Then, two days after Chomsky’s return, the deputation came.
They came not by steamer but by road in two cars: the mayor of Hallendorf, the butcher who was Lieselotte’s uncle, the head of the Farmer’s Cooperative and several other dignitaries, wearing stiff collars and looking important, embarrassed and hot.
Instinctively, both Ellen and Margaret, who were in the headmaster’s office, came to stand on either side of him.
“Now what, I wonder,” said Bennet wearily. “It can’t be Chomsky caught in their fishing nets already-he hasn’t been back long enough. Perhaps Frank has been lighting fires?”’
“No,” said Ellen. “I’m sure not.”
The men approached. Their expressions could be seen to be serious. That would be the last straw-a complaint from the village when at last relations between the school and Hallendorf itself had so much improved.
But Bennet was not one to shirk his duties. “I think we shall need some beer, Ellen,” he said-and went forward to greet the mayor and shake hands with everyone and lead them to his study.
It had seemed simple enough. He would call on the old farmer who had promised him the wheel off a derelict hay cart, pay him, leave instructions and a gratuity for the farmer’s boy who would put it up-and return to Vienna.
In the event it was not simple at all. While old Schneider admitted that Herr Tarnowsky had enquired about a wheel some weeks ago, the farmer did not recollect having given a firm promise to let him have it.
“I can’t go giving farm equipment away,” he said, leaning against the door of his filthy shed.
“I didn’t ask you to let me have it. I offered you a fair price for it. However, if that isn’t enough I’ll increase it-on condition you and your boy put it up for me.”
Herr Schneider, though interested in the price Marek now mentioned, said there was no question of them putting it up. He had haemorrhoids and was not allowed on a ladder and his son was up on the high pasture dealing with the cows.
“It’s a tricky job, putting up wheels.”
“Rubbish. It’s going on the gable end of the coach house. Any able-bodied man can do it in ten minutes.”
But this gambit was a mistake, leading back to Herr Schneider’s haemorrhoids and the fact that the doctors in Klagenfurt knew nothing and cared less. “I’ll sell you the wheel but you must put it up yourself,” said Herr Schneider, adding grudgingly that Herr Tarnowsky could use the tools in the outhouse.
Marek swore and handed over a sheaf of notes. Seemingly he had hit on the one man in the district who was not related to Lieselotte. “I’ll have to borrow your van,” he said.
An hour later, the wheel lashed to the back, he was on his way to Hallendorf.
If it hadn’t been for Lieselotte, Ellen wouldn’t have come-her dislike of meetings was growing worse rather than better-but this one mattered terribly to her helper, so she had found her usual place on the windowsill and now, with Sophie on one side and Lieselotte on the other, she listened to Bennet’s summing up.
“I explained to the mayor that we were greatly honoured to be asked-as you know, a closer union of the school and the village is something I have always wanted. On the other hand, I had to tell him that I didn’t feel that the school as a whole could be involved in the project. Of course any individuals-staff or pupils-who want to help in their own time are entirely free to do so, but—”’
“Why?”’
The interruption came from Sophie, whose shyness was proverbial, and who now blushed crimson at her own daring.
Bennet looked across at her with his charming smile.
“You mean why can’t the school be involved in a pageant to celebrate the life of St Aniella?”’
“Yes.” Sophie nodded, still crimson. “Because we would be taking part in a religious ritual,” explained Bennet. “It would be outside our brief as an educational establishment.”
“She’s nice though, Aniella is.” The tiny Sabine spoke with unexpected resolution.
“Yes, she is,” said Sophie. “She’s ordinary but she’s special too. She’s a chicken saint-you know, the kind that shelters people.” She stuck out her thin arms, turning them into sheltering wings. “She looks after children and old people—”’
“And after animals,” put in Flix. “Every kind of animal. Even salamanders and hedgehogs and grass snakes. The pictures are in the church.”
“Do you all know the story then?”’ Bennet was surprised.
“No, we don’t,” said some children at the back.
“Perhaps you’d better tell us then, Sophie,” said the headmaster.
“Oh no, I couldn’t!”
“Go on, Sophie,” said Ellen gently.
So Sophie took a deep breath and began. Her mother had told her she couldn’t project her voice and her father had said one must never put oneself forward but now she forgot both of them. As she spoke, the children could see Aniella moving among the sick and wounded animals in her flower-filled meadow… could hear the clatter of hoofs as the evil knights rode towards her house. They were with her as she prayed in the grotto (“It’s the one above the larch plantation, the one full of bicycle tyres,” said Sophie) and hear the wing beats of the angel who consoled her. They followed the saint across the lake in a flotilla of boats, and felt the horror as she was stabbed and blood flowed over her wedding dress. “But it was all right,” said Sophie, using the words that Lieselotte had used in the church. “Because she became beautiful again and floated up and up and flowers came down and lovely music played.”
“It could be a promenade performance,” said Leon when she had finished.
“What’s a promenade performance?”’ asked Janey.
“It’s where people follow the action round. You’d start in Aniella’s house and go on to the grotto and so on. Not that I could have anything to do with it,” Leon went on hastily, “because religion is the opium of the people.”
“Well that’s really stupid,” said Ursula hotly. “You might as well say you can’t do a play about the Arctic because you’re not a penguin.”
“Leon is perfectly correct, however,” said Jean-Pierre. “It is out of the question that we should have anything to do with a piece of Catholic superstition. Still, the lighting in the cave could be interesting: by using mirrors and back projection…” His gaze became inward as he gave vent to a farrago of technicalities.
“We’ve got all those animal masks spare from Abattoir. I don’t see why we couldn’t let them have those,” said Rollo.
“You could use some of the muslin that’s left over and dye it and use it to swag the boats, each one a different colour,” said Bruno-and Rollo stared at him open-mouthed, for the boy had seized a piece of paper and begun to draw.
Bennet, letting the discussion move freely, found himself totally amazed. His agnostic-not to say atheistic-children, his Marxist staff with their detestation of any kind of superstition, were seriously discussing a religious pageant celebrating the life of a minor Austrian saint whose authenticity was much disputed. He imagined Frank’s father hearing of it, or the other parents who had entrusted their children to him on the understanding that they would grow up free of the spurious consolations of an afterlife. And why was Jean-Pierre, who slept with a poster of Lenin above his head, holding forth on the merits of the lighting technique known as Pepper’s Ghost?