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.