Chapter 4: Heidy’s settling in

Tuesday 09.07.2019

The orphanage was in total chaos. Some of the children had heard before school that Heidy was not going to school because strangers were her picking up. None of the orphans had that chance. No one knew how it started, but orphans can be devils. They had insulted, beaten, and spat on Heidy. Donna only said that Heidy had gone completely crazy. Even the strongest children would have fled when Heidy armed herself with an iron bar. Only three adults were able to stop the angry girl with brute force. However, windows and the only television had been smashed during the confrontation.

Heidy was sitting in the leader’s room, sobbing, her eyes closed. She was tied to a chair. Her face was covered in bruises and lacerations. First, I dabbed the blood from her right eye and wiped her chin and neck. One of her lips was completely split. I quickly untied her despite the staff’s resistance. She immediately went mad at the boss, which I could understand. I resolutely blocked her path and pulled the angry girl to my chest. I realised that my shirt was going to be ruined by her bleeding wounds, but I had to calm the poor soul down.

We exchanged a few words in Dutch. Heidy whimpered. Everyone had tried to hit her. They kicked her or spit on her. “And the boss pulled out whole clumps of my hair and crushed my arms. It was terrible.” That’s all I needed to know.

Olivia suddenly translated the boss’ words. “My name is Alvaro Juan Mendoz. I run this institution for the city of Trujillo. And you are the father of this beast and will pay for all the damage?”

Smiling, I looked at Mendoz. He was shaking with rage and excitement. He had obviously overpowered Heidy and tied her up.

“Good afternoon. My name is Michael Berthier and I am not Heidy’s father. What have you just done to her?”

There was silence. Donna explained that Heidy had been out of control again.

“I don’t believe you. You exposed the defenceless girl to the malevolence of the other children. Why did you tell them that Heidy was leaving today?”

No answer was also a kind of answer.

“Where’s Heidy’s hair?”

Now, Olivia and Ramona discovered that the girl was missing a lot of hair.

There were several strands of blonde hair in the bin. Ramona put them in a clear bag. She had already photographed Heidy when she was tied to the chair. I quickly asked her for close-ups of the bruised face and the bald patch above the right ear.

“I suggest you call the police now and we make a record of what happened. You are guilty against this poor girl.”

I wanted to take advantage of Mendoz’ momentary weakness.

After some back and forth, we agreed not to involve the police if the home waived compensation. For Heidy we got a temporary identity card, more of a protocol, initially without a surname, date of birth or country of origin, which the Mendoz had to complete at my insistence. There was no child card and no passport. Ramona signed for Heidy and her few belongings. I was delighted to see that the little girl still had the cuddly dragon I had given her almost four months ago.

The new address I gave for the little Dutch girl was 02833 San Paradiso, Camino a la mina. This was the address Mrs Fernandez had given me in Huaraz.

From the newspaper office, Ernesto called the police station to see if there was any new information about Heidy Brouwer from the Netherlands. A passport with that name was found, but no one had matched it to the pregnant girl who was in the orphanage. Inti, Ernesto’s employee, took the handover protocol of the home and picked up the passport together with Alejandra and Heidy. I was a little cautious about communicating with the police; perhaps there was a complaint against me after the helicopter operation with the officials from Lima.

Ernesto gave me a vest to cover the stains of Heidy’s blood because my shirt was really full of blood, like I’d killed someone.

At the BCP bank I showed the documents from Huaraz and had the ‘Mama Olivia’ account transferred to our new tax-exempt club. We were not allowed to access the money until the bank had received written confirmation from Huaraz. But we had plenty of time. Our financial situation had improved considerably. Ramona added another $5,000 to her account, which unfortunately also reached her dollar limit. Her new credit card was working fine. So, she could order online from now on.

There was a lot to do before heading home. First, we went to a modern shopping centre with a supermarket and many speciality markets, such as furniture, building materials, and a garden centre. We desperately needed mattresses, but I didn’t know how to get them to our valley. The stuffed mattresses were cheap, but much too bulky to take home. The vendor showed me smaller packages of imported mattresses. They were vacuum packed and would inflate themselves into mattresses. When I didn’t want to believe it, he demonstrated it. I immediately packed eight of these boxes into our Landcruiser. Luckily, I had measured, as there were three different sizes. The beds in the cottages were 90x190. But they cost almost ten times as much as the domestic mattresses, more than 300 SOL each, but of the best quality. We also bought sheets and sleeping bags.

Fifty kilos of rice and twenty kilos of spaghetti, plus a packet of sugar and a packet of salt completed our shopping. We were also running out of toothpaste and urgently we needed more long-sleeved jumpers for everyone. Winter was just over, but for the cold evenings and nights we had only the scratchy woollen things left.

The credit cards still worked. That reassured me, but I knew it would come to an end. That’s why I went to an ATM twice to get another 1,000 SOL.

At the pharmacy we received several small cooler bags with the vaccines and four boxes of medicines. Ramona took care of the contraception of all women and ordered several packages of birth control pills and longer-acting three-month injections. Ramona had also ordered hormone sticks, which are inserted under the skin on the upper arm and offer three years of safe protection against an unwanted pregnancy. According to our doctor, this would be the safest method for contraception, but the long-term effects have not yet been sufficiently researched.

The storage space in the car was exhausted. We met Alejandra and Heidy outside the newsroom and headed for the rather basic beach hotel. Sula and Babette were over the moon. Their eyes lit up as they told us about all the wonderful things they had experienced. The porter’s acquaintance was great for them. They were just in a good mood, in a great mood. They both hugged me with joy. Sula just said, “That was a nice day. Somehow, I am really happy today. It’s a pity that our children weren’t with us.”

In a beautiful spot overlooking the sea, we ate shark steak from a particularly tasty species of shark with chips, a culinary delight for us. Babette wanted an ice cream, but Ramona explained that milk ice cream is not suitable for pregnant women in Peru. For dessert, there were delicious alfajores, filled with hazelnut or caramel cream, simply delicious.

On the way to the mountains, the sky closed in. A downpour in the dry season was pleasant for everyone, but it made the journey home more difficult, especially if the clouds were too low again. Luckily, there were higher clouds and only a light drizzle fell on the parched landscape.

We quickly drove to the mountain village. We tied two of Thiago’s baskets to the roof of our car. The first group of the family, Amir, and Abril, were on their way down to the valley with their two cows and several goats. Next, the parents wanted to start with their smaller daughter and all the sheep, turkeys, and ducks. They were carrying baskets of guinea pigs and chickens on their backs. After a few days, the two older children wanted to come with their grandfather, the alpacas, and the ducks. The grandfather was still very fit and bargained with the neighbours for certain household items and individual animals.

For the eight families left in the mountain village, we had brought two kilos of sugar, two 500-gram packets of salt and spices from Trujillo. The women looked at us almost motionlessly, hardly showing any gratitude, as they accepted the gifts from us. In our village it was very different. Our Indio women had learned to show their gratitude or their joy.

Meanwhile, the sky was darkening again. In the distance, over the ice-covered five thousand meter peaks, it looked like it was snowing. Lightning flashed from time to time. Thiago agreed with me that nine-year-old Carlotta should come with us. It was a long way for her anyway. She sat down next to Heidi. The two of them stroked the guinea pigs in Carlotta’s basket. For the first time, I saw a smile on Heidi’s face. We had to get her more cheerful and optimistic. But it seemed we were already on the right track. Carlotta gave Heidy grasses with seeds from a bag. Our problem child was delighted and lovingly fed the guinea pigs.

I was worried about the attitude of Lenya and Esther, who had really hated Heidy during her first visit to the second group’s hut. Ramona promised to talk to the two young ladies. Heidy was to help Carlotta in the valley, cleaning the new family’s hut and building an enclosure for the guinea pigs. She could sleep in Thiago’s hut for the first night until Lenya and Esther agreed to let Heidy move into our palazzo.

Soon, we reached Amir and Abril with their cows and goats. The road was so narrow that we could hardly pass. We had parked the car and driven the animals past it. I didn’t want to risk another accident. The whole manoeuvre took almost ten minutes to get all the animals behind the car. I quickly handed the children two of the six sleeping bags I had bought in Trujillo, as the nights were cool in the mountains. Olivia found it difficult to explain how to use them. Heidy, with the help of Carlotta, demonstrated how to get into a sleeping bag. She was visibly proud when Abril gratefully put her hand on her shoulder. Sula and Babette had no experience of sleeping bags either. I explained that we would be using them for overnight stays on larger trips in the future.

By nightfall we had reached the small Indio settlement in the valley. Enzo and Marc were to help prepare the rather dilapidated hut for Thiago and Vega from tomorrow. It was one of the huts that had had its roof torn off by a storm the first year and was otherwise damaged. The roof had been repaired, but it was leaking in two places. It was still raining lightly. Enzo did the small repair right away. He suggested that he could also prepare an extension like his hut. The material was still in the container warehouse. Enzo’s wife Marta was particularly looking forward to meeting Thiago’s family. They were somehow related.

Heidy was to wait here in the village. I explained that we wanted to get the agreement of all the girls before she could move in with us at the Palazzo. Olivia suggested that Heidy and Carlotta could sleep in the guesthouse tonight. Yes, that was a good idea. There was not even a dry mattress in the cottage. But first Heidy and Carlotta should clean the cottage. Without a murmur she started cleaning the sink and the stove. Marta hung the damp mattresses on a line between the trees. They smelled so musty. A few raindrops even helped.

Carlotta looked enchanted when Enzo’s wife was handling a vacuum cleaner. The little one held her hand in front of the sucker, and then pulled it away again in fright. Heidy threw down some dry leaves. Carlotta was itching when they were sucked away in no time. Finally, Enzo showed them where they could build a small enclosure for the five guinea pigs out of stones. Carlotta was immediately there with zeal and showed Heidy how best to do it.

I called Enzo and Juan and their wives to come to the hut for the Thiagos family. With a knife I opened one of the mattress boxes and cut open the vacuum sheeting. The four adults and Carlotta watched in disbelief as the mattress unfolded of its own accord. It fit perfectly into one of the hut’s bed boxes. Enzo and Juan imitated me and both beds were ready for use in no time. Then I gave each of the two families two of the new mattresses. They looked at me in disbelief. I couldn’t look away as Marta and Triana literally kissed my feet. I have rarely seen so much gratitude from Indios. As I hugged the two women, I had that deep emotional feeling of happiness again. It hurt in my groin, but it was a wonderful, invigorating feeling. My blood seemed to be rushing through my body with joy.