James A. Michener - Four Novels (Vol.2) by James A. Michener

Author:James A. Michener
Language: eng
Format: epub

When Mr. Op t’Hooft finished reading the report, he waited in some confusion as to what he should do next. He looked in vain at Chairman van Doorn for instructions, but Detleef was too shaken to act intelligently, and as for Mr. van Valck, whose redoubtable ancestor Rooi had been dragged from his stormy grave, he was in a state of shock.

Dr. Adams reached for the report, but Mr. Op t’Hooft was not sure he should deliver it to a man known to be difficult where Afrikaner matters were concerned. Dr. Adams solved this by snatching the paper and holding it aloft. “Did you say this was the only copy?”

“Yes. Not even one carbon was made.”

“Good. I want you to watch what happens to your one copy.” Crumpling it in his left hand, Dr. Adams produced a match, scratched it across the top of the polished table, and set fire to the report. Holding it by one end, he watched the flames creep closer to his fingers, then dropped the burning paper on the table, where it vanished, leaving a scar.

“I think we should all forget this report,” Adams said. “It can do no one in this room any good, and it could do distinguished citizens outside a great deal of harm.” When Mr. Op t’Hooft, completely bewildered, left, Adams said, “It looks to me as if I’m the only one here who is not related to this little Coloured girl.”

Van Valck and Van Doorn glared at him, but he ignored them, saying brightly, “I propose we declare the child white and end this farce.” He supposed that the shaken men, in order to hide their own involvement, would agree, but he underestimated Detleef’s moral tenacity.

In silence the Commissioner on Racial Affairs lowered his head and pondered what to do. In his anxiety he could hear the voices of his family orating savagely on the problem of the Coloureds:

Maria van Doorn: “They are the children of sin, and God must despise them.”

Johanna Krause: “They are mongrels.”

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