Willem Hermans - The Darkroom of Damocles

‘… He drifted around on his raft for days, without a drop to drink. He was dying of thirst, because the water of the ocean is salty. He hated the water that he couldn’t drink. But when his raft was struck by lightning and caught fire, he scooped up the hateful water with both hands to try and put out the flames!’

The teacher was the first to laugh, and finally the whole class joined in.

Then the bell rang. The children got up from their desks. Henri Osewoudt was half a head shorter than all the other boys. They trooped down the corridor in single file, breaking into a run as they reached the exit.

Mulling over the teacher’s story, Osewoudt became separated from the others by the arrival of a blue tram. He didn’t bother to catch up with them once the tram had passed. His eyes lit on the NO OVERTAKING sign which he read every day as he came out of school. The sign stands at the entrance to the narrow high street. The street is so narrow that the tramlines sidle towards each other until they overlap in a single track. Trams coming from opposite directions have to wait for their turn to cross the centre of Voorschoten.

The tobacco shop kept by Osewoudt’s father was at the other end of the high street, not far from the point where the tramlines diverge again. Drawing level with the School with the Bible, he saw a crowd gathering by the entrance to his father’s shop: neighbours jostling and chattering and craning their necks to peer inside. Two policemen were standing by.

Turlings the chemist caught sight of Osewoudt, left the crowd and came hurrying towards him.

‘Quick, take my hand, Henri! You must come with me. You can’t go home now! There’s been an accident, a dreadful accident!’

Osewoudt said nothing, took the extended hand and allowed himself to be led away. The street was choked with people. Turlings pulled him along so quickly that he couldn’t hear what they were saying, but he was sure it was about him.

‘Has something happened to Mother?’

‘Poor lad! It’s too awful for words! You’ll hear about it later. A dreadful accident!’

‘Is Father dead?’

‘How could you say such a thing? It’s awful! Awful!’

Turlings’ shop was close to the tram stop, diagonally across from the tobacco shop belonging to Osewoudt’s father. Osewoudt looked back, but all he could see were the people and the other NO OVERTAKING sign, identical to the one at the far end of the high street.

They went inside, and the chemist took him through to the room at the back of the shop. The chemist’s wife wore a white lab coat. She ran to him.

‘Oh you poor boy! What a terrible accident!’

She kissed him on the top of his head, fetched him a roll of liquorice sweets from the shop and sat him down on a chair by the stove, which was not burning.

There was a smell of cough drops and chamois leather, even in the living room.

‘How dreadful! How could anyone do a thing like that? Poor boy! Poor, poor boy!’

Osewoudt took a sweet from the roll he’d been given.

‘Did Mother do it?’

‘What on earth …? How does he know?’ the wife said to her husband. ‘And he’s not even crying!’

Turlings bent down and told Osewoudt: ‘Your uncle will be coming to fetch you in a while. He’ll be taking you to Amsterdam.’

He went back into the shop and made a telephone call.

‘Mama! There’s blood on the street! I saw it!’

Their son Evert was twelve years old, the same age as Osewoudt, but he attended the School with the Bible.

‘Did you see my mother?’

‘Hush, the pair of you! Evert, go and wash your hands before you have your supper.’

It was beginning to smell of potatoes and cabbage in the room.

The chemist, his wife and their son took their seats at the table, leaving Osewoudt by the stove. He had stopped asking questions, just put one liquorice after another into his mouth.

The chemist and his wife said grace out loud before beginning; Evert read a passage from the Bible when they got to the pudding. Finally, thanks were given, also aloud.

It was past closing time when Uncle Bart rang the doorbell. The chemist’s wife let him in. He was clutching his hat in one hand and a white handkerchief in the other.

‘How did it happen, Uncle? Tell me. I’m a big boy now, Uncle!’

‘Your father’s not well,’ Uncle Bart said, ‘and they’ve taken your mother to the institution, like five years ago, remember?’

Outside, darkness had already fallen. They boarded the tram to Leiden. Osewoudt looked out of the window, and when they passed his father’s shop he saw that all the lights were out.

He tugged at Uncle Bart’s sleeve.

‘I don’t believe Father’s ill, how could he have got ill at the same time as Mother?’

‘That’s enough, Henri. I’m not prejudiced. I’ll tell you everything, all in good time.’

‘Mother often said she’d kill Father with the crowbar.’

‘The crowbar?’

‘The crowbar that’s kept under the counter, Uncle. It’s a crowbar at one end and a hammer at the other.’

‘What a thing to say! Your mother isn’t well. Try to think about something else. You’ll be staying with us for a while. You can go to school in Amsterdam. You’ll like that, won’t you?’

They took the tram all the way to Leiden station, where they caught the train to Amsterdam.

‘Teacher told us a story this afternoon,’ Osewoudt said. ‘It was about a shipwreck and a sailor on a raft. He had nothing to drink, and he hated the ocean because the water was salty. But then his raft was struck by lightning and he scooped up the water even though he hated it, to put out the fire.’

‘And did he put out the fire?’

‘He may have done, but he died anyway, of thirst. We had a right laugh.’

‘Does your teacher often tell you stories like that?’

‘Hello Aunt Fie!’

‘Hello Henri! Poor lamb.’

She kissed him at length, but she didn’t smell nice.

‘Hello Ria!’

‘Hello Henri.’

Ria hugged him just as long as her mother had, but she smelled much nicer.

Uncle Bart said: ‘He’s looking forward to going to school in Amsterdam. Off to bed with you now, Henri! Ria will show you the way.’

Ria was nineteen years old. She led Osewoudt up two narrow flights of stairs to a small room with a made-up bed. She showed him where to put his clothes and where to wash. He got undressed and had a wash, but when he lay in bed he couldn’t sleep. He heard his uncle and aunt go to bed, then the door opened a little and Ria looked in.

‘What’s this? Light still on? Not asleep yet?’

‘I’m scared.’

She pushed the door wide open and pointed behind her to the landing below.

‘That’s my bedroom, down there. You can come to me if you like, if you have trouble sleeping.’

When he went to her she was in bed.

‘Here, get under the covers or you’ll get cold.’

As soon as he was in bed with her she switched off the light.

‘My mother always lets me get into bed with her, too.’

He began to sob.

She slipped her arm beneath his head.

‘I’ve always wanted a little brother. You can stay with me tonight. Nobody will notice. Anyway, Papa won’t mind.’

‘He wouldn’t tell me how it happened. Won’t you tell me?’

‘I don’t know either, Henri. You shouldn’t think about things like that.’

‘I’d like to know.’

‘Don’t you think my hair smells nice?’

‘Yes, it smells nice, but I’m scared.’

‘Try and get some sleep.’

‘I can’t.’

‘You’re just a little boy.’