
He doesn’t bother to reply. He waits until the smith has gone. Then he goes about the work. He has built kayaks before, though some years ago. And this kayak is small; he must spend much time and exert himself mathematically to scale down from adult size. He begins with the hull. For the frame he uses old wood he has had stored to dry. It takes him a week to construct the skeleton. Then he carries it over to the communal house where some women clad it with skins. They seal the vessel with seal fat, which they rub in from bow to stern. When they have finished they leave it to dry in the wind for some days, returning frequently to rub in some more. In the meantime he carves a double paddle out of a plank of larch, drills small holes in it and equips it with fittings of finely filed and polished narwhal tusk, which he lets into the wood with dowels made of the same material. The native women have fixed amulets to the cords that criss-cross the deck, some stumps of bone and a small leather pouch of indefinable contents. He dares not remove them, but recites the Lord’s Prayer over the vessel in the hope that it may appease both heathen and Christian powers.
On the boy’s birthday at the end of the month the kayak is finished. He goes over to collect it early in the morning and places it in front of the house. The coating of fat makes it shine and he pictures the vessel gliding through the water. Then he goes inside and says in a casual tone, Some one seems to have left something for you outside.
The boy goes out and stands gaping at the kayak. He walks around it. Sofie scurries to join him. She claps her hands together and emits high-pitched cries of astonishment. You kept this quiet, she says.
Bertel is gladdened. He cannot stop chuckling. He sits on his haunches and watches the boy. What do you think of it?
Is it for me? the boy asks. There is a trace of suspicion in his voice.
Who else would it be for?
Who made it?
I did.
Really? says the boy.
Didn’t you think your father could do such things?
The boy smiles wryly. Can I try it out and see if it fits?
I had your mother measure your backside when you weren’t looking, Bertel says. Let’s go down to the shore. You can try it out in the element in which it belongs.
He spends the whole day teaching the boy to keep his balance. By afternoon he has become proficient enough for them to paddle out together, each in his own kayak. They paddle alongside each other. When the boy becomes uncertain, Bertel extends his paddle so that he may grasp it tightly, or else he lays it across the decks of both kayaks, so that they may drift side by side.
When they return home in the evening, Bertel says: I’m thinking of making a trip south next month. Do you want to come with me?
Just me and you? asks the boy.
The two of us on our own. I’ve bought an extra rifle. I can teach you to shoot.
Is he old enough? Sofie asks with concern. He is not even confirmed yet. Wouldn’t it be better to make some shorter trips around the island instead?
But the boy is all for it. Father, he asks, can I go and tell Madame Kragstedt so that she can come and see my kayak?
Yes, do so, my boy.
Later he discovers the Madame has given the boy a present: a folding writing set of mahogany with three pen shafts of varnished bamboo, a dozen nibs and a small gilded knife with which to sharpen them. It is the finest writing set Bertel has ever seen, a preposterous gift.
It’s a travelling set, says the boy. I can take it with me on our trip, Father.
Bertel lifts the li
ttle brass ink pot from its hollow and turns it between his fingers. He puts it back in its place. It’s much too fine, he says. It might break.
Sofie’s pregnancy is confirmed, she tells him when he enquires. She has not bled since the spring and can tell by her breasts that she is with child. She asks him not to say anything to the boy until some months have passed and she can no longer conceal it.
We’re doing well together, says Bertel.
Yes, she says. They lie on the bed, their legs entwined.
Do you remember to say the Lord’s Prayer? he asks.
Every morning.
You must remember to thank the Lord as well.
I thank him each and every day. I thank him for my capable husband and my clever and beautiful son.
He lies with his arms around her and senses her drift into sleep. He wriggles cautiously on to the other side to do likewise.
Question: What are the four major parts of the Earth’s land masses?
Answer: Europe, Asia, Africa and America.
Before he departs with the boy, he asks Sofie to return the writing set. It is inappropriate, he says, to give the boy such a precious gift. It must be worth more than you are paid there in a year.
But Madame Kragstedt says she is so very fond of our boy. I think she has become attached to him in a way neither of us can understand.
All the more reason to return the gift. Can’t you see that she is trying to ingratiate herself? I shouldn’t wonder if she wished to adopt him as her own.
Perhaps it would not be the worst thing to happen, says Sofie. He would still be our son. And his opportunities would be much improved.
The Prophets of Eternal Fjord Page 39