During the afternoon, he called four men to him and one by one negotiated their wages for work on the farm. He gave each one a note of their agreement; most of the workers could not read but they took the paper and stored it safely in their clothing. The men he employed were all strong, fit and of good character and each one had different farming skills. In addition, he spoke to a number of women and eventually chose a teenage girl as a worker for Maretta. This girl had experience of farmyard work and was strong and willing.
The following day, the five new workers came to the farm and Joachim received them. Leading them to the farmyard, he introduced them to the other residents of the farm: ‘This is Farmer Malik, the Master of this farm. This is his wife, the Mistress. And this is Giana, who, like me, has worked at this farm for many years. As you know, I am Joachim, Farmer Malik’s assistant. We all hope you will work hard and honestly for us. We also hope that you will be happy; if there are any questions or problems (he looked at the men), you may come to me. You (he addressed the girl) will of course be working for the Mistress. Now, let us all start the day’s work. There is much to do.’
That evening while they were eating their evening meal, Old Malik said to Joachim: ‘For the next few days, I will be away from the farm. I have important business with the landowner and others. You will need to take full charge of all the work here.’
Joachim knew this would be no problem for him. ‘I will look after all the farm work until you return, Malik. I will merely follow the schedule of work that you and I have drawn up.’
In fact, the schedule of work had been drawn up by Joachim alone but he always insisted that Old Malik should approve it. At the same time he couldn’t help being curious about what Old Malik had said. He wondered what this “important business” was. It must be something very serious to send Malik to see the landowner. Joachim knew that Old Malik avoided the landowner whenever he could. He exchanged glances with Giana and raised his eyebrows in a gesture of questioning but she responded only with a slight shake of the head.
The next day, Old Malik departed soon after the morning meal and was seen to be carrying several large books under his arm. During the morning, Giana tried to raise the subject several times with Maretta, to see what she could find out. Each time, Maretta just smiled gently and made a noncommittal reply.
At the midday meal break, Joachim and Giana met to discuss the matter in front of Joachim’s house. ‘What did she say?’ Joachim asked.
‘Nothing, really,’ Giana answered, ‘I tried three times to raise the subject – and I was very subtle about it – but she just smiled. She obviously understood I was trying to get her to reveal what it was all about. So I’m afraid I did not succeed. I didn’t get any information at all.’
‘Well, maybe we’ll never get to know,’ Joachim said. ‘Maybe it’s a very private matter between Malik and Maretta. If it is, it is none of our business. But I must admit I’m very curious.’
‘Me too.’ And the two young people, kindred spirits, looked into each other’s eyes and giggled conspiratorially.
By evening, Joachim met Giana excitedly. ‘I think I’ve worked it out, Giana. It’s about the future of the farm. Malik is setting up for someone to buy the farm from him sometime in the future. After all, he’s an old man and he may not want to work much longer. I hope the buyer might be Farmer Sistas; he could merge the two farms very easily. I’m sure he would employ both of us, too. But I’m a bit worried because the new owner might be someone we don’t know and he may not want us. We’ll have to try our best to persuade him to take us on when the time comes.’ So the two young people were reassured in one way and rather worried in another.
The situation continued unchanged for the next two days. Each morning, Old Malik left immediately after the morning meal and did not return until early evening. Each time he carried a bundle of books with him. Meanwhile, Joachim managed all aspects of the farm work along with his four workers. Since the new workers had started, it had been possible to make further good progress with the farm. Crops were now well tended and managed carefully to provide very good yields and all the farm animals were providing top class produce. In addition, all the farm buildings, fences and paths were now immaculate.
As he walked on a tour of inspection, Joachim looked around with pride and thought: ‘Malik’s farm is now as good as Farmer Sistas’. In fact, maybe it’s better.’ He grinned happily as he thought that. Still smiling, he added: ‘And if it isn’t better, I will work hard to make it so.’
Joachim was very proud of the work he had done at the farm. He knew he had put all his energy into it and had applied every bit of teaching he had received from Malik and Farmer Sistas. He also looked around him with a sense of sadness. ‘Whoever buys this farm after Malik is gone will be a very lucky man indeed!’
After three days of absences, Old Malik returned to his work. On the first day back, Maretta and he spent a long time in deep conversation, sitting close together at the table in the farmhouse. Both Joachim and Giana strained their ears to hear what was being said but, apart from a few random words, they heard nothing but murmurs. Every so often, they met and compared notes but nothing they had heard made any sense.
‘We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.’ Joachim was resigned. ‘Maybe Malik will not speak to us about this at present. Perhaps he will leave it until he has decided to sell.’ The young people looked at each other with dismay and longed to know what was to happen.
That evening, after the evening meal was finished, Old Malik spoke, looking at Joachim and Giana: ‘You know I have been conducting important business in the last few days. This is business that affects the future of both of you. We will speak about this tomorrow evening. Meanwhile Maretta and I must speak further and I would ask you to leave us alone.’ This hardly reassured the young people. They withdrew to Joachim’s house and he lit the lamp before they sat down in some dismay.
‘It’s going to affect our future.’ Joachim was sombre. ‘That sounds ominous. It must be about the future sale of the farm. Maybe he’s selling it right now. Maybe he’s sold it already.’ Their faces mirrored their worry. Then Joachim, ever practical, tried to inject a positive note. ‘Look, Giana, whatever it is we’ll know tomorrow. And whatever happens, we have each other.’ Giana was quite startled by this declaration.
‘I suppose so,’ she murmured uncertainly, looking anything but convinced!
The night passed restlessly. The day dragged by on leaden feet of worry. The evening meal was eaten distractedly and cleared away rapidly.
Then … Old Malik looked at Giana: ‘First it’s you I wish to speak to, Giana. I want to tell you a story. You’ll be interested in this story, because it’s a story about you.’ The man paused and looked at Maretta. She nodded encouragingly. Old Malik continued. ‘You will have seen that we have no children. We have never had any, although it was our wish to have many. After we had accepted this, one night the midwife of this village came to me at the village tavern and offered to sell me a new-born baby to be adopted as my own daughter. But I refused to take the child.’ The last sentence was spoken very quietly.
There was a long pause, then the man spoke again.
‘Do you know who that child was, Giana?’
‘No, Master, I don’t,’ the girl whispered.
‘Well, Giana, that child was you! You had been born in the middle of a violent storm and your mother and father were killed shortly after by a falling tree. You were found by a travelling merchant and his wife. They gave you to the village midwife so that she could find a home for you. That’s when she came to me and I refused to have you. As a result, the midwife placed you in the handyman’s family and I know you had a very bad time there. Years later when he decided to sell you, you were thin and ragged and starving. That’s when I bought you. Maybe you remember?’ Giana did remember. It was not a pleasant memo
ry; Old Malik had frightened her. The man now ended his story. ‘So you came here and you have been the Mistress’s servant ever since.’
Giana had a question: ‘Master, how do you know that the baby given to the handyman was the same baby you were offered?’
‘A good question. I had to check that too. I went to the handyman the other day and asked him to tell me what the midwife had said about the baby. The story she told him was identical to the story she told me. The only extra bit of information he was given was your name. Evidently the merchant’s wife had named you Giana after her grandmother who lived in a country far away. So there’s no doubt there was only one baby – and that baby was you!’
There was a long silence. Then Giana spoke, tears in her eyes.
‘Master, why are you telling me this? It is making me sad.’
‘Giana,’ the man spoke huskily, ‘if I had accepted you all these years ago, you would have been brought up here as my daughter and Maretta would have been your mother. Now I am going to put things right.’ He took out a thick piece of paper, rolled as a scroll. ‘I know you are not able to read this, Giana, so I will ask Joachim to tell you what it says.’
Joachim took the scroll and opened it, reading its contents quickly.
‘Giana, this paper says that from today you are the adopted daughter of Malik and Maretta and that you have all the rights and privileges of their daughter. It is signed and sealed by the landowner, in his position as King’s Justice.’
There was complete silence in the room. Giana sat, wide-eyed, looking from Old Malik to Maretta, her mind clearly in the numbness of total surprise.
Then Old Malik spoke: ‘Giana, you will no longer call us Master and Mistress. You are no longer a servant. It is your choice how you wish to address us. We hope you might choose Father and Mother. This would please us greatly.’ Giana burst into tears of shock and joy.
‘Of course I would wish to call you Father and Mother,’ she said between sobs, ‘this is the best day of my life.’ The girl rose from her chair and threw herself into Maretta’s lap. ‘Mother,’ she cried, ‘I will be a good daughter, you will see. You will never regret taking me as your daughter.’ Maretta put her arms around Giana and they rocked gently together.
Joachim was surprised but very pleased for Giana. What an incredible story! What a wonderful outcome. Admittedly, he had thought the “important business” would be about the farm. He had never guessed that Giana was to be Malik and Maretta’s daughter. Within his feeling of joy for Giana, there was nevertheless an aching emptiness. Giana’s life had been transformed. At one stroke she had changed from being a servant to a loved daughter of a successful farmer. On the other hand, his life, good as it was, was totally unchanged. As all these thoughts swirled around in his brain, he suddenly became aware that Malik was speaking to him.
‘Joachim! Joachim!’ The man tried in vain to gain the boy’s attention and placed his hand upon his arm.
‘Sorry, Malik, it’s all been such a great surprise and I was thinking …’ His voice tailed off.
‘Joachim, the important business is not yet finished. We must yet talk about the future of the farm.’ These words brought Joachim back to the reality of his life. Now Malik was going to tell him about selling the farm. How was this going to affect him? All his worries flooded back.
The man now spoke quietly into his ear: ‘Joachim, Maretta and I are not adopting you as our son. You still have a father and a mother in the next village and you are still their son. But I want you to know we both think you are a very fine young man; if things were different, we would be delighted to have you as our son.’
Joachim sat totally still. Malik’s words had disappointed him. He would still be a servant, just like he was before – and with a new master, when Malik sold the farm. He felt deflated, alone and abandoned. Malik was still talking quietly into his ear but, in his misery, the boy’s hearing had ceased to function. Then he became aware that the old man was holding out another scroll of paper: ‘What was this? What was happening?’ The boy tried to listen to Malik’s voice but was unable to comprehend the words that Malik was speaking. He gazed at the old man’s face blankly.
Finally, with a great effort, Joachim was able to reset his hearing and he interrupted the older man: ‘Malik, I am sorry, so much is happening and I have missed what you have been saying. Will you please start again?’
Malik smiled gently at him and, in reply, handed him the heavy scroll of paper: ‘Joachim, are you listening to me now?’
The boy nodded.
‘This paper makes you my sole heir. When I die, the farm will be yours. The farm and everything in it. I would only ask that you look after my wife and my daughter should I die before them. Will you do that?’
The boy was flabbergasted, hardly able to understand what had just happened to him.
‘Of course I would,’ he said faintly, ‘I promise – I will write a paper to you recording my promise.’
‘No, Joachim, your word is enough for me.’
The boy looked at the old man with great love in his eyes and they embraced warmly. ‘You have made my life wonderful,’ Joachim said, speaking through tears of joy, ‘and I will never let you down.’
Meanwhile, the words “I will be the owner of this farm!” raced around inside his head, almost making him giddy. He had never been so happy.
So the months and years passed. Joachim became a man and took over the running of the farm as Old Malik withdrew more and more from the work.
‘I am an old man,’ he said to Joachim, ‘I can leave the work to you, now.’
‘As long as I can always come to you for advice,’ Joachim would always reply with a fond smile.
The years had also transformed Giana. She had metamorphosed from a young and skinny girl into a beautiful, tall young lady. She and Joachim often sat and talked together in the evening after the meal had been eaten. They were firm friends and enjoyed each other’s company very much.
One evening, they sat quietly in front of Joachim’s house and tried to count the stars, soon having to abandon the attempt: ‘There are too many stars to count,’ Joachim said, ‘Just think of all the worlds there must be up there.’
‘I’m perfectly happy with this one,’ Giana answered softly. ‘I like it the way it is. I like the way everything is different …’ The word “different” echoed in her ears and sent her mind back to something Maretta had said to her. What was it? Ah yes, she remembered now.
She turned to look at Joachim: ‘Do you know what Mother said to me once? She said: “Boys are very different from girls.”’
The silence lengthened as they both contemplated these words.
Then, for the very first time, she slipped her slim hand into his and breathed: ‘I think I’m glad …’
CONTINUATIO I
At this stage, it would be easy to conclude that the Stone was an entity of power. That, however, would not only be incorrect but simplistic. Nevertheless it is true that the Stone, in a previous, unrecognisable form, had been a conduit of power – but that was a different measure of power; internal, pulsating, much more akin to the comprehensible power of motion, of flow, of life itself.
Humanity claims some understanding of this type of power, because humanity is bound up with life and motion. But there never had been any personal power within the basic structure of the Stone, within the scaffolding of particles that gave it its form and existence throughout the continuum of space and time.
On the other hand, there was a power associated with the reality of the Stone. Not a direct power that can be measured by sensitive scientific instruments, so often manifested as wave patterns of energy disturbance – those amazingly tiny but significant ripples in the ether of our world and beyond. More a pattern of mystically-transmitted influence, somehow able to flow directly into the mind of h
umanity, there becoming capable of significant psychological and physiological effect.
Perhaps the power associated with the Stone should be linked with the concept of “dark matter”. Today, it is proposed by science that such matter is plentiful in our universe systems but its constitution, existence and reality are currently unknown speculations.
Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground – trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis Chapter 2 Verses 8-9.
The Holy Bible, New International Version (The Bible Society, 1973)
PART TWO
Kati
It was really very disappointing!
‘Only a little stone! After all the trouble I’ve taken to get the box open.’
Kati had been pleasurably excited when she found the mysterious little wooden box. She had been searching for “treasure” in one of the old storerooms of the Manor House (one of her favourite Saturday pastimes) and, upon moving a very old and heavy trunk, had spotted the little box tucked into a shallow recess behind it. It looked like no-one had touched this box for a very long time, maybe even centuries. It had been quite a problem to reach but, by bending over the trunk and stretching her arm to the limit, she had just been able to grasp it and lift it from its hiding place.
The Knowledge Stone Page 13
