Coming home

         The train panted along Chuck-Chuck, Lurch-Chuck, and Lurch-Chuck. Outside the sand was red and coarse; the bushes, grey and leafless. The sun beat down from the colorless sky onto the red sand that stretched on and on flat and forever with the bushes upon it. This was my home. I was coming home after six months at boarding school. I was excited…mommy…daddy…the shop…the farm…Auntie Polly – soon I would be one of them. The door at the end of the passage banged again and again and the wind rushed in and my skirt ballooned up and my hair covered my face. I fought my way down the passage against the hot wind which seemed to cling to every bone in my body. I reached the door, pushed all my weight against it and bang it was shut

              Jehuda's curly hair covered his soft face as he lay fast asleep on the bench beside me. Jehuda was my brother and we both went to boarding schools in Cape Town and now were heading home for our summer vacation. The train lurched slower and panted slower. A sign in big black letters said: "Pitsonderwater". This  means - well with out water. The train stopped next to two red brick houses, one tree and a tin shack house. Suitcases and cardboard boxes were thrown out from the train. There were Joyous shouts as children jumped off the train into the arms of their parents.

-"My word if it isn't little Susie" a friend of my mother's smiled to me with gracious fat eyes "You must be excited to be back." The train shuddered and sighed and we were off again.

      Of course I was excited. Boarding school was awful. I shared a room with Joss and Renee that term – three beds in a neat row, three cupboards, and three hooks behind the door.

-"Home is wonderful," Renee said as she turned her pink laundry bag upside down and all her dirty vests and panties tumbled on the floor in a colorful heap. "I never have to do this nonsense at home."

Joss sat next to her pile and mimicked the crotchety voice of the house mistress: "Count your panties \   Count your Vests \    be sure they're marked \ make a double list." 

I struggled to write my name Susan M. with marking ink, on a delicate blue panty -"The fuss they make." I said. "One would swear we do our laundry once a term and not once a week."

In the far distance I made out the green trees of Lowington, the town nearest our farm and practically my second home. I put my head out of the window and let the warm air blow my hair around.

-"What would you be doing if you were home now, Ren?" Joss asked

-"Exactly what I wanted to do. You know, nobody ever makes me do anything I don't want to. I get up whenever I like. I don't have to iron my own cloths or eat that milky mush we have for breakfast and no one ever rings a bell…" Renee sat quite still, a pink panty in her hand and her eyes were wide open and far away.

-"I think I would go for a swim if I were home now," Joss said. "You know I can go swimming whenever I like at home and nobody tells me how long to long to stay in the water and when it rains we all play scrabble together and my mother always…." She folded a woolen vest, crumbled it up and threw it on the floor.  "Everything sucks!" She said and left the room.

-"Poor girl. It's more than a year now that her mother died and she still can't get used to the idea." Renee said. "We are so far away from it all that we think everything is still the way we left it when we first came to boarding school three years ago…You know," she continued, "when I talk of home sometimes I think my mother and father are still living together in our old house in Spin street. Well Just shows, I am lucky in comparison with Jos."

The train crossed now on the red bridge over the brownish grey water of the river of Lowington. Then there were the white houses of Lowington and the church tower and the clock. Jehuda moved in his sleep.

-"How about you?" asked Renee as we continued sorting out and marking our dirty laundry.

-"Well I don't know." I said. I remembered the last time I came home. Something woke me up in the middle of the night.

-"Isaac, Isaac." I heard my mother call.

-"its 3 o'clock in the morning woman. "My father grumbled

-"Mr. Horn, the bank manager phoned again. He said if we don't pay those bills he'll foreclose on the farm."

My father spent his days in a drunken stupor. My mother toiled her days away in the little store she had opened in the farm to make ends meet.

Then he answered my mother in a strong sober voice that I hardly recognized: "That man is such a bastard. A downright anti-Semite. I suppose we could sell the bull. The wheat will soon be ready for harvest. Tell him to wait for the wheat."

-"Oh Isaac you know the wheat is going to be a disaster. "

-"I don't."

-"If only you would have given it sufficient water instead of…"

-"Alright. Alright. Coetzee was interested in the bull."

-"A pity. It's a good bull."

-"So what should we do? Sell the tractor? Than there won't be any wheat harvest at all?"

-"If only you had taken care of the wheat. Then we would have money to return Mr. Horn."

-" Nag. Nag. Nag. Why do you see only black?

Then I heard him snoring again and the night became black.

                                                           ***

The train gave a triumphant whistle and halted in the station. I woke Jehuda up. "Look," I said," daddy's come out to meet us." He wore an old brown jacket, a cigarette between his fingers. He half smiled and waved. I took my suitcase of the railing and helped Jehuda and met my father at the door. He helped us with the luggage and pressed a dry kiss onto my lips and patted Jehuda on the shoulder. He turned to Mans, the colored boy, and asked him to take the parcels to the car.

-"The train was late. Why didn't you take the earlier one?" he asked

-"I couldn't get onto it. It goes farther along to South West and they don't stop in Lowington."

-"O.K." he said as we approached the lorry. "We'll make a stop at Aunt Polly's but just for a moment because I am already running late."

Daddy drove through the wide streets of Lowington. People were standing outside of their houses with Victorian facades. It was Sunday afternoon. I rushed into Aunt Polly's house shattering the quiet with "Hello everyone."

-"Welcome." Aunt Polly shouted and came limping from the kitchen. "My How have you grown!" She kissed me and Jehuda. "How have you been? How is Mervyn's baby? "

-"They gave me permission in the boarding school to go and see him in the hospital." I said

-"Oh that’s considerate of them?

-"and how's Sheila?"

-"She let me hold the baby. It's such a little small creature. "

-" Ach, all babies look the same." said my father. "Any how, we have to be off."

-"Won't you stay for some tea?"  asked Aunt Polly.

  -"The train was anyhow late. And I have to go through Kriel before we get home."

   We got into the lorry. Jehuda and I sat in front next to daddy and Mans in the back. Before long we were speeding 70 miles an hour on the black road that writhed through the red sand and grey bushes.

-"Did you meet Aunt Esther?" asked my father.

-"I phoned her. I didn't manage to see her."

-"of course."

-"Oh daddy, you know she lives twenty miles from the boarding school, and we only get one weekend, and one Sunday off a term."

-"Nah, your like your mother. Only excuses!"

He drove on silently while my eyes accustomed to the familiar surroundings.  After about forty minutes I saw on my left grey huts rising out of the sand. We sped by a coffee colored boy who stared vacantly at the road. The air smelled of a strong scent of Lucerne as my fathered stopped the lorry before a wagon piled with newly cut Lucerne.  My father stepped out of the car and approached a white man who stood next to the wagons

-"Hey Kriel. I see your Lucerne harvest has been good. You remember you owe me a hundred pounds."

-"Oh knock off" said Kriel, "can't you see I'm working?"

-"So when you going to give us the money."

-"Come on the weekend and we'll see what we can do."

-But its a hundred pounds for renting that land."

."Don't worry. Now let me do my job."

Father stepped back into the car started the car  and got back to the road.

-"You rented the land?"

-"Only half of it.  We had to sell the tractor to return Mr. Horn the loan so I am working only with the bull. Back to the olden days."

-"Can I ride on the bull?" asked Jehuda.

My father laughed. "It's not that sort of bull. But we can do with another hand in the field."

After a while we turned off the tar road onto the dirt track. The car rattled and grunted over the white stones. On either side the bushes were larger but still grey and the sun set in the distance. Before us stretched the green river and the farm and below us in the valley lay the shop. It just had been painted and glared white. Next to it stood a large old thorn tree and then the house. My father stopped the lorry and we all got off. Next to the shop stood a crowd of colored people. The thorn tree spread its massive branches. Its knotted roots dug it firmly into the soil. A blue lizard slid along a brown stump root and I laughed. Yes I was at home. I thought of Renee. No, not a great achievement, yet home.

-"Susan!" I looked up. It was my mother. She was calling me.    

Kindness

The cotton was bursting white and frothing from the pods and the cotton pickers came. Some came from neighboring farms while others walked along the road for as long as three days.  Some carried their own water in buckets for many kilometers. They came with their wives who carried the small children and with the little possessions they had, that were bundled in blankets or in tattered suitcases. The farmer, a tall white man with a copious mustache, directed them to the place where they should build their huts. He supplied them with reeds and dung from the stables.

 –"Remember," he said. "It's only for one month."

       By lunch time most of the pickers had cleared away stones and erected crude reed huts with holes for windows and for doors. Some beat the dung into smooth shinny floors; some carefully trimmed the reeds so that they were even on top. The women made fires and cooked in black, three legged pots corn porridge and corn cake. Others heated water for coffee which they drank with dry bread.

       Abram Rooi had walked for two days with his wife Tienna, and their seven kids aged one to twelve. The older kids helped Abram build the hut; the younger ones stayed close by to Tienna. After Tienna finished nursing the little one she cleared a few stones from beneath the bush and carefully laid him asleep. She called Jan, her second little one and let him finish off the job that the first one started .Jan sucked noisily and looked with his big brown eyes at Tienna. Then he fell asleep and Tienna put him beside the baby who was totally naked.  Rieta, the eldest one, helped her father thread a wire through the reeds. Kleintjie ran after Rupert into the hole that was the door of the hut. –"Stop that!" their father cried "Why don't you give us a hand."

       Suddenly Tienna collapsed. Abram ran to her.

–"What's wrong with you woman?!"

–"No I'm O.K. I just got to rest." She protested.

Abram lay her down on the earth, she was pregnant. "How are we going to feed another baby?"

Tienna looked at him with ruby eyes. "I'm fine. You finish with the hut and then we make some porridge from our leftovers for the kids.

-"Maybe Rieta will go instead of you tomorrow to the field."

-"But she's so small."

-"look at you. We need another working hand."

Tienna looked at the two sleeping kids on the earth. "Yea, I'll stay with Jan and Pietro. You better go in the evening to the farmer to ask for a loan because we don't have what to eat for tomorrow."

-" He looks like somebody you could talk too. Can you cook?"

-"Yea, I'm O.K" she stood up.

Abram went back to the hut were Reita was tying two edges of wire together.

-"Tomorrow you come with me to the field." He told his daughter and helped her finish off with the hut.  He bent under the door hole and called "Rupert and Klienjie, bring those blankets."

-"Bring us some fire Abram." Tienna called. She stood next to the pot.

  The Sun was beginning to sink over the yellow hills leaving a streak of light in the sky made of orange and pink and blue.

-"O.K woman." Abram went out to the next door where the fire was going.  

 

                                                        Chapter 2

 The cool white light of morning gently suffused the clouds and the sky. The pickers gathered in the valley, between the hills, waiting for the baas to take them to the fields. They waited squatting in groups, chatting quietly. The women carried brown paper bags with bread for lunch and bottles of coffee. Abram and Reita stood there too.  Reita was very excited to go out to the field. Abram gave her his tin can for good lucks sake. Over the hill they saw a trail of dust and then materialized a tractor with a wagon and, in some distance behind, a large black Cadillac. The car stopped and out can Mr. Hendrik Malan; he opened the boot and threw on to the earth tin cans and hessian bags: "Good morning to you all. We got lots of work to do. Help yourselves. No fighting. The wagon will take you down to the fields. Good luck."

 The pickers climbed over the pile and chose bags, testing them for holes and weaknesses. Abram selected several hessian bags for Reita and for himself and took a tin can for himself. He hoisted Reita onto the wagon and climbed up himself. When all were settled on the wagon the driver set the tractor into motion. After ten minutes the tractor approached the field with the tall brown plants that were set in neat rows with white fluffy cotton bursting from the pods. The pickers got off the wagon, put down the tin cans in front of the row they chose, started picking cotton and putting it into the bag. Abram showed Reita how to tie the hessian bag round her waste like an apron keeping the mouth of the bag open to receive the cotton. He then placed her tin can in the beginning of a row.

-"Start with this row and call me when the bag is full." He then tied the bag around his waste and started working on the row beside her. As the pickers started picking the noise died down. Only the sound of cotton being plucked was heard. After half an hour a cold streak of sweat ran down Abrams back. He looked at Reita's row but could not see her.  Mr. Malan gave him wheat, corn, sugar and oil for 67 cents on account of the weeks work, and he tried to work hard to repay it. When he got to the end of the row, he walked back with the cotton in his bag to the beginning of the row to put it in the tin. About mid way he met Reita.

-"I'm thirsty. Can't I go to the furrow to drink?" she asked.

-"In noon the baas will come and we will have a lunch break. The more you drink the thirstier you get. Try going on till the end of the row and then have a drink."

Abram began working methodically like a machine. His whole body became a hand plucking cotton. Up – down, up – down, up – down. When the baas honked he already had done Five rows. He met Reita by the stream that offered some shade.

"Go have a drink my girl." When she came back he asked how many rows she had done.  

-"I finished one row, and I started the second one."

-"you'll get the hang of it."

-"I hate picking. Why don't Rupert and Klienjie pick cotton?"

-" Rupert's too small. Maybe Klienjie. We'll see tomorrow. "

Abram divided the loaf of bread between them "Want some coffee?" He poured some coffee for himself and took a she took a sip and pulled away in disgust. Abram laughed and Reita smiled. He lay down and tried to get a nap while Reita went to the stream. After a while baas honked his horn for them to return to work. Reita went to her row and tried to work hard. She tried to give it her best but after a quarter of an hour the sun was like a red ball and she fought with herself not fall asleep. It was so boring to pick.  Abram was already tired too. When the bass honked his horn to call them all in he had done only ten rows altogether. Reita had almost finished three. He carried his tins and Reita's tin to the wagon. Threw the hessian bags to one side and held the tin cans close to him. The wagon made its way up the path. At the barn the pickers unloaded their tins next to the scale where Andries, Malan's boy, stood. He was busy arranging the weights. The baas arrived carrying his large book and pen.

-"O.K everyone will have there turn. Let's start. You. Name?

-"Willem Engelbrecht." The baas wrote down his name while Willem put the tins on the scale.

-" 29 pounds." Said Andries and the crowd sighed in admiration.

  Andries lifted the tins from the scale and emptied them on the floor where the cotton made a white fluffy pile. It looked good and Malan was happy about it.  

-"Next." He called.

Abram put his tin on the scale. "Name?" Malan asked.

-"Abram Rooi."

Andries moved the scales: "20 pounds." 

-"But I worked so hard." sbram Said. 

-"The weights don't lie." Andries answered.  

Malan wrote down the number. "Next. What is your name?"

-"Mans Johnston."

O.K Johnston stack your tins on the scale/"

 Abram crouched next to Reita who was sleeping on the ground.  His hands were stiff.  Engelbrecht's smiled with pride. What was his secret?  It was 1 cent for the pound. That meant Abram's still owed the baas 47 cents.  The spotlight in the barn gave a shrill light. Andries was calling numbers and Malan wrote them down as the pile of cotton grew higher. Malan thought to himself that with such a good crop maybe this year they will be able to afford a trip to relatives on the continent. Netta would like that. 

Andries pointed to the last picker. "Name?"

-"Pietro Kulhuas."

Pietro shyly put his tins on the weight.

"23 pounds."

Malan wrote in his book. "O.K. That that. You have a good nights rest. Tomorrow I will give 1 cent more for every ten pounds you pick." He closed his book and walked away. The crowd began to disperse. Abram tried to wake Reita up but she wouldn't budge so he carried her out of the barn all the way to the huts.

.

    

       

                                                   Chapter 3

     Netta was sitting beside the pool sipping a Martini. Her son, David, was practicing head jumps into the pool. Her husband was snoring with the news paper sprawled over his face. Netta admired the way he went around with his business. She thought he was stern, yet not too harsh, with a tingling of mercy in his affairs. David came out of the water. His thin body was dripping water. "Kindness won't you bring David a towel?" The maid, wearing a white starched apron, came out with a towel and wrapped and tickled David. David laughed.

-"Is Lunch ready?" asked Netta

-"Lunch will be ready in fifteen minutes madam." Kindness took a hold of herself and went back to the kitchen.

These Sunday afternoons when David was home from his boarding school were such a delight for her.

-"You really dive well." She said.

-"Thank you mamma. Can we go to the amusement park today?"

-"Father has a lot of work to do."

Hendrik woke up with a jerk. He peeled off the newspaper and looked at his son.  

-" Mamma says you can take us to the amusement park after lunch."

Netta laughed. "David, Daddy just got up."

-"What's the time?" Hendrik coughed.

-"It's ten of one."

 -"got to go down to the farm and call the lunch break."

-"Why don't you eat with us lunch and then go down." She suggested.

-"O.K lovey. David, you can come down with me and honk the horn if you like."

-"And we won't go to the amusement park?"

-"Maybe another time." Said his father

-"Run along now and go and get dressed."

-"O.K mamma."

Hendrik watched Netta's wavy brown hair. She wore a white blouse with laces that fit her. He put the news paper on the chair and embraced her.  "He's a good boy." He said.

  Kindness came out to the patio. "Lunch is ready."

-"Thanks Kindness." Said Netta and they both stood up

                                                              Chapter 4

 

As Hendrik Malan approached the cotton field he saw there was a commotion. Some of the pickers were still working in the field but most of them were under the trees next to the stream. David was disappointed he didn't blow the horn and. He drove straight to the stream and saw a colored woman lying under a tree. A colored man ran towards the car.

-"Baas, please, baas my wife is pregnant and she doesn't feel well."

Hendrik stopped the car, opened the door, and approached the trees.  Abram fell behind him: "We have not enough cotton, so she came to the field but she does not feel well. She fainted, just like that, fell down. "

As Hendrik got to the trees the woman began to come back. Another colored woman was crouching beside her and pouring water onto her face. She turned to Hendrik and said: "Please my baas. Don't be angry. When my baas goes back from the cotton field can he take her to her hut. She can't walk and she must lie down. Her daughter is in the hut. She will take care of her"

Hendrik took out his handkerchief and wiped his sweat off his brow, looking at the lying woman, who began to cough.

 -"She'll be O.K." He said. 'You boys keep working on and I'll take her to her hut. "

He told Abram.

-"Thank you Basie. My baas is very kind." Abram put his hands under Teinna and carried her to the car.  Hendrik took a blanket out of the boot. He instructed David to move forward and put the blanket on the back seats. Abram laid Teinna on the blanket but she insisted on sitting upright. "Thank you my Basie. Thank you." Repeated Abram.

As they were riding up the hill Hendrik looked at the colored woman in the back seat. David was jumping up and down in the front seat.

-"Stop that." He shouted at David.

Tienna had never ridden in car before but she was feeling too bad to enjoy the ride.

Hendrik honked the horn as he approached the hut. A couple of women came out. He stopped the car; opened the back door and Tienna came stumbling out. Reita ran towards her. "I'm o.k." Tienna said. "Just need to rest a little." She looked up at the baas "Thank you baas, that was very kind of you." Then accompanied by Reita she stumbled towards her hut.

                                                   Chapter 5

       The fires around the hut were almost out. Here and there a few coals glimmered. Inside Abram's hut the children lay asleep on two outspread blankets. Abram lay curled up in a corner. Tienna poked him in the side, "Wake up, wake up Abram."

-"What is it woman?" he mumbled.

-"Get Kristien," she whispered, "my waters have broken. I think the baby's coming."

-"What?" he sat up, "But it's to early."

-"I know." She moaned.

    Kristien came carrying a lantern, some cotton wool and a basin of water. She looked at Tienna, sucked in her cheeks and said: "The baby's coming. Get the kids out of here." Rieta sat up, rubbing her eyes.

-"Come. "said Abram, "Let's get the kids out of here. Mommy's giving birth."

They carried the children out and lay them on the earth outside the hut. Rupert and Klinjie started poking each other and Reita said: "Stop that. Go to sleep."

Inside the hut Tienna was moaning loudly, throwing her body from side to side and clenching and unclenching her fists.

-"You're very feverish." Kristien said. "Bite this." She put gently a piece of leather in Tienna's mouth. Then she soaked the rag in the water in the basin and put it on Tienna's forehead. The light in the lantern flickered sending grotesque shadows across the reeds. She stepped out of the hut and called Reita. "I need your help."

Reita stepped into the hut and saw her mother lying on the floor, legs spread apart, and her face in agony."

-"Come here girl." said Kristien. "All you got to do is keep the rag soaked on her forehead. Don't look down if you don't like. Just keep her comfy."

Kristien took a blanket and put it under Tienna's pelvis. Then she folded her knees and held Tienna's hand.

-"It'll be alright. My girl it'll be alright."

Teinna was crying. "I can't do it." She mumbled.

-"You strong." Said Kristien. And as she saw the cramps were coming she said. "Now, push!" and Tienna shouted out of her lungs and pushed.

It ended in fifteen minutes. The baby was born dead. Kristein cut the umbilical cord and cleaned up Tienna. "Not a great sight to see" She spoke to Reita and wrapped the body in a blanket.  Abram entered the hut. "I'm sorry Rooi."  She gave him the dead body. "But your wife will be well." Tienna was sleeping in exhaustion.

                       

                                                             Epilogue

In the morning Abram went to the store and asked Hendrik Malan for a small box.

-"What for?" he asked.

-"My son, Basie. He was born…dead, last night."

-"Well, just the same," said Malan, handing Abram a box. "You can't feed what you've got. Imagine having to feed another one. "

Abram held the box. "Thanks any way for giving us a ride."

-"You just see that your wife gets better. Hey?"

-"You've been very kind to us." said Abram. "It'll take time till she gets better. Can we stay a little after the harvest, till Tienna gets better?"

Malan stroked his mustache with his hand. "Look there isn't much you can do on the farm. I guess you could clear the stones for me. I want to build another barn. But I only pay 30 cents a day. "

Malan watched Abram's back as he walked away carrying the box. What a life, he thought, what a life.

  

         

The store

Mrs. Cartstens owned the farm store. It smelled of stale sweat and was a narrow and rectangular building, rising from the reddish grey of the veld. Pants and gaudy jewelry, needles and sugar, shirts and spoons, guitars and material peered out from the dankness of the high wooden shelves. On Saturday the white farmers came to the store to   pay the colored boys. The colored men came early in the morning with their wives and children to the store. The baas never said when they would come and they didn't want to miss them. Clustered together in the tight cement space between the door and the counter the people yelled and laughed pinched bottoms and tendered brown breasts to withered babies. They meditated on the costs of merchandise fingering the few pennies that remained from last weekend: Three shillings sugar, five shillings of flour; potatoes, coffee and sweets for the children – three pence worth; There still has to be money to pay for wood, no, no, better take  four shillings' worth of flour so there will be for the wood.

       No baas had yet appeared in the doorway and the colored's babbled on. At the grocery end of the store Mrs. Carsten was stacking sugar. Rhythmically her body swayed from the large pile of pound paper bags in the carton on the right to the near empty dark shelf on her left. A yellow pencil peered from behind her ear and graying black hair. She had deep set deep blue eyes. Her stubby, work worn fingers, firmly lifted each packet and put it in its place, as she swayed back and forth back and forth piling sugar. Occasionally she glanced up at the commotion in the store and at the white clerks who were dusting the shelves. Wisps of wind crept through the crevices of the rickety building and sneaked icily around the peoples feet, up their legs, and flapped the torn end of their shirts and dresses.

-"Missus, excuse me missus… missus isn't busy now?"

Mrs. Carstens raised her eyes across the counter at Petrus. He was tall with muscular arms but now he hunched forward and fingered the buckle of his denim overall nervously and stared at the counter.

-"No Petrus," she said, "I'm not busy." She continued stacking the sugar on the shelf.

"What is it?" she asked.

For an instance muddy brown eyes looked at the missus. "Missus, we wanted to ask the missus something…it's that boy –child of mine, Mans – the baby. Well, He's been so sick with sores and all and…" Petrus shifted from one foot to the other, "And can't missus tell us what to do? We brought him to show missus. "

-"Where is he?" She asked.

Petrus turned and shouted through the knot of pushing people about him "Hey Maria, come here."

 Maria who was seated beside the wall next to the other woman, raised herself up, holding a bundle wrapped in cloth. She pushed her way until she reached her husband. She placed the bundle on the counter and unwrapped it, revealing her little black boy. His eyes were wide and listless and bellow his eye was a festering sore which was partly covered by a three penny bit. Near it perched a fly. Mrs. Cartsens leaned forward and gently pushed the fly away. "What's that dirty money doing on the sore?" She asked.

-"Missus, they say it makes the sores go away; but we didn't have  more than a three penny bit to put on it. Maybe if we put a shilling on it, it would have gotten better."

- "Nonsense! Maria,  You take it off at once and wash it with this carefully," Mrs. Carstens produced a bottle of disinfectant and bandages, "and then put this powder on and cover it with these bandages, Don't touch it with anything dirty."

Maria tightened the covers around the baby and held her to her arms, "But missus," she said timidly," last time I had a sore, money helped."  

 -"Your other children have they got sores like these too?"

-"Yes, missus, Pietie and Mins have, but they're older." Maria rocked the baby.

-"Well," Mrs. Carsten gave the powder to Petrus. "You see that she puts the powder on the sores and puts on the bandages also for the other children. And you better buy some meat and bones to make them warm soup."

-"But missus we haven't got any money." Said Petrus.

-"When the bass pays you, you come back to me and I'll see that you get the meat…you want them to get well…perhaps you'll buy less tobacco this week." Mrs. Carstens finished packing the bags of sugar. Her eyes suddenly lit up and she said quickly, almost excitedly, "I've been thinking about these sores. Many of your children have them and it would help you if you could get some warm food every day. We have scraps of meat and bones left over in the butchery every night and we just give them to the dogs. If you mothers could get together and make soup out of these scraps, we could give it to the children at the school. Speak to the other mothers and tell me what they say."

-"Yes missus," Maria said and began to wind her way back to the wall through the pulsating crowd. The babble of laughter, curses, and gossip came suddenly to a halt When Mr. van der Merwe, a tall well trimmed white farmer, stood in the doorway. Mother's hastily pulled their children away from the path of the white baas, and watched as he walked to the counter, whipped out his Parker and flourished off a cheque which Mrs. Carstens changed for him.  Mr. van der Merwe  fingered the grey pound notes, the brown ten shilling notes, and put the coins in his pocket. Then he went to a table on the other side of the store and placed the piles of silver before him, "Bloody lot of money to waste on these bastards." He said as he took a list from his pocket. The coloreds sat on next to both sides of the table. Der  Merwe's steely eyes surveyed the rags and the noise before him and his voice was imperious as he called, "Jan Meintjies."

   Jan shuffled up to the table, short and bony. The wind teased a rent in his shirt sleeve and revealed a muscular arm. He looked stead-fastly at the cement floor so that Mr. van der Merwe spoke to his closely cropped graying head when he said paternally, "Well Jan, you've been a good boy this week. Your baas will give you…1.16 Pounds. "

Jan turned his burnt eyes up toward his baas. His wide nostrils dilated, "Thank you my baas, thank you," and his voice warm as he feverishly collected his reward. He had cleaned furrows that week, knee deep in icy mud, he had dug up the weeds. His baas had given him the minimum daily wage. "Thank you my baas, thank you," he placed the money in a little cloth bag which had once held tobacco. Then he shuffled towards his wife Siena who was sitting against the wall suckling her baby next to the rest of the women.

     - "Siena, are you coming to buy things? God knows, you'll grumble all week if I do it myself."

-"All right, all right, I'm coming…the stuff doesn't run away, mind you" she turned to the women, "the money does." And she gathered her baby who continued suckling, and ran after her husband.

        Mr. van der Merwe called: "Andries Fieries." Andrie's chest, barrel-like and ribbed protruded through his button less, colorless shirt. "Andries, let's see." He examined the list, "only worked three days this week, drunk for the rest." Andrie's face creased into a wheedling, wet smile and his words floated forth, faintly tinged with the vaaljapie which he brewed from fruit peels and leaves, bushes and patent medicines. –"My basie, how can my basie say that? My baas knows that I have a terrible back." And as if to prove it he put his hand on his back and hunched forward.

-"You bastards, your only good for drink…aren't you?"

-"Yes, bass, yes my baas."

-"And good for having more infernal brats." Van der Merwe started counting the money.

Andrie's sighed, "Whatever my baas says…it's true. Basie, please my basie." Two yellow teeth showed through his parted lips, "Can't basie lend me an extra five shillings?"

Van de Merwe banged the coins on the table, "What the hell do you think I am – a bank?"

Andries jumped back but his bloodshot eyes were imploring, "Ag, my basie is so good and kind and I paid it back last time, please my basie."

Van de Merwe's eyes glinted, flattered, contemptuous, "All right, you filthy vermin, here take it!" He leaned forward and cuffed him under the chin, "but get drunk quietly, I don't want no fights!"

-"Yes my basie, of course my basie, thank you my good, kind basie." Andries took the money with both hands.

 -"Ach, your baas does lots good things for you. Lets see, Petrus Snyers"

-"Yes baas." Petrus approached

  -"What does the baas do for you?"

-"What?"

-"What does the baas do for you, Petrus?"

-"Baas remembers the firewood, baas gave it last Saturday after little Petrus chopped wood for baas."

-"Yes, yes…you're a lucky boy" Merwe's eyes were warm again, "you have a kind baas. Now lets see how much is your baas going to give you this week?" He pushed two piles of silver toward Petrus.

"Your baas will give you….1.16 pounds."

-"Thank you my baas. "Petrus picked up the money one coin at a time. Suddenly he turned frightened eyes towards der Merwe "Baas, please baas. That’s only 1.15 pounds – seven two shilling pieces and one shilling piece on this pile. Please I need for meat to make soup for the children."  Petrus left the coins on the table. The crowd looked to see what  would happen next. Van der Merwe bent forward, his eyes riveted to Petrus's face "You black bastard, you take what I give you!" He swept the coins to the ground. Petrus dropped on all fours and crawled about the dust collecting his money.  Van der Merwe looked down at the groveling man and lifting a well polished boot, kicked him on the behind. Petrus fell forward on his forehead. Van der Merwe laughed, his laughter rushing up from his stomach, shaking his whole body. Than every one was laughing, the little copper colored children and the colored men and their wives and the white clerks. Petrus managed to gather all of coins from the dust and walked limply to the other end of the shop.

Van der Merwe continued calling: "Abram Roy; Johannes Strauss; Willem Engelbrecht."  - All shuffled quietly to the table and took what their baas gave and went to buy their week's provision.

       Van der Merwe carefully placed the remaining notes in his wallet and made his way to Mrs. Carstens. She was rushing between the counter and the shelves laden with mealy pop and potatoes and sugar. The crowd pressing around the counter sullenly made way for their baas. As der Merwe reached the counter he said: "Please give me three shilling's worth of candy. My kids have been sitting in the car all this time."

Mrs. Carstens gave van der Merwe his candy and said: "Do give my regards to Mrs. van der Merwe."

-"I certainly will. Thanks and good bye." He left.

Mrs. Carstens turned towards her colored clients. The rumble of talk and laughter began again as some of the people pushed and pulled to get to the counter and others laden with provisions pushed and pulled to get away from the counter. Siena next to the wall divided long, red and white stripped sugar sticks among her children. Five bony pairs of fingers closed tightly around the half sticks as each child withdrew to a corner to gobble or suck slowly at his candy. Siena's youngest son of three years old stood beside her and sucked at his candy. His rounded, protruding belly peered through a tear in his shirt which hung to his knees.

-"It’s the first food they've had today." Said Siena to Maria.

Many of the mothers had made their purchases and returned to their places beside the wall.  –"Oh yes," said Maria as she wiped her baby's nose with a scarf.

-"Listen all you, the missus says to tell the mother's of the school, we can have the leftover scraps from the butchery to make soup for the children of the school. The missus says they won't get sores if they had soup."

-"But its dog food, isn't it?" Mina said slowly. She had black large eyes that stared straight ahead. "I've seen them: 'Sa, Sa dog! Sa dog! Come get it!' Jan gives it to them before he closes the butchery and when they're done he chases them away with stones so they won't hang around the shop."

-"God, we're not dogs!" said Siena.

-"But the soup it's good for the sores." Said Maria

-"You give your children dog food." Said Mina

-"As you have it."  said Maria

She held her baby and pushed her way through the crowd that was beginning to ease on the counter,  

-"Oh good." Said Mrs. Carstens. "This the meat and bones for your children."

-"Missus, thank you missus, but missus can give the scraps and leftovers to the dogs."

 

   

The Flood

Chapter 1  

            

The alfalfa stood green and thigh high in purple bloom. Over it a red tractor loomed methodically mowing down the green alfalfa stalks.  A long serrated knife protruded at right angles from the lower back of the tractor and stretched across the ground. The knife mowed down the alfalfa stalks as the tractor descended on them and left them felled in long neat rows. A sweet dank smell of freshly cut weed hung in the air. It rose up together with shimmering heat from the earth and beat against the red of the tractor and surrounded Jannie, the tractor driver, a colored boy of thirty five. Occasionally Jannie glanced up at the cloudless, colorless sky and white ball of hostile sun beating down upon him. He removed his greasy hat by sticking his forefinger through the hole of the top and wiped his arms across the beads of sweat on his forehead, "God But it's hot!" he exclaimed.

           Suddenly Jannie saw at the far end of the field a rake drawn by another tractor turning over the rows he had just cut. Jannie stopped the tractor, stood up on it and waved his hat, shouting "what the hell d'ye thinks your doing?" But the rake ignored his warning and continued on its way. Jannie jumped off the tractor and ran across the field repeating:" what the hell d'ye think your doing?" until he reached the other tractor. -" The baas told me to come in and rake." Said Mans, from the height of his seat, and continued driving the tractor. Jannie walked along beside him: "Here? This field? "

-"yes."

"hell. Its not dry enough to be raked. Won't be until tomorrow."

-"Listen, that white man is yelling mad. Wants this baled by tomorrow. He says you cut out the next field as soon as you get done here."

Jannie shaded his eyes with his hands as he looked out at the next field, "The baas must be out of his mind. That field won't be ready for cutting until next week. Besides, he said I must cut Roodt's alfalfa for him when I get through here. "

-"Well now you're to cut that half green field…"

-"That white man must be crazy!"

-"What do you care? Just do as he tells you. Oh yes, and he wants us to work all of tonight."

-"What's up? Look, there's not a cloud in the sky, not a chance of rain and he's making us work at half ready stuff."

-"Don't ask me." Mans shrugged, "Hey Jannie, you'd better get back to the tractor before that white man really kills you." He pointed to a long trail of dust in the distance. At the head of it raced a car.

Jannie ran over the rows of alfalfa, jumped onto the red tractor as the baas car came to a halt on the road. The car had not stopped before a full well built man ,a bit bald graying hair in the temples, with small restless blue eyes, popped out of it and came running across the field clutching his hat and yelling. At first Jannie couldn't make out the words, than as Miass Kriel came forward he heard: "Standing and gossiping, you black devil, get to work and don't stop till all the alfalfa is cut!"  

Jannie turned off the tractor to hear better the baas words.

-"I said don't stop that bloody thing. If you have to piss, piss from the tractor, but don't stop for any bloody reason."

-"Yes, bass." Jannie started the tractor and Miass walked beside him gesticulating wildly, "When you're through here you go to the next field and don't open your trap. I know its half green. All this alfalfa," he swung his arm around the huge field, "all this alfalfa is going to be cut and moved out of here by tomorrow night."

-"Bass?"

-"Don't you bass me. When you're finished take the wagon, load the cut stuff and stack it in the house."

-"Is the automatic baler broken? Wouldn't it be better to bale it on the floor like bass always does?

- "hell, you are deaf, you insolent black devil! You do as I tell you and that’s that!"

He turned around abruptly and raced for the car which seemed to start up even before he entered it.

 

                                                                   Chapter 2

It was a mall day and the farm store was crowded with coloureds and whites. Both coloureds and whites made futile attempts to fan away the flies and cool themselves from the stifling heat, which beat down from the corrugated iron roof on to the cement floor whence it rose again and remained static in mid air. The coloureds, comprised  mostly of women and children, because their men were at work, stood subdued at the grocery end. The white men puffed at cigarettes and squatted at the post office end of the store, discussing matters of the day. Behind the counter white clerks rushed, sweating, back and forth attending politely to the whites and solemnly to the coloureds.

      Melt Kennedy sat on the counter and brought his cigarette to his mouth. As he did so his eye caught the white bandage on his finger. "Jesus" he said, "you see my finger. Damn near broke it and all for that bloody kaffir Neels. And now I need a new fan belt for my tractor to boot."

  -"What he do? Hit you?" asked Hendrik Brand.

-"You crazy? I tell that kaffir to milk the cow every morning at six and unless I damn well go out and get him, he doesn't begin to milk before seven. So I decided to show him. The other day I went and gave it to him."

-"With the fan belt?"

-"Right you are. I laid it in good but I am damned if the belt didn't bounce off crack onto my finger and he's hollerin' for mercy. "

The farmers roared with laughter, "Better be careful with that belt."

-"Yes" smiled Melt, looking wistfully at his finger, "but why did I have to break it?

-"They don't have any here you know." Said Hendrik, Jumping down from the counter and straightening his pants.

-"No, really, that a nuisance." Said Melt

-"You have to order them. Takes about a week. Never mind I have an extra one. You can borrow it till yours comes."

-"Thanks." Said Melt. "Oh yeah… if you need Neels to help with the alfalfa you can borrow him from tomorrow afternoon. I"ll be through by then."

          A car raced by and stopped suddenly outside the store leaving a trail of dust       in the air. Hendrik Brand peered through the small window. "Miaas Kriel" he  informed. A minute later Miaas's bulk filled the doorway.  "Hello fellows, you waiting for mail?" he asked

-"Sure."

Miass drummed his fingers against the counter.

-"Say Miass, that stuff you gave against that boll weevil (a cotton beatle which feeds on buds and flowers ) Its first class." Said Hendrik.

-"Yeah, I know."

-"Where'd you get it."

-" It's not on the market yet. Happy to help you out, but I don't have any more.

Miass walked up and down, hands clasped behind his back, waiting for his mail.

-"Say, Miass, we hear you're buying another tractor."

-"Maybe."

-"What kind?"

-"John Deere, maybe Hanomag, The damn things are so expensive but I could do with another one."

-"Hanomag…..That's German." Said De Merwe.

-"Yeah, they make good machines, but such a bloody lot of money. I need a tractor, two tractors right now, what can I do?"

 -"You can hire mine tomorrow afternoon." Said Hendrik.

-"You working tonight? "

-"No, Jesus you're in a hurry."

-" Miass turned towards Hendrik, "The work has to be done".

" -I take twice as much for night work."

"No problem. What's with the mail? Its taking ages."

They're still sorting it out. The car just arrived. "

"Well I haven't got all day. I'll come back when its not so busy. See you Hendrik."

-"Bye" said Hendrik as Miass left.

 -"Big shot!" said Mel-

-"He's got further than all of us." Said Hendrik

-"By having a big fat nerve, that's how. Member of the waterboard! Be running for the parliament next!" Melt puffed at his cigarette so that it glowed red between his fingers. "What's happening with the mail today? " demanded De Merwe.

-"Why didn't some one ask Miass about the rains?" asked Hendrik.

-"Rains? Are you kidding. It's so dry out there. Not a cloud in that far heaven." Said Kuhn.

-"Not here. In the north. Didn't you hear on the radio? " ask Hendrik

-"My radio's got broken." Said Melt

-"Been raining in the north for the last two days." Contributed De Merwe.

Melt shrugged his shoulders, "That river's so low right now. It needs to rain five days up there, until the water reaches us."

-"They said yesterday it rained 15 millimeters up there. " Said Hendrik

-" You know, last night was my water night and we only irrigated half the front bit of cotton and the water dried up." Said Kuhn

-"Any one poaching? Asked Hendrik

-"Come on now. The water bailiff said that the dam's so low it’s a miracle I got any water at all." Said Kuhn

"Well" said Melt, "Maybe I'll strike a lucky one. My turn for water is four days away. The dam will be full by then."

-"The cotton that had the boll weevil." Hendrik couldn't hold himself. "You should see it now – beautiful flowers just beginning to open up in all colours. Say what you may, that Miass is something else!"

 

 

                                                                  Chapter 3

Petrus Miller sat on the stoep dreamily cradling his pipe bowl in his hands. The stem was clenched firmly between his teeth and from time to time he puffed forth big clouds of smoke. A car stopped, Miass Kriel appeared and leapt onto the stoep, "whats the radio saying?"

Petrus slowly removed his pipe from his mouth and began knocking it against his heel, "about what?"

-"Jesus, man. About the rain up north." Miass was pacing up and down the stoep.

Petrus went to the edge of the stoep and spat onto the flowers. "So it's raining. This damn tobacco, bitter as all hell but its all I can afford."

-"Petrus. If that rain in the north keeps up there'll be a flood here in three days time!"

Petrus began filling his pipe. "Sit down man. Relax. A bit of rain up north. That river's so dry! Every night some idiot farmer wakes me up complaining there is not enough water. And what can I do.  I’m telling you – a water bailiff in a place with no water!" He shook his head. 

Miass spoke softly and slowly, fixing his eyes on Petrus. "Get off your ass and call the water engineer."

-"O.K, O.K. Calm up man." Petrus walked into the living room, where his wife Mina was straightening the table map. 

-"Hello, Missis." Miass held his hat.

-"Hello. Would you like a cup of coffee."

-"Oh, no thank you."

Mina went on into the sleeping rooms.

Petrus picked up the receiver. –"Jesus Christ!  60 millimeters in two days and it is still raining!" Miass tried to hear too."Snow melting in the mountains. What should I do? yes, of course, I shall warn the farmers. Sand bags and all. Keep me posted." Petrus closed the phone. "There, now you're satisfied? You got your flood coming."

-" Hey petrus what would you do if I would tell you, you could save those farmers from the flood?"

 Miass walked back to the stoep and down to the yard and Petrus followed him. Miass took a dry stick and squatted on his haunches and flattened out some sand and began to draw a rough map.

-"What is it?" asked Petrus

-"Look" Miass pointed. "If we could build a really strong sand wall along here and bolster it with sandbags, the water would drain off this way and all these farmers lands would be saved."

-"Sure" Petrus spat into the garden, "Don't be a Nut! The water won't drain off nowhere. It"ll just make an enormous dam in Hendrik's land. Maybe it will save your land and Melt Kennedy's land but nothing more."

-"Yep Petrus," Miass slapped him on the back. "I guess you are right." He produced a ten rand note. "This is for the phone call."

-"But I don't have any change."

_"No mind. You keep it. Now don't go rushing around telling everybody about the flood. We can't do much anyway."

-"It will get here about noon the day after tomorrow. I can wait till tomorrow morning" agreed Petrus, "If its god's will, they'll be flooded anyway." He put the ten Rand note in his pocket while Miass got into his  car.

    

                                                            Chapter 4

        All night long the tractors worked on Miaas's alfalfa fields – some pulled knives to cut the alfalfa, some pulled rakes, some pulled wagons which carried the cut stalks to the stacks at Miass's house. Like all the farmers houses in that area, the houses were built on the high ground, away from the river, and the fields were situated in the lowers grounds .In the morning five stacks of unbaled alfalfa tall and green stood beside Miass's house.  Miass's eyes blood shot, lips pursed tightly together.

       Hendrik Brand came over to collect his tractor. Petrus just passed by his farm. "Damn all hell! The flood its coming! Couldn't wait another month. All that work I put into the cotton! Bloody hell boll weevil!"

-"Yeah. Every year something else happens. Working like shit. I've already made the order for another tractor. God knows how I’m going to pay it all up. Any how, thanks for yours." Miass steeped into the house to get his wallet.

-"Miass, Miass! Can I have your tractor instead? You won't be needing it now that you got all your alfalfa."

-"Hendrik I need every working force I can gather." He turned from Hendrk and walked towards the boys who where resting under the wagon. "Basta! Basta! Get the bags out of the garage, take them to the backlands and fill them with sand, and tuck them tight next to the wall. The flood is going to be here by mid day tomorrow!"

-"I'll give you my truck to carry the bags."

-" Hendrik,  The truck will sink in the sand."

-"But the cotton. It's going to be all ruined."

Miass turned again to the boys " Man's get some shovels and picks from the barn. And all of you stack up on the wagon. I"ll be down there in no time." He turned towards Hendrik and payed him, "Hendrik I"m no charity organization. Take your tractor and go on and save what you can."

  

 

                                                                 Chapter 5

At first Miass couldn't see Melt Kennedy at all. He was not with the tractor cutting alfalfa, nor with the wagons that followed closely and loaded the freshly cut, wet alfalfa. Suddenly he heard Melt's voice "Miass, what the hell you doing here?!" Miass turned, shaded his eyes, and spotted Melt sprawled under a tree. Miass approached Melt. –"want some coffee?" asked Melt

-"No thank you." Miass sat down on a tree stump.

-"Jesus Christ! What a mess." Said Melt and sipped his coffee. "At least you've  got somewhere to put sandbags. Your lands are higher."

-"It's not yet mine. I own only five morgen. The rest belongs to the Jew."

-"My lands are so low, the furrow runs right here," Melt pointed the tin coffee cup to a bent in the land, " and all the water will run into the land, such a shame."

-"We still have time. If we bend forces together we might be able to get away with it."

-"How's that Miass?"

-"Look." Miass carefully selected along stick and began to sketch.

Melt looked as Miass drew something that resembled a map.

"Now." Said Miass. "That’s the furrow. That's the river. Brand's land, Your land. My land.  O.K?"

-"Yes."

-"Now what's the flood going to do?" he pointed with the stick. "First the dam will brake up here. Then Kuhn's land will be gone, then the water will come rushing through De Merwe's land, into Hendrik's lands, continue to your lands and on to mine – We will all be sunk. Sunk in rotten mud!" cried out Melt.

-"Well to hell with it." Miass clicked his lips, "If we build a sand wall right here." He drew a line between Melt's land and Brand's land. "At least we can save our lands."

Melt shook his head, " In 1950 I was flooded from that furrow here, nothing to do with Hendrik's land…"

-"Yeah but its different this time. The dam has a crack in it and it won't hold the water."

-"How do you know?"

-"last water board meeting they talked about fixing it."

-"You clever Devil!"

-"If we put in all our tractors and all our boys into building that wall we can have it done by tomorrow."

-"But my boys are working on the alfalfa." Melt waved towards the tractors.

-"I talked with Du Plessis from the alfalfa Co-Op, You know what he told me?"

-"What?"

-"He said that after the flood when every one wants to replant the alfalfa the seed is going to be expensive as hell. You'd get a good price if you left this alfalfa for seed, and three weeks is just the time it needs to become seed."

-"Jesus, you got it all ready set in your head."

-" I saw it in 1950 and I saw it 1945. I've grown up with floods and no one has ever done a thing about it – God's will! Get you crops out, green as hell or not, put down a few shitty sand bags, and then starve for the next two years. Well not this time. I'm not going to sit back and let the water take my land."

-"But what about Hendrik's lands?"

-" His land will be flooded anyway."

-"Can't we build the wall on the other side so he'll be saved too?"

Miass shook his head, "Too low. My boys and tractors are waiting to come in immediately."

-"Miass, but what if the dam is strong enough and the water will come through the furrow?"

-"Not in hundred years. The dam will never hold. "

-"O.K. I'm in it." Said Melt.

They shook hands. "We won't let those waters beat us this time!" said Miass

  

                                                               Chapter 6

Hendrik Brand drove the truck himself following carefully behind the tractor that gobbled up the alfalfa stalks and threw them aside. Beside the truck walked two boys , tossing the cut alfalfa onto the back of the truck with pitching forks. He was short with the boys because Melt hadn't sent Neels, and there was a lot yet to do. He wanted to gather all the alfalfa in the field till night time. "Truck full" cried out Petrus

-"O.K. Basta, Basta. Lets get going."

The boys tossed their pitchforks onto the truck and then clambered on themselves. Hendrik bypassed the tractor and put his leg on the accelerator as the truck swayed from side to side on the rocky, rough road that climbed up to the house. Hendrik stopped the truck before his house, and wiped beads of sweat from his forehead. He gave the boys instructions where to stack the alfalfa and stepped into the house that was small and bare with cement floor. He wiped his shoes on the porch mat, walked through the kitchen with its coal stove where he saw a kettle boiling. He prepared himself coffee and went into the living room and sat down opposite a somber portrait of his father and mother with a red "Jesus Saves" neatly embroidered above them. His wife came out of the bedroom nursing a baby.

-"How's it going?" she asked.

-"I don't know. I hope we finish by night and than start stacking up those sand bags along the furrow."

-"It's gods will." She said looking at the portrait.

-"Yeah, well Melt promised me his boy and he hasn't sent him yet. I'll tell Petrus to go and get him" He put down the mug on the stool, gave Susy a kiss, caressed his small little girl and stepped out of the house. The boys where crouched under the truck.

-"What does this mean? We've got at least four more loads of truck to bring out before the water gets us. Petrus, climb along next to me. I'll let you off close to Melt's field and you go and ask for Neels." Hendrik raced down the road leaving behind a trail of sand.

-"Baas, Bass," Petrus came panting running in. "They're working hard there…with a bulldozer and tractors and all…They're building a wall on bass Melt's land."

-"But, hell, that’s murder!" cried out Hendrik.

-"Yeah, and Bass Miass is heading the whole thing." Petrus gathered his breath.

-"Damn it, I don't get it. The water is going to come from the furrow. That son of a bitch! You boys keep on working. Petrus you drive the truck. "

Hendrik got down from the truck and started paving his way towards Melt's land. Why should they be building a wall close to the river if the dam will stop the waters, except if there is a hole in the dam. As he approached Melt's farm he heard the tractors and bulldozer working. They were like gigantic animals eating off Melt's land. Between the clouds of dust he saw Miass conducting the whole circus. He approached and pushed him: "Where's Melt?"

-"He went home for a rest." Miass said from the clouds of dust.

-"You'll pay for this!" said Hendrik.  "You'll pay for this!" He waved his hand at Miass and turned around and marched towards Melt's House. He walked with sturdy movements, he saw the house protruding above, and the sun beat hard on him. As he approached he saw a man reclining on his front porch with a bottle of wine. It was Melt.

 -"Jodus, where did you come from?" asked Melt

Hendrik leaped on to the porch. He snatched the bottle from Melt's hand and threw it on to the floor. The bottle shattered to pieces and wine rilled all over the floor sending up a sickly smell. "Miass is digging up your land to tear my land to pieces. What's happening. Tell me man!" Hendrik was pulling at Melt's arm. Melt stood up, and Hendrik lost his balance and fell to the floor.

-" I tried persuading Miass to build the wall in front of your land but he said it won't work. Your land is to low This way at least I"ll save part of my land and I will be able to sell the Alfalfa for seed."

Hendrik stood up and brushed the pieces of glass from his hands.

-"But you will be flooded from the furrow?"

-"No. Miass is in the water board. He says there is a crack in the dam, so the water will come from the river.

  Hendrik stood dumbfounded in front of Melt. "My land," he muttered, "My land." He hugged himself, "The waters will rebound from your wall and crack my land to smithereens!"

Melt approached Hendrik. -"I'm sorry Hendrik. If you want I'll give you half of my land to work on for the next year."

–"No. this will not be." He stood up. "The dam will hold. Your land will be flooded and my land will be saved and to hell with Miass! "

-"We shall see." Said Melt.

                                                     Chapter 7

           All day Hendrik worked carting and stacking the alfalfa.   To the boys he spoke very quietly, not even swearing. He could see the tractor mounting higher and higher as the wall rose on Melt's land. Sometimes the wind wafted Miass's directions to him "More sand here you black bastard." When the moon appeared round and benevolent spreading its light on the field he finished gathering the alfalfa and ordered the boy to bring the sand bags and start filling them in alongside the furrow. By mid morning there were about a 1000 sand bags stacked along the furrow. The boys were exhausted, dust caked when the water bailiff came by blaring his horn shouting "Every one out to high ground. Everyone out. Water's twelve miles away." They just stumped over to Hendrik's house and lay down on the ground, not even going home.

  Hendrik wiped his feet carefully on the mat and entered the house.

 –"Thanks God!" said his wife. "Now you'll eat something and have a good bath."

-"I have one more thing to do before the waters come."

-"Oh, don't go out." She cried, but he was already dashing out of the house. He got into the Bucky and rolled it down the road. He drove through the cotton, pink and blue and yellow in full bloom onto the bridge he built by himself made of wood and crossed onto Melt's land until he reached the wall. The furrow was already rushing, frothing, boiling brown mud water. He got out of the Bucky and walked towards the wall. It was solid and well built and on top of it sat Miass, legs dangling before him, staring. Hendrik pulled himself up and sat besides Miass.

-"Thought you would come here." said Miass.

-"Why have you decided to ruin me?"  asked Hendrik

-"Ruin you? Jesus man. If the flood does away with you're field than its Gods will, but if I do something to save the fields that I am toiling on like a slave, gathering grain after grain of alfalfa so I can purchase just quarter hectare of land, then I am Sattan himself.."

As Miass spoke the water started lapping ever so gently but persistently at the edge of Melt's field. Hendrik clapped his hands "That is admirable. Even noble. But you have no chance. The water is coming in through the furrow and it will flood Melt's field and your field too. "

-"But that’s impossible. The dam has a crack in it."

-" But it hasn't collapsed all together. Some of the water is directed towards the furrow. Look!" A surging mass of brown foaming water came into view.

Miass sat up "But look the water is coming from the river too! "

-"There can't be more than one foot of water above the bridge. Come'on Lets get out of here." They ran towards Hendrik's Bucky. Hendrik changed gears and the car started to inch forward. The water was bubbling underneath them. They managed to get onto the bridge when suddenly something gave in. Under them the mud and wood bridge swayed.-"Its no use!" Hendrik yelled ripping of his shirt and pants. Miass too was tearing of his clothes. Carefully Hendrik opened the door, with Miass close behind him. They both slid out and were immediately thrown against the door by the force of the current. The water swirled by, carrying dead cats, and trees and tires and branches and bits of cotton plants. A handkerchief twisted about Hendrik's leg. The water rose rapidly now from their knees up to their waists. Hendrik pushed off of the car and tried to swim. Miass followed. A large log floated right into them and they grabbed onto it. It banged against the car and then out into midstream. Water was now pouring into the car through the windows but it had not moved. They floated along with the log. Hendrik tried steering it to the opposite shore but the log only turned round itself and they with it. The log hit a tire and went banging off towards the bank landing Miass on firm ground beside a tree. He clung to the tree and pulled at Hendrik's arm. Hendrik rose and fell back. Miass panted and pulled until Hendrik tumbled into the tree with him. They crawled up the stony bank to safety. There they lay panting and dribbling water.

    Hendrik rolled over in the mud and looked at his watch, "its two o'clock."

  -"Must be water proof." Said Miass.

Hendrik nodded solemnly "Time to go home." They both rose.

Hendrik watched as Miass strolled away. His underpants clung to his leg, Belly protruding and he still wore one black sock.  "Yeah better go home, " Hendrik said to the wilderness around him. Than he too hobbled home leaving his trail of water drops around him.

  

  

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