Zebra Horizon
Page 53
YET ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE
A novel about the hilarious, chaotic and creative every day life in a yacht club in South Africa.
Sample Chapters
THE STARS BENEATH MY FEET
We all felt it that day on the farm
Flint and I went for a walk. The first flowers dotted the veld with their bright colours – yellow orange purple – in between the bossies and the klippe. A winter wind was howling, blowing big grey clouds across the pale blue sky. The shadows of those clouds rode like phantoms over the glowing mountains, veiling the rusty umber of their ancient folds,
and there it was – your presence – all around, gentle & overwhelming, abstract & very real, connecting the sky the mountains the veld & us.
I drove home. I opened the door. Time stopped
the plastic packet over your head, the empty pill containers, the bandage around your neck, your hands peacefully on the duvet – but cold…oh so cold
your chest, concrete-like, no movement
the plastic packet, rigid, tight
doc came
cops came
the cat wanted to lie on your chest
there were stars in the sky
you weren’t in your body anymore
I could feel you all around
doc said, ‘here’s a pill if you want it. You mustn’t stay here tonight.’
Vilma came and took me back to the farm
I’m lying in a bed that is not your bed or my bed or our bed
it’s cold except for 2 little wheat bags – warmed up in the micro wave
one at my feet, one on my tummy, the bed is soft
the wind hasn’t stopped howling, the windows are rattling, the door is creaking, it is pitch dark
same dark if I close my eyes or open them
there are images jumping from my mind and from my guts burning into that space just between my eyes
The plastic packet, The plastic packet, The plastic packet
your hands peacefully on the duvet, almost like in prayer, maybe that is what you were doing – talking to the universe