Read Online Daniel by Henning Mankell - Free Book Online

this.’
    â€˜You think he’ll survive? A journey by sea? The cold in Sweden? The snow and the wind and all the taciturn people? You’re not only crazy, you’re conceited too. Have you found that insect yet?’
    Bengler showed him his jar. ‘A beetle. With peculiar legs. It hasn’t been named.’
    â€˜You’re going to kill the boy.’
    â€˜On the contrary. Tell me how much you want for him.’
    Andersson smiled. ‘A promise. That some day you come back and tell me what happened to him.’
    Bengler nodded. He promised, without thinking it over.
    â€˜I’ll keep the crate,’ said Andersson. ‘You can have the vermin free.’
    He motioned to Geijer to lift the boy out of the pen. He was very small. Bengler guessed that he was eight or nine years old. He squatted down in front of him. When he smiled the boy closed his eyes, as if he wanted to make himself invisible. Bengler decided to give the boy a name. That was the most important thing of all. A person without a name did not exist. He thought first of his own last name. What would go with it?
    â€˜You can call him Lazarus,’ suggested Andersson, who had read his thoughts again. ‘Wasn’t he the one who was raised from the dead? Or why not Barabbas? Then he can hang by your side on the cross you nail together for him.’
    Bengler felt like killing Andersson. If he were strong enough. But Andersson would only shake him off like an insect.
    â€˜You don’t think Barabbas is a good suggestion?’
    Bengler could feel himself sweating. ‘Barabbas was a thief. We’re talking about giving an abandoned child a name.’

    â€˜What does he know about what’s written in the Bible?’
    â€˜One day he will know. Then how will I explain why I named him after a thief?’
    Andersson burst out laughing. ‘I believe you mean what you say. That you’ll take the boy across the sea and that he’ll survive. To think that I’ve had such a damned idiot under my roof.’
    â€˜I’ll be leaving soon.’
    Andersson threw out his arms as if in a gesture of peace.
    â€˜Perhaps I could call him David,’ said Bengler.
    Andersson frowned. ‘I don’t remember him. What did he do?’
    â€˜He fought Goliath.’
    Andersson nodded.
    â€˜Might be suitable. Because he will have to fight against a Goliath.’
    â€˜Joseph,’ Andersson said suddenly. ‘The one who was cast out. Joseph is a fine name.’
    Bengler shook his head. His father’s middle name was Joseph.
    â€˜No good.’
    â€˜Why not?’
    â€˜It brings back unpleasant memories,’ Bengler replied hesitantly.
    Andersson didn’t ask why.
    While they were speaking the boy stood motionless. Bengler realised that he was waiting for something terrible to happen. He expected to be beaten, maybe killed.
    â€˜Did he see what happened to his parents?’
    Andersson shrugged his shoulders. He had returned to the salt. Geijer was balancing at the top of a ladder.
    â€˜It’s possible. I didn’t ask much. Why ask about something like that when it’s better not to know? I’ve seen the way the Germans hunt these people the way you hunt rats.’
    Bengler placed his hand on the boy’s head. His body was tense. He still had his eyes shut.
    At that moment Bengler knew.
    The boy would be called Daniel. Daniel who had sat in the lions’ den. That was a fitting name.
    â€˜Daniel,’ Bengler said. ‘Daniel Bengler. It sounds like a Jew. But since you’re black you can’t be a Jew. Now you have a name.’
    â€˜He’s crawling with lice. And besides, he’s undernourished. Fatten him
up and wash him. Otherwise he’ll be dead before you even get to Cape Town. Before he even knows that he’s been given a Christian name.’
    Â 
    That night Bengler burned the boy’s clothes. He scrubbed him in a wooden tub