We say:
"Yes."
The orderly laughs. His friends arrive. We leave. We hear them singing all night.
The Priest's Housekeeper
One morning, towards the end of winter, we are sitting in the kitchen with Grandmother. There is a knock on the door; a young woman comes in. She says:
"Good morning. I've come for some potatoes for…"
She stops speaking and looks at us:
"Why, they're adorable!"
She takes a stool and sits down:
"Come here, you."
We don't move.
"Or you."
We don't move. She laughs:
"Come on, come here. Are you afraid of me?"
We say:
"We're afraid of nobody." We go over to her; she says:
"Heavens! How beautiful you are! But how dirty you are!"
Grandmother asks:
"What do you want?"
"Potatoes for the priest. Why are you so dirty? Don't you ever wash?"
Grandmother says angrily:
"It's none of your business. Why didn't the old woman come?"
The young woman laughs again:
"The old woman? She was younger than you. But she died yesterday. She was my aunt. I'm replacing her at the priest's house."
Grandmother says:
"She was five years older than me. She died, just like that… How many potatoes do you want?"
"Ten kilos, or more, if you have them. And some apples. And also… what else have you got? The priest is as thin as a rake, and there's nothing in his larder."
Grandmother says:
"You should have thought of that in the autumn."
"I wasn't there in the autumn. I've only been there since yesterday evening."
Grandmother says:
"I'm warning you, at this time of year, food of any sort costs plenty."
The young woman laughs again:
"Name your price. We don't have any choice. There's almost nothing left in the shops."
"Soon there'll be nothing left anywhere."
Grandmother sniggers and goes out. We are left alone with the priest's housekeeper. She asks us:
"Why don't you ever wash?"
"There's no bathroom, no soap. It isn't possible to wash."
"And your clothes! What a mess! Don't you have any other clothes!"
"We have some in the suitcases under the seat, but they're all dirty and torn. Grandmother never washes them."
"The Witch is your grandmother? Wonders never cease!"
Grandmother comes back with two sacks:
"That'll be ten silver coins or one gold coin. I don't take bills. They'll soon be worth nothing at all, they're just paper."
The housekeeper asks:
"What's in the sacks?"
Grandmother answers:
"Food. Take it or leave it."
"I'll take it. I'll bring you the money tomorrow. Can the boys help me carry the sacks?"
"They can if they want to. They don't always want to. They don't obey anybody."
The housekeeper asks us:
"You will do that for me, won't you? You'll each carry a sack, and I'll carry your suitcases."
Grandmother asks:
"What's all this about suitcases?"
"I'm going to wash their dirty clothes. I'll bring them back tomorrow with the money."
Grandmother sniggers:
"Wash their clothes? Well, if you've got nothing better to do…"
We go off with the housekeeper. We follow her to the priest's house. We see her two blond braids dancing over her black shawl, two long, thick braids. They reach down to her waist. Her hips dance under her red skirt. We can just see a bit of her legs between the skirt and her boots. Her stockings are black, and the one on the right has a run.
The Bath
We arrive at the priest's house with the housekeeper. She lets us in by the back door. We put the sacks down in the larder and go to the washhouse. There are lots of ropes stretched across the room to hold the washing. There are receptacles of every kind, including a zinc bathtub of odd shape, like a deep armchair.
The housekeeper opens our suitcases, puts our clothes in cold water to soak, then starts a fire to heat water in two big cauldrons. She says:
"I'll wash what you need for now right away. While you're bathing, it will dry. I'll bring you the other clothes tomorrow or the day after. They also need mending."
She pours hot water into the bathtub; she adds cold water to it:
"Well, who's first?"
We don't move. She says:
"Who's it going to be, you or you? Come on, get undressed!"
We ask:
"Are you going to stay here while we bathe?"
She laughs very loudly:
"What! Of course I'm going to stay here! I'll even rub your backs and wash your hair. You're not going to be embarrassed in front of me, are you? I'm almost old enough to be your mother."
We still don't move. So she starts to undress:
"Oh, well. Then I'll go first. You see, I'm not embarrassed to undress in front of you. You're only little boys."
She hums to herself, but her face goes red when she realizes we're staring at her. She has taut, pointed breasts like overinflated balloons. Her skin is very white, and she has a lot of blond hair everywhere. Not only between her legs and under her arms, but also on her belly and thighs. She goes on singing in the water, rubbing herself with a washcloth. When she gets out of the bath, she quickly slips into a robe. She changes the water in the tub and starts to do the washing with her back turned to us. Then we get undressed and get into the tub together. There's plenty of room for both of us.
After a while, the housekeeper hands us two large white towels:
"I hope you scrubbed yourselves well all over."
We sit down on a bench, wrapped up in our towels, waiting for our clothes to dry. The washhouse is full of steam and very warm. The housekeeper comes over with a pair of scissors:
"Now I'm going to cut your nails. And stop making a fuss; I won't eat you."
She cuts our fingernails and our toenails. She also cuts our hair. She kisses us on the face and on the neck; and she never stops talking:
"Oh! What pretty little feet, how sweet they are, all clean now! Oh! What adorable ears, what a soft, soft neck! Oh! How I'd love to have two pretty, handsome little boys like you all to myself! I'd tickle them all over, all over, all over."
She strokes and kisses our whole bodies. She tickles us with her tongue on our necks, under our arms, between our buttocks. She kneels down in front of the bench and sucks our penises, which swell and harden in her mouth.
She is now sitting between us; she presses us to her:
"If I had two beautiful little babies like you, I'd give them lovely sweet milk to drink, here, like this."
She draws our heads to her breasts, which are sticking out of her robe, and we suck the pink ends, which have become very hard. She puts her hands under her robe and rubs herself between the legs:
"What a pity you aren't older! Oh! How nice it is, how nice it is to play with you!"
She sighs, pants, then stiffens suddenly.
As we are leaving, she says to us:
"You'll come back every Saturday to bathe. You'll bring your dirty clothes with you. I want you to be always clean."
We say:
"We'll bring you wood in exchange for your work. And fish and mushrooms when there are any."
The Priest
The following Saturday, we go back to have our bath. Afterward, the housekeeper says to us:
"Come to the kitchen. I'll make some tea and we'll have some bread and butter."
We are eating the bread and butter when the priest comes into the kitchen.
We say:
"Good morning, sir."
The housekeeper says:
"Father, these are my protégés. They're the grandsons of the old woman people call the Witch."
T
he priest says:
"Yes, I know them. Come with me."
We follow him. We go through a room in which there is nothing but a big round table surrounded by chairs, and a crucifix on the wall. Then we go into a dark room whose walls are lined with books from floor to ceiling. Opposite the door, a prie-dieu with a crucifix; near the window, a desk; a narrow bed in a corner, three chairs in a row against the wall: that's all the furniture in the room.
The priest says:
"You've changed a lot. You're clean. You look like two angels. Sit down."
He pulls two chairs up opposite his desk; we sit down. He sits down behind his desk. He hands us an envelope:
"Here's the money."
As we take the envelope, we say:
"Soon you'll be able to stop giving these. In the summer, Harelip manages by herself."
The priest says:
"No. I shall go on helping these two women. I'm ashamed that I did not do so earlier. And now, let's talk about something else, shall we?"
He looks at us; we say nothing. He says:
"I never see you in church."
"We don't go there."
"Do you pray sometimes?"
"No, we don't pray."
"Poor lost lambs. I shall pray for you. Can you read, at least?"
"Yes, sir. We can read."
The priest hands us a book:
"Here, read this. You will find in it beautiful stories about Jesus Christ and the lives of the saints."
"We know these stories already. We have a Bible. We have read the Old Testament and the New."
The priest raises his dark eyebrows:
"What? You have read all of the Holy Bible?" "Yes, sir. We even know several passages by heart."
"Which ones, for example?"
"Passages from Genesis, Exodus, Ecclesiastes, Revelation, and others."
The priest is silent for a while, then he says:
"So you know the Ten Commandments. Do you obey them?"
"No, sir, we do not obey them. Nobody obeys them. It is written, 'Thou shalt not kill,' and everybody kills."
The priest says:
"Alas… it's the war."
We say:
"We would like to read other books besides the Bible, but we don't have any. You have a lot of books. You could lend us some."
"These books are too difficult for you."
"Are they more difficult than the Bible?"
The priest looks at us. He asks:
"What kind of books would you like to read?"
"History books and geography books. Books that tell true things, not invented things."
The priest says:
"By next Saturday, I shall find some books that will be suitable for you. Leave me now. Go back to the kitchen and finish your tea."
The Housekeeper and the Orderly
We are picking cherries in the garden with the housekeeper. The orderly and the foreign officer arrive in the jeep. The officer walks straight past us and goes into his room. The orderly stops near us and says:
"Good morning, little friends. Good morning, pretty maiden. Cherries already ripe? I love much cherries, I love much pretty young lady."
The officer calls from the window. The orderly has to go into the house. The housekeeper says to us:
"Why didn't you tell me there were men in your house?"
'They're foreigners."
"So what? What a handsome man he is, the officer!"
We ask:
"Don't you like the orderly?"
"He's short and fat."
"But he's nice and amusing. And he speaks our language well."
She says:
"I don't care. It's the officer I like."
The officer comes and sits on the bench in front of his window. The housekeeper's basket is already full of cherries, she could go back to the priest's house, but she stays. She looks at the officer and laughs very loudly. She hangs from the branch of a tree, she swings, she jumps, she lies in the grass, and finally she throws a daisy at the officer's feet. The officer gets up and goes back to his room. Soon afterward, he comes out and goes off in his jeep.
The orderly leans out the window and shouts:
"Who come help poor man clean very dirty room?"
We say:
"We'll be glad to help you."
He says:
"Need a woman to help. Need pretty young lady."
We say to the housekeeper:
"Come on. Let's help him a bit."
All three of us go into the officer's room. The housekeeper picks up a broom and starts to sweep. The orderly sits down on the bed and says:
"I dream. A princess, I see in dream. Princess must pinch me to wake up."
The housekeeper laughs and pinches the orderly's cheek very hard.
The orderly shouts:
"I awake now. I also want pinch wicked princess."
He takes the housekeeper in his arms and pinches her bottom. The housekeeper struggles, but the orderly holds her very tight. He says to us:
"You, outside! And shut the door."
We ask the housekeeper:
"Do you want us to stay?"
She laughs:
"What for? I can take care of myself."
So we leave the room and shut the door behind us. The housekeeper comes to the window, smiles at us, draws the shutters, and closes the window. We go up to the attic and watch what is happening in the officer's room through the holes.
The orderly and the housekeeper are lying on the bed. The housekeeper is completely naked; the orderly has just his shirt and socks on. He's lying on the housekeeper, and they're both moving back and forth, right and left. The orderly grunts like Grandmother's pig, and the housekeeper screams as if in pain, but she also laughs at the same time and cries:
"Yes, yes, yes, oh, oh, oh!"
From that day on, the housekeeper comes back often and shuts herself up with the orderly. We sometimes look at them, but not always.
The orderly prefers the housekeeper to bend over or squat on all fours, and he takes her from behind.
The housekeeper prefers the orderly to lie on his back. Then she sits on the orderly's belly and moves up and down, as if she were riding a horse.
The orderly sometimes gives the housekeeper silk stockings or eau de cologne.
The Foreign Officer
We are doing our immobility exercise in the garden. It's hot. We are lying on our backs in the shade of the walnut tree. Through the leaves, we see the sky and the clouds. The leaves of the tree are motionless; the clouds also seem to be, but if we look at them for a long time, very attentively, we notice that they change shape and stretch out.
Grandmother comes out of the house. As she walks past us, she kicks sand and gravel into our faces and over our bodies. She mutters something and goes into the vineyard for her nap.
The officer is sitting, stripped to the waist, his eyes shut, on the bench in front of his room, his head leaning against the white wall, in full sunlight. Suddenly he comes toward us; he speaks to us, but we don't answer, we don't look at him. He goes back to his bench.
Later, the orderly says to us:
"The officer want you come speak to him."
We don't answer. He says again:
"You get up and come. Officer angry if you not obey."
We don't move.
The officer says something, and the orderly goes into the room. We hear him singing as he cleans up.
When the sun touches the roof of the house beside the chimney, we get up. We go over to the officer. We stop in front of him. He calls the orderly. We ask:
"What does he want?"
The officer asks some questions; the orderly translates:
"The officer ask why you not move, why not speak."
We answer:
"We were doing our immobility exercise."
The orderly translates again:
"The officer say you do many exercises. Also other kinds. He have seen you hit each other with belt
."
"That was our toughening exercise."
"The officer ask why you do all that."
"To get used to pain."
"He ask you have pleasure in pain."
"No. We only want to overcome pain, heat, cold, hunger, whatever causes pain."
"The officer admiration for you. He think you extraordinary."
The officer adds a few words. The orderly says:
"Good, finished. I must go now. You too, scram, go fishing."
But the officer holds us by the arm, smiling, and makes a sign for the orderly to go. The orderly takes a few steps, then turns back:
"You leave! Quick! Go for walk in town."
The officer looks at him, and the orderly walks on to the garden gate, where he shouts to us again:
"Beat it, you two! No stay! Not understand, fools?"
He goes off. The officer smiles at us and takes us into his room. He sits down on a chair, draws us to him, picks us up, and sits us on his knees. We put our arms around his neck, we press ourselves against his hairy chest. He rocks us to and fro.
Beneath us, between the officer's legs, we feel a warm movement. We look at one another, then we look the officer in the eyes. He gently pushes us away, he ruffles our hair, he stands up. He hands us two whips and lies face down on his belly. He says only one word, which, without knowing his language, we understand.
We hit. First one, then the other.
The officer's back is scored with red lines. We hit harder and harder. The officer moans and, without changing position, pulls his trousers and shorts down to his ankles. We hit his white buttocks, his thighs, his legs, his back, his neck, his shoulders, as hard as we can, and everything gets red.
The officer's body, hair, clothes, the sheets, the rug, our hands, our arms are red. The blood even spurts into our eyes, mingles with our sweat, and we go on hitting until the man utters a final, inhuman cry and we drop, exhausted, at the foot of his bed.
The Foreign Language
The officer brings us a dictionary in which we can learn his language. We learn the words; the orderly corrects our pronunciation. A few weeks later, we speak this new language fluently. We continue to make progress. The orderly no longer has to translate. The officer is very pleased with us. He gives us a harmonica. He also gives us a key to his room so we can get in when we want to (as we were already doing with our key, but secretly). Now we no longer need to hide, and we can do whatever we like there: eat biscuits and chocolate, smoke cigarettes.
The Book of Lies Page 5