“I am Hendrick,” he introduced himself before the Chief.
“Yes, go on.”
The village chief was a sophisticated merchant. Hendrick had known him to have been in business for as long as he could recall. Of course, Mr. Jacob could have easily taken advantage of that, but not to the extent of coveting Hendrick’s hut.
“The house I live in now…”
“Ah, that. You may own it.”
“How much land can I lease near it?”
“Around it, let’s see. You’re still young. I know that it is going to be hard for you. See, we have become a formal village. We have no choice but to cultivate and farm so that we can afford to pay taxes.”
“Ah, I understand.”
“If we had other means of making money we could pay taxes with it. But still, don’t you think that it would be nice to get some extra income?”
“Yes, I agree with you Chief. Is it then possible leasing it?”
“Ah. I’m sure there isn’t much money to purchase the land right now, so I’m trying to lease it for some time.”
“But I don’t have any money to lease.”
“I know. It is the case with everyone else. For now, I won’t charge the fee. Instead, you will have to pay after a certain period of time. Supposing you don’t, then you shall have to give back the land.”
“How much can I lease?”
“Let’s see, in your family, there are only children. Then, isn’t it useless to acquire more land? I mean, because there are no adults.”
“I still want to lease as much as possible.”
“Ha-ha. Okay. Let’s look at what we have here,” the Chief said as he drew a map from the side of his chair. He seemed to have softened to Hendrick. Probably because, unlike the quarrelsome adults he had dealt with earlier, his conversation with Hendrick was going on so smoothly.
Hendrick studied Mr. Jacob as he placed the map on the table. He resembled his son, Mark, even though Mark had taken after his mother more. Yet, they also seemed so different. While Mark had been nasty to Hendrick’s family, the Chief seemed so kind to them.
The map was made of a leather cloth. On it was a sketch of the village area, drawn in ink. It did not seem to be very accurate, but one could roughly make it out.
Hendrick could identify his hut. It was at the northern edge of the village. It nested at the foot of the mount. Roughly, it measured 500-600 meters from the town center. It was also about a kilometer away from the mountain.
Hendrick had learned from the helper about the metric units when he was given the tape measure. He had practically used it to measure the heights of his siblings. It was not the system that was popular in the village, but he thought that the metric system was much more systematic.
“Naturally, I think a land around one’s house is fair. But your house is too far from the town center. So, perhaps I will give you the area on the south where the main street is. How would you like this square?” the Chief said as he pointed the area with his index finger.
On the other hand, Hendrick was following keenly. He needed to increase his points, and the land would be an efficient resource to achieve it.
“How far is it possible to the south?”
“Well, there is someone’s house around there. So I cannot give you that. But how about this?” the Chief said as he pointed to a location about 100 meters southeast of the house.
Hendrick focused on the tip of the Chief’s finger.
“Can I get that?”
“I can give you more if it is the northern side of the house. However, the inner side of the village needs to be distributed to other families as well. There is not much free land on the main street because of the road reserve. So, you will have to divide the land there.”
“Then that would work.”
“That’s right.”
“By the way, did you say I can have more to the north of my house?”
“You can have more, but remember that that part is beyond the village, and is also not fenced.”
The village had been working on fences for a long time, but they still had a lot to complete. On the map though, it showed that there was a fenced boundary.
However, there were many houses outside the village border. As the village did not own it, it was said it did not receive the village’s protection.
It meant that it was nobody’s land. Hendrick laughed in his mind at the discovery. However, he concealed his expression.
The house he lived in was situated slightly inside the secondary fence. The possibility of enclosing the secondary fence soon was not high, and Hendrick knew that that would work for his advantage.
The boy then realized that he had not asked the Chief whether he will be taxed if he possessed the land outside the border. He had first gotten that idea from the adults while waiting for his turn. It seemed they were greedy for more land.
“Then am I free to cultivate the land outside the secondary fence area?”
“If you can.”
“Without paying any tax?”
“Sure. But you can’t expect the protection of the village.”
“Well then. Okay.”
“Then take the land from where the house sits to the length of 20 steps towards the mountain and ten steps towards the central street.do you understand?”
“By steps, you mean the standard for an adult walking, right?”
“Ha-ha. yes. It is based on an adult walking.”
The Chief wrote something and signed. It was tricky that Hendrick could not read the text, but accepted it.
“When you get home, you better start demarcating the land boundary. This will avoid disputes in the future on land ownership.”
“Okay. Thanks for the advice, Chief.”
“You are most welcome, son. Goodbye,” the Chief said happily. He seemed pleased with Hendrick. It could have been how he called him “Chief” or how they had had a great discussion despite his age. He waved at Hendrick as the boy left.
The adults were still talking, but it sounded more of a quarrel than dialogues. When Hendrick stepped down, the other adults started talking again one by one. Unlike him, there seemed to be a lot of stories to argue with each other.
Fortunately, no one seemed interested in Hendrick’s house or the land around it, unlike the main street. He was happy to have the land he wanted, but he knew that it was transient. He was aware that the village could get bigger or more people could migrate in, and the situation could change.
Hendrick began calculating and converting the twenty steps in his mind. “If you are an adult, is it about 70 centimeters per step.” It became quite difficult for him. So he opted to calculate it as one meter.
The situation in the village had become unfriendly. Some were leaving, but it was quite normal to see that. Hendrick couldn’t help but hope that nothing drastic would happen in the next three years.
The helper was very useful in guiding Hendrick, who was quite confused about going about the boundary marking.
―This is calculated as the southern boundary
There is no landmark, but you can use stones or make a pole from the trees instead.
So Hendrick took out large stones from his inventory and placed them down at regular intervals. It clearly distinguished the boundaries.
“What are you doing?”
“Why are you carrying the stone?”
The younger siblings standing near the house asked.
“I am marking our land,” Hendrick told them.
Hendrick then explained to them what was going on. When he told the siblings that they had been granted ownership of the house, they were elated. He went on and explained about the land: its size and shape. He expounded that the land was on a lease and had to pay for it after the harvesting season.
The children were not naïve. They knew that despite Mr. Jacob’s broad smiles, he was a no-nonsense kind of man. He would extort payment from those who refused to pay for land leased.
Since there was no boundary fence – both inner and outer, Hendrick’s land was unprotected. Therefore, Hendrick prioritized taking care of the outer one, as it was likely to be stolen. He was determined to secure it, for he knew that there were bad people who showed no mercy, even those languishing in poverty.
“We have to be strong,” Dorothy said. She was standing next to him. They had all had a bad experience and were fed up with being taken advantage of. “I want to help you,” she said as she complained of how boring it was to spend the whole day, every day at Aunt Hoffa’s place.
“Don’t you get to hang out with other children?”
“They are all too childish for me.”
“Yes, they are,” Belter nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, I know. They are quite young,” Hendrick agreed as he remembered a time in the past when he had felt the same as his peers, “Let’s go home first.”
When they reached home, they brought out some of the vines that Hendrick had been gathering. The children sat in the front yard of their house and began tearing the vines. It was not a difficult job, but there were so many that the task could not be completed one day.
“Watch out for the forest leopard,” they told Hendrick as he left and headed for the mountain. Despite the danger, Hendrick kept going to the mountain. His options were limited, such that he had to risk his life every time. Nevertheless, he would not have allowed his siblings with him.
* * *
Many days went by.
Hendrick climbed the mountain every day while his younger ones also helped him a lot.
There was not much change in the village, but things changed in Hendrick’s family’s lives. First, it was their hut’s appearance – it was a little bigger, and the part that had initially collapsed had been repaired with mud and stones. It was cozier, for it no longer let the cold wind from the mountain in at night.
However, the villagers didn’t notice any difference, perhaps because they hadn’t been interested in the house. Besides, everyone was busy with their own lives. The order of the day had become clearing, digging, gathering, and looking for food. It was evident that there was a shortage of men.
Meanwhile, several new refugees came to the village, a young man among them, and it stirred up anxiety amongst the women.
The villagers used wooden stakes to establish the boundary lines. They were embedded in the ground along the perimeter of the rented land at regular intervals.
Hendrick’s stamina improved as days passed, and he was able to pick bigger stones than before. Nonetheless, the land was not clearing as fast as expected, even though Hendrick constantly picked up stones. He worked on the land in the late evenings till night because he busied himself with other ventures to earn points during the day.
Secretly, something else had changed. Hendrick was schooling. Thus far, he had earned 5 points. He learned ‘Hangul’ with it. After learning it, a lot changed, just as God had said. So what seemed to be just strange symbols and pictures began to make sense. He could even read and understand a few words, so much so that he did not need the voice function as much as before.