Bare Hands

It started as a silly game, or at least that's what Ward wants to think. It's a blustery New Year's Eve. and Ward and his best friend, Bernie, are running from Mr. Betjeman's farm with Mr. Betjeman in hot pursuit. The boys jump ditches to get away from the man, who wants his pet duck back. Ward has the duck tucked inside his coat, and whether by accident or by design, he has killed the poor creature. Now, the two boys and Elmer, Ward's dog, are fleeing from Mr. Betjeman, but Elmer can't jump the last ditch. As he runs, Ward turns back and sees Mr. Betjeman reach menacingly for Elmer with his artificial hand.It isn't until later, when the boys creep back across the cold, windswept fields to Bernie's farmhouse, that the awful realization dawns on Ward: Mr. Betjeman has killed his beloved Elmer. Gradually, the explanations and background to this emotional drama begin to unfold. Mr. Betjeman is a lonely man. Ward's mother, too, is lonely, and Mr. Betjeman has been coming to dinner at their house. Ward is frightened and angry that Mr. Betjeman is trying to replace his father. "The lights went on inside my head", Ward eventually reveals. "First at the front, up above the place where Betjeman had sat six days earlier At our dining table, with my mother and my little sister Lorna for Christmas Dinner. He shone in his old white shirt. The part in his hair had been drawn with a ruler, and every time he looked at my mother he beamed. He thought she was his, but she was ours".In simple, powerful language, acclaimed Belgian author Bart Moeyaert conveys the emptiness and loneliness of the landscape and of the characters -- the young boys as well as the adults. In spite of themselves, theiremotions billow to the surface in this heart-wrenching and moving tale available for the first time in English.