Estrelita ran over to her. ‘This is just paradise! The fresh air, and the birds and the sun and the freedom … I can do what I like, whenever I like,’ and she did a quick backward somersault to illustrate her joy.
Then she accepted the tray with its flask of coffee and plate of beskuit, kissed Lily on the cheek, waved and was gone.
Lily started taking her a tray every morning, not only because she was kind, but also because she loved to watch the performance. Early morning, even before sunrise, was Estrelita’s time for keeping in shape. Hair flying, sometimes whooping with happiness, she stood on the swings, pumping so hard that she would whoosh clean over the top and back to earth again; she hung upside down on the jungle gym and twisted her head between her legs; she stood on the grass and did eight somersaults in a row, forward and back, then she lodged her right foot behind her left ear. She always gratefully accepted Lily’s breakfast, then retired to her caravan to plan her next routines.
And then suddenly one morning Sophia’s husband Dawid appeared. Dawid was the caretaker and very proud of his Park. Certainly, he had seen the caravan standing there, but as he had attended the circus performance he knew all about Estrelita, and he was happy for her to be with them. But one morning it came to him while sipping his first cup of coffee, that her caravan was going to kill the grass if it stood in one spot all the time. So he decided to go over and ask her whether he and some of his mates could move it a little to the right, in order to give the lawn a chance. Sophia said she was sure Estrelita would understand. ‘Go now, before she starts her day,’ she suggested. ‘We’re being very careful not to meddle with her programme.’
Dawid reached the gate to the Park and stopped dead. Estrelita was in the middle of a major session, in which she was testing appallingly risky manoeuvres that she had devised the previous day.
On this particular morning she was not merely flitting from branch to branch of the oak trees, she was sailing into space in a glorious whirl of strong brown limbs and purple tights, flying with fistfuls of leaves in her hands, pelting from one tree to the next, taking impossible gaps and shaving past the massive trunks with just millimetres to spare. As he stood there watching, trails of sweat started slowly snaking down Dawid’s chest under his shirt, and his heart began to thrum alarmingly, so he went home.
‘What, back so soon?’ exclaimed Sophia. Usually, he was away for quite a while each morning. His job as caretaker of Parks and Other Amenities included putting up the nets on the tennis courts, checking on the state of the water furrows and feeding the two small monkeys who were the sole inhabitants of the town Zoo. These duties usually took him until just before morning tea.
‘Ja-nee,’ he answered, staring thoughtfully into his mug of steaming coffee.’
‘You look a little pale, Dawid. Is there something wrong in the Park, then?’
‘No, no. Nothing serious. But I’ll have to check up again tomorrow morning.’
Dawid ‘checked up’ on six consecutive mornings, and on the seventh he nailed a sign to the gate. It read: ‘As From Henceforth No High Jinks In The Park. By Law.’
The women were astonished, and questioned Sophia.
‘Why has Dawid put up that sign?’ they wanted to know. ‘What about Estrelita?’
Sophia was ready. ‘He says it’s him who is responsible to the council for any accidents and he can’t stand it any longer, looking at a major one just waiting to happen, with her flashing all over the place like Tarzan. His nerves are quite on the loose, he says, and so he’s thinking of resigning.’
‘Ag no, he’s such a good caretaker.’
‘Perhaps it’s the skimpy leotard that’s giving him the jitters.’
‘Never! Not my Dawid! He’s just doing his job.’
‘But if she can’t practise what will she do?’
‘We’ll think of a plan.’
And they did. The very next day they called on Estrelita, all six of them, with a bunch of flowers and a roast chicken, all fat and skin removed. They sat themselves down round the small kitchen table, and explained the position.
Estrelita was astonished. She had not even noticed the sign, which was on a gate behind her caravan, so the fact that her presence was causing a problem came as a nasty shock. Lily noticed the tears gathering, so she hurried on.
‘But don’t worry, Essie, we have a grand idea.’ She paused to give her words greater impact. ‘You are going to open a gym!’
Anxiously the women leant forward, elbows on the table, desperately hoping that she would approve their plan. She did not disappoint them.
‘A gym! You mean a place with bicycles and mats and balls and bars?’ They nodded, smiling with relief.
‘I’ve always longed to be an instructor,’ she said, ‘with ladies exercising to music, firming and toning everything, and men working their muscles and flattening their stomachs! But the money? I’ll have to hire a hall and buy all the equipment and a gramophone and records and …’
‘Never you worry, liefie. We have a little money box, and every time we have tea together, we pop in a few coins for emergencies. And this is an emergency, not so?’ Maria looked round the table and they all nodded. ‘Of course.’
‘That’s settled then. Just make a list of what you need and I’ll place an order with a man I know in Port Elizabeth. He’s a life-saver on Humewood Beach, and so he knows everything about muscles and keeping fit.’
‘And the hall?’
‘Dawid will sort that out,’ promised Sophia. ‘Seeing he started the whole affair. In any case, as a caretaker he has his finger on all the pies. He’ll find something vacant at a reasonable rental or my name’s not Sophia Aspidistra Joubert née O’Connor.’
Within a fortnight the whole show was up and running, and nearly all the inhabitants of Corriebush had put their names down as members. Estrelita had, in the meantime, worked out a gentle aerobics routine for the women, and a more vigorous one for the men. ‘Gets rid of the paunches and blows up the biceps. Just wait and see.’
Classes for the women were to be held in the mornings, men in the afternoons. On the first morning they arrived punctually at nine, in their patio pants and loose floral blouses. Estrelita put on a Strauss waltz, gave each a huge, inflated ball and told the women to lie on them, like slabs of steak, and then lift their arms out sideways like an aeroplane.
Sophia fell off immediately. ‘Oh my glory.’
‘Use your stomach muscles and don’t lift your head.’
She climbed back on and the ball popped out sideways.
‘Ag no. This is not what balls are for.’
‘Sophia!’
‘Right then, we’ll start with the easy stuff. Stand on your mats and drop your heads to the floor.’ They all hung there like pyramids.
‘Now slowly stand erect, pinching your crotches to your navels and dropping your shoulders down to your hips as you slowly stand up, one vertebra at a time.’
The women unrolled, exclaiming and puffing, until they eventually, triumphantly, stood erect.
‘Now suck your navels into your spines.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘Look down. Do you see your stomachs?’
Yes, they all saw their stomachs.
‘Now suck them in until you can see your toes.’
So, looking down, they took huge, deep breaths which made their chests swell up and their faces turn red. Alarmed, Estrelita turned on the fan.
‘Perhaps we should start with arms and weights. We don’t have any dumbbells, so I’ve brought along cans of baked beans. Now, one in each hand, lift your right arms in line with your right shoulders.’
She walked round the room, stopping to wiggle the loose flesh women carry on their underarms. ‘See that? It’s got to go.’
She squeezed the soft folds below their shoulder blades. ‘That too.’
She moved down and pinched their waists.
‘Eina!’
‘Just as I thought. Not a bone in sight. Come ladies, we
have a lot of work to do.’
Of all the women in Estrelita’s class, the six friends worked the hardest. They never missed a session. They also never missed their tea parties afterwards, usually on Lily’s stoep. ‘We deserve it,’ they reasoned, munching happily. Not surprisingly, they did not lose any weight. Every Saturday morning they met at the chemist shop, where there was a large scale. One by one they stepped onto the platform, inserted a coin into the slot, and watched as the needle shot up on the dial.
‘Ag no!’ Naïvely, they were always disappointed, and complained to Estrelita.
‘But ladies! Just look at the centimetres you have lost!’ She fetched a tape measure. Between them they had lost a total of over a metre.
‘Forget the scale, just look at your waists!’
They looked.
‘Your thighs! Your buttocks! Your upper arms!’
Suddenly, unexpectedly, they were shy. They stopped inspecting themselves; rather, they turned to look each other up and down.
It was true. They were all slimmer, trimmer, and glowing.
And so were their men.
‘You should just see Daniels’s stomach. Flat as a puncture.’
‘And Servaas’ thighs! In shorts, from the back, they’re amazing.’
‘I wonder what she does with them?’
‘Servaas’ thighs?’
‘Ag no. What she does with the men to tone them up so much?’
‘No baked beans and rubber balls. It must be really tough stuff. Perhaps we should pop in one afternoon and see?’
Sophia did.
And what she saw was Dawid lying on his back on the floor, with Estrelita sitting astride him, her hands on his chest, her face on his face. Sophia screamed. ‘Dawid, what the blerrie blazes are you doing?’
‘Right now he’s not doing anything, Sophia,’ Daniel told her. ‘He’s not even breathing.’
Daniel tried to steer her out. ‘It’s not what you’re thinking, Sophia.’
‘How do you know what I’m thinking?’ Sophia snapped, scratching in her handbag for a handkerchief.
Dawid was rushed to the local hospital and immediately to the operating room, where Dr Ackermann saw him and decided that an operation was not necessary. ‘He’s had a fairly severe heart attack, though and should stay here for at least two weeks.’ Then he turned to Estrelita, who had refused to wait in the corridor. ‘I must congratulate you,’ he smiled. ‘Without a doubt you saved his life.’
Sophia visited Dawid every day, sitting at his bedside with a basketful of gifts: little bunches of violets and sweet-peas, packets of fudge, long ropes of biltong and cans of beer which, as soon as she had left, the nurses confiscated. Estrelita also visited every day, and the two women often found themselves there at the same time. Gradually an intimate friendship developed.
Sophia, who so often chattered and blustered and spoke without thinking, suddenly showed another side to her nature. Dawid’s illness seemed to have calmed her down, made her less ebullient and more thoughtful. She took a gentle, sincere interest in Estrelita and, without any rude probing, egged her on to talk about herself, her childhood, her life in the circus. They talked for hours, sitting one on either side of Dawid’s bed, keeping their voices low so as not to disturb him.
A strange story started to unravel.
‘My name is not really Estrelita. That’s just my circus name. I was christened Magdalena – my parents called me Maggie – and we lived on a farm near Nelspruit. My father didn’t actually own it, he was only an assistant manager to the boss, so we didn’t have much money and until I was twelve I went to the farm school, which was free. But then my Oupa said he would pay for me to go to boarding school because all I was learning on the farm was how to climb trees.’
Sophia felt she should say something. ‘Ag siestog!’
‘I hated school. They put me in Standard Two, with all the little children, and even then I failed. I was only happy on the sports field, and when I won a silver cup for hurdles and another for high-jump, my Oupa took me to the circus as a reward.’
‘And that was the start of it all?’
‘The start of it all.’
There were several circuses touring the country at that time, and whenever they visited Nelspruit, Estrelita would beg to be taken. Her Oupa never refused his granddaughter, because every year she won more silver cups – hurdles, high-jump, bar-work in the gym, and he was very proud of her. He knew, too, that she was also working at her studies, because her report cards were improving. But what he did not know was that, when a circus was in town she would slip out of the hostel every afternoon after games, and run down to the Big Top.
‘It was the smell of the sawdust, I inhaled it like a perfume. The sawdust and the canvas tent and the smell of painted faces and grease, and I would sit down, just inside the open flap, and watch them practising, day after day. I loved all the circuses, but Olé was my favourite. One afternoon, when they were having their tea break, I found myself walking into the ring – it was like in a dream, when your legs move on their own – and I walked to where the rope was dangling, and I climbed it – right up, to the platform at the top. Then I started swinging in small circles, one leg on the platform, one hand on the rope.’
Sophia clapped her hand to her forehead. ‘Sjoe child! What happened then?’
‘They came back from their tea break and saw me, and Carmella – their trapeze artist – shinned up the rope to where I was standing. ‘Oh, but she looked so beautiful in her bra and silver tights!’
Dawid suddenly opened his eyes. ‘What was that?’ he asked faintly. Sophia jumped. ‘Go to sleep Dawid, you’re not supposed to talk yet, nor breathe.’
‘And she didn’t scold,’ Estrelita continued, ‘she just smiled at me and told me to follow her down. “And when you reach the ground,” she said, “I want you to do the splits and two backward somersaults.” And I did. Then she asked me to come back the next day. I was so excited that I skipped assembly and got there while they were still having breakfast.
‘The manager found me sitting in my usual place. “Ah! There you are!” he called. “Carmella has told me about you.” Then he held out his hand, pulled me to my feet and guided me into his office, where he waved me to a chair, pulled out a notepad and said he wanted to ask me a few questions.
‘It seemed to me like an eternity before he finally came to the point.
‘He leaned back in his chair, twiddled his pencil, and said “We think, Maggie, that you have a talent that’s worth developing, and we would like to offer you the chance of joining us for a trial period. You won’t be paid, but you will have free instruction, board and lodging.
“It’s important that your parents should be happy about this. What do you think?” I truly did not know, but I told him that they would not mind, because I was nearly eighteen and about to leave school. And that my Oupa would be very proud.’
‘And your parents really didn’t mind?’
‘Well, they were a bit shocked at first, but I begged them to give me a chance. And of course Oupa was on my side. He said, “Let Maggie give it a try. Six months and then we’ll talk again. And we’ll go together to meet the manager and make sure that he’ll take extra special care of her.” I went the following week.’
‘My goodness child, so that’s how it all started! Did they ever come to see you perform?’
‘The night of my first appearance in Nelspruit they were sitting in the front row. I was very nervous, but everything went really well, and when I had finished my act the audience clapped and clapped and the clowns carried me round the ring on their shoulders. It was that night that I was given the name Estrelita and then I knew, really knew, that this was where I wanted to be, to use my body, to work at my acts, and to be a part of that circus family forever.’
‘Well, now just think of that,’ said Sophia, feeling all choked up, which frequently happened when she was happy. But then the old Sophia broke loose and blundered on.
‘Tell me now, what about boyfriends, liefie? A pretty girl like you! You can’t make whoopee with a rope, after all.’
‘Sophia!’
‘Go to sleep, Dawid.’
‘Why aren’t you married yet? I mean, living with all those strong men doing clever tricks and looking like film stars? Just like my favourite, Cary Grant. I once asked two of them straight out – I said, “Are You Perhaps Cary Grant?”’
Estrelita smiled her famous, radiant smile. ‘Yes, believe it or not, my man is just as handsome. Even has a dimple in his chin.’
‘So?’
‘Well, he’s my very special boyfriend, and I want to marry him, but he’s not quite sure – so that’s actually why I am taking this break in Corriebush – to give him time to think things through.’
‘But what’s the blerrie matter with him then? A lovely lady like you, and he has to first think about it?’
Estrelita took a while to answer. ‘He’s in a wheelchair.’
‘Ag no.’
‘Juan was our best male trapeze artist and he had a fall and injured his spine. The doctors who examined him said they didn’t know if he would ever walk again, and he said we both needed time to think because now everything had changed, and he could not expect it of me. Well, I have thought it through very carefully, and my mind is made up. He’s the man I want to spend my life with. I’m simply waiting for the circus’s next visit next week – he’s still with them working as the cashier, taking tickets and money – and then I’ll tell him.’
The wedding ceremony took place in the Town Hall. The whole town was invited and Sophia was matron of honour, in pale pink chiffon, with her hair swept up, secured with a pearl pin and a pink rose. She looked delightful, and Dawid was well enough to attend the ceremony and smile his approval.
Juan, of course, was in his wheelchair. Estrelita stood by his side. She wore a full-length blue dress and a soft blue feather in her hair.
The six friends catered, the champagne flowed, and everyone sang Hasta Mañana, which they had been practising for days.
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