فصل 05

Chapter five

The Graveyard

They left his house and began to walk along the road to the hill. When they arrived, they walked slowly through the graveyard. At the top of the hill, they looked down at the fields below. They could see a lot of lorries, and a lot of men were working there, building the new town.

Already there were hundreds and hundreds of new houses in the field. ‘The village is changing very fast,’ he said. ‘Soon there are going to be thousands and thousands of new houses. What will happen to our village then?

Once it was a quiet place and the people were friendly. But soon there will be a lot of new people and busy, noisy roads. I don’t want to live in a place like that.’

‘Can’t you do anything? Can’t you stop them?’ asked Karen.

‘Me? No. What can I do? Nothing. I’m an old man, and nobody listens to me.’

They walked on through the graveyard, and Kee said, ‘My grandfather is here in this graveyard. He was my mother’s father. I remember the day when he died. I cried for a long time when I saw that big dark hole in the ground, and we put his body in the grave.

It was raining. I was twelve years old. My mother and father were with me, and they were crying too.’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Karen.

‘Oh, it was a long time ago,’ said Kee. ‘But my grandfather’s grave was the last on this hill. After he died, they made a new graveyard on the other side of the village. That’s why nobody comes here now. Nobody remembers the old people here.’

‘But you do.’

‘Oh, yes. I could never forget my grandfather. He taught me about voodoo, about the spirit of the rain and the spirit of the wind. You see, nothing is really dead. There’s a spirit in everything, in every tree, in the sun, in the sea. If you understand voodoo, you can talk to these spirits. And there’s a spirit under this cold grey stone.’

Kee showed her the stone on his grandfather’s grave and Karen read the words slowly. ‘Tim Atty. Born 1845. Died 1906.’ Kee looked at Karen and said quietly, ‘Some people say he was the strongest houngan of all, the houngan we call Baron Samedi.’

‘Baron Samedi!’ cried Karen. ‘Your grandfather!’ Suddenly she felt afraid when she heard the terrible name. She looked at the old man.

‘I see you know more about voodoo than I thought,’ he said. ‘But don’t be afraid of me. I’m just an old man who doesn’t like the new world.’ He smiled at Karen again.

They stayed on the hill and talked for a long time. Then Karen looked at her watch and said, ‘What? Is that the time? I’m sorry, Kee, but I must go now. I have to be at the hospital at four o’clock.’ Kee got up.

‘Don’t worry,’ said Karen. ‘I can find the car - it’s not far. Please stay if you want to.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes, I know how to get back.’

‘Well, then, I think I’ll stay a little longer. It was very nice to talk to you.’

‘Thank you for talking to me, too. I’ve learnt a lot today. I hope we’ll meet again.’

‘I hope so too. Goodbye.’

Kee watched Karen as she walked down the hill. And then he saw two men. They were young, and they were carrying lots of papers. They walked around the graveyard for a short time, looking at the graves and then at the papers. Kee went over to them.

‘Good afternoon,’ he said.

‘Good afternoon,’ the men replied.

‘What are you doing here?’ asked Kee.

‘We work for Conway Construction,’ they said. ‘We’re building some shops here.’

‘And a big hotel,’ said the other man. Kee was very surprised. ‘What?’ he said. ‘You can’t do that here. This is a graveyard. You can’t build houses and shops in a graveyard. It’s a very important place.’

The two men laughed at him. ‘Don’t be stupid, old man,’ they said. ‘This graveyard is very old. Nobody comes here now. The people in this graveyard died a hundred years ago.’

Kee was angry. ‘Don’t talk to me like that,’ he said. ‘My grandfather’s grave is here. You’re not going to build shops and houses on this land.’

One of the men said, ‘Yes, we are. This is Mr Conway’s land. He bought it a few days ago. He’s going to build shops here and we’re going to help him.’

‘No,’ said Kee. ‘That isn’t true.’

‘It is true,’ replied the man. ‘We’re going to start next week. If you want to, you can go and see Mr Conway. You can talk to him. He’ll tell you it’s true.’

‘Where does he live?’ asked Kee. The men gave him a small piece of paper. He looked at it. The paper said: ‘Conway Construction, 16 Rue de la Republique, Port au Prince.’

Kee said, ‘Don’t begin any work here. I want to see Conway first. I’ll tell him that he can’t build shops here.’

The two men laughed and said, ‘OK, old man. We’ll wait for you.’