THE HISTORY OF CHAKI THE MOOR by Andrej Koymasky (C) 2009 written on on June 21, 2002 translated by the author English text kindly revised by Derek
USUAL DISCLAIMER
"THE HISTORY OF CHAKI THE MOOR" is a gay story, with some parts containing graphic scenes of sex between males. So, if in your land, religion, family, opinion and so on this is not good for you, it will be better not to read this story. But if you really want, or because YOU don't care, or because you think you really want to read it, please be my welcomed guest.
Chapter 9 - THE BLACK DEATH EPIDEMIC
As they finished disguising themselves, Jšrg decided that it was better to keep the windows open and the lantern lit, so that whoever looked at them from outside could see that the coach, whose doors were decorated with the coat of arms of the bishop-prince, was carrying church personnel.
The coach left the town through the gate of the Salt Road, the only one that was open in peacetime, night and day. The soldiers on guard stopped it and Chaki leaned back into a corner as if he were asleep. Jšrg gave the travel documents to RhŽmy, who handed them to the guard commander. The man, who possibly was the only one able to read, or who possibly was only pretending to be reading, raised his lantern, looked at the sheet with the coat of arms of the bishop-prince with all the sealing wax on it, then addressed RhŽmy.
"Where is his Excellency going?"
"He is going back to Brixen, as is written on these papers." RhŽmy answered.
"Your accent is strange friar, where are you from?"
"Of course it is strange, I am also from Brixen. I'm in the service of the bishop-prince like his Excellency."
"And where is this Brixen? I've never heard of it."
"Beyond the Alps, but still in the lands which recognise the Emperor's authority. It's north of the Venice Republic" RhŽmy patiently explained.
"This tells me nothing more than I knew before" the guard commander grumbled.
Jšrg from inside intervened, aloud and in a haughty tone, "Good man, our travel is still quite long and we certainly don't have time to waste. I would like to carry on with my journey and not spend all night here!"
The guard commander gave back the papers to RhŽmy who was leaning out of the window, "Of course, your Excellency. I am only carrying out my duty. Have a good journey and may God accompany you!" he said in a rather annoyed tone but making an effort to be kind.
Jšrg from inside traced a wide blessing sign towards the man at arms while the coach resumed moving and finally left the town.
RhŽmy burst into nervous laughter, "For a moment I felt a little scared, but it all went well."
"Luckily for us the church commands respect and above all they still haven't heard that there has been a break out at the prison." the young man answered with a shrewd smile.
The coach was now running in open country, jolting on the uneven surface of the dirt road, in spite of the very good suspension it had. Chaki had taken off the hood from his head and it was nice seeing his serene dark face against the white of the habit. The weather was mild and through the open windows, fine air perfumed by the nature scents was coming in.
The three friends were starting to feel tired, not so much from the journey, which had only just begun, but from the relief from the tension of their prison breakout. Gradually, one after the other they fell asleep, lolling against the backs of the seats of the princely coach, which were covered in crimson velvet.
The first one to wake up was Chaki. He saw that the sun had just risen. The coach was still travelling, but now the road was winding through a wood, between two tall walls of trees. The boy looked at Jšrg who was still asleep in the seat facing his own. He thought that the young man cut a fine figure when dressed as a prelate. He seemed almost younger and taller, and he thought that his serene face showed that his soul was finally clear of all clouds.
He turned to look at his RhŽmy, dressed as a friar like him. The wide habit totally covered the beautiful shape of his so sensual body, but showed in relief the fineness of his facial features. Chaki asked himself how could such a beautiful, refined, cultivated and noble boy be in love with him, an ordinary black slave thrown about here and there always at the mercy of events.
Chaki didn't know that any human being who is in love and who knows he is loved, feels amazed that such a perfect being like his lover (perfect when seen through the eyes of love) could be in love with him being so imperfect (imperfect because he would like to be able to become a hundred times better for his beloved one).
But Chaki knew perfectly well that he was lucky because he was the recipient of such a great love. He knew that although life could steal many things from him, it would never steal the amazing beauty of giving and receiving love, of being lover and beloved. Yes, Chaki knew this well.
RhŽmy woke up and saw the ecstatic expression of his lover and smiled warmly at him, and his eyes shone. Chaki gave him a smile in return, feeling as if he was totally melting with emotion. He stretched out his strong black hand and touched the beautiful white hand of his beloved. Their fingers intertwined so drawing a beautiful pattern of black and white waves. They were lost in each other's eyes, in silent, ecstatic contemplation, because each of the two boys was looking inside the other's soul.
Finally Jšrg woke up and saw the two boys and felt, almost physically, the intensity of that love that united them, and thought that never in his life had he seen a more beautiful scene. He didn't move, even though he was in an uncomfortable position, he didn't talk, he almost stopped breathing because he felt that the two lovers were in another dimension and he didn't want to disturb them.
But all of a sudden the coachman knocked on the oval window he had at his back and looked inside, yelling something. The enchantment was broken. So Jšrg stood up, opened the window from inside and finally heard what the coachman was saying.
"Soon we shall be coming to a staging post. I have to stop there to let the horses rest. It is better that the black boy covers himself, as we still are in the lands of Duke Wilhelm."
"All right. We will stay inside the coach."
"Don't you want to get out to have a meal, something to drink?"
"No, we have enough in the basket, it will be better if we stay here as long as we are still in Bayern." Jšrg answered.
"As you please. I will try not to stop for too long, but the horses need some rest."
"You are the coachman, do whatever you think is necessary." Jšrg answered and closed the little window.
"Will there be a checking point, at the staging post?" RhŽmy asked.
"I don't think so. At worst there could be other travellers, curious people. Therefore it will be better for Chaki to hide under his hood, and pretend to be asleep, so that if somebody looks inside, they can't see he is black." Jšrg answered.
Chaki wrapped himself up and asked, "How much longer will it be before we are out of this duchy?"
"I have no idea, possibly a full day."
"So, at least two more stops" the black boy commented from under his white hood.
When finally the coach resumed its journey, without any problems, all three felt more relaxed. Jšrg put the basket between them and invited his friends to eat and drink.
After the third stop, almost at dusk, they saw a group of mounted soldiers coming towards them. Quickly Chaki resumed his position as if he was asleep. RhŽmy leaned out of the window. As they passed each other, the soldiers' commander saluted RhŽmy and smiled at him. Some of the soldiers also gave him a light salute. The coach went on without stopping and the soldiers also went on in their way.
The following day they went through a farming village. The coachman stopped the coach and asked some passers by where they were. The answer swelled the fugitive friends' hearts. They were finally out of the lands of Duke of Bayern. They were in the lands of the Duke of Tyrol.
Jšrg said to the boys that from now on their journey would be almost a pleasure trip. Only one thing was left now to worry about - they couldn't enter the lands of Brixen's bishop-prince wearing a prelate's and a friar's clothes, let alone in the coach he had ordered in Bohemia and with fake papers apparently provided by that same prince, since they would not have been able to justify them. They had to pose, at that point, as workmen from the coach factory who accompanied the coachman on the long voyage, to eventually repair faults or fix problems.
Therefore, when they came within sight of the gates of Innsbruck, Jšrg sent the coachman to buy ordinary clothes for the three of them, not too rich or showy but not too poor either, possibly from a seller of second-hand clothes. The coachman, who was paid by Jšrg's father, went away with the coins that Jšrg gave him in his pocket and entered the town on foot. He was back about a half day later with several second hand clothes. The three friends, shut themselves in the coach and drew the window curtains, took off the ecclesiastical clothes and tried those that the coachman bought.
So, transformed into common people, they carefully folded the habits and the prelate clothes, put them in the food basket that was almost empty, then resumed their journey towards the south. They crossed the Alps and finally were in the lands of Brixen's bishop-prince. As they reached the small and nice city of Bruneck they got off the coach, which went on towards Brixen.
Jšrg looked for the address of a merchant who was in touch with his father and who, previously informed by a message delivered by a man on horseback, was waiting for him. Master Enno Birger was a bald and chubby little man in his fifties, wearing clothes that were austere but of very good cloth and workmanship. He received Jšrg with kindness, but he was a little surprised in seeing him in company with two more people, as the letter he received mentioned only Jšrg. The young man explained to him that the two boys were his servants who escaped with him and were staying with him in exile.
Enno assured him that, as he had agreed with his father, he would hire him to work for him as fidei-commissum in his business and would also find him lodgings, but he couldn't provide for the two boys as well. Jšrg asked him if he could at least help him to find jobs for them. The merchant said that such a totally black boy was a worry for him; yes, he had heard that in some parts of the world there were people of that colour, godless people, but in their land amongst the mountains nobody like him had ever been seen before, and that therefore he really doubted he could find work for him. Jšrg insisted however.
The merchant found for Jšrg a small apartment on the top floor of an old house adorned with merlons, in front of St. Saviour's church, which once belonged to a clothes maker who had moved to Bozen, and who subdivided the house into several apartments that he sold to some lower middle-class people in the town. The small apartment that Jšrg rented was composed of three rooms aligned one after the other and the last one was split in two, one wider and the other smaller. The wide central room was the kitchen with a big fireplace whose back heated the two rooms behind it.
Jšrg offered the small room behind the fireplace to the two boys, at least until they could find something better. When his father would bring his son to him, Jšrg wanted to make it into his son's room, until he grew up. He hired a housemaid from the rural area whose name was Rebeka, to cook, do the laundry and clean the apartment.
Then Jšrg, as he got to know his work and started to know the people of the town, found to the boys work at a master potter's. RhŽmy laughingly observed that kneading clay and shaping ceramics was not so different from the work at the bakery.
Talking with their friend, they asked him if he intended to marry again. Jšrg said he didn't rule out that possibility, but that for the moment he was just happy to have his son back with him. Anyone who wanted to marry him would have to to accept his son as if she were his real mother, therefore she would have to meet him and get to know him.
Chaki asked him if he didn't miss a woman with whom to make love, after being alone so long. Jšrg answered that at times he missed it but, he then said with a giggle, whilst making suggestive hand movements, that he had four sisters and their mother and a wide bed where he could make his pet dance with them.
Having a room of their own at last, in a home where they were liked and protected, and where they weren't afraid of being spied on, caught and reported, the two boys had finally found the tranquillity they had longed for for so long, but had never found before. Added to that, the fact that Jšrg knew about them and approved of them, gave the two boys an incredible serenity, and they were deeply grateful to him.
The only thing they had to be careful about was the presence of Rebeka, but she arrived at the apartment at the sound of the matins bells and went away at the sound of the Hail Mary bells. Therefore from evening through to early morning they were safe. When only the three of them were at home, the boys could cuddle and also exchange a kiss, as not only was Jšrg not at all scandalised but looked upon them with tenderness. When then they were alone in their small room, they could make love in peace and quiet.
Above the town, surrounded by a wood, there was the castle where the bishop-prince went at times, mainly in summer, to rest and to hunt. The castle was always looked after by a company of soldiers that resided there permanently. At times in the evening some of the soldiers went into the town to drink in the inns of that busy place.
Everything seemed to be going on well at last and they had been living in Bruneck for almost a year when suddenly, from God knows where, appeared a dark menace - the Black Death. At first only two people seemed to be affected by it and the town's authorities quarantined them. But the hygienic conditions of those times were rather poor and above all the contagion was spread by rats with their excrement, and the little animals certainly didn't respect the order about quarantining, so more cases started to appear here and there.
The Black Death was so called because it made dark buboes appear on the skin of the unlucky persons. Somebody, trying to find an explanation for the phenomenon, made a comparison, absurd but unhappily believed by the people, between the buboes' colour and Chaki's skin colour, so that some started to murmur that it was the boy who was spreading the epidemic. This rumour, at first just whispered and passed amongst the simple folk, gradually strengthened. Trying to find proof to support their absurd suspicion, the people started to watch the black boy.
When somebody badly "wants" to find confirmation of their suspicions, they will interpret anything in a way that "proves" their theory and supports their accusations. So the rumour grew that Chaki had had contact with the people hit by the illness, some said that he was seen "rubbing something suspicious" on objects that had been touched by these people, and the rumours, passing from mouth to mouth were enlarged, circulated widely so that at a certain point the fear of the people took the of shape of anger against the innocent boy.
It was Palm Sunday, the people were coming out of church and somebody made the observation that Chaki never went to church. This was enough to prove in their superstitious minds that the boy was a follower of the devil. Moreover somebody, trying to be clever, remembered and told the others, that in the Bible it is written that Ham had been cursed by Noah, and everybody knows that the descendants of Ham, the Hamites, are exactly the people who have a black skin. Yes, surely that son of Satan was infecting the good people of Bruneck trying to transform all of them into Hamites.
The people's rage exploded and a stream of furious people poured out into the streets, yelling that the black boy had to be arrested and executed, as it was he who had infected, and was still infecting the people.
Master Enno Birger, who, as a good merchant was sticking to the concrete things of the life and was possibly less superstitious than the average, not only understood that the black boy was in serious danger, but, as the boy's landlord, Jšrg, the son of his business partner, was also in danger. Therefore, scurrying as fast as his short legs allowed him, he managed to get ahead of the crowd, climbed to the top floor of the house and urgently knocked at Jšrg's door, and informed him about what was happening.
Jšrg at once ran to the boys' room, went in without knocking, which he was not used to doing, and when he saw that Chaki was joyously taking his lover, pushed back master Enno hoping he wouldn't see anything, and shut the door behind him.
The lovers, surprised by the unexpected interruption and seeing the concerned expression on the face of their friend, parted and got off the bed.
"Put on your clothes, and hurry up. Chaki has to hide or to run away!" he urgently said.
"Chaki? Why? What did he do?" RhŽmy asked while both hurriedly put on their clothes.
"Nothing, he did absolutely nothing" Jšrg said and explained to them what was happening.
Meanwhile master Enno behind the door was knocking saying, "Hurry up, hurry up, they will be here at any time."
Then Jšrg, as the boys were now dressed, opened the door again and said to the merchant, "Quick, let's go downstairs, we'll go and meet them and tell them that the boy has run away, that he is not here any more."
"But what if they want to check?" the little man said, visibly worried.
"You go downstairs first. Oh my God, what do we do now?" Jšrg asked more to himself that to the others.
"Chaki can hide up the chimney." RhŽmy proposed.
"Yes, possibly."
They helped the boy to hoist himself up inside the chimney, and then Jšrg with RhŽmy went down the stairs hoping to be able to stop the crowd. Already the crowd in an uproar was heard at the bottom of the stairs.
Enno was shouting, in a shrill voice, trying to be heard over the voices of the others, that the black boy had run away, that he had just been upstairs to seize him but he was not there.
At that moment Jšrg also arrived who shouted in turn, "He is not here any more. He has disappeared with all his belongings, we have to find him, we have to search all the town, we have to stop him before he makes us all ill!"
The crowd waved, then the news passed from mouth to mouth and some of them started to go back.
RhŽmy shouted, "We have to go and call out the soldiers at the castle, they will know how to find him."
"Yes, to the castle, to the castle!" shouted Enno and soon several voices repeated his words.
Jšrg then whispered to RhŽmy, "For the moment it has worked, but now you have to run away. How can we do it? The people will be very watchful, it will not be easy and if they do not find him elsewhere they could even come to my home to look for him."
"We can run away at night time, dressed like friars. You still have those habits, don't you?"
"Yes, I have them, but where do two Dominican friars suddenly appear from? There aren't any here in town if somebody decided to check."
They went back upstairs. Jšrg barred the door then told Chaki to come out from the chimney. The boy come down totally covered in soot he was blacker than he really was, including his clothes.
This gave Jšrg an idea, "We have to find a chimney sweep's tools then you too RhŽmy will blacken yourself like him and at night you will leave the town quietly walking, even singing. Fortunately, Bruneck has no walls, there aren't controls, you should be able to escape, black with soot both of you, with the tools on your shoulders."
"It could possibly work, but where can we get chimney sweep's tools?" RhŽmy asked.
"You lock yourselves in here and open the door only if you hear this rhythm of knocking" the young man said knocking on the table with his knuckles. "I will go to see master Enno and together we will solve the problem."
Jšrg hurriedly went out and RhŽmy barred the door behind him.
Then the boy in a dejected tone said in a low voice, "How long shall we have to keep on running away, my love?" Chaki smiled at him from behind his sooty mask, and his eyes and teeth seemed even whiter than usual, "But you know that Jšrg and the merchant are on our side. Thank heavens there are people ready to help us, not only people wanting to do us harm."
Several hours elapsed. Some of the Bruneck inhabitants went up to the castle to ask the captain to send the soldiers to search for the "plague-spreader" but the captain didn't seem disposed to move his soldiers, both out of the fear of the infection and also because, he said, if the boy had run away, by then he had to be far away. It would be nonsensical to think he was still hiding in the town.
Others, past the excitement of the moment, went back to their homes, thinking that when there is a problem, better to let someone else sort it out.
J šrg managed to find Enno and told him about his plan. The merchant thought that it was a good plan. He therefore told Jšrg to take his horse and to go to Zwischenwasser, where there lived a chimney sweep and to buy his tools and by paying him well for them, he would get them easily. He was told to put them in a sack so that nobody would see them and come back to town.
Meanwhile Enno, quite casually, started to let it be known in town that he was expecting two chimney sweeps from Aufthofen and that he hoped they would come soon, as his chimney was almost clogged up with soot. In such a small town, luckily, the gossip spread fast.
By evening Jšrg was back. He gave the horse back to Enno, and with him went up to his apartments, knocked and RhŽmy opened the door. Carefully the two men covered RhŽmy and his clothes with soot, gave Chaki an old hat, also covered in soot, to hide his frizzy hair that could betray his identity, and made the boys carry on their shoulders the chimney sweep's tools. Meanwhile Jšrg prepared a letter, which he gave to the boys together with a purse full of coins.
"Go south. When you are far enough away from here, you can abandon the chimneys tools or even sell them if you can. Wash the soot off yourselves and your clothes. Then you want the road to Venice. The letter that I gave you is for a merchant in Venice, a friend of my father whose name is Lorenzo Zuliani. You should have no difficulty in finding him. I am certain that he will help you. I wish you all the best, my friends, and I'm sorry that you have to run away again."
"Thank you for everything, Jšrg and also you, master Enno." RhŽmy said. "I hope that you will have your son back soon, Jšrg, and that you can be happy. And possibly also find a good wife to rebuild a family. I don't know if we will have the good fortune to meet again, but we will never forget you, and we will forever be grateful to you for having rescued our lives for us twice."
Chaki said, "If I weren't so covered with soot, I would embrace you, Jšrg, and shake hands with you, master Enno. But if I can't do that, please be assured that I too will never forget your kindness and your concern for a poor black boy, used to being despised and disliked by everybody."
Master Enno shook his head, "I have seen plenty of things in my life and I've noticed that one person who despises another, does so only because he doesn't have any other way of despising another person, other than trying to show that he is better. I've learned and understood that the colour of a man's skin should have no significance, it is simply the colour of a man's soul that can make a difference between two men. And your soul, my boys, seems to me to be of a very beautiful colour. May the good Lord help you."
The two men decided to accompany the boys out of the inhabited area, on the road leading south. Master Enno went ahead, some paces behind walked Chaki and RhŽmy, side by side, humming a tune, and a few paces behind them was Jšrg who had decided to take his dagger with him, determined to use it if necessary to allow the boys to save themselves if anything bad happened.
The night was very dark, the streets deserted and from a few windows the light of a lantern or candle spilled out. Dogs barked as they passed, but nobody came to their windows to look out. In a few minutes they were out of the small town, on the dirt road leading to the south.
There they stopped and exchanged final farewells. Master Enno and Jšrg remained on the roadside until the darkness of the night swallowed the dark silhouettes of the two boys. Then the two men, each immersed in his own thoughts, went back to their homes.
The boys walked all the night long, fast but feeling gradually safer with each pace that took them further from Bruneck. They walked for days and days, climbing steep slopes, rounding sharp bends in breathtaking landscapes, going through small villages and towns, trying to save the coins that Jšrg gave them, begging their food at times in exchange for some kind of light work.
At times they slept in a meadow, in a hayloft, under the porch of a house. When, at night, they felt themselves safe enough and weren't afraid of being caught, they also swapped passionate moments of love, which besides the pleasure that it gave them, gave them also a sense of hope, and a strengthening of energy, and of their will to go on. They walked more than a hundred miles and they were lucky to have good weather practically all the time, except for two occasions when they were surprised by some rain.
When they were only a couple days away from Bruneck, as they crossed a stream they washed themselves for a long time, trying to get rid of the soot from their clothes. They tried to sell their chimney sweeps' tools but it seemed that nobody was interested in buying them, so they finally decided to leave them at the side of the road.
When they finally were in the lands of the Very Serene Republic of Venice, they finally felt totally safe. The people of the villages and towns they went through, often looked at them with curiosity but they noticed with pleasure that none showed hostility against them. Another change made them curious. Up to then everybody had called Chaki a "black" boy, but in the lands of the Republic he was called a "Moor" instead. They weren't immediately aware of this, because they had to first learn the language spoken in those lands which was very different from German. The slow journey towards the capital city gave them time to begin to learn the new language, enough to start to communicate, even though in a very elementary way.
They finally reached the seashore and saw the wide lagoon dotted with big and small islands, crowded with buildings that seemed almost to have been built one on top of the other. It was Venice! Boats and barges were coming and going from the shore and further out, big ships in full sail, with multicoloured floating yards were slowly moving and others, with their sails furled were gently rocking, docked near the islands. Domes and bell towers adorned the town like precious jewels.
They saw a barge dock near the point where they stopped, and went to talk with the men who were landing from it.
"Excuse me, how do we get into Venice, into the town?" RhŽmy asked.
"If you find a boat that's going there, for a fee you would be taken to the other side." One of the men answered.
"Aren't you going back to the town?" the boy asked.
"Not now. We have to go and upload some goods, and once we have loaded them, there would not be enough room for two more people."
"Can you tell us where to go and who we should ask?"
"Do you see those housed down there? It is called Mestre. From there it is easier to find somebody who can take you into town. You have just to ask in one of the inns. For a few coins you will surely find the owner of a boat who is possibly going back empty and who would be ready to take you over to the other side."
"The little money we have are coins of the Tyrol duchy. Will they accept them?" RhŽmy then asked.
"In Mestre there are always a couple of money changers in the market square, there for that purpose. There you can change your money for the Very Serene's coins."
They thanked the man and were about to go, when the man asked, "And you, moor boy, where do you come from? From Candia? Or perhaps from Rhodes?"
"No, sir, I don't even know where they are, this Candia and Rhodes. I was born in Africa. From there I was brought to a country in Arabia, then from there to France and from France to here"
"Bah, it doesn't matter. In Venice there are moors, and many come from Candia or Rhodes, but it doesn't matter. Good luck, boys."
CONTINUES IN CHAPTER 10
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