A Treacherous Paradise (13 page)

SENHOR VAZ WAS
dishevelled. He must have been woken up by Hanna’s scream. But even if he was half asleep, he realized immediately what had been happening. The man, a Boer by the name of Fredrik Prinsloo, standing there half naked with uncut toenails like the claws on a cat, had been causing trouble for several years whenever he visited O Paraiso. Now he found himself fighting a desperate but losing battle against the ape that was biting him and ripping off his clothes.

Senhor Vaz shouted out a command. Carlos immediately stopped fighting and jumped up on to Hanna’s bed. In one hand he was holding a handkerchief he had managed to snatch from Prinsloo, who was bleeding quite badly.

Fredrik Prinsloo belonged to one of the earliest families to emigrate to Cape Town from Europe. Now he was a major landowner in the province of Transvaal, and had set up a business organizing safaris for rich hunters from America. One of his customers was the then President Theodore Roosevelt, who was a hopeless shot but nevertheless, with the discreet assistance of Prinsloo, succeeded in bagging vast numbers of buffalo, lion, leopard and giraffe.

Senhor Vaz had heard the story about the American president ad nauseam during the many conversations he had been compelled to have with Prinsloo. But despite the Boer’s boasts, he had to be handled with respect. Prinsloo was not just a regular customer, but he also recommended Vaz’s brothel to his friends whenever they felt the need to engage in erotic antics with black women. As Senhor Vaz had realized that the Boer never failed to start quarrelling with other customers, he introduced a special routine whenever Prinsloo indicated that he was on his way. Vaz dug out a notice that he hung on to the front door announcing that a ‘private party’ was taking place. All this meant in practice was that Senhor Vaz himself kept a close check on the number of clients allowed in that evening.

On these occasions wild rumours circulated around the town of abandoned orgies involving activities that no decent person could possibly imagine even in their wildest dreams. Senhor Vaz was well aware of these rumours, and also knew that they created a sort of magic aura around O Paraiso, which increased its appeal and also his income.

But he had also established that Prinsloo often treated black women extremely brutally. For a man like Prinsloo black skin was merely a shell that concealed stupidity, ignorance and idleness. But to do what Prinsloo did and combine this contempt with what seemed at times to be an irrational hatred was something that Vaz couldn’t understand. Why this hatred? Nobody hates animals, apart from snakes, cockroaches and rats. Let’s face it, black people don’t have poisonous fangs. Extremely cautiously, he had often raised the matter with Prinsloo; but he had beaten a hasty retreat when Prinsloo became hot under the collar and refused to answer.

Prinsloo was also an unpredictable person. He could be generous and friendly, but he sometimes reached a tipping point. When that happened, he would start treating the prostitutes and servants with a degree of cruelty that terrified everybody he came into contact with. Senhor Vaz had instructed his most trusted servants to inform him immediately when Prinsloo had one of his attacks. On several occasions, apparently without provocation, the Boer had suddenly started hitting or whipping the black whore he had been bedding at the time. Senhor Vaz would then intervene with the assistance of the burly security officer who for some reason was called Judas. Their combined efforts would be enough to rescue the naked, bleeding woman from Prinsloo’s attacks. The Boer never offered any resistance, but nor did he ever express any regret. What he had done simply didn’t seem to bother him. Prinsloo never gave any extra money to the women he had attacked, nor did he hesitate to ask for their services again the next time he visited the brothel.

But Senhor Vaz had drawn a line there. Nobody who had been subjected to Prinsloo’s brutality need ever go to bed with him again. He simply explained that she was busy with other clients, and would be otherwise occupied all the time Prinsloo stayed at O Paraiso, which was usually three or four days. He wasn’t sure whether or not Prinsloo had seen through him, but the Boer was allowed to choose from all the other women and precautions were taken to act immediately if ever he started mistreating the woman he had selected to satisfy his desires on any given occasion.

Senhor Vaz worried about the hatred that Prinsloo had manifested. He didn’t understand it, and it scared him. It was as if it was warning him about a danger. Something he wasn’t aware of himself.

As he stood there in the doorway, half asleep, and observed the semi-naked Prinsloo squaring up to the white woman with her blouse ripped away, he recognized that things had now gone too far. Prinsloo hadn’t hesitated to attack one of the hotel residents, and a white woman at that. Senhor Vaz could no longer overlook his behaviour. And he felt he had been insulted personally.

As far as he was concerned, there could be nothing worse. Being insulted meant that death was testing his powers of resistance.

SENHOR VAZ WAS
short in stature and not especially strong. But his anger was such that he didn’t hesitate to grab hold of Prinsloo’s shirt collar, drag him out of the room and then push him down the stairs. The scream from the upper floor had woken up the sleeping whores. Many of the women were not particularly fond of some of their colleagues, but they seldom came to blows, although it did happen now and then. But if the danger came from outside their circle, they were all united against it.

Now they were standing by the staircase as Prinsloo came tumbling down. Vaz followed behind him, followed in turn by Judas, and behind him Carlos, who was chewing Prinsloo’s white handkerchief.

Senhor Vaz stopped on the bottom step and looked sternly at Prinsloo, who had hit his head and was bleeding from one eyebrow and the hand where Carlos had bitten him.

‘Get out of here,’ he said. ‘And never come back again.’

Prinsloo pressed his hand against his eyebrow and seemed at first not to have understood what Senhor Vaz had said. Then he stood up on unsteady legs, made a threatening gesture at the prostitutes who were standing round him, then took a step forward towards Senhor Vaz.

‘You know that I usually bring my friends here with me,’ he said. ‘If you throw me out, you throw them all out as well.’

‘I’ll be only too pleased to explain to them why I don’t want you here.’

Prinsloo didn’t reply. He was still bleeding. He suddenly roared loudly and bent over forwards, as if he was in great pain.

‘Water,’ he yelled. ‘Warm water. I must wipe away the blood.’

Senhor Vaz nodded to one of the women, indicating that she should bring some water. He shooed the others away. They returned quietly to their rooms. Prinsloo sat down on the edge of a sofa. When the girl brought him an enamel washbasin he carefully washed away the blood from his forehead and his hand.

‘Ice,’ he said then.

Senhor Vaz himself went out into the kitchen and chopped a couple of large lumps of ice from the blocks in the icebox, then wrapped them up in towels. Prinsloo pressed them against his wounds. When the bleeding had stopped he stood up, buttoned up his shirt, put on his socks and shoes and left through the door.

He left the lumps of ice in the towels lying on the floor next to the sofa. Senhor Vaz carried them into the kitchen, then went back up the stairs and knocked on the door of room number 4. When he heard Hanna’s voice he opened the door and entered the room. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, and had replaced the torn blouse with a different one.

Senhor Vaz looked for signs that she had been crying, but found none. He sat down on the only chair in the room.

Not a word was spoken, but Hanna had the feeling nevertheless that he was apologizing for what had happened.

When he eventually stood up, bowed and left the room, she was more convinced than ever that she ought to leave this town as soon as possible.

Africa scared the living daylights out of her. It was full of people she couldn’t understand, and who didn’t understand her.

She must get away. But even so, she didn’t regret having abandoned Captain Svartman’s ship. That had been the right thing to do in the circumstances. But what was the right thing to do now?

She didn’t know. There was no answer to that question.

She thought: that dark river is still flowing inside me. The ice hasn’t formed on it yet.

THAT VERY SAME
day she went down to the harbour. Senhor Vaz didn’t want her to wander around town on her own, and sent Judas as a sort of bodyguard. He walked a few paces behind her. Every time she turned round he stopped and looked down at the ground. He didn’t dare to look her in the eye.

How can he possibly protect me? she thought. When he doesn’t even dare to look me in the eye.

There were a lot of ships berthed by the various quays. Still more were riding at anchor in the roadstead. It was low tide, and large parts of the lagoon that formed the outer harbour were silted up, with old wrecks sticking out of the black mud. She searched for a ship flying the Swedish flag in the inner harbour, but in vain. Nor could she see a Danish one, the only other flag she had learnt to recognize. The ships in the roadstead were all flying flags she couldn’t identify.

It was very busy on the quays, with ships being frantically loaded and unloaded. She watched a net full of elephants’ tusks being hoisted up on a crane and lowered into a hold. Gleaming pianos and motor cars were lifted out of another ship, and in one of the nets deposited on the quays were several elegant sofas and armchairs.

The half-naked workers were dripping with sweat as they carried their burdens along swaying gangplanks. And wherever she looked there were white men in topees keeping watch over their slaves like hungry beasts of prey. She soon decided she could no longer bear to watch all these tortured and torturing people. She left the harbour.

Just as she was leaving the waterfront she decided she would take an indirect route back to the hotel. With the sturdily built Judas behind her, she had no need to feel afraid.

He’s my fifth attendant, she thought: Elin was first, then Forsman, and then Berta, Lundmark, and now this gigantic black man who doesn’t dare to look me in the eye.

She spent a long time wandering around the town that afternoon. For the first time she had the feeling that she was seeing everything clearly. Before, everything seemed to have been shrouded by the strong sunlight. Now at last she was able to become acquainted with this town to which she was originally scheduled to pay merely a fleeting visit in order to take on board fresh water and food supplies before Captain Svartman set off for the long voyage to Australia in his
Lovisa
.

But she had jumped ship here, and was still here. All the darkness she had experienced was now at last beginning to disperse. She was beginning to see properly the foreign world which now surrounded her.

It suddenly dawned on her that it was Sunday. One of the first days in October. But the seasons had changed places. Now it wasn’t winter and the cold that was in store. On the contrary, the increasing heat indicated that summer had arrived early this year. She had heard Senhor Vaz discussing this with his brothel clients. The sun can burn you just as the cold can burn you, she thought. But perhaps my skin is hardened to the heat, thanks to the fact that I’m used to the cold?

She had come to the end of a street that opened out on to a hill, on the top of which the town’s as yet unfinished cathedral towered up towards the heavens. The bright sunlight was reflected off the white stone walls. She had to screw up her eyes so that what surrounded her was not transformed into a mirage by the heat haze. Wherever she looked, everything seemed to be deserted. There were no other people about. Only the big black man behind her, always motionless whenever she turned round.

She walked up the hill. The cathedral doors were standing open. She stopped in the shadow of the tall tower. It’s like a meringue, she thought as she looked at the white stone. Or a cake that I saw in Forsman’s house when one of his children was having a birthday party.

She stood in the shadows, wiping her face with a handkerchief. Judas was standing in full sunlight. She tried beckoning to him, indicating that he too should come and stand in the shade. But he stayed where he was, with sweat pouring down his face.

She suddenly heard singing coming from the dark interior of the cathedral. Children, she thought – children singing in a choir. The singing was interrupted by an echoing voice, but then it began again, a repetition of the same tune. This was evidently a choir practice. She stepped cautiously into the darkness, unsure as to whether she was allowed to enter this church. Were prayers said to the same God here as in the churches she had previously been to, in the mountains and in Sundsvall? She paused, hesitant, while her eyes slowly got used to the darkness that was in such sharp contrast with the sunlight outside.

Then she saw them. The choir. Children in white robes with a red belt round their waist, boys and girls, all of them black. In front of them a small white man with bushy hair and hands moving like soft wings. Nobody had noticed her yet. She stood there and listened. There were a few more repetitions before the choirmaster was satisfied.

And now the children dressed in white sang a hymn. It was so beautiful that it was almost painful. She stood there listening, with tears in her eyes, thinking that she had never heard anything so indescribably beautiful. The children sang in exquisite harmony, the hymn was powerful and rhythmic. All of them kept their eyes fixed on the little man’s gentle hand movements. None of the children seemed to be frightened of him.

It seemed to her that here and now, in the darkness, for the first time, she was seeing people who were not afraid. There was nothing here of what usually scared her to death. Here, inside the dark cathedral, she thought, there was nobody telling lies. There was nothing here apart from the truth in the hymn and the white hands moving like wings full of energy.