Chapter 12: December 2018

The new month started completely unexpectedly for me. Esther asked me for a second partnership after breakfast. Her son Attila was the eldest child of the schoolgirls, already a good 10 months old. There was really no reason to deny her another pregnancy. Nevertheless, I had hoped that she would at least wait until our doctor had given birth to her second child in January. When I said this out loud, referring to the expected morning sickness and her responsibility for the impending birth, I was met with the expected opposition. Even our heavily pregnant doctor supported her assistant’s request.

I immediately realised the dilemma. On the one hand, I didn’t want another conflict with our dear Hungarian, who had repeatedly and independently worked as a midwife at births, but on the other hand, the matter was getting out of hand. From my point of view, we already had too many children in the valley. Daja was expecting her first baby this month, and Ramona and Luisa were due in January. Olivia and Carmen were also pregnant, plus another four students, maybe even five. From my point of view, it shouldn’t go on like this. We were not a maternity centre, not a breeding station for human offspring. That’s why I postponed the answer and asked for a personal meeting with Ramona and Esther in my study.

But things got much worse there. The student council had met yesterday without my knowledge. Babette had been asked for her honest opinion as to whether there was still a real chance of ever leaving the valley. Yes, Beth had confirmed everyone’s fears. From her point of view, there was hardly any chance of leaving our valley and reaching other people. When Esther asked me for my honest assessment, I had no choice but to confirm Babette’s statement.

“Yes, unfortunately it is. The huge rock fall cannot be overcome without endangering life and limb. I don’t have a solution at the moment, I’m thinking about another way through the uninhabited valley. But on our excursion for salt at the time, it looked as if the valley ended at a steep rock face. This valley probably has no exit. Otherwise, it would certainly be inhabited by Indios. Please, that’s the fact. But we mustn’t despair, although to be honest, the chances are slim.”

Ramona and Esther looked at each other and nodded. Esther then said moving words. “Michael, thank you for your honest answer. We had all suspected this, indeed feared it. That’s why we decided yesterday that we would have to settle in the valley permanently, isolated from all other people, completely on our own, living like the Indios in the mountains. Luckily, we have electricity and water, enough food, we will survive and have to hope for our luck. Maybe an aeroplane or a helicopter will find us.”

We sat together in silence. Then Ramona spoke. “We had high hopes that you would get through to the mountain village. Esther didn’t want to give birth to a second child until we had access to medication and vaccines. The dream is over. But we don’t want to despair, we want to live. With Esther’s help, the student council has drawn up a list of who all wants a second child and how we can organise lessons for our children later on. Esther, please get your plan.”

When the doctor was alone with me, she whispered to me, “Michael, am I not your partner? Your worries are my worries. Why didn’t you talk to me, tell me what the situation really is?”

“Ramona, because I still have hope. We’ve made the slope unstable. The blasting has set the scree in motion. The rainy season will start soon. With a bit of luck, the slope clears itself. Otherwise, I’ll go over again. My risk, our chance, that’s all I can say.”

“No, Michael. That’s not your decision. We need you. Without you, everything makes no sense. I’d rather let Sula and Kira go to the mountain village, as they suggested. Babette and you are too heavy, you’ll make the scree slide. Our two lightweights might make it.”

I actually needed time to think, but Esther was already back and handed me two files. “Here’s the overview of our children. Twenty-one children have been born so far. Four women and six students are pregnant. There are also seven women, including myself, who all want to become mothers for a second time. Daja may be added to the list, but she is due to give birth to her first healthy child this month. If everything goes according to plan, we will eventually have two school classes with around twenty children each. We can’t manage any more lessons.”

It was all going too fast and against the grain. “Stop, Esther. It’s not going to work like this. You have to give me time to think. The fact is, we have twenty-one newborns in the valley so far, I didn’t realise that until today, I can see it on the list now. That alone is a big bummer. Olivia is pregnant, the three adult women, plus five students...”

“Six!” Ramona chimed in. “Cara’s pregnant too. She was going to tell you that tonight.”

“Fine, so six, that’s ten pregnant women. And how many more want a child now?”

“All seven who are not pregnant want to conceive a child with you as soon as possible. Look at the second list to see who fulfils your ‘Six months after birth’ condition.”

“Very nice. So, you made a plan without asking my opinion?”

“Yes, we know your opinion. Your favourite thing would be if there were no more children. But we want to live here permanently, we want to feel good, be happy. A mother with two children is like a small family, unfortunately without a husband of our own.” Esther looked at me fixedly, as if she wanted to hypnotise me.

Ramona added, “And it would be unfair if only some of the younger ones were allowed to have a second child. Please leave the decision to the girls. Help them to realise their dream.”

Firstly, I took a closer look at the ‘pollination plan’ as I said sarcastically.

Esther and Babette from now

Lenya from 12/11/2018

Ananda from 12/29/2018

Kira from 02/22/2019

Sula from 03/01/2019

Fahsai from 03/22/2019

I was seething inside; I felt betrayed. Nevertheless, I didn’t want to argue with Ramona and Esther. I needed time to think. When I asked our two doctors for time, Esther blurted it out. “No, Michael, please agree to my request. We took my temperature again this morning. My ovulation is imminent, I’m fertile. Please, I’ve wanted a second child for a long time, but I wanted to wait on Ramona’s advice. There’s no point now. Please, Michael.”

“Guys, what are you doing to me? I don’t feel like arguing with you, Esther. You’re such a lovely woman and so important to us. Soon it will be up to you again to decide whether Ramona gives birth to her second child without any problems. Do you really think this is right for all of us?”

“Yes, Michael. We girls are in agreement. Everyone who wants to has their own little family. What’s more, we’re one big family, we help each other and look after our children together. It’s going to be great. When we discussed it yesterday, there was an argument at first, then we came to an agreement and finally all five of us were crying, not out of anger, but in anticipation. You can’t understand how we feel. This is now our only remaining dream for our future. We can’t learn much anymore, will never study or learn a proper profession, will never have internet. No one gets their own husband. There must still be something to look forward to.”

Of course, I understood the young women and their concerns, but that would be too much for our community. “Thank you, Esther. I understand you. Now I don’t want to say ‘but’, I agree with your request. Who deserves it more than you? No one. I will speak to Babette. According to your overview, four pregnancies are planned in one month. That’s not possible, it would completely overwhelm our team and me. Besides, I wouldn’t have any time left to care for the pregnant women or for my duties.”

Esther ran to me, hugged me, and heaped kisses on my face. “Thank you, Michael. I’m so happy for you. You won’t regret it. I promise you that on behalf of everyone.”

Our young midwife ran out to spread the message to the other students. When we were alone, Ramona spoke her mind forcefully. “That was a good and correct decision, Michael. Believe me, we can do it. Trust us women.”

But of course, she couldn’t stop mocking. “And you’ll have a lot of fun again. Sex with seven young women without a condom, what more could you want? Oh, and one more thing. If we ever get the internet, I’ll apply to have you entered in the ‘Guinness Book of Records’. In less than three years, you’ll have fathered around forty children, and I’m sure every time on the first attempt, which is unique in the world.”

“Can’t you be serious for once, Ramona? I’m worried about this.”

“I know, my love. But I have a good feeling about this.” She tenderly stroked my increasingly thinning hair.

“Isn’t it nice how everyone likes you, how great our girls are. I learnt a saying at school. ‘The environment moulds the person’. Our environment is so unprecedentedly good, nature, you, the Indios, our children too. That’s why our young women are all so great. We have you to thank for the way you have respected, encouraged, and challenged them all. Trust yourself, trust Luisa and trust me.”

Just as Ramona was about to kiss me, Esther burst in. “Michael, something is happening. Sula and Babette are on the move with the powerful artillery. Priya says they want to shoot the mountain away.”

“Damn, that’s not possible. They’ll kill themselves.”

Priya saw my fear and told me everything she knew. My two assistants had left more than an hour ago with the bikes and the gun. Ananda and Kira had helped carry the gun up the steep climb and tie it to both bikes. Ananda and Kira still had to push the gun until it rolled by itself. That’s how they set off.

We didn’t have another bike ready to ride. I took a BMX bike without tubes and casing, ran up the steep climb as fast as I could and tried to cycle after the girls. Olivia shouted to me first, “They’re not answering the radio. Maybe they’re already in the hollow.”

It was a strain to ride a bike without tyres, but out of fear for Su and Beth I did my best, unfortunately it took me more than two hours to reach the end of the road. The two bikes of my assistants were parked in the undergrowth in front of the narrow path through the thicket. There was no sign of the gun. Some distance away, I heard the chainsaw howling. They were obviously trying to get the gun through the narrow path to the impassable dump. I was finally close to them and took a deep breath, trying to catch my breath. Then I watched as my fighters skilfully cut the path clear up to the gun’s height of a good sixty centimetres and rolled the dangerous weapon further and further.

I really wanted to shout at the girls, to express my fear and anger, but I was greeted by Su, “Nice of you to come and help us. We wouldn’t have made it over that stretch of buried road on our own.”

The discussion revealed that they wanted to prove to me that it was possible to get the gun to the top. They had no ammunition with them, but tomorrow they wanted me to join them in shooting away the overhanging upper cap of the mountain. This huge block of rock would then slide down and turn the entire slag heap into an avalanche.

“You guys are crazy. Yes, it’s a crazy idea, but the plan is ... not stupid. The chances are slim, but it’s worth a try.”

I struggled to control myself. Actually, I should have let out a scolding, not only because of their stubbornness, but also because they simply ignored the lesson scheduled for Saturday.

With great difficulty we overcame the first hurdle, the remains of the smaller landslide. The gun wasn’t too heavy, maybe eighty kilograms, but it took all our strength. Many a thick branch broke when we used it as a lever to overcome large boulders. But eventually we reached the last stretch of path. It took almost another hour to reach the sharp right-hand bend. The huge obstacle towered in front of us. We left the weapon behind and took a look at the current situation on the slope. Some rubble had slid further down. The ridge seemed completely unstable. Babette, with her eagle eyes, claimed that it was swaying in the wind. She had already noticed that yesterday. That was why she had come up with the idea of the gun. Our blasting had made any way to the hilltop impossible, everything was completely unstable. All that remained was an earthquake, and there was little hope of that, or targeted shots with heavy ammunition.

Sula threw a few stones onto the scree. Each impact triggered small rock falls. Stones crushed into pebbles bounced across the buried road into the valley below. It was simply not possible to cross the rubble field.

Finally, we looked for a position where we could fire a volley from the gun without endangering ourselves. We were lucky. About forty metres from the rubble, the slope was flatter and we had a clear view of the rocky outcrop above the scree between the solitary cacti. With some effort, we positioned the gun on two tree trunks. The right wheel was fixed to a stationary tree. We rebuilt the other one with larger stones and branches. The gun was almost recoilless, but I suspected it would still move against the direction of fire.

When we had prepared the shooting test for the next day, I first felt my thirst and the sweat all over my body. Neither my assistants nor I had thought of provisions and drinks. I scooped up some water to drink at the little watering hole Leonie had created and cleaned my hands and face in a makeshift manner, but in such a way that the water didn’t get dirty. The girls followed my example and praised the Peruvian lady’s idea. Nevertheless, I made them aware that water from a stream should only be used in an emergency. There was always a small risk of a stomach upset.

On the way to the bikes, I told them, “You know, I’ve been partnered with Esther since this morning. It’s not going to happen today because of you, even though she’s fertile right now. She will be sad. I might not be home until after 10. I can’t use my bike anymore.”

Babette thought for a moment and had another practical idea. “Michael, you drive ahead with Sula. I’ll follow on foot. Sula will leave the bike for me in the middle of the route and walk home. That way, I can cycle half of the way and you’ll be back in time for dinner.”

Before dinner, which was turkey with sweet corn, excellently seasoned with chilli, soy sauce, and ginger, I talked about the day. Lenya agreed to make up the maths lessons with the truants. A little later, Esther was in my arms. She managed to help herself to her desired gift, even though I was totally exhausted and dead tired. I couldn’t remember what happened next. I lay in a deep sleep until the morning. When Esther asked me for another donation before I woke up, I was delighted to fulfil her wish. She had earned it. Her grateful eyes and tender kisses were the best reward, a feast for my soul.

I had forbidden my assistants to try out the small cannon without me. I had locked away the ammunition but allowed them to drive up in the morning to clear the still partially buried road as best they could.

I spent Sunday morning with Esther in room ‘13’. Most of the time I spoilt my partner orally, as my resources were limited. Nevertheless, I managed to pleasure her fertile womb twice. As I had no comparison and our doctor had no experience with several men, I was somehow insecure about my virility but couldn’t ask anyone. Esther comforted me. It would have been a fantastic morning for her. Without a condom, she would finally have had first-class feelings again during intercourse. We had a lot of fun on the way to the palazzo. Esther stopped every now and then to say thank you with a lovely kiss.

The thought flashed through my mind smugly, ’Micha, you must have been better than you think.’ My sweetheart’s eyes looked at me lovingly. You could tell she was content and happy. I was too. I grabbed Esther by the hand and ran with her to the gate.

Babette and Sula weren’t back yet, although they knew that I wanted to go up to the cannon shortly after lunch. I had packed a box of ammunition with twenty 30-millimetre shells in a rucksack. We had found two types of ammunition. I opted for the one with impact ignition. Hopefully this would have the desired effect and thus put the huge boulder in motion. One projectile weighed exactly four hundred grams, so not too heavy a load for my back.

I finally heard Su’s voice. Babette had fallen on the last descent and injured her knee and shoulder. Because the young women wanted to be on time, their pace had been too fast, Sula told me. Beth’s bike was no longer usable. The front and rear wheels were demolished and the handlebars were broken. So, no one could accompany me, because we only had one bike that was still roadworthy.

Sula drove her friend, who had injured her knee and arms, to the Palazzo in an e-cart and I set off alone against all reason. Of course, I had water bottles and some provisions in my rucksack, but a companion would have been more important to me. Before the hollow path, I reported the situation to Ramona. She informed me about Babette’s injuries. Fortunately, they were only bruises and abrasions.

I finally reached the gun shortly before 4 o’clock. It was a custom-made Grjasew-Schipunow GSch AK30, a heavy automatic weapon that could empty the 24 round magazine in a few seconds. The Russians used similar weapons as six-barrelled guns for air defence and on ships as well as twin-barrelled guns in fighter aircraft. I would probably never know where Rus got this special weapon from. What was more important to me was that it still worked after our test shots on the fallen gold-bearing boulder two years ago.

My plan was to aim at the target with two single shots and then fire the remaining shells automatically if possible. If the boulder moved at an angle to the slope in my direction, I had practised a quick escape to be on the safe side.

Before the first shot, I took a deep breath and took a long sight. Nevertheless, the shot whizzed briefly over the hilltop. The second shot hit the centre of the rock, causing it to sway slightly again. I fixed the gun with more shells. Then I switched on the automatic and stepped back. The gas-operated loader did its job precisely. The first ten shots hit the target. On the eleventh shot, the gun suddenly tipped over and fired the last shots almost in my direction. I had thrown myself behind two trees, but almost slid down the slope. Fortunately, I was alone. A second person would not have found cover.

But the drama wasn’t over yet. Several bullets had riddled a tree, which fell in my direction as if in slow motion. I was no longer able to dodge. It went black around me. The treetop had buried me.

When I finally regained my senses, I struggled to free myself from the branches. But my head was pounding with pain, my right shoulder was drooping a little and I could hardly move my right arm. It took several minutes before I could think reasonably clearly. I freed myself from leaves and twigs. The supposedly almost recoilless gun had slid down the slope. The huge rocky outcrop had disappeared. However, there was no sign that it had travelled down the slope. Where had this rock structure weighing hundreds of tonnes gone? There was only one explanation. The huge rock must have fallen into a valley on the other side of the mountain. As if struck by lightning, I flinched in shock. What had I done? Were there people living there? Had I caused serious damage, maybe even killed people? I was trembling with excitement. I should have thought about that. For minutes I fell into a kind of agony. My nerves raced from one terrible idea to the next. My headache did the rest. I felt guilty, unable to think clearly.

When I finally calmed down a bit, I was able to think more clearly. I gave myself hope that nothing worse had happened. If there were people living there, they would surely have realised how unstable the mountain was and would have taken precautions to prevent any harm coming to them. With this thought, I calmed down a little and decided to take care of myself and my return home to my loved ones first. No matter what had happened, I couldn’t undo it.

Fortunately, I was wearing a sturdy work jacket. Undoing a jacket button with just one hand wasn’t easy either, but it had to be done. I fixed my right arm a little, hoping the button would hold the load.

With unsteady steps, staggering from time to time, I made my way along the path we had cleared. Every now and then I had to lean on a tree when my eyes went black. I probably had a concussion. I crawled across the partially cleared passage on all fours, or rather on three, as I couldn’t lean on my right hand. I just felt sick. A few hundred metres further on, I had to stop. I felt the need to sleep for several minutes. How was I supposed to get home in this state?

I didn’t get to my bike until after 5. I pedalled carefully. Riding with only one hand on the rough track was an art in itself, but I managed a decent distance before I had to stop again. I realised that I would soon have to abandon the bike as dusk was falling. Without visibility, I found it difficult to avoid the bumps and tree stumps and had already crashed twice.

The time had come at the hollow. I left the bike behind and tried to walk faster, but I found it difficult. Suddenly, my radio beeped. It was Kira calling. She was looking for me and came towards me with the other bike. Priya had made it ready to ride again by fitting the tyres from Babette’s broken bike to our fourth BMX bike. I asked her to let the Palazzo know that I was coming back on foot, but that I would be at least two hours late as my bike was unusable. I didn’t say anything about my injuries, but Kira asked, “Are you really OK, Michael? You sound so different.”

“I’m fine, Kira, thank you. I just crashed my bike. I’m all right. Say this to everyone.”

The hollow path was three kilometres long and it was completely dark here. I stumbled several times, luckily without falling again. The last ten kilometres were downhill, which made it difficult for me to keep my balance. I saw lights in the distance. Someone was coming towards me with handheld headlamps. Soon I heard Kira and Ananda calling me. I sat down, delighted at the unexpected help.

Kira screamed like crazy when she shone her light on me. I must have looked like a spectre. As she told me later, my face was completely dirty and my head and top were covered in blood. Although I had cleaned myself up in a makeshift manner, my shoulders and back were still covered in leaves and small twigs. I would have looked like a forest zombie she said later.

I managed to calm the two girls down. Kira supported my left arm with her shoulder and Ananda showed us the way. Finally, we reached the e-cart waiting for me outside the container store. Sula and Esther were shocked by my appearance. Their anxious words rained down on me, but I was at the end of my tether.

“Calm down. It’s all right. Come on, let’s go.”

Of course, I was the nightmare of everyone waiting for me. Luisa rushed towards me, other women too, everyone wanted to help somehow, but I screamed in pain as they tried to grab my right arm. Kira led me into the treatment room. Ramona was also shaking slightly. She only had five weeks to go until she gave birth, so she was easily upset.

I managed to say in a relatively firm voice. “Not too bad, Ramona. I had a fall. Concussion and dislocated shoulder. I’ll be fine.”

But my shoulder was not damaged, my collarbone was broken. The fracture was treated conservatively with a rucksack bandage and sling. Esther stitched up the laceration at the back of my head. Our doctor prescribed three weeks of bed rest after diagnosing a severe concussion.

Luisa wanted to feed me dinner, but Ramona forbade any food, I was only allowed to drink. In the end, I begged Esther for a whisky. From then on, I knew nothing more. I slept like a bear in hibernation and only woke up after nine. Babette, who was also injured, was whimpering in front of my bed. I stroked her lightly with my left hand and whispered to her, “Good morning, Babette. How are you?”

She howled loudly. “What’s wrong with you, Micha? Did you get hit by a grenade?”

“No, Beth. A tree fell on me. Everything will be fine soon.”

She blew me a kiss on the forehead, stroked my cheek and hurried to her room because she was also on bed rest and heard our doctor coming.

“How are you, suicider?” Ramona smiled slightly sheepishly at me when I started to flare up. “It’s all right. I didn’t mean any harm. What actually happened?”

“Good morning, doctor.” Then I fell silent.

“Yes, good morning to you. How are you?”

“Oh, it got better. What happened? I shot the rock away. Then a tree fell right on top of me. I don’t know if that was luck or bad luck. At least I survived, but it was close. End of story.”

I hadn’t been able to say it so fluently. I had stammered a little, thinking about what I should even say without upsetting all my loved ones.

Luisa brought me a vegetable soup with some rice, unseasoned and without fat, as prescribed by the doctor. I wasn’t vomiting again that night. That gave me the feeling that I was on the road to recovery, but my head was pounding and buzzing.

I spent most of the following week in bed. At first, I staggered on the way to the toilet. Esther brought me my crutches, which the old men from the village had made for me when I broke my leg. But after two days of bed rest, my steps were more secure. Only the miserable headache wouldn’t stop.

“Michael don’t worry about our partnership. The only important thing is your health. Everything else will take care of itself.” She kissed me lovingly on the lips, as tenderly as a mother would kiss her sick child.

Quite unusually for the first half of December, it started to rain in the second week. It rained, sometimes lightly, then the drops pattered on the roof again. I was worried about the bike I had left behind, but Ananda and Kira had already retrieved it, as Babette told me, who was still limping a bit but was otherwise fit again.

On the third rainy day, I felt increasingly restless. Nobody wanted to tell me anything. When I took part in the communal lunch for the first time, Sula and Kira came into the room soaking wet during the meal. They had opened the upper pond so that as much water as possible could drain directly into the Tiso. Only now did I realise that the village and all the fields were under water. As you know, our ponds had no outlet. The irrigation pond channelled the water directly onto the fields. What they could no longer absorb flowed into the village and finally collected on the road to the blown-up bridge.

Ramona forbade me from looking at the situation. “Your wives can handle it. You’re on bed rest.”

Unfortunately, it didn’t get any better. Rain poured down every day, often accompanied by thunder and lightning. Babette told me on the evening of the eighth day of my bedtime. “The loud bang in the afternoon wasn’t thunder. Su and I blew away a piece of rock. Now almost all the water from the upper valley is running towards Tiso. You won’t believe it, we’ve created a marvellous waterfall. Oh, one more thing. The Tiso is flooding. There will be problems in the harbour town.”

I was at a loss for words. My assistants had carried out a blast on their own. Unbelievable!

“Babette, that was crazy. You’re not allowed to set off an explosive charge without me. I forbid you to do that. Did everything go well?”

“Yes. Su lit the fuse and then ran to me for cover. I’m not that fast yet.”

“And the rain didn’t bother you?”

“We were careful and only laid the cord over stones shortly before the blast. But I think the fuse is waterproof.”

“Oh, you two. If we didn’t have you, we’d be lost. How’s your leg, Beth?”

“Better than you, I think. Take it easy, Michael. You have to be fit again for Christmas.”

I got a lovely kiss on my lips. Unfortunately, as she walked to the door, I saw how badly she was still limping. What a strong young woman Babette was!

The very next evening I was visited by Esther and Lenya. They acted mysterious, cautiously asking how I was. Suddenly, the fiery Hungarian gave me a big kiss and stroked my cheeks lovingly. “Congratulations, you’re going to be a dad again. And we didn’t even have twenty-four hours to do it. Thank you, my love. Thank you very much.”

I waved the newly pregnant woman over to the other side of my bed so that I could pull her towards me with my healthy arm. “That was your wish, Esther. I’m happy for you.”

“But I have one request. Can we make up the remaining days? When you’re healthy again, Lenya would like to be your partner. We could be together as a couple from time to time. Is that true, Lenya? Would you confirm it?”

Lenya nodded bashfully. “That would be a great pleasure for both of us.” Lenya looked down, blushing more and more. She didn’t dare look me in the eye.

“Well, ladies, we don’t need to talk about it at the moment. I don’t feel like making love at the moment. My arm will remain immobilised for another two weeks. My headache still hasn’t gone away. But I do have one more question. Why do you both want to be with me at the same time?”