Barn

Standing on the big boulder next to the green letter box, Dieke can hardly wait. She’s got her yellow boots back on. ‘Hey, Uncle Johan!’ she cries.

Uncle Johan jumps off the pannier rack. Uncle Jan’s given him a ride from the cemetery on the back of his bike. He rubs his bum, picks her up and gives her a loud slobbery kiss full on the lips.

‘Yuck!’ she says, but doesn’t care. ‘You should see what Grandpa’s done!’

‘You’re not swimming?’ Uncle Jan asks.

She doesn’t have time for pointless questions like that now, there are much more important things happening. Uncle Johan still hasn’t put her back down on the ground. ‘He’s cut down all the trees! And Grandma’s up on the straw!’ she bawls in his ear.

Her father lifts the lid of the letter box, but doesn’t take anything out of it. When he lets the lid fall back down again, the wooden post the box is attached to cracks and the whole thing lurches to one side. He kicks the post, and then it breaks completely and the letter box falls into the grass.

‘Hey, Re-kel!’ shouts Uncle Johan.

Rekel comes running up and Uncle Johan puts Dieke down so he can lie flat in the yard and let the dog jump on top of him and lick him. He doesn’t even put his hands over his face.

‘That’s dirty,’ she says.

‘N-o, it’s nice.’

‘Has Uncle Jan finished painting, Dad?’

‘Yes, Dieke,’ her father says.

‘Does it look pretty again?’

‘Perfect.’

‘And my stone? Is that still pretty too?’

‘It is.’

‘And the little birds?’

‘Which little birds?’

‘In the tree next to the bench.’

‘I only saw one bird.’

‘But there were two, and they had to breathe really hard because it’s so hot.’

‘Oh. One must have flown away for a moment to get something to eat.’

‘That’s right,’ says Uncle Jan. ‘Birds get hungry too sometimes.’

As if she doesn’t know that. Her father and Uncle Jan walk into the yard, both pushing their bikes. The bucket hanging off Uncle Jan’s handlebars taps against the frame. Uncle Johan is still lying on the ground. Rekel is getting wilder and wilder. Nobody’s said anything about the trees or Grandma. Is it all normal to them, or what? Not to her. Grandpa’s front garden is an enormous mess, a big jumble of branches and leaves, and one of the trees is lying on Grandma’s vegetable garden. She’s going to be cross later. Uncle Johan has stood up. He’s picked Rekel up and is carrying him over to the ditch. ‘What are you doing?’ she asks.

‘Re-kel’s hot. He needs to s-wim.’ With the dog in his arms, Uncle Johan walks down the bank of the ditch.

‘Are you going to throw him in the water?’

‘Y-es.’ Uncle Johan lets go of Rekel, who falls into the ditch with a big splash and disappears underwater. When he comes up, he splutters furiously. He swims to the other side, climbs out, creeps under a chestnut branch like an enormous wet rat and goes around to the back of the house, where he lies down under the rear willow, not looking back once.

‘Now he’s cross with you,’ she says.

‘N-o he’s not! He loves me. I’m his f-avourite h-uman!’

It’s as if everyone’s gone crazy today. Her mother’s grumpy and she doesn’t know why. Just because of the pot? It wasn’t that bad. Uncle Johan throwing Rekel in the ditch for no reason, but yeah, Uncle Johan does lots of strange things because he had that accident, of course. Grandpa cutting down three trees and leaving them in the garden. Grandma up on the straw and not even answering when she asks her a question. And her father breaking everything.

Uncle Johan comes up from the ditch and follows her father and Uncle Jan into the barn. Now she’s alone in the yard again. What a strange day. If she’d just gone to the swimming pool this morning, maybe none of this would have happened. Or else it would have happened, but without her being there! She looks in through the kitchen window. Her mother is standing at the sink holding a tea towel. She doesn’t look out. Dieke looks in the other direction, at Grandpa’s house. Grandpa is just coming out of the side door. He pulls on his clogs and comes over the bridge. He doesn’t seem to notice her and then he too disappears into the barn. She runs over quickly, the tops of her yellow boots slapping against her shins.