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Dorothee
Germany
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We have to know the story “A Meeting in the Dark” for our final exam in English. It’s a story about a boy (John) who falls in love with a girl from a native tribe. One day they realize that she got pregnant by him and John who truly fears his strictly religious Christian father Stanley knows that the latter would never tolerate this. In the end John doesn’t see any other solution than eventually murdering his girlfriend.
So far I’ve only written letters, fanfictions and inner monologues and thus I’m now going to post what Stanley might have written in his diary after hearing about his son’s horrible deed (‘ll leave out the date, because you can’t leave any gap in here…):
Dear diary,
I don’t know what I did wrong! Never before my son has been a disgrace to me; he’s always been a good student, popular, good-looking and above all pious. I never thought that one day I’d seriously have to fear for his soul. Today however I’ve been proven wrong. He told me he wanted to take a little walk and I let him go, as always telling him not to get into mischief. How could I have known about the deed he really was up to?
When the police arrived about maybe two hours later my fears increased. Of course they did! Every father can comprehend what it must be like to see those police officers moving towards you and thus fearing that your son became the victim of a crime or had an accident or…In this case it was worse! I couldn’t believe my ears that my son had murdered a young native girl. When they added that John already had confessed being the father of her unborn child, this was worse than the worst nightmares I’ve ever had. I was expecting that one day he’d get into trouble with all those natives around. He’s still so young and I sure would have had understanding in everything, but not in that! This feeling of contempt I feel for him at the moment scares me, because I know that parents shall not feel like that about their children. I’ve never felt this mix between scorn and fear for him before, nor have I ever heard about anybody feeling it before.
Now he is in jail and I don’t know what to do! I was getting prepared to say goodbye to him before sending him to the university of Mekarere! I already was dreaming of him passing his exams with perfect marks and thus having best chances to get a well-paid job and now…it’s over.
I can’t stand to hear the accusations I hear in my head anymore: Did I push him too far, always telling him to get good marks and to become an appreciable citizen? Did I really force my religious opinion upon him?
I just meant to do well: I wanted him to get an acceptable job and later maybe even found his own family. His own family with a honorable Christian girl! How could he have let that native girl seduce him? Already the bible tells us not to marry non-Christians! This rule was made for our very best: A non-Christian wouldn’t understand all of our Christian values and rules and thus (in this case she) would try to convince us of her opinion. That would be the end! On the other hand it would have been hard even if she hadn’t succeeded in convincing my son. Just imagine the differences between Christianity and her tribal faith! Do you really think it would have been easy for both of them to maintain all the procedures a religion expects from its believer? I don’t think so! John would have wanted to celebrate the Christian celebration days in an ordinary Christian way on days when maybe that girl’s tribe celebrates a tribal festival in their manner! At the latest the birth of their first child would have caused the ultimate argue between them; the members of this tribe circumcise their children. Even girls get circumcised! How could my boy have let them do this to his own children? Not at all, I hope! And that’s what would have made their marriage become such a torturous thing. A marriage is meant to make two people who truly love each other become an inseperable, happy couple, but in the longrun members of two different cultures just are way too different to be happy together.
Perhaps I should have warned him about that! I should have shown him these passages of the bible! After all I knew about all those native girls straying around in this area and trying to seduce every white man just to make him offer them a better life.
Now it’s too late and the harm is done. I don’t know what to do. God help me! How can I leave the house tomorrow having to fear that the majority of the neighbourhood already knows about it?
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