When the body arrives, another tragedy strikes. Due to bureaucratic bungling and the carelessness of the white authorities, the body is barely recognizable. It has been mishandled, and the young man’s face is disfigured. For the family, this is a devastating blow; the ritual of washing and honoring the body is essential for a good death. The climax of the story occurs after the burial. The narrator, feeling he has done his good deed for the day, asks Petrus for the leftover wood from the shipping crate. Divimera Walkthrough Guide Link →
The narrator ends the story looking at the receipt, holding the physical evidence of the transaction. He has "helped," yet he remains fundamentally separate from the grief of the people who work for him. He owns the farm, but they only own those six feet of earth. Ssis840decensored A Shoplifting Girljun Ka Hot [LATEST]
This comfortable distance is shattered when one of the workers, a young man named Petrus, approaches the narrator with a request. Petrus’s brother has recently arrived from the rural areas (likely Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe) to work on the gold mines. He contracted pneumonia and died in a government hospital.
He then asks for the receipt for the £20 paid to the government, perhaps thinking he can use it to claim a tax deduction or simply keep his accounts in order. Petrus hands him a crumpled piece of paper. It is a receipt for the burial fees.
In a moment of dark irony, the narrator notes that the piece of wood is exactly —the length of a man, the length of a grave.