Oppressed Orphans

Chantal Schaul, 2000

At a time when thick and dense forests were covering most of the landscape, there once was a loving couple, Germain and Charluxa, who lived in a large wooden cabin on the outskirts of the woods. They had been married recently and Germain had built the cabin all on his own, with only occasionally a little help from the two soft white hands of his beloved wife, who, at this moment in time, was pregnant. Their first son received the name of After Six, because he was born just after six o’clock, but they abbreviated the name into Affix. A few years later, a second son was born out of Germain and Charluxa’s unison; he was called Jimmily.

Affix had an altogether more Gaelic appearance than Jimmily. He showed signs of future tallness and big-bonedness, whereas Jimmily was the more fragile and helpless type. Both brothers boasted of a headfull of blond hair and crystal clear mountain spring hued deep blue eyes. But before they could develop into their fully-grown constitution and unfold all their physical and mental assets, a terrible event cut all their supplies short: physical, intellectual, loving and nurturing. In a gruesome and abhorrent accident both of their parents died. In the middle of a tremendous thunderstorm, Germain ran outside to fetch his harp, which he had left lying underneath a mighty oak tree, and was slain dead by a mighty stroke of lightning. His loving wife ran outside as soon as she had witnessed the gruesome scene, with the one thought in her mind of helping her cherished husband. But, alas, as soon as she had taken the dying man into her arms, another bolt of lightning struck her and, united in death, they exhaled their last breath.

The two boys had witnessed the whole scene from inside the cabin. Affix was then only ten years old and Jimmily six. The latter was on the brink of running out into the thunderstorm to join his parents, but Affix kept him back at the last second and thus saved him from a certain electrocution. Now the two of them were utterly alone. They knew not a soul in the world; their cabin was the only human abode they had ever set foot in and there were no neighbours living anywhere nearby. The parents of the two boys were the only human beings they had ever seen. But they knew there had to be other people because their parents had told them about such existences. Affix decided that the only way to survive was to find fellow beings, and so he packed a parcel with food, took Jimmily by the hand and walked into the wide unknown world.

They walked for a long time, for days on end, until they came into a small village. Affix had been carrying his little brother for a large part of the journey and had thus developed muscles that were above average for a boy of his age. He looked fifteen years old. Arrived at the village, Affix knocked on the first door he perceived. A grumpy old woman opened and shrieked at him: “What do you want here? I don’t give anything to beggars!” Affix was astonished at the harsh treatment he received and kept a polite tone: “Me and my brother are looking for company. Our parents are-” She interrupted him abruptly: “I don’t care what you are looking for. You won’t get it from me. Go to the village forge and get yourself a job, if you want my advice!” She slammed the door in their face with such vigour that Jimmily started to cry because of her utter rudeness and lack of love. Affix consoled him as best as he could and, carrying him once again, searched for the forge.

This time a man opened the door. He had a bushy single eyebrow, dangerous black eyes, a lumpy nose, skin full of grease-oozing craters, dripping black hair, whether with sweat or grease was indefinable. His whole body was covered in a layer of frizzy black hair. He thundered in an evil manner: “What do you want, boys?” Affix ventured: “Do you require a worker in your forge?” He replied with his repulsive voice, that sounded more like a consecution of burps than any sort of verbal emission: “Yes, I need a strong hand here. And what do you suggest we should do with that baby?” When Jimmily heard this hateful description of him, he at once started to cry heartbreakingly. Affix hushed him and answered with a self-confident voice: “I will not leave my brother alone. I will work for the both of us.” The ugly man laughed thunderingly and opened his front door to let the boys in.

The forge was called after the man who owned it: Rudolf Ruler. Its main function was to repair ox carts, horse carriages and coaches. Affix had to work hard and, as soon as he knew how to perform all kinds of repairs, Rudolf just sat down next to him and let him do all the work by himself. Little Jimmily was left to his own devices during the whole day, and only when Affix had finished his daily work did he get some loving company. Affix decided that this kind of life could not last for much longer and secretly sneaked out at night to visit a nearby monastery in order to peruse all the books in their library and become an educated man, so that, one day, he would be able to find a less draining job.

One terrible day, Rudolf took notice of Affix’s nightly activities by following him to the monastery. The next day, he announced that Affix could no longer expect to be fed and sheltered, as his motivations for life lay elsewhere than in Rudolf’s forge. His voice thundered thus: “As a punishment for your indecent behaviour, I will roast your little brother for dinner and you will be next tomorrow. I will feast on you for three days!” The ogre uncovered laughed gutturally. Affix could not believe his ears and his eyes, as he saw that Rudolf let his words be followed by deeds. Already he was swinging an axe through the air, directed towards Jimmily, who was innocently playing in the courtyard dust.

Filled with superhuman strength, Affix leapt through the air and got hold of the axe in mid-swing, ripping it out of Rudolf’s hand. The latter was so surprised and angry that he tried to regain his instrument of slaughter and forcefully clutched for it. Unfortunately, Rudolf’s hand seized the axe by its edge instead of the handle and thus cut off half of his own hand. He screamed horridly and tried to nurse his wound. Affix took advantage of the opportunity, snatched Jimmily from the ground and ran for both their lives. He did not stop until they reached their parents’ cabin once more. This time, the journey only took half as long.

During the first weeks back home, Affix and Jimmily lived on roots and berries that they gathered in the forest. But they started to long for other foods and new clothes, especially as the winter was drawing nearer. Affix decided to try a new way of survival: highway robbing. He constructed a straw hood and a bow and arrows. Then he found a main road passing through the forest, not far from their cabin, which he used as his point of attack. He was only twelve years old at this moment in time, but appeared to be at least eighteen. His big build and the muscled limbs that he had developed during the hard forge work supported the impression of maturity. Affix became a successful robber and could soon afford to have a bigger house built next to his parents’ cabin. He could buy expensive clothes for himself and his brother, nice food and even pay for an extensive education for Jimmily, who wanted to become an artist.

Three more years passed in this way, until one terrible evening, when Affix returned from his robbing day, Jimmily was not at home. Affix looked for him everywhere and finally found a clue as to what might have happened. He discovered a raven black long hair in the entrance of the house. The obvious deduction of this find was that Jimmily had been kidnapped. He was now eleven years old, but, contrarily to his elder brother, he looked younger than his actual age, perhaps at the most eight. Therefore kidnapping was not to be excluded. Affix started searching the whole area for more clues and managed to find a trail of raven black hairs, which led him to a house built with see-through walls.

Inside, Affix perceived Jimmily and a woman with long black hair. With apparent good will she was watching Jimmily as he was devouring his dinner, consisting of an abundance of delicacies. Then she gave him a tile of the invisible material, which her house consisted of, and made him draw landscapes on it. Once the tile was finished, she inserted it into the walls of her house. Affix entered the scene at this second. Jimmily ran towards him as soon as he saw his beloved brother. The woman shouted viciously: “Who are you? This is my adopted son, what do you want with him?” Affix replied calmly: “You know just as well as I do that you kidnapped my brother.” A clicking noise was audible behind Affix. The door had just shut and imprisoned him.

The woman laughed shrilly and screamed: “I am a witch and my name is Francesca Lhorrent. This is my glass painting slavery.” – “Glass?” asked Affix. He had never heard of or seen any glass before, as it was not yet invented at the time. “Glass is my invention!” Francesca croaked viciously. “This young boy has a talent to paint on it and therefore I will keep him. You can clean the house and cook and do the washing up if you are staying here. If you don’t want to stay, I will kill you.” She produced a sharp knife from her pocket and waved it through the air in front of Affix’s nose.

In this way, the life of the two brothers continued in slavery once more. Jimmily had to draw all sorts of things for the witch. She invented a new kind of entertainment which consisted of different tiles of painted glass being shown to her in fast sequence, so that the ensuing illusion was that of the drawn figures moving. Together, Affix and Jimmily had to switch the tiles at the speed of twenty-four per second, while Francesca was sitting in a comfortable armchair, watching the spectacle. After a while Francesca wanted sound and the two brothers had to come up with story lines and imitate the voices of the drawn characters. They were lucky to both possess a blooming imagination.

One fortunate day, Affix was cleaning one of the main walls of the house when, suddenly, his ladder slid away under his weight and, instead of merely falling to the ground, crashed through the glass and cleared the way into freedom. The fact that glass was extremely fragile had never been known to Affix and Jimmily. The witch had, of course, never told them. Affix and Jimmily escaped once again. But they did not know whither to go. They could not return to their house because Francesca would find them there and stab them at night. Yet they were penniless and could not live anywhere else. In addition to all this misfortune they suddenly found that they had got lost in the deepest part of the forest.

After erring for days through the dense foliage, Affix and Jimmily came upon a small town. A noble horse rider crossed their path. Affix politely asked him what the name of the town was, but he received a steely stare. The nobleman screamed for his guard and commanded them to immediately capture the two orphans. Too late did Affix recognise the man as one of the victims of his former highway robbing. He was the lord of the borough called Pusselborough. His name was Lord Pussel.

Affix and Jimmily spent three weeks in the local dungeon, without any food, and with the prospect of being hanged afterwards. Only a miracle could save them now. On the day of the execution all the townspeople were united in the market square. The deplorable brothers stood on the platform of the gallows and expected their imminent deaths at the age of only eleven and fifteen. But destiny had a mild day and spared the orphans’ lives. Just before the platform was kicked away from under the boys’ feet, Lord Pussel bellowed with all the volume that his vocal chords allowed: “My arm!” Everyone stared at the lord’s arm; it had fallen off. So did both of his legs and eyeballs just three seconds later. Suddenly all the townspeople started to lose limbs. It was raining body parts; even torsos opened up to let their pulsating organs drop out and onto the dusty market square. Within minutes, the whole town was devoid of living souls and filled instead with throbbing human fragments. It looked like a battlefield.

The town population had died of instant leprosy, an illness which was but little known. Affix and Jimmily were standing on the platform, dumbfounded. As they had not eaten for weeks and thus not taken the virus into their systems, they had been spared. They did not know this, of course, and thought that destiny had, for once, treated them well. Swiftly, they removed the nooses from their necks and fled into the forest once again. They stuffed themselves with roots and berries until their hunger was satisfied.

After a rough night on a bed of thorns they were woken up by the soft hum of a female voice. The voice was so full of gentleness that Jimmily woke up in tears. Affix had to console him before rising and following the voice to its origin.

What he found in a clearing of the forest was the most stunning and ravishing maiden he had ever encountered in his whole lifetime. So light-footed was she that she gave the impression of floating above the ground; her hair was so long and thick and light that it resembled an opaque cloud through which the evening sun was shedding its golden rays; her limbs were so svelte as if they had never known the forces of gravity; her skin was so impeccable, soft and white as if the creature was covered in a thousand fresh rose petals that had just started to bloom. Affix gasped. Her voice had the most enchanting qualities about it; it was hypnotisingly calming. This young girl was in the midst of constructing a machine that remotely resembled a bird.

Suddenly the maiden perceived Affix and whispered into the deep silence of the forest: “Who are you, young man?” Affix had to gather his senses in order to reply with a shaking voice: “Me and my little brother have spent the night in this forest. We are homeless orphans.” The face of the girl lightened: “I am an orphan as well. My mother died when I was born and my father died three days ago. He left me with the plans for his invention, which I am trying to build now. He called it a ”Luxurious-Ikarus-Imitation-Air-Device”, in short a “Luxair”. It is meant to fly.” Affix could not concentrate on technology at that moment and replied misplacedly: “And what is your name?” – “I am called Archangela. And you?”

As the two young people heard their own names exchanged in this manner, they could not help the chemical reactions of their bodies to take their course. They had instantly, head over heels and irreversibly fallen in love with each other. Such a long time were they standing in the clearing, staring at each other, that Affix completely forgot about Jimmily. The latter got scared in the dark deep forest, and started to cry after a while and, through his heartbreaking sobbing sounds, called Affix back to his brotherly duties. He stammered: “I just have to see if my brother is alright,” and brushed through the foliage. Archangela followed him and was introduced to little Jimmily. At once she developed mothering feelings for the boy.

The party of three returned to the Luxair. Affix had resolved to help Archangela with the construction of the machine. His coach repairing knowledge helped him understand the complicated mechanics of the Luxair immediately. He completed his work that same evening. Archangela wanted to fly to Fairyland with her father’s invention. Her grandmother Fabula had told her many a time about this land where everyone was free and nice and healthy and beautiful. This was where Archangela wanted to live. Affix and Jimmily were instantly won over by her enthusiasm and all three decided to make the journey to Fairyland on the following day.

The Luxair was a perfectly sound construction and mounted high up in the air without creating any trouble. It carried the three young people over continents and oceans, until Jimmily asked: “When do we know that we have arrived in Fairyland?” Just at that moment, the Luxair lost one of its wings. Archangela shouted: “Oh no! That must be the candle I used as a bolt somewhere because I ran out of wooden ones; it must have melted in the heat of the sun!” Before she could say any more, the Luxair had splashed into the sea. Affix, who was a natural born swimmer, saved both Archangela and Jimmily from drowning and deposited them on a little island only a few miles away.

When the three of them had recovered their senses, they explored the island and found no other human soul living there. This could not be Fairyland. After much dejection they decided to call the island ‘Orphan Republic’ and to live there happily ever after anyway. Affix and Archangela had many children during the following years. One day a boat full of nice shipwrecked people arrived on the island and they all kept each other company. They intermingled so much that new generations sprang from their unisons. And eventually, the Orphan Republic became a full success, and not that many steps removed from Fairyland.