Philida (24 page)

But at least that was the end of the whole nasty business.

This story, like so many others, Labyn told to Philida while he was sawing and planing and hammering, making his benches and tables and chairs and shelves and coffins.

But it was more than just stories. People say that Labyn also recited verses and passages from the Koran to Philida – he had a very deep, beautiful voice and she could never stop listening when he spoke, and he also taught her to recite verses from the Koran herself. Slowly, slowly, Philida became a new person.

Sometimes she could listen for hours to Labyn’s voice when he read or recited to her, because she couldn’t get enough of his deep voice – how it got wild and violent like
the
sea when there is a storm coming up and churning up the waves, and how it grew quiet like when the wind dies down in the vineyards and only a few leaves go on rustling. With his voice he could do anything, specially when she closed her eyes: words of anger, and of caressing, and of dancing, usually preceded by those special words that used to resound in her ears:

In the name of Al-lah, the Compassionate, the Merciful! Bismillah! Al-Rahman, Al-Rakim!

Then it would be like a flood and a thunderstorm breaking over her:

When the sky is rent asunder; when the stars scatter and the oceans roll together; when the graves are hurled about; each soul shall know what it has done and what it has failed to do
.

Oh man! What evil has enticed you from your gracious Lord who created you, gave you an upright form, and well-proportioned you? In whatever shape he could have surely moulded you according to his will
.

Yes, you deny the Last Judgement. Yet there are guardians watching over you, noble recorders who know of all your actions
.

The righteous shall surely dwell in bliss. But the wicked shall burn in Hell-fire upon the Judgement Day: they shall not escape
.

Would that you knew what the Day of Judgement is! Oh, would that you knew what the Day of Judgement is! It is the day when every soul will stand alone and Al-lah will reign supreme …

Often Labyn asks her to listen and pay attention, and then he reads to her about Al-lah and the Prophet who always comforts the weak and the oppressed and cares for them: then it is as if all Labyn’s words are really meant for
her
. Because Al-lah, he assures her over and over, does not talk only to the Baas and his people like the LordGod, but to all who suffer, with the slaves and the slave women. Because remember, the first thing Muhammad did was to free his slave Zaid, and then he made sure that all the slaves
of
his friends were also freed. And with each one he sets free, he is really telling us that this is how all people should live. And he calls them by name: first of all, the orphans and the vagrants and the beggars and the slaves and the poor. It means that each single person in his loneliness is really all the people in the whole world.

That was why we laid it down for the Israelites that whoever killed a human being, should be looked upon as if he killed all mankind; and that whosoever saved a human life should be regarded as though he had saved all mankind
.

Philida doesn’t understand everything Labyn is trying to explain to her. But from what he says she can feel that for her Al-lah is the man she wants to be the Lord of all. He can understand. He can read one’s heart, he made everything and understands why everything is the way it is.

Hear what the Koran says, Labyn continues:
He created the heavens and the earth to manifest the truth and fashioned you into a comely shape. To him you shall all return. He knows what the heavens and the earth contain. He knows all that you hide and all that you reveal. He knows your innermost thoughts. In six days we created the heavens and the earth and all that lies between them; nor were we ever wearied
.

But still she had some problems with him. If he is so powerful and so caring, Philida wants to know, then why does he make it so hard for us? He could have made life easy, finished and
klaar
.

Labyn shakes his head and his eyes are full of laughter. Al-lah puts to the proof those he loves, he explains. The Koran says,
Do men think that once they say: We are believers, they will not be left alone and not be tried with affliction?

Then you better tell Al-lah when you see him again, Philida berates him, that it’s a bad thing he is doing there.

Al-lah knows who speak the truth and those who lie
, answers Labyn.

That’s not good enough for me, Philida tells him. If he really knows everything, he should know better how to deal with us. No wonder there are so few people who are willing to believe in him.

One cannot speak to Al-lah just when you feel like it, Labyn warns her.

I’ll wait until I see him, then I’ll tell him myself, Philida says firmly.

You needn’t tell him anything, Labyn answers. All you need to do is to keep your ears and eyes open. There are signs everywhere. Listen to what he says:
Surely in the heavens and on the earth there are signs for the faithful; in your own creation, and in the beasts that are scattered far and near, signs for true believers; in the alternation of night and day, in the sustenance that Al-lah sends down from heaven with which he revives the earth after its death, and in the marshalling of the winds, signs for men of understanding
. And then Al-lah speaks to us in the Koran and in our hearts, and that is all we need.

How can I ever be sure it’s Al-lah or Muhammad that speaks to us? Philida prods him. That’s what the Ouman’s Bible also kept on saying. But how do we know? Who must I believe? They both say the same nice things and the same angry things.

It’s not a matter of nice or angry, says Labyn. Al-lah himself tells us that the Koran is there to warn us, to warn the living and to judge the unbelievers. He is there to show us the way. For those who believe and do good works, he gives a good reward, it’s all streams of water and green fields. And those who say there is no life after this one, he will punish.

I don’t believe a man who always just promises or warns or punishes, says Philida. That sounds too much like the Ouman of Zandvliet.

It’s not for you to believe or not to believe, says Labyn.
The
Koran doesn’t order you this way or that way. He tells you how it is and from then on you got to decide for yourself. This is what the Koran says:
It is for you to believe in it or to deny it
.

Ja, snorts Philida. It’s easy for him to talk, man. But I tell you, if you just put a foot wrong he’ll
klap
you.

You first think about it carefully, says Labyn. The Koran says,
Do not treat men with scorn, nor walk proudly on the earth. Al-lah does not love the arrogant and the vainglorious. Rather let your gait be modest and your voice low: the harshest voice is the braying of an ass
.

That I know damn well, says Philida. Nobody on Zandvliet could make such a bladdy noise as those two donkeys of the Ouman.

All I can say to you again, says Labyn, is that Al-lah gave us his book of wisdom and that he taught us what we didn’t know before. And he is with us wherever we are.
We are closer to him than the vein of his neck
.

I’ll knit you a jersey for the winter, Philida says with a small smile. Then you’ll find out what is closest to you.

She stands with a frown between those black eyes. Labyn keeps looking at her without speaking, but for some time she remains silent. Until he decides to prod her again.

What’s the matter with you? he asks. I can see there’s something like muddy water dammed up in you.

It’s not so bad, says Philida. It’s just that it feels to me as if this Al-lah of yours speaks too much like the LordGod of the white people. They talk to people of far places and other countries. But we are from this place, Labyn. How can we know that it’s meant for us too?

Don’t you know about Sheik Yusuf then? he asks.

Who and what is Sheik Yusuf? she asks suspiciously.

That is when he tells her about the man who came to the Caab more than a hundred years ago, a rich and
important
man from Java, who started preaching to the slaves and the poor people over here. The Baas people in Java became scared that he was going to cause trouble there, that’s why they sent him on a ship to the Caab with his wives and his children and some other people too. Because just like our Muhammad he also had a house full of wives. Here at the Caab he died and they put him to rest in a
kramat
. If we ever go there I shall show you. So you see, Sheik Yusuf belongs to this land too, not just to far places, and he left his words for all of us.

Hm, Philida says. That does sound a bit better, I must say. You can tell Al-lah from me that I shall think about it.

I think Muhammad would have liked you, says Labyn with a click of his tongue. For all you know he might have taken you for a wife.

I’m not there just for the taking, says Philida. I make one mistake with that and it won’t happen again.

XX

In which the Story moves back to Zandvliet and the constant Tension between Francois and Old Cornelis until an unforeseen yet unavoidable Event interrupts the Course of all the Lives drawn into it

WEEKS AFTER PHILIDA
left, Kleinkat unexpectedly came back to Zandvliet, her little feet in a sorry state, her fur knotted, and missing in patches. She’d always been smaller than other cats, but now she was barely the shadow of a cat. The curious thing was to see how her return disturbed Frans. Considering how he used to react to cats, how he drowned the rest of Langkat’s litter, it is difficult to understand how he could have been thrown so completely off balance by this new event. Janna was on the warpath immediately.

This cat, she rants, this cat is going to infect all of us with diseases. What can you expect of something that
meid
brought here to the farm?

Philida didn’t bring her here, Ma, Francois protests, much angrier than he usually speaks to his mother. I gave her to Philida and she’s going to stay right here. You should be sorry for the poor thing.

If she puts her feet in this house I shall personally get rid of her.

Just you try and we shall see.

What shall we see?

You get rid of her, you get rid of me. And then who will marry that Berrangé girl?

That draws Cornelis into the argument very quickly:
You
will marry, he says.

Who says I’ll even like her if I get to know her? I heard she’s a real vixen.

That’s just hearsay, Frans. You don’t really know her yourself. I tell you, she’s our salvation.

It’s unfair, the way you and Ma are trying to force me. It’s the rest of my life that is at stake and all you care for is the money.

Cornelis explodes. For God’s sake, man, don’t you understand anything? If you and Maria Berrangé don’t get married, we’ll be bankrupt.

And whose fault will that be, Pa? Not mine.

Don’t talk to your father like that, Frans, Janna scolds him. She forces the almighty joint of flesh that is her body in between them. You got to show respect before the LordGod.

Don’t try to force me, Ma. Look, I really want to help you if it comes to the worst. But then you mustn’t make it impossible for me. He turns back to his mother to warn her: And don’t you dare to lay a finger on this cat. She is mine.

She belongs to Philida, not to you. Used to belong. And that is bad enough.

What is Philida’s is mine.

Why do you keep on about Philida all the time? storms Cornelis. She’s a slave, can’t you get that into your blockhead? She’s a slave and she’s long gone. For us she does not exist any more.

For me she does, says Frans, so quietly that Cornelis cannot help falling silent to stare intently at him. When he speaks again, it is in a changed, strained voice. What’s the matter with you, Frans? What did you really want from Philida?

What I wanted from Philida was what I want from a woman who is my wife, says Frans in a steely, faraway voice.

You can’t mean what you’re saying.

I just wanted her to be with me, says Frans. Not because of the children or because of the law or because of needing her to help out on the farm or because of anything else. But because of
her
. To me, Philida is not like just any other woman. I know her ever since she looked after me when I was a baby. I know her and she knows me. Can’t you understand that? I need her. And now it may be too late. Because I betrayed her.

I’m afraid it is indeed too late, says Cornelis without looking at him. You’ll just have to believe that. It is too late, for you and for all of us.

That is something I cannot accept, Pa. Now Frans is pleading from deep inside his guts: I
got
to try again. Please, Pa. I just
got
to. And you must give me that chance.

Cornelis shakes his head very slowly. I’m sorry, he says. That is something we cannot undo.

I won’t accept that, Pa.

Very suddenly Cornelis cannot take it any more: I said what I got to say and that is now the end of it. Do you understand me? That is that. Finished and
klaar
.