by Andre Brink
“You can see for yourself, can’t you? We follow very closely the commandments given to the people of Israel.”
“This one was a baby. How could he have deserved such a death?”
“I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me,” he recited.
“What the hell do you call ‘iniquity of the fathers’, Lukas?”
“For that, you will have to know our history.”
“That’s what I’m here for.”
Fires of Hell
WHAT LUKAS’ DEATH offered me that morning was not at all the history I’d been waiting for, but another story. Entertaining enough, to be sure, but what fucking use was it to me? Still, for what it’s worth, this is what he told me:
In the beginning of the world there was a great battle between the hosts of God and the legions of hell. Not surprisingly, God got the upper hand, although it cost the lives of many angels. But the enemy was near wiped out. It was just batwings and arrowtails and split hooves wherever you looked. The only one who got away was the Devil himself. He fled across the face of the earth, with God in hot pursuit. And slowly God began to gain on him, He was quite an athlete in his young days. In those times the world around here was still flat, the plains lay level with the tops of the mountains up there. But when the Devil realised he was being overtaken he began to burrow into the earth like a mole, scorching a tunnel all the way down here into the valley, where the fires of hell were still burning. All the cliffs were red-hot. One can see it to this day where the rocks were split: black crusts on the outside where the fire turned to charcoal, but deep inside, in the very kernel, they’re still red.
God sent a few angels after the Devil to bring him out, but their wings got scorched and that was the end of them. Whereupon God decided to call it a day before all His best men were lost. And the Devil remained down here in the valley, making sure he always kept below the overhanging cliffs where no unexpected bolt of lightning could strike him.
As Brave As
For many years the Devil lived here undisturbed by man, or God, until he began to relax his guard. But God is like an elephant, He never forgets. And one day He sent His servant Lukas Seer Lermiet with a large party of trekkers to fetch the Devil from the valley. It was a hellish journey and along the way most of the wagons were dashed to pieces on the rocks, oxen and all. In the end only Lukas Seer and his family reached the floor of the valley down here.
The first night after they’d arrived at their outspan everything looked so peaceful one couldn’t believe the Devil was anywhere near. And Lukas Seer and his family were so exhausted after the trek, they just made a fire to keep the predators away and went straight to sleep. That was when the Devil saw his chance. He knew if he could get rid of the Seer, God would never dare to send another scout after him, for in the whole world there was not another man as brave as Lukas Lermiet.
As soon as the people were asleep the Devil crept to the outspan in the pitch dark—it was a moonless night—and he took a long, burning log from the fire and prepared to hit Lukas Lermiet over the head. But the Seer’s wife Mina woke up and in the dull glow of the fire she saw what was happening. She screamed like the last trumpet, Lukas Seer woke up and instinctively rolled to one side, so that the blow only struck him on the hip. Which was enough to cripple him for life, but otherwise he was all right. And he tackled the Devil with his bare hands.
But the Devil was no lightweight. As Lukas Lermiet made a grab for him he stood back and stamped out the fire with one of his hooves so that there was no light to see by. In that darkness Lukas Lermiet had no chance at all. But God looks after His faithful. He took the full moon by the ears and plucked it out from behind the mountains—one slope had to be shoved out of the way, but for those who have faith a thing like that is child’s play—and so Lukas could once again see what was happening.
It was a battle like the world has never seen since. For three days and three nights it raged. The two fighters became so tired they could hardly raise an arm, but in a clinch of death they kept on throttling each other, rolling this way and that, from one end of the valley to the other, from the rock pool over there in the kloof to Hans Magic’s place. To and fro, to and fro, until the whole place was covered in sulphurous fumes, but they never let go. The Seer’s wife and children tried many times to have a go at the enemy with picks and shovels and logs and yokes and whatever came to hand, but the two fighting men were clenched in such a tight bundle that it was impossible to tell one from the other.
But at long last it was all over for the Devil. As he blew out his last breath a ball of fire cartwheeled along the valley, splitting trees and rocks along the way, as if lightning had struck the place, not the usual kind of lightning from the sky but from the heart of the earth. And when at last the noise died down Lukas’s family came to bring him round. It took another three days and nights before he woke up. His wife nursed him with herbs and roots they found in the mountains, the kinds Tant Poppie Fullmoon still uses for her remedies, and at last Lukas Lermiet recovered. Except for his leg, which was paralysed and had to be amputated in the end. That was the Lord’s punishment because he’d fallen asleep instead of keeping watch.
Lukas Lermiet realised he would never be able to leave the valley again, nor could his wife Mina and his children leave him behind. So he built himself a house, right on the spot where he’d killed the Devil. It is the house in which I still live to this day, and in the voorhuis you will notice a black spot on the floor. If you step on it on a cold day you can feel a dull glow under your feet, coming from deep down where the Devil is still smouldering away.
Unadulterated History
After that the people flourished in the Devil’s Valley. But just as in the time of the Israelites in the desert, the people of the settlement began to forget how God had saved them.
And now, just to remind them, one or two children in every generation are born with a lame hip. Such children have to be removed from the bosom of the congregation. It is the will of the Lord, His name be praised.
“A nice story,” I said with feigned appreciation, not wanting to antagonise Lukas Death unnecessarily, but feeling rather let down.
“It’s no story!” he replied indignantly. “It is unadulterated history as it has come down to us.”
“But, Lukas, you must admit it could have become distorted as it got passed on from one generation to the next.”
“You forget one thing,” he said smartly. “The man this history happened to may have died, but he is still in our midst. Grandpa Lukas. He makes sure that we keep to the truth.”
“That still doesn’t prove anything,” I said scornfully.
“What is it you don’t understand?”
“First of all, the way I heard it, Lukas Lermiet’s wife was called Bilhah, not Mina.”
“That’s Isak Smous again. He twists everything to suit himself.”
“Why should a name like Bilhah suit him better than Mina?”
“Because his ancestors brought in Jewish blood.”
“But I thought the Lermiets and the Koens and the Poitiers and others intermarried so much that it’s impossible to tell a circumcised head from an uncircumcised tail?”
He grunted disapprovingly, masticated for a moment, then conceded, “Mina was the wife he brought into the Devil’s Valley with him. But after her death he went in to Bilhah.”
“And where did she so conveniently come from?” I asked with a poker face.
His collarless shirt seemed to become too tight for him; but he wasn’t to be cornered so easily. “Why should that surprise you? The Scriptures themselves do not give us every verse and chapter. For example, they don’t tell us about other people made by God at the same time as Adam and Eve, but when Cain arrived in the land of Nod he took himself a wife, so we know there must have been others around.”
“You mean the Devil’s Valley was something like
the land of Nod to the east of Eden? There were other people living here too?”
Eyelid
“I didn’t say that,” he cut me short. “The way it came down to us, Bilhah was first married to another trekker. Her husband died on the way down and she stayed on with the Lermiets.”
“The Lord truly moves in wonderful ways.”
He looked hard at me but I didn’t bat an eyelid. “That’s true,” he said, but I could see he didn’t quite trust me.
“Are you sure Bilhah wasn’t one of Lukas Lermiet’s daughters?”
“Why should he have taken his own daughter to wife?”
“Suppose there was no one else available?” I decided to go for it. “One thing I’ve discovered is that in the Devil’s Valley things seldom happen the way they do outside.”
“We keep the commandments,” he said. There was a faint glow in his voice.
“What about adultery?” I asked.
“Oh we’re very strict on that,” he said emphatically. “That is, if you understand adultery correctly.”
“I’m open to conviction.”
“We’ve been fortunate in having some wise men with us who taught us over several generations how to interpret the Scriptures,” he explained, as close to enthusiasm as I suppose he would ever get. “Adultery happens when a woman from inside the Devil’s Valley consorts with a man from outside without the approval of her people.”
“Was that what the woman Maria did—Emma’s mother?”
“So you’ve heard of her.” It was a statement, not a question.
“Yes, I have. And it was her skeleton I was looking for when I found the child’s.”
“Why dig up the old bones?”
“It’s history,” I said, with what to me sounded like a tone borrowed from Brother Holy. “I’m trying to find the whole truth. And I won’t rest before I’ve got it.”
“A man can choke on too much truth.”
“Then we’ll just have to deal with the choking too. Lukas, I’ve got to know what happened here. It’s important to me.”
“You’re so taken with history and truth and everything,” he said, “but I think deep down you’re just curious. What is there still to be said about Maria’s death?”
“Everything, as far as I’m concerned. For all you know your son might have married her daughter. Yet I’ve never heard you speak about Little-Lukas. Don’t you find it shocking that he died? I was there—” I knew I was embroidering a bit, but what the hell—“I was one of the last people he spoke to. Don’t you want to know about it?”
He flinched as if I’d touched a naked nerve. Then he continued with clenched jaws. “Little-Lukas gave away our secrets and paid for it. One doesn’t kick against the pricks.”
“Perhaps he was trying to find out his own bit of truth.”
“There’s a right way and a wrong way.”
“You think he and Maria were both wrong?”
“Why do you always come back to her?” He was breathing very heavily now. “It’s no secret what happened to Maria. She committed adultery and was punished for it, that’s all.”
“And that commandment applies only to women?”
“Of course,” he said, sounding surprised that I should ask. “It is the woman in her weakness who has to be protected. You must realise that we set much store by our women. Their honour is our honour.”
“And the one who steps out of line?” He said nothing; I tried to force an answer from him. “That’s where the stones come in, isn’t it?”
A pause. Then he said quietly, “It is so.”
“And you call that fucking justice?”
“What was right for the chosen people of God cannot be wrong for us.”
Throwback
“Even if it means stoning children?”
He was getting irritable now: “I already told you how it works.”
“You said every child who is a throwback with a lame hip must be eliminated.” I held the frail little skull out to him. “But there are cripples all over the place. Why are only some killed and not others?”
He turned away from me to open the lid of the coffin again and busied himself for a few moments. “Sorry to disturb you, Oom Bart,” he said. “I just wanted to make sure your back is all right.”
The dead man presumably made some reply which I couldn’t hear. Lukas kept himself busy for a while, tugging at the folds in the shroud, rearranging the hands clasped on the sunken chest, all the while keeping his back to me. It was quite some time before he closed the lid to face me again.
“What were you saying?” he asked.
“About the crippled children.”
“Ah yes. You see, it depends on what kind of affliction the child has. It has to be exactly the same as the lameness the Seer suffered from after the Devil struck him on the hip. And it takes a good eye and guidance from above to recognise it.”
“A lot of guidance, I’m sure,” I said caustically.
“I already told you about law and order,” he reminded me.
“Yes, indeed.” It was time for the gloves to come off. “But I must confess I don’t understand the kind of law and order that kills babies and allows a man like Jurg Water to go about unchallenged.”
By Any Man
“Jurg is one of the most respected men in our settlement.”
“That is what troubles me. Do you know what he does to his children?”
“He chastises them in the fear of the Lord, if that is what you mean.”
“Chastise doesn’t mean to half-kill them. And I don’t think it means what he’s doing to Henta either.”
His eyes flickered in their myopic way, but he didn’t answer.
“Do you know about it?” I demanded.
“Surely what happens inside the four walls of a home is between them and God.”
“And if Henta is fucked in the bluegum wood by any man with an itchy cock?”
“Tsk, tsk,” he clicked his tongue. “A mere child.” For a moment I thought he was going to say more, but then he obviously decided to cut it short. “How can anyone, know for sure what happens in the wood in the dark? Judge not, that ye be not judged.”
For some reason it sounded more like a bloody threat than a warning.
Tempt Fate
STILL HOLDING ON to the baby skull I returned to the heap of stones behind the cemetery. I placed the fragile little thing in the shade, took off my shirt and set to work again. Perhaps the effort would help to settle my thoughts: I needed a bloody spring-cleaning to get rid of all the shit in my head.
But the work was no use. The events of the night before still lay heavily on me, and added to it was the shock of my discovery and the talk with Lukas Death. By eleven o’clock my hands were chafed and covered in blisters and my whole body aching from the effort. Enough for one day, I decided. My own pile of stones was growing steadily, even though I’d hardly made a dent in the original heap. In the process I’d unearthed half of another child’s skull and a few loose bones, but nothing resembling the skeleton of a grown person. Well, it must have happened almost twenty years ago, which might mean several layers deep. I rolled the little skulls into my shirt and walked away. There was only one person I wanted to see right now and that was Emma; but we’d already agreed never to be seen together before dark. In this fucking place it might be useless anyway, but even so we didn’t want to tempt fate.
As I passed in front of Ouma Liesbet Prune’s dilapidated house she called me in her mosquito voice.
“Boetie, I want to talk to you.”
“I’m busy today, Ouma,” I tried to get out of it, but she was waving so eagerly that I feared she might lose her balance, and I couldn’t afford to have that on my bloody conscience too.
Skindering
It meant climbing up to the attic landing once again and hoisting myself up to the roof from there.
“I see you started digging,” she said as if we’d already discussed the plan. “You’ll find many more bones
further down. But it won’t help you one bit.”
“I’m looking for Maria’s skeleton.”
“Yes, so I noticed. But you won’t find Maria there.”
“I spoke to Emma. She told me herself.” This was one person I felt I could trust.
“What does Emma know about it? She was a day-old chick, barely hatched, when they killed Maria. But God doesn’t sleep, you can take that from me.”
“Well, if Maria isn’t buried under the stones, then where is she?”
“I told you mos. I laid her to rest in my own coffin. The night after they killed her Ben Owl and I dug her up from under the stones and gave her a proper burial in one of the old graves. No one else knew about it.”
“But surely people would have got suspicious if they saw the grave had been dug up?”
“The soil is turned over every week for weeding, so no one noticed.”
“Why would you do such a thing?”
“Because Maria was my great-grandchild.”
“Emma said she was Isak Smous’s sister.”
“Half-sister. They had different fathers.”
“So I was told. But if Maria was such close family, why didn’t she live here with you?”
“Because Ben Owl wouldn’t leave her alone. I told him to let her be, but he only listens to the voices in his head. And he said they told him he could have Maria.”
This was something else for me to follow up. How would I ever tie all the fucking threads together? What I was trying to find was a network; all I’d found so far was a damn crow’s nest.
Before I could enquire further I heard voices approaching, and the next moment Ben Owl’s sleepy face appeared above the ladder at the edge of the roof.
“Were you slandering about me?” he asked, blinking his weak eyes.
I jumped at the opportunity to ask him a few questions, but Ouma Liesbet was too quick for me. “Ben, go back to bed,” she said sharply. “This is not your time.”
He yawned and obediently turned to go down the ladder again.