Fiela's Child (Fiela se Kind)

After forty-one days, Lukas decides that his mother is not going to come back for him. He begins contemplating life without her, as well as what it means that he is white and they are Black. Nina tries to convince him to go into the forest with her, but he does not. Elias is harsh with them when they are not working, and he has to produce a certain amount of beams by the time Elias gets back. However, he decides he likes Nina best in the family.

On day 44, Elias takes them into the woods to help him dig a pit. It is so big that Lukas loses any idea of how long they are out there working on it. Nina tells him that she knows something that no one else does: where baby elephants come from. She says that she saw a group of elephants standing in a circle, and one of them fell down. Then a baby elephant came out the back of it. When they go home that night, Elias tells him that Fiela came and dropped off his things. She delivered some clothes, a blanket, and an ostrich egg. Lukas is desperate for news of her, but Elias tells him to stop asking.

The next day he goes to the pit to work with them—and every day after. One night Willem comes home and says that the elephants are all going crazy. Elias thinks it might have something to do with the pit. At the end of the chapter, Nina tells Lukas that her father is a swine. She says she saw a dead elephant in the pit.

Benjamin finally begins to think of himself as Lukas, and of Nina and Willem as his brothers. Months go by and then a full year has passed. It is revealed that the night after Nina found the elephant in the pit, Elias came home upset. He said the elephants were waiting for him and tried to kill him.

Nina takes Lukas into the forest and shows him the road that would lead him back to Fiela and his home. He says that she is just trying to get him in trouble. He is conflicted—wanting both to escape, but also to accept his new station in life. One day, Nina takes him into the forest. She shows him the mouth organ she was originally going to buy with the five shillings he gave to her, buried in the forest. Then she gives him back the money and says she stole the mouth organ and kept his money. She begs him not to tell her father that she stole it, and Lukas knows he has leverage over her. Their relationship improves because she knows that if she annoys him too much he will tell Elias.

One evening when they return home, the forester is waiting for them. Elias tells Lukas to wait inside. There is soon a huge commotion. Nina begs Lukas to help her. The forester has found a job for her in town, and she will soon be leaving. Elias has been ill, although they suspect that he is simply afraid of the elephants, and that is why he doesn’t go out. Two days after the forester’s visit, Elias tells Lukas to take Nina to the spot where the forester will retrieve her. He says to tie her up if she tries to run. On the way, she tells him that Elias will be getting the money for her work, not her. They suddenly have to hide from a herd of elephants that crash through. Once they are gone, she begs Lukas to leave her and promises to wait for the forester, but he delivers her to the forester. As he walks home, he finds himself thinking about Fiela, the ostriches, and his siblings. 

Elias feels trapped at home. He believes the elephants will get him if he leaves. Lukas and Kristoffel are becoming reliable workers and he does not have much to worry about as far as beam production. He thinks about Malie’s daughter, Bet, who keeps coming over to visit while Lukas is working. It appears she wants to marry him. He thinks about Nina, who has become more aggravating than before. She was fired from her position caring for the children of an English couple one week after starting. After the forester got her a second chance, she was fired again. Elias is making more money than ever, but he has all but given up on the chances of Nina ever being respectable. 

In April of 1881, seven years after Benjamin is taken away, Dawid dies of a poison spider bite. Fiela thinks that, without one’s children, there is no such thing as success. She now has 12 brood ostriches and six enclosures, but they are little comfort. Kitty has married a religious man who Fiela does not think much of. Emma still lives at home. She has a child, also named Fiela, with the yard-hand of a man named John Howell. 

Fiela tells Petrus that he must get news of Dawid’s death to Benjamin. She thinks about the day that she and Dawid went to the house of Elias and asked to see Benjamin, only to be shouted down and threatened with legal action. She wonders if Dawid’s death will somehow manage to bring Benjamin back to her, even though he will now be a man of almost twenty.

Nina has disappeared from the village. There is trouble every month when Willem or Kristoffel goes to fetch her wages, but this time she has disappeared. Lukas agrees to go look for her, even though he says he no longer goes to the village. On the way, he sees a group of boys who tell him that a ghost ship has washed ashore at Noezie; it is an abandoned ship that will sink soon. Lukas realizes he has never been this close to the sea, but he continues into the village, where he learns that Nina was last working for a woman named Mrs. Weatherbury.

Mrs. Weatherbury tells him that yes, Nina works for her, but she is unruly, disappearing into the forest as soon as she is done with her work. She also says that she will not allow anyone to come collect Nina’s wages. They are Nina’s to do with as she sees fit. Lukas cannot tell her that he collects the wages so that his father can buy another gun. He has already bought five, but they do not make him feel safe from the threat of the elephants.

Lukas leaves, tired of waiting for Nina, but promising to return later in the day. He walks to a lagoon and watches a ship come in. When he returns, Nina is there. She says he cannot tell their father where she is, and she’s tired of giving her money to him. Lukas says he has actually come to ask her for a favor. He wants her to go to Elias and tell him that Lukas has left; he is finished with the forest.

Lukas returns to the lagoon and asks the captain for work. The captain says that if he cannot row, he cannot work. Lukas finds a man named Kaliel September, who has rowed for the captain in the past. He tells Kaliel he wants to learn to row. If he will teach him, he will stay with him and help him with his fishing ventures, a profitable side business. Lukas begins living with him. Kaliel tells him the captain, John Benn, is his brother. They have had a falling out that he does not explain. He cautions Lukas that forest people should steer clear of the sea at all costs. Kaliel is surprised to learn that Nina is his sister. He says Lukas must warn her to stay away from the shore. He says captains like to get white girls when they can, but does not elaborate on what he means. Lukas goes to visit Nina, but Mrs. Weatherbury tells him that she ran away three days prior. 

Nina tells Elias that Lukas is not returning. Elias makes a plan to bring him back. He speaks with Hans, who is from an old tribe that knows much of the region’s lore and magic. Hans tells him how to make a mixture that will hide him from the elephants, so he can leave home without being menaced by their curse. Hans says that Elias is right: the elephants have marked him. Elias pays his price—10 sweet potatoes—and prepares to go find Lukas.