“From a book called Primitive Love and Lovestories. So,” he turned toward Jasmine but she had vanished and he looked disappointed.
“How to Win Friends and Influence People,” Richard said dryly. “Well done, Rydell.”
“I’m going to take a shower,” Lena stood up, “See you in the morning.”
She walked off and Gisela jumped up to follow her.
“I’m going to find Jasmine,” Ellie untangled her gangly limbs from the bench.
“Tell her chin up,” Richard said, “some opinions just aren’t worth getting upset about.”
Charisse arrived, freshly showered and sat down next to Stepfan. “What did I miss?”
“Not a thing,” Stepfan said, rubbing her leg under the table.
“We’re calling it a night too,” Richard got to his feet. “We’ve got to be up bright and early for canoeing.”
“I was thinking of taking a walk down by the river,” Charisse said, “any takers?”
“I’ll come,” Stepfan got up and they disappeared into the darkness leaving Rydell alone at the table.
Eva arrived, looking for Kate.
“She must still be doing dishes. I didn’t realize it was only you here, Rydell.”
“I heard you’re a poet,” Rydell’s eyes glistened. “Do you want to hear a real African poem?”
“Some other time,” Eva was firm but he grabbed her and recited:
“My lioness.
Are you afraid that I may bewitch you?
You milk the cow with fleshy hand.
Bite me.”
He stared at Eva and she tugged her hand free and ran back up to the tents.
Left alone at the table, Rydell smiled to himself but then all at once he frowned and slammed his hand hard on the table. “It’s not going very well at all,” he said out loud. “Not well at all.”
A couple of hours later, Rydell lay snuggled against the side of Treasure’s tent, hoping for sounds of her readying for bed.
She muttered a few times, slipped into her sleeping bag and gave a few deep sighs which gave way to small keening noises. Rydell smiled. That she was troubled boded well for him; her life stresses would no doubt increase the appeal of his offer.
The temperature dropped sharply but Rydell, lying on the damp chilly grass, did not feel the cold. Undetectable in black clothing and settling in for the night, he was startled when Treasure unzipped her tent and he crept around to see her padding across the grass to the washroom.
Rydell dove into her tent and searched for a memento but Treasure’s possessions were meager. He opened her toiletry bag and grabbed a small white soapbox. He rushed out and hid behind the tent, worried that Treasure would notice something when she came back but she climbed back into her sleeping bag muttering under her breath and soon fell asleep.
Lost in a fantasy in which he lay close to her naked warmth, Rydell popped open the soapbox and undid his trousers. He inhaled the rose-scented fragrance like an addict, and tried not to groan as he pumped with increasing urgency, soon ejaculating in a hot rush. Filled with glory, he went to the washroom to clean up. For once, he liked what he saw in the mirror. He washed his hands sparingly with Treasure’s precious soap and then he went to bed, soon shattering the peaceful reprieve of the noiseless night.
To the Fish River Canyon
KATE WOKE EARLY AND LISTENED to Rydell’s noisy exhalations, thinking about the strange poem he had recited to Eva.
Eva had bumped into a weeping Jasmine, followed by Ellie who told her what had happened at the pub. “Stepfan pretends to love women but deep down he hates us,” Eva said. “He makes me sick. And if you ask me, Harrison’s obsessive compulsive but not dangerous, while Rydell is weird with the definite capacity for violence.”
“But would they let a seriously deranged person on a trip?”
“How would they know the difference? They wouldn’t. It’s not like we’ve got to give them a Hello-I’m-Sane certificate. Pay and you’re in. But in my feedback to them, I’m going to suggest they do some sort of psych evaluation before letting people sign up.”
Tucked into the cosy warmth of her sleeping bag and thinking about what Eva had said, Kate was tempted to snooze but she did not want to miss the beautiful African sunrise and she got up, careful not to disturb Marika. It was still dark out, with birds singing a multitude of songs and flitting from tree to tree. The broad river was black in the predawn light, with the far-off mountains ghostly gray shapes against the sky and the bulrushes’ tall silhouettes standing silent sentry.
Once the sun came up, Kate went in search of fossils and later, in excellent spirits, having filled her camera bag with rocks, she joined the others for breakfast and found them sitting morosely in a circle in silence. “Holy Mackinaw,” she said, thinking she sounded like her father, “what happened? Did someone die?” She helped herself to breakfast cereal.
“They did not,” Stepfan said. “Not yet, anyway. I couldn’t sleep all night because of the noise,” He glared at Rydell who was spooning cereal into his mouth, lost in his own world.
“Treasure is upset with me because I want to help her with the food preparation,” Harrison said, looking up from his notebook.
“I’m not surprised she wasn’t happy,” Kate looked over at a clearly disgruntled Treasure. “Treasure’s got her way of doing things and we shouldn’t interfere.”
Treasure shot her a grateful look.
Just then the canoeists arrived, sunburned and smiling.
“It was excellent.” Mia was wide-eyed and breathless. “Never had so much fun in me whole bleedin’ life.”
“A ringing indictment of our relationship,” Richard commented dryly, “But I concur, it was fantastic and Jasmine was positively masterful.”
Jasmine beamed in appreciation and glowered at Stepfan, still smarting from his comments from the previous night.
Stepfan, massaging his muscled arms appreciatively, did not notice her venom.
Jono arrived and poured a cup of coffee. “Good morning, everybody! We will be leaving for the Fish River Canyon in an hour. I am glad to see that everybody is having a good time!”
Kate found an empty seat next to Harrison and the bus was soon rumbling up the steep rocky slope and out onto the long, pale dusty road. While Kate was lost in a daydream of fossils and rocks as big and perfectly round as soup bowls, Harrison fussed with his notebook and rearranged his bag. When it was organized to his satisfaction, he launched a missile of chatter at Kate about his travels, his hobbies, the tenants who shared his house and his work history. Half an hour later, she was ready to scream and it was clear that he had only just begun. Harrison did not converse; he discoursed, amphetamine-style, and Kate thought that while Rydell’s repartee had been bizarre, at least he had been somewhat interesting.
Rydell had an empty seat next to him and Kate eyed it longingly. Also, Harrison’s ‘optimal ventilation system’ was searing her eyeballs with a blistering wind. She looked around in desperation and caught Marika’s eye. Marika laughed and nodded, making a spiraling motion next to her temple with her forefinger. “Cuckoo,” she mouthed and Kate nodded in fervent agreement and after a while, she decided she had to move.
“Harrison,” she interrupted him, “I’m going to sit next to Rydell,” and she rushed over to Rydell before Harrison could say anything further.
Rydell was pleased to see her and he was in the mood to chat. “You remember our conversation?” he immediately asked her.
“Yes…” Kate said cautiously, thinking that he smelled slightly perfumed and oddly feminine.
“Remember I told you my plan had changed and that I had found The One?”
“Yes, I remember. Who is she?”
“I’ll give you a clue,” Rydell wet his lips. “She’s something you hunt for and she’s a gift when you find her,” he clasped his
hands together in glee.
Kate was bewildered. “Easter eggs?”
“Easter eggs? You’re no good at this. Here’s another one. She’s what you find at the end of the rainbow.”
“A pot of gold?” Kate was baffled than ever.
“Are you being stupid on purpose? Come on, think. Try this one; what do pirates find?”
“Hidden treasure,” Kate gave the quick reply and then stopped. “Treasure? Do you mean our Treasure?” Her gaze shot to Treasure who was paging through a magazine with her blue baseball cap low on her forehead and her bare feet up on the dashboard. Treasure felt Kate’s gaze and she turned and smiled and Kate smiled back.
She turned to Rydell. “You want to marry Treasure? But she’s a tall Xhosa from Zimbabwe, which is a far cry from a small Bushwoman from Namibia.”
“Africa is Africa,” Rydell was dismissive. “It’s all the same. Lobola and a wife for life who does whatever you want.”
“It doesn’t works like that, Rydell. It’s not like buying a slave from hundreds of years ago. Nor do I think Treasure’s the sort of woman who’ll do whatever you want her to. She strikes me as very intelligent and independent. Does she know how you feel?”
“No, and you can’t tell her. Promise me. I must court her properly.”
“Are going to hunt an eland and present her with the tail or some other Bushman tactic?” Kate joked.
“No,” Rydell was serious, “I’m going to hunt her.”
Kate’s amusement vanished. “What do you mean?”
“You’ll see,” Rydell was coy.
“I’m sure she mentioned something about a husband in Zimbabwe,” Kate lied.
Rydell tittered. “I know you don’t know that, you just don’t want me to have her. But she will be mine. Remember you promised not to tell anyone what I said.”
“I promise. Rydell, do you have any medication?”
Rydell was terrified. “What do you mean?” he demanded and there was a fleck of spittle on his lips.
“Headache meds. Harrison’s darn ‘open ventilation system’ blew a furnace on my face and I’ve got a killer headache.”
Rydell was relieved her request was so harmless.
“No, I don’t. I don’t believe in taking pills of any kind. My mother died from an overdose.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry Rydell, I really am. How thoughtless of me.” Kate did not want to sound unsympathetic but she felt that something about what he said did not ring true.
“It wasn’t thoughtless, you didn’t know,” Rydell cocked his head sideways. “She was a beautiful singer and an exotic dancer in Las Vegas. A very good one. She had all kind of connections. She liked dangerous men and a glamorous life. And once she was sucked into that world, she couldn’t get out except by killing herself.” He spoke with an odd self-importance, once again sounding false and rehearsed to Kate.
“And what about your father?” she asked.
“My father’s an extremely important man but he had his other family, his socially acceptable, legitimate family so he didn’t have much time for me.”
“How old were you when your mother died?” Kate had the distinct feeling that none of this was true.
“Sixteen. I’ve been on my own ever since. I’m fifty-one.”
Kate was surprised. “I would have sworn you were about forty. How do you keep your skin so nice and smooth?”
Rydell grew uncomfortable under Kate’s scrutiny. “Good genes, I guess,” he squirmed.
Kate rubbed her temples and Rydell stopped fidgeting around. “What a tough life you’ve had,” she said. “You never married?”
“Not yet. But soon.” He wet his lips in his nervous way. “Until now I haven’t found the right woman. Women want to eat you up; they’re big fat hairy spiders in tight satin dresses with fake fat breasts and fat mouths filled with plastic. Makeup put on with a trowel, shiny wet red lips. No thank you.”
“My head’s killing me,” Kate said, thinking she had to deflect the conversation or least be drugged to listen. “I’ve got to find some meds. Who’ll have, do you think?”
“I’ve got no idea,” Rydell pursed his lips. “If you ask me, this is a very strange bunch of people.”
Kate suppressed a smile and decided to start with Jasmine. She had heard Jasmine offer all kinds of antihistamines to Brianna and her instinct proved correct.
“Acetaminophen, aspirin or ibuprofen? Or Robaxicet?” Jasmine was sitting next to Ellie who was fast asleep.
“I don’t know. Ibuprofen, I guess. Thanks, Jasmine.”
She took the pills and clambered back to her seat, relieved to find that Rydell had withdrawn into himself and had his back to her. She swallowed the pills, plugged in her earphones and waited for the pain in her head to ease.
Next to her, lips moving silently, Rydell rehearsed what he would say to Treasure later that night. He was once again furious with himself for confiding in Kate. It was as if he both wanted and loathed her approval, which was exactly as it had been with his mother. He had thought he was beyond such concerns but clearly not. He pushed those thoughts away and imagined taking Treasure aside and letting her know his intentions. He told himself he could do it, that it was his destiny, and when his courage faltered, he sniffed the tiny piece of soap he had wrapped in his handkerchief.
Several seats behind, Lena looked at her sleeping husband and came to a conclusion. She had to get rid of that little tramp Charisse. Make her sick enough to leave the trip. Because Lena could not go on this way. She looked over at Charisse who was innocently reading a book and felt a surge of hatred. Go and find your own man. Stop chasing my man. He’s mine, mine.
She stroked Stepfan’s head and he grunted slightly. She admired his classical features, his strong jaw, his dimples, the cleft in his chin. He was her husband and she had to fight for him, just like she always had. She tried to forget how he had hurt her over and over again with his shameless affairs, and she told herself the same thing she always had: I’m his wife. No one can ever take that away from me. I’m his wife.
She had to poison Charisse. Just enough to give her a stomachache and get her off the bus. She had not been planning anything when she broke off a piece of that lethal bush. Yes, Stepfan had cut her to the quick when he left her to follow Charisse but she had had no particular thought in mind when she had found herself alone and before she could consider her actions, she folded her bandanna, wrapped it around a branch of the poisonous bush and twisted hard. Something about the action made her feel powerful, invincible.
Stepfan grunted in his sleep and shifted on her shoulder.
I can’t be alone. I’ve always had Stepfan to take care of me. I don’t care if it’s weak, it’s who I am. I can’t live this life alone. Yes, I had a good job but the backbone of my life has always been Stepfan.
She just had to find a way to put a tiny piece of the plant in Charisse’s water and then everything would be fine.
“Tell me, my friend,” Treasure said to Jono, her feet up on the dashboard and a magazine balancing on her legs, “are you enjoying this group of crazies or what?”
“Ei, Treasure, funny you should ask that…”
Treasure put down her magazine. “What’s on your mind, Jono?”
He rubbed his arms as if he had a chill. “I get a bad feeling from this group.”
“Why?”
“Really, I do not know.” He was reluctant but needed to say what he was thinking. “I thought maybe, that first night, that they would be a good lot but now I have changed my mind. They are too restless and so many of them are unhappy, there is an undercurrent and I do not know why I feel it this strongly but I do. Ei. And we are only starting really, there is so much road ahead of us and already I feel like there is trouble brewing.”
Treasure nodded, sighed and patted his arm. “We’ll do our best along the wa
y. We’ve always been fine, you and me, we’re a team of survivors, isn’t that right? Try not to worry about it.”
Jono was not reassured.
Treasure pondered for a moment and reached for her cell phone. No messages. No missed calls. She sighed again and picked up her magazine.
By the time they reached the next campsite, Kate’s headache was gone. She grabbed a tent bag and joined Marika who had secured them a spot under a tree.
“We’re definitely in the bush now, just a lot of sand, rocks, dust, thorn trees and aloes. No more manicured green lawns or flower beds.”
“I like this one better,” Kate said and Marika agreed.
While Marika crawled into the tent and changed into her bathing suit, Kate picked up her camera and ambled down the dusty road.
The first thing Helen did, once her tent was pitched, was grab her running shoes. Her craving to enter the numb zone was so strong she could think of little else. Like mother like daughter. I’m an addict too. She half-listened to Sofie chatting nineteen to the dozen about her spring wedding, her dog, and her happy life back home while scrambling through her mess of things to find her bathing suit. “Excuse me,” she smiled grimly at Sofie, “I simply must run.”
Rydell emerged from his tent and watched her as she did a few stretches and eased rhythmically into her stride. One, two, buckle my shoe, see how she runs, see how she runs. They all ran after the farmer’s wife, did you ever see such a thing in your life? She’s a blind mouse, she’s a blind mouse.
Then he watched Jasmine, Ellie, Richard and Mia head off to the swimming pool, all of them doubled over at a joke Richard had made. Birds of a feather flock together, and so will pigs and swine; rats and mice will have their choice and so will I have mine.
He looked thoughtfully over at Treasure’s tent. Rydell, Rydell people-eater, had a wife and couldn’t keep her. Put her in a pumpkin shell and there he kept her very well. Yes, put her in a pumpkin shell and there he kept her, very well.
When Kate got to the swimming pool she saw Stepfan splashing Charisse, with an unhappy Lena watching. Richard was lying on a towel on the parched grass, next to Mia who was also baking in the hot sun. “Hi, Kate,” he said, looking up at her as she leaned over the waist-high white fence.
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