by Paul Eksteen
It was the second time he had abandoned his wife at their lodge. This time for good.
I made it to the Merc with the assistance of the other two and dropped thankfully into the left front passenger seat. Kwinzee disappeared into the night and returned a few minutes later with my rifle. “You’d better drive this one back with you to Polokwane.”
With Kwinzee behind the steering wheel, we were soon out of the gate and driving to where he left his bakkie.
“Are you okay to drive, DC?” he enquired.
“I’m okay, Kwinz. We have to get away from here. I’m not sure what Louis will be doing, but it would be safer to get as far away from this place as possible. See you in Polokwane.”
CHAPTER 28
Polokwane — Saturday, 4 April
The Crusaders beat the Bulls in Christchurch yesterday by three points. I had finished watching the highlights of the game with Danielle on TV, and we were on our way to Karlien for supper.
Danielle scared me somewhat. Yesterday should have been the worst day of her life. She had been kidnapped, held in captivity, saw her father tied down and tortured, and witnessed the brutal killing of Lillynn.
People I knew were in therapy for far less. She should be prostrate with misery and shock. But she wasn’t.
She was happy. Her father had appeared like a vision at the lodge, and then Kwinzee came and rescued them. A tale with a happy ending. She would never understand the Border war and its repercussions. I shot Lillynn’s lover maybe seven years before she was born, and the Border war was not even something she would learn about in history class any more.
She curled up beside me on the couch and watched the highlights with a smile on her face. I was definitely going to make an appointment for her at the school shrink. She reminded me too much of myself.
The Bulls were playing two more games abroad — in Australia — before returning to South Africa for a home game at Loftus on 25 April against the Chiefs.
I will be there. Things need to get back to normal again. I will get tickets for myself, Karlien and the kids. I might even convince Kwinzee and Lebo to join us. I owe them all a little break away.
I will book us in at Caesar’s Palace for the Saturday night after the game to watch a show.
Then next month was Danielle’s goat exhibition and the Super Rugby final. We could make a family weekend of that as well.
I decided that tonight, I would ask Karlien to join me and Danielle for a week in Gozo for the school holidays. I knew that she was very patient with me, but she also needed stability in her life again. As did I. It would also be nice having someone with me when standing on the red carpet in front of Mr Malan on Monday.
I had to go back to Clarens at some stage to choose a wind pump to paint. It would be a special painting, as it ended the chapter, not of an embittered Cuban doctor and his crazy mother, but of a very special friend and colleague, Nic Badenhorst.
I had seen three or four possibilities whilst on the way to the sniping site, but would make my decision on my next visit. I was also very excited about some paintings I discovered whilst waiting in the cave at the bottom of butte number two. They were very weathered but showed vague rock paintings of yellow and white eland antelope.
I didn’t have the time to investigate the cave further the previous morning, but I would definitely go back there to take some photos, and to solve the mysteries that might lie in waiting.
I was thinking of Karlien and my work at the SSA.
The happenings of the past two months were distinctive warning signals.
I had spent nearly twenty years thinking about it, but there was always only one viable answer. The whole of my life I had been proud of my courage and my cunning, my toughness and my fortitude. I had always done what was necessary, without a second thought. But I knew that when I heard the alarm bells, I had to get out.
I had done my duty and served my country. So had Kwinzee. Now it was time we served ourselves.
***
It was later that night and I was sitting with Karlien on a couch in her sitting room; the daughters were busy doing the washing up in the kitchen.
She enquired about my injuries, as I flinched when she hugged me on arrival. I told her vaguely what had happened but omitted to tell her about the fatalities. I have told Danielle to keep what happened to herself and told her that we will work something out to tell the principal before Monday’s meeting.
I reassured Karlien that everything was over now. She knew that I had been working for the SSA from time to time, but I told her that I was taking an indefinite break from that for the time being.
“I need to take it easy, right?”
“You do, Tom,” she answered and rested her head on my shoulder.
“Maybe you could stay with me for a while, you know, to help me recover.”
She looked up at me. “It might be something I could consider.” She reached up and kissed me on the cheek.
“Yes, I might definitely consider it.”