Daniel (16 page)

 

At dawn the next day, when Daniel went on deck, the island was gone, but the land to the west was still there. A cool wind was blowing. Daniel shivered as he walked across the wet deck. The boat rocked slowly, as if it were actually hanging on the back of the sea like a newborn child. Daniel closed his eyes and thought about Be. His memories awoke.

He was hanging on her back. If he kept his eyes closed he would be in the desert when he opened them. It would be before everything happened that made Be and Kiko lie in the sand with bloody faces and leave him behind.

He gave a start and opened his eyes. A musty smell overpowered him and drove away the memories. The captain was standing there. He had red eyes and his cheeks under the shawl were swollen.

‘Have you ever seen anything so bloody awful?' he said, opening his mouth wide.

Daniel understood that he was supposed to look in his mouth. He stood on tiptoe to see. The teeth in the captain's mouth, the few that were left, were either black or rotted stumps.

‘It's like having a snake in your jaw,' said the captain. ‘Do you think that the man you're travelling with could pull it? He's a scientist, if I understand rightly.'

Daniel went back to the cabin. Father lay yawning in one of the two bunks with no mattresses.

‘The captain wonders if Father can pull a tooth,' he said.

‘Only if he pays us back and lets you travel free.'

Father got up and rummaged through his bag of instruments and finally found a pair of pliers that he used to bend the nails which fastened the back plates of the insect boxes. The captain sat on a hatch, swaying back and forth. He was in severe pain.

‘I can pull the tooth,' said Father. ‘I could also rip out your tongue if you like.'

‘The tooth will suffice.'

‘The price is free passage for Daniel.'

‘Agreed.'

The captain opened his mouth wide. Father looked.

‘A molar,' he said. ‘Someone will have to hold on to you when I pull.'

The captain called over a crewman who was almost two metres tall and had powerful biceps.

‘You have to hold me tight,' said the captain. ‘And don't let go no matter how much I howl.'

The man muttered something in reply and then took a firm hold around the captain's body from behind. Father stuck in the pliers, found a grip and pulled. The captain roared but at last the tooth came out. The crewman released his hold, the captain spat blood, and Father asked Daniel to rinse off the pliers.

‘I've seen his teeth,' the captain said. ‘I've never seen anything so white. And strong, like the teeth of beasts of prey.'

‘That's only your imagination,' replied Father. ‘The reason is the absence of sugar in his diet.'

‘I thought blackies were like children and loved sweets?'

‘Then you thought wrong.'

The captain kept on spitting out blood. The cook announced that breakfast was ready, and Daniel returned the cleaned pliers to the bag.

 

That evening Father sat down to have a drink with the captain. Daniel stayed on deck, even though the wind was cold. The tall sailor stood at the helm, while another man who was his complete opposite, short and thin, lit the lanterns and then sat in the bow on watch. Daniel saw lights glimmering somewhere out in the dark. From the aft cabin he heard the captain's loud laughter. The thought struck Daniel that Father must actually be quite fond of him. Although it had certainly been a lot of trouble, he had brought Daniel with him on this long journey.
He had had clothing sewn for him, taught him the language, and above all instructed him on how to open and close doors. Even though Be and Kiko came to him at night, Father was there in the day and took care of him. He had even tied him up so he wouldn't vanish into the sea. It wouldn't be fair if Daniel didn't tell him, when the time was ripe, that he had learned to walk on water and that he intended to go back to the sand and the warmth under his feet. He would promise him never to forget how to open and close doors, even if there were few doors at the places where they pitched camp.

The sailor who lit the lanterns came over to Daniel.

They stood by the railing.

The starry sky was crystal clear.

He said his name was Tobias. Tobias Näver. He had been a soldier, he told Daniel, but he had been stricken from something called the rolls because during training he had taken a bayonet through his thigh and almost bled to death. After that he had become a seaman. Once he had sailed very far, to distant Australia, on an English barque named the
Black Swan
. He had almost decided to stay in Australia but changed his mind at the last minute and came back. After that he had only worked on small coasters working the inland sea called the Baltic.

Daniel listened. Tobias Näver spoke slowly and Daniel understood almost everything he said.

‘You're far from home,' he said. ‘If I understand rightly, you are the foster-child of the man sitting and drinking with the captain. What happened?'

Daniel thought about the fact that this was the first time anyone had asked him who he was. He bowed and said thank you.

‘You don't have to bow and say thank you.'

‘I'm going to learn to walk on water,' said Daniel. ‘Then I'll walk home.'

‘Nobody can walk on water,' Tobias replied, astonished. ‘The fools who try just sink. There was only one man could do it. If what they say is true.'

Daniel perked up. ‘Who was that?'

‘Jesus.'

Daniel knew who Jesus was. Be and Kiko had sometimes talked about the odd habit white people had of nailing up their gods on
boards. That's how enemies who had committed terrible deeds should be treated. To nail up a god on a pair of crossed boards was both peculiar and frightening. Especially since the whites believed that it was the only god that existed. Daniel had seen pictures of the emaciated man with the crown of thorns but he didn't know that he could supposedly walk on water.

‘Of course no one knows if it's true or not. It's called a miracle. And certainly the impossible can happen. We once ran aground on a reef in the
Black Swan
. We knew that we were going to go under in the storm. But suddenly it died down, and when we got the ship loose it stayed afloat.'

Tobias spat a stream of tobacco juice over the railing.

Daniel felt a great anxiety. It sat like a knot just below his heart. Could a person walk on water if a god did?

One of the lanterns went out. Tobias went over to relight it. From the aft cabin shouts were heard. Father was drunk now, Daniel could hear. His voice was harsh and he laughed joylessly.

Tobias came back.

‘You can always perform at fairs,' he said. ‘People would pay for that.'

‘What's a fair?'

‘A place where they exhibit deformed people, fat ladies, men with hair all over their bodies, men who can lift horses, children that are attached to each other, calves with two heads.'

Daniel still didn't understand what a fair was. But something made him decide to hold back his questions.

The wind had subsided. It was colder too. Daniel went to the cabin and lay down on his bunk. He decided to tell Be in his dreams about what Tobias had said, that the man on the boards was able to walk on water.

 

But Be was not in his dream that night, nor the next. When he woke in the morning he couldn't remember anything but darkness. It was as if an invisible mountain range had been raised inside his head. Somewhere behind it were Be and Kiko, but he couldn't see them.

 

On the fifth day they turned in towards land. They sailed among islands, across fjords and down narrow straits. Daniel noticed that Father had
begun to grow restless and worried that it was because of him, that it might be because of something he had done. To show that he liked him, Daniel put on the heavy wooden shoes, but Father didn't even seem to notice. Several times when Daniel entered the cabin he was sitting counting the money that was left from the horse. Daniel had also heard him arguing with the captain about the money he was supposed to get back for pulling the rotten tooth.

They sailed through a strait and Daniel could see a tower in the distance. Father appeared by his side at the railing.

‘What's that?' Daniel asked, pointing.

‘A church tower. The capital. Stockholm.'

Father sounded irritated when he answered. Daniel decided not to ask any more questions.

 

They tied up next to another coaster in a forest of vessels. Far off, between the sails and the hulls of the ships, Daniel saw tall houses, and he counted five church towers. Because it was already evening, Father decided that they would stay on board for another night. Daniel wondered what would happen after that, but he didn't ask. When he lay down to sleep he hoped that Be would come. But the next morning too he woke with no memory but darkness.

 

They left the ship late in the afternoon.

Father had been ashore and two men came aboard to fetch his crates. When everything had been loaded onto two handcarts, Daniel was allowed to go ashore. He noticed at once that everyone was staring at him. But something was different; here they stepped forward, stared him right in the face, touched him, pinched his arms, and commented on his hair and his skin. He felt embarrassed and afraid, and he did something he had never done before: he took Father's hand and burrowed his head into his stomach. Father was astonished but stroked his hair.

‘These are riff-raff,' he said. ‘They work here in the harbour. Riff-raff who don't know any better.'

‘What are riff-raff?' muttered Daniel.

‘Uneducated people. Stevedores. Sump cleaners. People will look at you, Daniel, but these people stare. That's the difference.'

Father lifted him up onto the cart and shouted at the staring people to leave him in peace. Then the two men who had carried the heavy crates ashore pulled the carts away from the harbour. There were stones in the road that made the carts bounce and shake. Daniel had to hold on so he wouldn't fall off. They pulled the carts down a narrow street where the houses were very tall. Daniel had to breathe through his mouth because the smell was terrible.

Suddenly he couldn't bear to see any more. He shut his eyes and kept them closed as tightly as he could. The wheels rattled and clattered, people shouted, dogs barked, and Father bellowed at the men pulling the carts to be more careful. The sounds grew into a strong wind inside Daniel's head, but he couldn't make out what they meant. Somewhere far away he thought he could hear Kiko's voice, and Be's.

 

It was 3 November 1877.

Daniel had arrived in Stockholm. He shut his eyes as the cart full of insects rolled through the alleyways of the old town, Gamla Stan.

Daniel opened his eyes when the cart came to a stop. Father touched his shoulder. The alleyway they were in was very narrow. In front of them was a church. The light had begun to dim. They moved into a little attic room at the top of a steep stairway. From the window Daniel could look straight in through another window across the alley. A candle stood on a table, with a great number of people sitting around it shovelling down food from a wooden trencher. Suddenly a boy his own age caught sight of him. He shrieked and pointed. Daniel quickly moved away from the window. Father came through the door after arguing with the men who had pulled the carts about how much they should be paid. The crates stood stacked in the room and it was almost impossible to move. Father looked around in disgust.

‘If a fire starts here, everything will be in vain.'

He set down a little wooden box right next to the door.

‘This must be saved if there's a fire. There's a beetle in it that no one has ever seen.'

He then proceeded to examine the bed. He shook the blankets and shone a candle between the boards.

‘There are lice here,' he said. ‘We're going to get bitten. But we'll only stay a few days. Then everything will be better.'

He set the candle on the table and sat down on a rickety chair.

‘Living in this city and being poor is like living with an iron lid over your head. The only consolation is that we came at the right time. They had a smallpox epidemic here last year but it seems to be over.'

He took out his money pouch and poured the contents onto the table. There was one banknote and some coins.

‘I'll leave you here,' he said when he finished counting. ‘You have to keep watch. If a fire starts, you have to save the little box. I'll go out and find something for us to eat. I won't be gone long.'

He got up from the table. Daniel wasn't sure whether he was angry
or worried. Then he left the room and his footsteps disappeared down the stairs.

Daniel was alone. Father hadn't locked the door when he left. Daniel could hear someone singing and someone else crying downstairs. The odour of food wafted up through the floor. It smelled rancid, like old animal fat. Daniel peeked cautiously out of the window. Across the alley a woman was making a bed for two children on the table where the wooden trencher had stood. Daniel had never seen this before, that a table could also be a bed. The people in this country live in strange ways, he thought. Either they live alone or they are so crowded together that no one has any room. Daniel carefully opened the box that he was supposed to save if a fire broke out. A beetle was pinned to a piece of stiff white paper. He had seen beetles like it many times when he searched for roots, snakes and small creatures with Be and the other women. They used to call the beetle the Sand Hopper, because when it was alarmed it would stop crawling and throw itself to one side. Be had been very skilled at catching them. It was like a game: hold out your hand and guess precisely where it would land. Daniel tried to understand why it was so important to save it. A little dead animal pinned to a piece of paper. It wasn't edible. Nor did it have any poison that was good for putting on arrowheads. Father was a very strange man. He was on a journey and had taken Daniel with him. People were always on the move. Travel meant the constant search for food. Now Father had gone out to find some. But where were they actually headed?