Fiela’s Child: Chapter 19 Summary & Analysis

By October, Benjamin feels like a snake that has to shed its old skin in order for him to become Lukas. By the start of the New Year, Benjamin begins to think of Willem, Nina, and Kristoffel as his siblings, although it’s harder to accept Elias and Barta as his parents.

Back on the day after Nina finds the dead elephant calf, Elias goes to retrieve it. But as before, the elephants seem like there waiting for him, and then they chase him. He comes back to Barta with his clothes torn. When Nina hears the news of Elias’s close call, she tells Benjamin that she hopes her father is so injured that he’ll die. Nina suggests that if Benjamin leaves now, he might be able to make it to Long Kloof before Elias can find out and try to catch up. Benjamin, however, wonders if Nina is just trying to get him in trouble.

One Sunday morning, Nina shows Benjamin Aunt Malie’s daughter Bet. Nina says that eventually Benjamin will have to marry Bet, just like Nina and Willem have also already been promised away in marriage to locals.

Nina and Benjamin go to the Forest, where Nina pulls out the hidden mouth-organ (harmonica) that she stole from a local shopkeeper. Benjamin decides to use this new piece of information, saying he won’t tattle on Nina about stealing the mouth-organ if she promises not to bother him about Bet ever again. He also doesn’t want her to ever roll his beam onto her scaffold to try to take credit for his work.

Nina begins to bother Benjamin less after he makes the threat about tattling about the mouth-organ. Still, one Sunday, he ends up with her again near the creek in the Forest where Nina keeps her mouth-organ. Benjamin tries to get her to go home because Aunt Gertie wants him to read the Bible and has promised to give him trousers in return. Nina doesn’t want to leave yet, believing that as she plays the mouth-organ, a bird in the Forest is calling back to her.

When Nina and Benjamin finally return home later that Sunday, Mr. Kapp is sitting at the table with Elias. Elias sends Benjamin off to read the Bible for Aunt Gertie. He struggles to read her the Bible, rushing and missing words. Eventually, Benjamin protests that it's getting dark, but Aunt Gertie wants him to stay.

All of a sudden, Benjamin hears Nina shouting as if she’s being attacked. Elias is running around punching her, while someone shouts not to punch anywhere that will leave a visible bruise. Nina escapes to where Benjamin is and asks him to talk to Elias for her. Elias explains to Benjamin that Mr. Kapp found work for Nina in the village and that she’s being ungrateful.

Elias puts Benjamin in charge of escorting Nina to the village to start her job. As they walk, Nina feels angry with everyone, even Benjamin, but all of a sudden, she stops when she hears the crack of a branch from an elephant. The two of them stay still for an hour until the sound dies away and it’s safe. Nina begs Benjamin to just leave her and say that he left her with Mr. Kapp.

Nina wants to live alone in the Forest, but Benjamin convinces her not to. She agrees to go to the village but says Benjamin should at least have someone try to send her mouth-organ down to her in the village at the first opportunity. Benjamin delivers Nina to Mr. Kapp, then he leaves the two of them and heads back. As he walks, he contemplates what would happen if he tried to go back to Long Kloof. He fears that Fiela and the others have forgotten him, then he suddenly hears the crack of a whip somewhere in the distance and heads back to Elias’s house on Barnard’s Island.