The Prophets of Eternal Fjord (44 page)

In May the girl falls ill with the fever and dies quickly and without drama. She is discovered by Sofie in the morning, stretched out at the foot end of the sleeping bench with her arms at her sides and wrapped in a blanket. The boy has prepared her. He sits huddled at the opposite end of the bench with his knees drawn up to his chest, arms folded around his legs, staring out of the window with his fringe falling down over his tired eyes.

Why didn't you say anything? Bertel asks him.

She was dead. Can you wake the dead, perhaps?

The girl is buried the same day. She was unchristened, but had attended Falck's instruction, so the priest prays for her and they are allowed to put her to rest close to where the carpenter lies. A handful of people stand at the grave. The sound of the hard soil as it strikes the small, bony bundle at the bottom of the hole is harrowing. Bertel looks across at his sister. She stares into the grave with wide eyes and looks as if she might jump in at any moment.

Now I suppose he will be glad, she says.

Who? asks Bertel.

You know who I mean. Her father. Our father.

Oh, him.

Yes, him. He hates his children. He hates us. It is our curse.

They stare at each other for some time without speaking.

He is old, says Bertel. He will die soon.

Ha! He will never die.

The Lord will punish him for what he has done, says Bertel, borrowing Falck's standard response to any malice he can do nothing about.

The Lord would seem to prefer to punish his children, she says, her eyes seeking the grave again. And we are many. You know that, don't you?

Question: What is a spirit?

Answer: A single being with intelligence and will.

The boy starts to feel better. He stops coughing; his fever recedes and he even begins to eat the hard tack that Bertel soaks for him in boiling water and sugar. He seems cheerful. Bertel takes him out hunting for ptarmigan on the fell and they ascend two of the peaks behind the colony. He speaks chummily with him, but for some reason he is unable to strike the same chord with the boy as Falck.

This is our country, he says to him on the fell. Beyond those peaks lies the old colony where I grew up, and the fell the Dutchmen called Zuikerbroot, from which the colony takes its name. I will show you the place sometime. Further north lies Holsteinsborg and to the east is the mainland, which is very inhospitable because of steep mountains and ice, but which teems with reindeer.

The boy gazes out over the sea. What lies on the other side?

A foreign country, says Bertel. Foreign people.

Can a person sail to it?

People can sail everywhere, says Bertel.

The boy nods.

Do you still want to be a ship's captain?

I don't know, says the boy in truth. Perhaps, if I get better.

If you become a priest you could journey across and preach to the savages who live there, Bertel says, trying to make the prospect sound attractive.

Like Mr Falck? says the boy, and laughs. Then he says: Is it true my grandfather is a priest?

Who told you that?

Milka said so.

What does she know about it? Bertel snaps. That stupid girl. Your grandfather's name was Jens, like your own.

But Milka said her father and yours were the same man, and that is why our skin is so fair.

Milka was just a silly child, says Bertel. With little reason. I tell you, your grandfather's name was Jens. He was a true Greenlander, a great hunter.

But we don't look like Greenlanders.

Enough nonsense! No one should be ashamed of what they are.

They exchange not a word for the rest of the day. When they return home the boy climbs silently into bed and opens his book. He does not eat what Bertel puts in front of him. Bertel regrets having lost his temper and can do little about the boy punishing him in this way.

Late in the month it is time for the spring voyage. Together with Falck he sails into the skerries and seeks out the natives who have settled for the summer on the outermost islands, where they hunt the smaller whales and seals. Sofie does not wish for his sister to mind the boy, so she has asked permission to have him with her in the colony house, a request the Madame has granted. Bertel cares little to think of the boy being in the Danish household all day. He does not trust Kragstedt and the Madame's mood is unstable following the accident. Sofie says she often shouts at her for petty matters, and that afterwards she repents and falls on her knees, weeping, begging to be forgiven, which is every bit as bad.

If we could afford it I would hand in my notice, Sofie says. I cannot abide the Madame any longer and I think it would do her good to have someone else instead. Your sister doesn't go there either, after the accident.

Bertel has thought upon the matter. If she stopped working for the Trader they would have to make ends meet on twenty rigsdalers a year, as well as doing without the food she brings home with her from the colony house. If they were on their own, he would say she should give notice, of that he is in little doubt. But the boy has need of the extra butter in his diet and the sugar and meat that is left over from the meals.

Sometimes I think we would do better to join them, says Sofie.

Join who?

Habakuk and his wife. It is said they share everything there. No one is allowed to go to bed hungry.

You shouldn't believe everything that's said. They probably say the same things about us. My sister was not treated well when she was there, you remember that, I hope? They very nearly drowned her.

Perhaps it was her own fault, says Sofie. She can be difficult, your sister, in case you were unaware of it. Besides, that was before their new faith.

Their false doctrine, says Bertel, correcting her. If you, who are christened, were to join them, the Church could punish you and put you in the pillory. But life here in the colony is harsh, she complains. We are not free, we Greenlanders, we are like slaves. If you stood chained to the whipping post you would soon have another conception of freedom.

Question: What may be noted in general about the movement of the
Earth?

Answer: The Earth moves once around the Sun in one year and revolves once every twenty-four hours around its axis, like the wheel around its axle as the wagon is propelled forward.

The trip into the skerries lasts three weeks. He and Falck are alone. They travel by whatever boats happen to come by that have room for them. They have taken the chessboard along. In good weather they sit outside the tent in the evenings with their game between them. He can see that the colour is returning to the priest's cheeks. His own outlook brightens; he sails out in the kayak to shoot birds with small arrows like the old natives; his wrist recalls the fine technique he learned from his father, or rather from his stepfather, Jens. Magister Falck gathers eggs of the long-tailed duck, skua and black guillemot, and for dinner they boil the eggs and pluck a bird to roast over the open fire. Bertel savours being away from the colony and its problems. A small measure of ill-feeling still lingers between him and the priest, who seemingly continues to suspect him of stealing his gold. He hears it in Falck's voice when he speaks of his lost fortune, how he washed the nuggets from the shallows, how much he had anticipated selling them for on his return home, the things on which the money could have been spent. Bertel ignores him. If the priest wants to suspect him of being a thief, then let him!

When they return to the colony in June he sees how the boy has changed. He has gained weight and is almost ruddy with good health. He greets his father joyfully and shows him the schoolbooks he has been given by Madame Kragstedt. It would seem the Madame has taken it upon herself to educate him, and according to Sofie it is at least as beneficial to her as to the boy.

But I am the boy's teacher, he says. I don't want him going there to become fine and mighty and confused.

The Madame will be sorry to hear it, says Sofie.

The boy is furious when Bertel informs him that he must cease his visits to the colony house. You want to decide everything! he shouts, with tears of indignation. You don't care if I'm happy, as long as you can decide!

I only want what's best for you, says Bertel, astonished.

Then let me go to school with Haldora.

Haldora?

Madame Kragstedt.

Hm. Soon you'll be telling me the two of you are to marry.

You can't decide over me, says the boy. If I want to go there, I will.

You must understand, Bertel tells the boy, who now turns his back on him in the cot, they are not like us, they are our guests here, they do not belong. In a few years they will be gone, but we will still be here.

He's so happy to go there, Sofie says, smoothing things over. What can be wrong about it? And he eats well. You can see for yourself how much better he looks.

And you, he says, turning to face her. Do not make yourself master of your own husband! He lunges forward and strikes her on the cheek. Immediately he is overcome by remorse and wants to apologize, but feels it would make him look weak in the boy's eyes, so instead he says: Make us some dinner. I'm hungry. For the rest of the evening Sofie is as cold as ice and shuns him. He has never struck her before.

The next day the boy lies in bed. He refuses to get up, refuses to eat and narrows his eyes when Bertel speaks to him.

He is upset that he cannot go to the house, says Sofie.

Thanks for your help! he says, and she steps back in fear that he will strike her again.

The boy's protest lasts for three days. Then Bertel submits.

If you are home by three o'clock each day and show me what work you have done with Madame Kragstedt, he says, then you may go there.

The boy gets up. Bertel is annoyed by the triumphant, conceited look on his face, but makes an effort to be especially kind to him that evening.

The next day at three o'clock the boy has yet to return home. Bertel sits waiting for him. At four o'clock he still has not come. When the clock says half past four he can no longer endure it. He puts on his cap, walks up to the colony house and knocks on the door.

Sofie opens up. He can tell she feels guilty.

Where is he?

Dearest, he is enjoying himself so much with the Madame. She is teaching him to write.

Call him out. Otherwise I shall come and get him myself.

She vanishes inside. He hears voices from within, Madame Kragstedt's and the boy's. The boy's laughter, a chuckle. Eventually he appears in the doorway. He ignores his father completely, edges past him and walks home.

Question: What are the bodies that belong to the animal kingdom?

Answer: To the animal kingdom belong all such bodies on Earth as have organic structure, life, senses and discretionary movement.

In the evening, when Bertel asks him what he has learned from the Madame, he relents somewhat and shows him his exercise books. The Madame is teaching me script, he says.

You write neatly, says Bertel.

I'm to write something for tomorrow.

What will you write about?

My family.

I see, he says, rather curtly. Does the Madame wish to know about your family?

It's one of the exercises in the book.

None of your nonsense about a Danish grandfather, do you hear? says Bertel.

Yes, father, says the boy obediently. He remains seated at the table until late in the evening, writing in his exercise book.

Tomorrow he is to be home by three, Bertel says to Sofie.

Every morning his wife rubs between her legs and puts her fingers to her nose to pensively sniff. I think I am with child, she says. I have not bled for two months.

He feels happy. How long have you known?

I'm not certain of it yet. But if there is a child it will come at the begin­ning of the new year.

He kisses her. Thank you, he says.

You must not hit me again, she says.

No, I shall never hit you again. The Lord is my witness and my judge. Forgive me.

Dear man, Sofie says, and places a hand cautiously on his cheek.

In the afternoon the boy fails to appear at the appointed time. At four o'clock Bertel goes from the colony and sits down on the rocks to stare out at the sea until his temper has cooled. On his return the boy has still not shown up. Not until evening does he come, together with his mother. He has put plates out for them. They eat their porridge in silence. The boy sits down to write, apparently unmoved by the tense air. Bertel feels his anger gradually subside.

What are you writing about tonight? he asks.

About a person I admire, the boy replies. It's my exercise for tomorrow.

And who might that person be? Bertel enquires in the frail, forlorn hope that it is he.

Moses, says the boy.

A good choice, Bertel says, relieved that he has not chosen someone living.

But later, after the boy has fallen asleep, he steals a look at his exercise book and sees that he has not written about Moses at all, but about Crown Prince Frederik.

The Prince Regent is a good and loving person. He cares inordinately for his children, including those who inhabit his colonies, among them Greenland and the colony of Sukkertoppen. Whenever someone in his great kingdom dies, His Royal Highness weeps heart-rendingly and prays for their soul.

Bertel closes the exercise book. The boy has lied to me, he tells him ­self. It is a sin he must confess and repent for the sake of his salvation. He leaves the exercise book open on the table, but when the boy rises the next day he picks it up without any sign of a guilty conscience. Perhaps he has forgotten that he lied, Bertel muses. He says nothing.

The next day the boy remains at the colony house until evening. Bertel refrains from questioning him and risking more lies. Perhaps it is I who am in need of absolution, he thinks to himself, since I have such an effect on my son that he feels he must lie to me. He considers speaking to Mr Falck on the matter, but the priest is keeping himself to himself at the moment. Days may pass without a sign of him, and when eventually he appears he resembles a wild man and stinks of aquavit. He asks his sister if she lies with him, but she denies it. The priest lies in the ship and drinks, she says. He has a whole keg of aquavit there.