A Voice in the Belly - extract from the novel by Terri-ann White

Literary Review, Fall, 2001 by Terri-Ann White

Borough of Portsmouth

The Jurors for our Lady the Queen upon their oath present that Carl Dollman per se Guilty late of the Parish of Portsea within the Borough of Portsea with the Borough of Portsmouth Labourer and Teoder Kiakauer late of the same place Labourer on the twenty-third day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight with force and arms at the Parish aforesaid in the Borough aforesaid three silk dresses at the value of four pounds and ten shillings, two satin dresses of the value of six pounds, two pieces of muslin de laine of the value of twenty-three shillings, four shawls of the value of five pounds, five yards of woollen plaid at the value of thirty shillings, two scarves at the value of twenty shillings, one silk visile at the value of twenty-five shillings, four petticoats of the value of eight shillings, three shifts of the value of five shillings, three tablecloths of the value of six shillings, five yards of table cloths linen of the value of seven shillings and four sheets of the value of six shillings of the Goods and Chattels of Henry Seeling, in the dwelling house of the said Henry Seeling there situate, then and there being found then and there in the said dwelling house feloniously did steal take and carry away against the form of the Statute in such case made and provided and against the peace of our Lady the Queen her Crown and Dignity.

Howard

To be each transported for the term--15 years. *

Fremantle

To begin in the one room: its four solid walls, the amazing height to the ceiling, the dimensions and the grace of the corner room. The room looks out onto a peaceful garden, a cultivated native garden, and from its windows you can also see, if you bring a chair into the room and stand on it, the features of the city of Fremantle.

This must be where I first came to think about Theodore Krakouer, my grandmother's grandfather, and the end of his days in the Swan River Colony. Started to imagine him as an imprisoned body in this asylum for lunatics built by convict labour in 1861 and now used as an Arts Centre. At first with no idea what it might mean to discover a madman in the family. Was it an incorrect diagnosis? Are there concerns about genetic inheritances? What is this deep shame? This man stole satin dresses and fabrics with arms and force, was sentenced to fifteen years' hard labour and sent to Australia when the convict era had almost finished. And died of syphilis and exhaustion at the end of a short life. That room was where my research began. The first artefacts found were two letters and a certificate. The first is dated 30th August, 1873, and states simply that Theodore Krakouer was admitted as a patient to the Fremantle Asylum and that his son Abraham has agreed to pay for the maintenance of the patient during the time of his confinement. It is signed by H. C. Barnett, Medical Practitioner of Fremantle. The second is dated 24 September, twenty-five days later when Barnett, after careful examination, discharges Theodore on the basis of a successful convalescence. This is when he really goes berserk because it is only a matter of two weeks before he is a certified lunatic. He rampages through the streets of Fremantle.

   LUNATIC'S CERTIFICATE
   I, the undersigned, H. C.
   Barnett of Fremantle in the
   colony of Western Australia, a
   medical practitioner of the said
   colony, and now in actual practice,
   hereby certify that I on the
   10th day of October at Fremantle
   in the said colony personally
   examined Theodore Krakouer
   of Fremantle and that the said
   Theodore Krakouer is a Lunatic
   and a proper person to be
   taken charge of and detained
   under care and treatment, and
   that I have focused this opinion
   on the following grounds.

   1st Facts indicating insanity and
   found by myself:
   Delusion. Says he hears a voice
   operating from his belly giving
   him messages from God Almighty
   to destroy the world.

   2nd Other facts indicating insanity
   communicated to me by
   other/s:
   Has been drinking since he left
   the Asylum and is in a state of
   delusional excitement.

   H. C. Barnett.

his voice

I am ghost-trading. Theodore's body in the dormitory dreaming of other times, dreaming of his life. A sleeping body, a mound on a mattress under a regulation blanket. There isn't much body left, only a skinny thing, not so much emaciated as worn down. The volume of the mound is child-size, but the length of his body is still there, five-feet-eight. He is going mad here and that is why he is hiding.

He stands up and moves away from the bed. His walk is like a dance in slow motion: he needs to find a balance and he does it in an elaborate sway, a complex signal system of four limbs. The head moving too, in counter rhythm to his body. A straddling walk.

If, out of respect for the dead and the still living, flesh and blood are banished in this account, and only the paths he took are shown, lines and paths and that is all, how will his journey be shaped? Will he look like a madman or a pioneer, a criminal or a father and grandfather? Ghosts must suffice; disembodied voices that spring from the belly. There are no other mementos or objects carried down, none that I have found, aside from court notices in newspapers and a certificate of lunacy. His crimes always clever and playful; my memorials made of the most precarious materials.