Read Online The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay - Free Book Online Page A

next two days I thought of little else. If I blew my camouflage and helped the Judge with his homework so that he would pass, would he not be forced to spare Granpa Chook and me if Adolf Hitler arrived before the end of term?
    I must say I was worried. Every time I had blown my camouflage, disaster had followed. Finally, after a long talk with Granpa Chook, we agreed it was a chance worth taking.
    After breakfast the following morning, when I was folding the Judge’s blanket and arranging his towel over his bed rail, I broached the subject. He was sitting on a bed licking his pencil and trying to do some last-minute arithmetic.
    â€œCan I help you, sir?” My heart thumped like a donkey engine, though I was surprised how steady my voice sounded.
    â€œPush off, Pisskop. Can’t you see I’m busy, man?” The Judge was doing the fractions I’d done in my head the previous afternoon and getting them hopelessly wrong.
    Gulping down my fear, I said, “What happens if you don’t pass at the end of the year?” The Judge looked at me. I could see the thought wasn’t new to him. He reached out and grabbed me by the shirtfront.
    â€œIf I don’t pass, I’ll kill you first and then I’ll run away!”
    I took my courage in both hands. “I—I can help you, sir,” I stammered.
    The Judge released me and went back to chewing his pencil, his brow furrowed as he squinted at the page of equations. He appeared not to have heard me. I pointed to the equation he’d just completed. “That’s wrong. The answer is seven ninths.” I moved my finger quickly. “Four fifths, six eighths, nine tenths, five sevenths...” I paused as he grabbed my hand and looked up at me, open-mouthed.
    â€œWhere did you learn to do this, man?”
    I shrugged. “It’s just easy for me, that’s all.” I hoped he couldn’t sense how scared I was.
    A look of cunning came into his eyes. He released my hand and handed me the book and the pencil. “Just write the answers very softly and I’ll copy them, you hear?”
    The camouflage was intact and I’d moved up into the next evolutionary stage. From knowing how to hide my brains I had now learned to use them. Granpa Chook and I were one, step further away from the sea.
    But I had already experienced the consequences of revealing too much too soon. I knew if a domkop like the Judge went from the bottom to the top of his class overnight, Mr. Stoffel would soon smell a rat. Telling the Judge he was a duffer was more than my life was worth. Besides, I was beginning to understand how manipulation can be an important weapon in the armory of the small and weak.
    â€œWe have a problem,” I said to the Judge.
    â€œWhat problem, man? I don’t see a problem. You just write in the answers very soft, that’s all.”
    â€œJudge, you’re a very clever fellow.”
    â€œJa, that’s right. So?”
    â€œSo arithmetic doesn’t interest you, does it? I mean, if it did you could do it,” I snapped my fingers, “just like that!”
    â€œJa, if I wanted to I could. Only little kids like you are interested in all that shit!”
    I could see this conclusion pleased him, and I grew bolder. “So you can’t just get ten out of ten today when yesterday you only got two sums right out of ten. Mr. Stoffel will know there’s some monkey business going on.”
    The Judge looked worried. “You mean you’re not going to help me?”
    â€œOf course I am. But you will get better a little bit each week and you’ll tell Mr. Stoffel that you suddenly got the hang of doing sums.”
    The Judge looked relieved and then grinned slyly. “Jy is ‘n slimmertjie, Pisskop,” he said.
    The Judge had called me clever. Me! Pisskop! Rooinek and possessor of a hatless snake! It was the greatest compliment of my life, and I was beside myself with