Vengeance and Vanity prologue

VENGEANCE & VANITY

Author's note. This novel was written in 1994 whilst living in a disused wine-cellar on a property in Hurlingham, Sandton-an up-market suburb- twenty kilometres north of Johannesburg, South Africa. All characters and events (apart from the reference to the obvious ones as in political and showbiz and musical icons etc.) are entirely fictitious and, any similarity to any-living or dead-is entirely coincidental. It is written as it was; as it is, and, anyone choosing to take offense for any slanderous or insulting terms which were the satus quo of the time frame, do so at their own choosing. The author loves all of mankind and, whilst understanding the plight of the oppressed-from the beginning of time-he sees no further need for more apologies or retribution (that will come in God's time in God's way). He strives to do good to all of God's creatures and is repulsed by the ill-treatment of any form of life. (ticks, fleas, flies and, mosquitoes, being perhaps the few exceptions). The text contains scenes of explicit violence, sex, and drugs, rock and roll etc. as these are paramount to the setting of the scene and are not included for any 'shock!' tactic. If a reader does not appreciate real life being described as it is (including under the covers when the lights are out) then perhaps they might reconsider the turning of the page. It is, however, not sleazy nor dirty, but simple, the way it is. The 'f' word is used once, maybe twice, for effect and because it is how it happened. It is, I suppose- I might say, autobiographical-but is not my autobiography as such. I have written mainly from first-hand experiences as that is the way I was taught by my English teachers as well as by Wilbur Smith.

A few to people who were and have been a strong influence during my few years: My parents, Brian and Francis as well as my siblings; Ralph, Charmaine, Glenn and Paul, as well as their spouses and children. Cousins Mario and Brownrygg as well as Mario's siblings (my other family including parents Lucian and Rita). Old friends such as Steven (Archie) Richardson as well as his wife Gorgeous Gillian who said to me in 1998-I think it was-'Brian,you should write a book'. Grant (Bush) as well as his sister Diane. Mark, Andrew and Stuart Aylot .Others such as Pat 'Goofballs' Lenferna; Kate (the only one). But most of all my heavenly father Elohim and his son-my savior-Jehova, Jesus Christ, without who I would not have made it past the age of fifteen. And more recently, my brethren in Christ in His church of Latter Day Saints including my other old friend Victor Hornby for his tireless visits and calls to me. Also, my other childhood friends from the Baptist Church: Rodney Lutz and Nathan Lambshead. Many others as well as those who accepted and aided the mad soutpiel in his tent on the banks of the river at Parys in the winter of '94 where I first went with the idea of writing a book, and where the plot of the story did come about.

Prologue: Kromdraai September 1959

Groot Oom Pikkie Pine Pienaar was a good farmer and he, along with his delightful wife Liefie, were respected and well received by the farming community in and around Kromdraai as well as by the townfolk in Krugersdorp six miles to the south. Their farm, Plaas Hemelshek, (Heaven's Gate Farm) was a gem and greatly admired by any fortunate enough to have visited.

Behind the wheel of his Chevrolet pick-up, Pine drove along the sandy, gravel road towards his farm thinking how blessed he was and, just as he was about to turn into his gate, his neighbor, Rabie Vuilskoen, roared past in his Plymouth leaving a huge cloud of dust in its wake. Shaking his silvery, smokey colored head, Pine drove on up the drive and pulled up to the house where Liefie met him at the top of the two steps to the porch.
"Hullo my Liefie, Fanie has the medals ready for us. We can give one to Ezekial before the braai tomorrow."
"Ag wonderlik Pikkie. I know Ezekial will be pleased. It is a fantastic idea you had to reward the best worker. I think that they will all enjoy the parcels we made for them as well."
Pikkie smiled and raised his bushy eyebrow, "YOUR idea my skattie,"he chuckled as Liefie planted a loving peck with her lips on his cheek.

Most farmers gave the laborers mealie meal, tea and coffee and sugar etc. each month as their monetary reward was, in most parts, less than enough to survive well on.
"Ag no Pikkie, I only planted the seed you know. You mos gave the birth this time, ha ha," she jokingly teased, her brown hair brushing her neck and shoulders as she turned around and headed back inside.
"I saw Rabie driving like the devil out of hell down the road again," he remarked as he placed his hat on the hook.
"Ag," she sighed. "I feel so sorry for Madre'. She must be having such a miserable life Pine."
"Ja I know. But, unless he physically abuses her, there's really nothing we, nor anyone for that matter, can do," he responded gravely. "I don't know what his problem is," he added.

Saturday afternoon saw the farm a hive of activity and the regular chores were completed swiftly and efficiently as most of the laborers were willing and happy members of Plaas Hemelshek. Ever since Pine's grandfather, Groot Oom Piet Pine, bought the farm in 1835 after making a modest sum on the gold fields and, with many years of loving and hard work, it was reputed to be the true Heaven's Gate. Each tree, plant and shrub had been planned by a fusion of two innovative minds that also worked in harmonious accord and after many decades, the result was absolutely stunning. The creation had continued to grow and blossom through the seasons as son took over from father and Pine and Liefie were responsible for the waterways which adorned the almost fairy-tale like, garden. Little streams running around the walkways with water plants providing the beautiful greenery, the sound of running water, soothing to the ears and the soul.

Ezekial was so happily overcome a little later after receiving his award which now hung around his neck on the chain donated by Liefie as well. Even though he couldn't read, he knew that his name, along with his farm number 37, as well as the name of the farm, PlAAS HEMELSHEK, was engraved onto the medallion and he played Baas Pine's congratulatory remarks over in his mind again as he headed on to his kaai which was located on Pine's farm but, due to the irregular shape and contours of the land, the farm roads were not the shortest route and the laborers always took the footpaths which sometimes resulted in a little innocent trespassing. Most farmers had little problem but Rabie, on numerous occasions, had warned them about crossing his farm.
"Phillistines break my bloody fences and then the cattle and the sheep get out and do you think they worry? Nee man, they worry vokall!" he would lament to his cronies in the pub. Driving out now, on his way to the pub, he also reflected on how Pine was apparently now pushing for more lenient legislation with regards to the blacks conditions in general. "Ghaa," he remarked to himself, "that Pine is looking for trouble. Treating them like people almost. I mean, who does he think he is."
It was now dusk and the light fast waning behind the Magaliesburg fifteen miles to the west. Ezekiel had just ducked under the fence and was about a hundred yards when he heard the sound of Rabie's Plymouth V8 approaching from around the bend. He started to run back to the fence but was no match for the car and just as he was almost about to clamber through the barbed wire, Rabie brought the car to a sliding, dust throwing stop. He jumped out and grabbed Ezekial by the neck, flinging the little Sotho man to the ground.

"Nee Baas, assemblief my Baas?" Ezekiel pleaded as they all knew of Rabies foul temper and tried to always keep far away as possible.
"Asseblief se moer,!" he retorted. "How many times have I warned you? How many sheep have I lost? How many beeste? No more, this time I will show you that I mean business, ne'?" he shook his finger in Ezekiel's face. Ezekiel was trying to stand but Rabie dished a left flatty to his right ear which sent him tumbling back into the dirt. Rabie opened the boot and flung him inside. After slamming the lid on Ezekiel's retreating head, he jumped back behind the wheel which he spun and, flooring the gas, he headed on back to his farm. He drove on past the house where Madre' would no doubt be busy in the kitchen and headed to the large barn. Built to store fodder, implements as well as his tractor, of course, it was also his man-cave, when times required.

He reversed the Plymouth into the barn and, after first making sure there were no inquisitive eyes possibly watching, he closed the doors. He found a length of rubber hose and placed it behind the car and then a disused ploughshare with a length of stout chain as well. With a piece of wire, he attached the chain to the ploughshare and then opened the boot where a very sorry looking Ezekiel lay cramped up in confined space. Like a deer, caught in a snare, scared, uncertain, unknowing what is happening.Rabie placed the ploushare along with the chain inside the boot with Ezekiel and secured it to his ankle using a short length of wire. Picking up the piece of hose, he smiled sardonically as he began whipping Ezekiel who had no where to duck and so tried to ward the lashes off with his hands. Crying now, he pleaded again,
"Asseblief Baas Rabie."
Rabie just licked his fat bottom lip as he warmed up to the task. He thrashed the man until he saw blood seeping through his working overall upon which he stopped and closed the lid.

He drove to the house where Madre' was waiting with his dinner. Striding past her as he walked towards the bedroom, he ignored her greeting and said,
"I am late and I will also be back late so don't wait up for me."
With a hint of a tear in her eye she said, "Oh Rabie, you never eat with me anymore. You hardly even speak to me at all. What is the problem?"
He continued past her and said, "Vrou, do you not remember how you pleaded with me when I saved you from the koshuis? How you said you would do anything to get a proper home and a life? And now you have it and all I want from you is food and clean home. And n' bietjie noekie now and then of course," he added after licking his fat bottom lip. "Just be a good wife, please?" he said as he took a bottle of brandy from the cupboard and placed it in his coat. Walking back through the kitchen door, he almost tripped over Wollie, the farm dog who was Madre's idea. He couldn't stand dogs. "Jou vokken hond!" he admonished the dog, sending a kick which just missed the fleeing dog.
"Don't kick my dog Rabie!" she cried.
"I am going to one day kick his head right off you hear?" he warned harshly and strode out the door leaving a sad, broken little picture in the doorway.
Sitting back in the car, he unscrewed the lid of the brandy bottle and took a healthy swig. After another swig, he closed the bottle and started the car and moved out back onto the road. Just as he turned onto the tar road he turned his head and said in the direction of the boot,
"Are you still there Kaffir?" he laughed.
Ezekiel was lying, trying to ride with the bumps and swerves, wondering what was in store for him.

About two hours later, Ezekiel woke from his carbon monoxide induced doze as the car left the tar road for another dirt road and, after a few minutes, he heard the sound of running water. 'A river,' he thought, almost joyously as he remembered the times he would be playing with the other children on the banks of the river while the mothers washed the clothes. His joy was short-lived, however, as the car came to a halt, signalling the end of the road. Rabie turned the car off and sat a few minutes, with the open window allowing the cool breeze to cool him down. He took a sip of the brandy and recalled how he and his cousin who used to live in Parys, the town just another half mile further down stream, would fish and play during the school holidays.

Andre' and Frikkie Theron, two local schoolboys who were camping and fishing closeby, had ducked behind a clump of bushes when they had heard the approaching car and were now watching as Rabie climbed from the car and opened the boot.
"Kom Kaffir," he ordered Ezekial who, with a lot of pain due to the starved blood vessels as well as the encumbrance from the weighted chain, clambered from the boot and tried to hold the ploughshare and the chain in his hands.
Rabie led him down the bank to the water's edge and unmoored a small fishing punt from the small makeshift jetty.
Rabie also had been a regular in his schooldays and the punt was well known and used by all who knew of it's existence. He prodded Ezekiel into the small boat and, after giving it a little push, jumped in, almost landing on top of Ezekiel. After rowing to almost the center, Rabie stopped and allowed the boat to drift slowly with the current as he looked up at the brilliant night sky. Ezekiel was crying and pleading again and Rabie started feeling a little like the time he shot his first antelope near Hoedspruit the time his father had taken him hunting for the first time. Watching the innocent little creature bleeding his lifeblood away, searching Rabie's steel blue eyes before giving a last little tremor before passing away and how he, Rabie, had then felt so powerful.

"Please Baas Rabie," pleaded Ezekiel. "I will leave Baas Pine and come and work for you for mahalla. Just please take me home Baas Rabie. My mother has no one else to look after her, please."
"Ag, you make my heart bleed. It's time to show you that I mean what I say, ne'?" and he gripped Ezekiel and flung him overboard. The chain dragged over the edge of the boat, rattling and serving to fray Frikkie and Andre's' nerves even some more.
"Ag bliksem. Now where is that kaffir when there is some work to do?" But he laughed as he lifted the ploughshare and threw it into the water after the sinking Ezekiel.it pulled the chain behind it over the edge of the boat, the rattling chain serving to fray Frikkie and Andre's already strung nerves.
"Andre', lets go please. I'm scared," Frikkie pleaded with Andre'.
"Frikkie," hissed andre', "if you make the slightest sound again, I will throw you into the river, hear?"

Rabie returned the punt and was just pulling away in his car when he happened to glance up at the sky to see the most bright shooting star he ever had seen, appearing to fall into the river at about where he guessed he had thrown Ezekiel overboard. His psyche paused for a timeless moment as he grappled with an unknown conscience but, after pulling himself towards himself again, he sped off.

Frikkie and Andre' ran the mile to their house in five minutes and, after pissing and crossing swords on the old willow tree in their back garden, they swore to one another that never would they disclose what they had see to anyone for any reason whatsoever and sealed the oath with blood taken from a prick on each of their fingers. They then went inside an promptly fell into a fitful sleep.

Rabie arrived back at home two hours later and took great pleasure in waking Madre' and insisting that she fulfill her marital obligations.
She bucked as hard as she could getting him to spew his beans in record time after which he turned over and fell asleep.

'Oh, how miserable I am,' she sobbed quietly.

The following morning, Liefie couldn't find Ezekiel to come and light the fire and then to go an milk the cows.
"Pine, I think that something has happened to Ezekiel," she said as he stoked the coals from the night before.
"Ja, maybe. It's very unusual for Ezekiel to not be here."

Later on at church, as much as he did not relish the idea of approaching Rabie, he thought he must at least try, for Ezekiel's sake. And Liefie's sake. She had always been fond of him.
"More' Rabie, how's Madre'?" he asked, knowing full well that Rabie did not allow her to attend church.
"What's it to you Pine? She's my wife."
"Ja ja, just trying to be a good neighbor. Have you maybe seen Ezekiel? He wasn't there this morning."
Rabie paused, a look of genuine concern on his face, and replied,"No Pine, I haven't. But if I do I will send him straight home alllrrright."
Pine held a suspicion ever since and this deepened over the years especially after hearing from the locals how Rabie would mock in the pub about 'poor ol' Pine. Pining over a poor kaffir he lost.' And how he then laughed loudly at his own sick joke. The other locals had long since chosen to patronize Rabie and then laugh at him after he had had a couple of brandies.