The covenant - James A. Michener [537]
'Of course it doesn't. That's the point. We slip you in there. Nobody notices because no Englishman would want the job. And you serve there twenty-five or thirty years . . .'
'I'm already fifty-one.'
'So you serve twenty years. In time you make enormous inroads. It's you who will be drafting the laws. And we will gain by indirection what we can't win head-on.'
She had with her a list of some forty inconspicuous vacancies, not one of which would be mentioned in the newspapers when it was filled: a series of jobs which might have tempted a boy out of high school, but not Detleef. They were mostly in agencies of the government dealing with financial or business affairs, in which he felt no competence, but as he was returning the paper to her, his eye fell upon one line, off to itself, relating to an office so small it provided only one vacancy: Commission on Racial Affairs. Idly he said, 'Now, if a man had to accept an assignment . . .'
'Which?' she pounced.
'That one.'
'A man could do much good there, Detleef.'
'No! No!' He dismissed the invitation absolutely and would say no more about it, so dutifully she gathered her papers, smiled at Maria, and left.
Three days later Mr. Frykenius summoned him to Venloo. The two Broederbonders had grown so close since the deplorable death of their mutual friend, Piet Krause, that they attacked any subject without formalities: 'Detleef, they want you take the position with the Commission on Racial Affairs.'
'I can't leave the farm.'
'But you can. The Troxels can manage, and you and Maria can divide your time between Pretoria and Cape Town.'
'Really, I can hardly . . .'
'So many times have you and I discussed what to do with the Bantu and the Coloureds. Here's a chance to put our principles into operation.'
'I don't want to leave Vrymeer . . .'
'Detleef, you and I have only a limited number of years remaining. Let's spend them on things important.' When Van Doorn hesitated, the butcher said, 'Remember when you told me about your vision for this country? The sun striking the glass of jellies. Each on its own level, clean and separated? Now you have an opportunity to achieve that dream.'
'I shall have to speak with Maria.'
'Detleef, on crucial matters, leave the women to themselves.'
'But how did you hear about this job? Surely it was my sister Johanna who told you.'
'I never speak with women. This came as an order from Pretoria.'
Detleef smiled and thought: But who told Pretoria to send the order? It had to have been Johanna, and he remembered the debt he owed her: She broke the rations in half, then added to one portion and gave it to me. She kept me alive. She helped form my beliefs.
'So the problem we have is of our own making,' Frykenius was explaining. 'In order to get the little jobs in government, we insisted that every employee must be bilingual. It worked. We got all of them because the English wouldn't bother to learn Afrikaans. But now the big jobs are opening up and we damned Afrikaners have too few bright people who can speak English well. We'll get them when our universities get going. But right now we must depend on people like you.'
When Detleef remained silent, the butcher said, 'I have written this letter for you, accepting the assignment. Sign it.' And he pushed forward the document that would ultimately make Detleef van Doorn one of the most influential men in the nation.
Because there had been fierce antagonisms among cities when the Union government was established in 1910, each insisting that it be the capital, Detleef's new position required him to maintain three homes: the permanent farm at Vrymeer, a six-month home in Cape Town, and a year-round pair of rooms in a Pretoria hotel. Fortunately, he had the funds for such extravagance.
The reasons for this proliferation were complex. The contest for the capital had been solved rather neatly: Pretoria housed all executive operations; Cape Town hosted the Parliament; and Bloemfontein had the Appellate Court. Financial and business interests, although not forming a recognized branch of government,