Whitethorn (16 page)

‘
Ja
, Meneer, I think so.'

‘You are not showing this boy a dead
kaffir
's corpse, you hear?' Meneer Prinsloo shouted. ‘
Genoeg
!'

‘A photograph. I will arrange for a photograph to be taken of the victim's feet,' Sergeant Van Niekerk said calmly. ‘Until we have a positive identification of the victim, we don't know if we've got two cases or only one.'

‘Go on, off!' Meneer Prinsloo shouted down at me. He was red in the face and snorting like a wounded buffalo.

I set off at a run and heard Sergeant Van Niekerk call, ‘Thank you, Tom, you've been a big help.'

Ja
, I thought, thanks for nothing. You not the one who's going to get Meneer Prinsloo's extra-long cane
sjambok
when you get back from school. Him running at me,
whack! whack! whack!
Chinese writing on my bum that won't go away for a month!

I hadn't seen the last of Sergeant Jan van Niekerk. Halfway through the morning at school the headmaster Meneer Van Niekerk came to our classroom and told our teacher he wanted to see me and to come with him to his office. Now I had a second Meneer Van Niekerk involved with me and both on the same day, that was pretty frightening stuff. When we got to his office who should be there but Sergeant Van Niekerk, who was the younger of the two brothers.

‘Howzit?' he said with a smile. ‘We meet again, hey, Tom.'

‘Sit, Tom,' the headmaster said, indicating a straight-backed chair. I knew you weren't supposed to sit in front of a headmaster, especially in his office where you only went if there was some trouble.

‘Can I stand, please, Sir?' I asked.

‘No, Tom, we want you to sit, this could take a bit of time.'

I sat on the chair but my feet couldn't quite reach the floor and I wasn't comfortable at all with two Van Niekerks, a policeman and a headmaster, facing me. I knew I must be in some terrible trouble but I couldn't think what it might be. Especially as Sergeant Van Niekerk had been so nice to me only this morning at The Boys Farm.

The police sergeant reached for a big envelope that lay on the headmaster's desk and from it he withdrew a black-and-white photograph. ‘I want you to look very carefully at this photograph, Tom. Tell me if you recognise anything.'

He handed it to me and there, staring me in the face, were Mattress's big platform feet. ‘It's Mattress!' I said, looking at the snap of his feet.

‘Are you sure now, Tom?' the sergeant asked.

I was certain. You couldn't mistake Mattress's platform feet with the cracks in the side. ‘Yes, Meneer. Does that mean he's dead? Mattress is dead?'

Sergeant Van Niekerk didn't answer at once. ‘If they are his feet, then yes, son,' he said softly.

I couldn't help myself, I started to sob. Mattress was the best friend Tinker and I had and they'd gone and killed him stone dead. They let me blub for quite a while because I couldn't stop, even if I wanted. Then the headmaster handed me his handkerchief to wipe my eyes and gave me a cup of water.

When I'd calmed down a bit Sergeant Van Niekerk said to me, ‘Tom, we are going to ask you a few questions, you hear? The headmaster here is my big
boetie
and he's here to see that you are not harassed and he is also a witness to our conversation. Do you agree to talk to me?'

‘Yes, Sir . . . but I'll get into trouble, Sir.'

‘Trouble?'

‘With Meneer Prinsloo, Sir.'

Sergeant Van Niekerk looked at his brother and rolled his eyes. ‘Prinsloo' is all he said.

The headmaster looked at me. ‘Never you mind about that, Tom. I will be writing down everything, there will be nothing to get into trouble about.'

The headmaster obviously didn't know very much about The Boys Farm where you were always guilty and innocence wasn't something anyone believed possible anyway. If you didn't do something, then the
sjambok
was thought to be a down payment on some future crime you were certain to commit.

‘This morning, Tom . . . let me think, yes, you said something about Mattress putting a stick in Kobus Vermaak's mouth when he had a fit. Can you tell me what that was all about?' The police sergeant had this paper in front of him and it had about four pages and he was reading something on the second page when he looked up and asked the question.

Maybe it was all written on the pages so I couldn't tell a lie because he'd know. I decided to tell the truth, but as little of it as possible.

‘He had a fit and Mattress found him and put a stick in his mouth.'

‘Why did he do that?'

‘So he wouldn't swallow his tongue. If you swallow your tongue you can die,' I explained.

‘Why did he have a fit? Did something happen?'

‘It wasn't because I punched him, Sir!' I said defensively. ‘Mevrou said you can just get a fit any time you like, it just comes.'

‘You punched him? Why did you punch him, Tom?'

I'd clean forgotten that nobody but Pissy knew I'd been on the scene just before he'd had his fit and the only person I'd told was Mattress. I was trapped. Now the police sergeant was going to find out about Tinker! I tried to think of a lie but I couldn't think of one fast enough that might explain why I'd punched Pissy. Then I thought, well, the sergeant has three big dogs himself, so maybe he'll understand.

‘Why, Tom?' the sergeant repeated.

‘He wanted to take this dog I found, Sir.'

Sergeant Van Niekerk smiled. ‘Not only a farmer but a dog lover as well. I also love my dogs. They are a person's best friend. A dog will never let you down. You say you found a dog and Kobus Vermaak wanted to take it away from you. Where did you find this dog?'

‘In a sack floating down the creek, Sir. The other five puppies inside were dead already.'

‘And you saved its life and wanted to keep it, hey? That's nice, man. What's its name?'

‘Tinker, Sir.'

‘So, tell me, Tom. How did Kobus take Tinker from you? Did he grab it from you? Did he punch you? Tell me, son.'

‘He found where I was hiding her.'

‘And where was that?'

‘At the big rock, Sir.'

Sergeant Van Niekerk started rummaging through the paper in front of him and he found what he wanted. ‘The big rock?'

‘Yes, Sir.'

‘This big rock, was it the same big rock where Fonnie du Preez was attacked by Mattress?'

All of a sudden I couldn't help myself. ‘It was the same rock, but it's a pack of lies, Sir!'

‘Lies?'

‘Mattress didn't do it!' I cried out and started to blub again.

I was still holding the headmaster's hanky that had got all wet in my fist, but I forgot to use it and the tears just splashed down over my chin. After a while I got a bit better.

‘What makes you think he didn't do it, did he tell you?'

‘No, Sir, I was there, Sir.'

The police sergeant went back to the papers. ‘There is no mention of you here, Tom. Are you sure you were there?'

I had trapped myself completely and there was no getting out of it, and the only good thing was that I was able to tell about what Mattress did, even though it was now too late. In between blubbing every once in a while, I told them about being made by Fonnie du Preez to do all those things to Pissy and him. Then how Mattress came just in time to save me and lifted Fonnie and threw him against the rock and then carried me away. We'd reported it to Meneer Botha who said, ‘You weren't there, you understand?' He said if I told anyone what had truly happened my little dog would be dead. Next thing I knew, they'd made up a whole new story of what happened, with some rock giving way and Fonnie hurting himself. I then told them about the Mevrou version with me listening while I hid in the hydrangea bushes outside the sick room.

After I'd told them all this, Sergeant Van Niekerk consulted his papers again while the headmaster was writing furiously. Then the sergeant said, ‘Tom, you said Mattress slept on a grass mat, I saw that. Do you know if he ever had a mattress in his hut?'

‘No, Sir. Once when I told him that his name meant something people sleep on he said a Zulu didn't sleep on anything like that, so it didn't matter.' It was the second time he'd brought up the subject this morning.

At the time I'd clean forgotten that Pissy had told Mevrou that Mattress had penetrated him in his hut
on a
mattress
! The sergeant wrote something in the margin of one of the pages and the headmaster finished writing down stuff and looked up and said, ‘
Indrukwekkend
,' which means impressive. He turned to Sergeant Van Niekerk. ‘
Magtig
! Jan, what a terrible, terrible waste of a good
Bantu's
life.'

Sergeant Van Niekerk glanced at his brother and then nodded towards me. ‘The boy's been through a helluva lot,' he said, looking at me and smiling. ‘Now, Tom, the headmaster says you got an hour off school, and you and I are going to go to the café for ice-cream and a cool drink, maybe even a milkshake, hey?'

I'd never had a milkshake but I'd heard about them, you could get strawberry ones. I wasn't ever going to get another chance so I said quietly, ‘You said this morning I could have an Eskimo Pie, Meneer?'

Sergeant Van Niekerk laughed. ‘
Ag
, Tom, an Eskimo Pie is only a
tickey
. We going to take a whole shilling and buy an ice-cream in a dish,' he cupped his hands together, ‘so big, with lots of other nice things and with chocolate and hundreds and thousands spread all over and a big pink biscuit that sticks out of the top.'

‘You are a very brave and clever boy, Tom,' the headmaster said and put his hand on my head. It was the first time in my life a high-up person had ever given me a compliment. Except that very morning when the sergeant had said I was clever, but you could see Meneer Prinsloo didn't agree and he already knew me better.

We were walking out of the headmaster's study when I remembered his handkerchief that was still scrunched up wet in my hand. ‘Sorry, Sir, I nearly forgot and took your hanky,' I said, and gave it back to him. Afterwards I remembered there must be some wet snot in it from my crying, but it was too late to take it to the tap and wash it out first.

In the café, which I'd never been in before, Sergeant Van Niekerk asked the lady, who was called Mevrou Booysens, to make a big ice-cream in a glass dish that stood on one leg. ‘Put on everything,' he instructed.

‘Everything?' She looked surprised. ‘There are ten things that can go on ice-cream,' she declared.

‘Then we got all ten things on Tom's ice-cream and also a strawberry milkshake. This young man deserves only the best, you hear?'

‘Don't blame me if he gets sick,' she laughed.

But I didn't.

As I ate the ice-cream and drank the milkshake through this straw Sergeant Van Niekerk found and put in it, he said to me, ‘Tom, I want you to listen to me carefully now, hey?'

‘
Ja
, Meneer,' I answered, first licking all the ice-cream off my spoon so it was nice and clean and I put it down carefully on the table. I hoped it wouldn't take too long because some of the ice-cream was melting already.

‘Tom, I think it is best if you don't say anything about what we spoke about in the headmaster's office, you hear?'

‘
Ja
, Meneer, but if they hear where I've been they will ask me.'

‘Is there anyone in your class who's also at The Boys Farm?'

‘No, Sir.'

‘So it's unlikely to get back. The headmaster says you have permission to say it was about you maybe getting special English lessons because you the only English-speaking boy in the school. Can you remember that? Nobody knows I was there as well, so best not to mention that, hey?'

‘
Ja
, Meneer, but I'm only English because of my name. I can't speak English, except what we learn in class.'

‘It doesn't matter, that's why the headmaster wants to make the special arrangements. Do you understand?'

I said yes, but I admit I was a bit unsure of what it all meant, but I knew what to say if Meneer Prinsloo asked, which was the main thing.
In the next week Sergeant Van Niekerk's police van was seen twice in the morning at The Boys Farm and Pissy and Fonnie didn't come with us when we marched to school. What I
can
tell you is that for the whole week Mevrou came into the small boys' dormitory for half-jack in her nightgown. Her hair was all over the place and she was sweating, with her breasts jumping up and down and sometimes if you looked hard, you could see the black where her bush was. In that week, I've got to tell you, man, nobody escaped her
sjambok
except Pissy! I got blasted twice and one time when she gave me four of the best she called me
Die klein kaffirboetie
! The little
kaffir
-lover.

Of course the boys asked Pissy what was happening.