by Jaco Jacobs
‘Would you mind if I stayed here for a little longer?’ asked Mrs Merriman. ‘I promise not to be a nuisance.’
‘Of course you can stay,’ said Leila.
Mrs Merriman rummaged in her picnic bag and took out a pencil and a magazine. She paged through it until she got to a crossword puzzle then hummed softly while she completed it. Every so often, she stopped humming and pondered a clue for a moment before filling in the answer.
It was getting really hot. I started to miss our pool – even though I knew that Donovan was probably lying beside it, waiting for me to come and swim so that he could try and drown me or torture me with cozzie wedgies.
Talking about wedgies, it felt as if the branch we were sitting on was giving me one. I shifted around uncomfortably and sighed, utterly bored.
‘You’re stranded on an island,’ said Leila, ‘and you have only three things with you. An eraser, a feather duster and a roll of toilet paper. What would you do with them?’
I frowned. ‘What?’
‘What would you do with those three things?’ she asked. ‘It’s a game we always played when we were on a long road trip and I was bored in the car.’
I shrugged. ‘I don’t know. There’s probably nothing you can do with an eraser when you’re stranded on an island.’
‘Well, if the two of you aren’t going to use that eraser, I wouldn’t mind borrowing it,’ said Mrs Merriman. ‘I’ve just misspelled the name of a tennis player and I didn’t bring along my eraser.’
‘There’s nothing you can do with any of those things if you’re stranded on an island,’ I muttered.
‘That’s what you think!’ said Leila. Her eyes were sparkling and she bit her bottom lip. ‘Maybe it’s a brightly coloured eraser – then you can break it into pieces and throw them into the water to lure fish. Then you can catch and eat them!’
‘I’ve never heard of fish that eat erasers,’ I grumbled.
When Leila said nothing back, Mrs Merriman asked, ‘And what about the feather duster?’
‘Maybe there are cannibals on the island,’ said Leila as she yawned and leaned back against the tree trunk. ‘Which means I can use the duster as a fan to keep the cannibal king cool – and in return for that he won’t gobble me up.’
‘And the toilet paper?’ I wanted to know.
Leila rolled her eyes. ‘Duh! What d’you think you do with toilet paper?’
My face was aflame. That thing with girls and toilets again.
It looked as if Leila was struggling not to laugh out loud.
For a while, we sat in silence and stared at the park. From time to time, some joggers ran past, or people walking their dogs or pushing children in prams. Only a few people saw Leila and me perched up in the tree. Mrs Merriman and her poodles got a couple of strange looks but she must have been used to that because they didn’t seem to bother her at all.
At lunchtime, Mrs Merriman produced a container filled with meat pies from her picnic basket and gave them to us. George and Trixibelle got one each as well. It really looked like she was planning to spend the entire day under the tree.
After eating, Leila climbed down. She stretched her legs a bit and chatted to Mrs Merriman. Then she walked in the direction of the bowling club. The caretaker had said we were welcome to use the restrooms any time.
When Leila disappeared through the gate, I considered climbing down. I could easily sneak off while she was away. All I had to do was tell Mrs Merriman that I still had to go and do the rest of the dishes.
But when I pushed the leaves aside, my heart sank.
‘Someone’s coming this way,’ said Mrs Merriman.
‘Someone called Trouble,’ I sighed.
Donovan stopped under the tree. ‘Good afternoon, ma’am,’ he greeted Mrs Merriman.
George and Trixibelle growled at him not to come any closer.
‘Good afternoon, young man,’ greeted Mrs Merriman. ‘How can I help you?’ She sounded like a receptionist – ‘Good afternoon, and welcome to Leila and Marnus’s branch office.’
Donovan raised the tip of his cap slightly and shifted his weight awkwardly. ‘Erm…my brother has disappeared. We’ve been looking for him all day. One of my pals sent me a text saying that he saw him here in the park.’ He looked up. Obviously he knew exactly where I was. ‘Marnus, what the hell are you doing up there in the tree like a baboon?’ He looked at Mrs Merriman apologetically. ‘Excuse me, ma’am. Marnus, Mum found out that you disappeared and she almost called the police to report you missing. You’d better come home.’
‘I’m staying right here,’ I said. It’s easier to play hardball when you’re sitting high up in a tree.
Donovan glared at me. His protein-drink muscles were bulging under his tight, help-me-look-strong shirt. I could see he was itching to give me the worst wedgie in the history of mankind, one that would go into the record books. But then he just shrugged as if to say, Don’t say I didn’t warn you. He dug his mobile phone out of his trouser pocket.
I swallowed anxiously. I knew trouble was coming my way.
‘Hello, Ma,’ said Donovan. Pause. ‘Yes, he’s here. He’s sitting in a tree.’ Pause. ‘No, there’s a lady with him.’ He lowered the phone and looked up. ‘Marnus, Ma wants to speak to you.’
I swallowed again, feeling even more anxious. ‘I can’t come down,’ I said. ‘I promised Leila one of us would stay up here all the time.’
‘He doesn’t want to come down, Ma,’ reported Donovan with a grin. ‘He said something about a girl.’
I felt sorry for his ears, because even from up there in the tree I could hear my mum’s voice buzzing like an outraged wasp. I knew that tone of voice well. It was the tone of voice that drove hardened criminals to tears when she grilled them in court.
Donovan lowered the phone again. ‘Ma says you’re to go home immediately, or else…’ He gave Mrs Merriman another apologetic look. ‘My mother is a lawyer and she can talk quite dirty when she’s angry, ma’am. Marnus, Ma says if you don’t go home straight away, she’s going to – Hey, what’re you doing? Gimme back my phone!’
He swung around, taken by surprise.
Leila was standing behind him, with his mobile in her hand. Confronting my brother, she looked even tinier than the first time I saw her. But Donovan didn’t dare take his phone back from her.
Leila held the mobile to her ear. ‘Hello, ma’am,’ she said. ‘My name is Leila. Marnus is sitting in the tree in the park. Everything’s cool. This is just an act of protest. I think it’s our constitutional right. Don’t worry – we’re quite safe.’
She gave the phone back to Donovan, swiftly climbed into the tree and joined me on the branch. As if nothing had happened. As if she hadn’t just told my mum that ‘everything’s cool’. I wished I could have seen my mum’s face.
Donovan listened to my mum for a moment. ‘Sure, Ma,’ he said and ended the call. He looked up at me. ‘You’re freaking crazy.’ He gave Mrs Merriman yet another apologetic look. ‘Excuse me, ma’am, but he is.’
He turned around and started walking back home.
6
A Circle of Candles
When dusk fell, Mrs Merriman put her crossword puzzles away. She got up and folded up the pink picnic blanket.
The two poodles yawned and stretched themselves.
‘Listen, you two, unfortunately it’s time for me to go home,’ she said, ‘but I don’t want to leave you here alone.’
I looked at Mrs Merriman with new eyes after that day. She might have been old and pink but no one dared mess with her. That was a lesson my dad had learned earlier that afternoon.
In his heyday my dad had played for the Cheetahs rugby team. If he hadn’t torn a ligament, he could have played for the Springboks. Well, that was what he always told us while we watched rugby and he downed a couple of beers. Strangely enough, not one of his three sons enjoyed watching rugby with him. He was always shouting at the players, as if he was angry with each of them personally. I
think Dad was actually angry that his sports shop wasn’t doing too well. Donovan was the only one of us who had inherited his rugby talent, even though I suspected he enjoyed swimming more. I also played rugby but for the third team. And Adrian refused to take part in sport because he said it interfered with his business dealings.
My mum was still working on her high-profile case, so she had sent my dad to fetch me that afternoon.
‘Dammit, Marnus, you’re not seven years old any more! What are you doing up there in the tree? Get down! Don’t make me come and get you…’
I was angry and anxious at the same time – and, of course, mortally ashamed that Leila and Mrs Merriman were seeing and hearing everything.
And then Mrs Merriman started talking to him.
I wish I could remember everything she said to him. But it basically amounted to the fact that Leila and I were incredibly brave and that she admired us for what we were doing and that my dad should give us a break.
I couldn’t believe it but she managed to convince him. Well, it did help that there was a Rugby Sevens series on and that one of the semifinals was on television that afternoon.
As my dad walked away, he just muttered something about my mum, who wasn’t going to be happy at all, and that he would have to bear the brunt.
‘We’ll be OK, Mrs Merriman.’ Leila’s voice pulled me back to the present. ‘Don’t worry.’
‘I’ll stay here with them,’ said a soft, serene voice.
I looked down in surprise.
A woman had walked up to the tree unnoticed.
Mrs Merriman nodded. ‘OK then. See you two tomorrow,’ she said with a small wave at Leila and me.
The woman beneath the tree was standing quietly, watching Mrs Merriman and the dogs walk away. Her long blonde hair was blowing gently in the evening breeze that had sprung up.
I recognized her eyes immediately. She could only be Leila’s mum – they had the same large, bright-blue eyes.
‘Leila,’ she said with a sigh.
Leila said nothing.
I waved at the lady.
‘I’ll fetch us some blankets,’ she said. ‘And something to eat.’
I remembered then that Leila had said the park was close to their home.
‘Let’s see who can spot the evening star first,’ said Leila when her mum had left.
We sat in silence for a while.
‘I win,’ she said, pointing. ‘There it is, at the tip of that branch.’ She laughed. ‘Never mind – I cheated. I know exactly where it appears every night.’
By that time my body was feeling as if I’d been wrestling with an elephant. One of my legs was numb; I’d been sitting on it for too long.
‘We can’t sleep up here in the tree,’ I said. ‘We’ll fall and break our necks.’
‘We can take turns,’ she suggested.
‘The people from the municipality didn’t come back today,’ I said. ‘What are the chances they’ll come back in the middle of the night to cut down a tree?’
I thought I heard the leaves rustle as Leila shrugged.
‘I don’t know but I’m still not going to take a chance,’ she said. ‘You can go home if you want. I’m staying right here.’
I clambered down. Once on the ground, I jumped around stiffly until I could feel both my legs again. Then I sat down with my back against the tree trunk.
A while later, Leila’s mum approached in the dusk. She carried a pile of blankets and a basket.
‘What’s your name?’ she asked while putting everything down under the tree.
‘Marnus, ma’am,’ I answered.
I hoped she knew that this whole tree business was her daughter’s idea, not mine.
A plastic bag rustled and a moment later a match was struck. She lit a few candles and placed them in a circle around the tree.
Then she held a blanket out to me. I took it, feeling embarrassed.
It seemed Leila and her mother didn’t speak to each other. And it seemed they were equally strange. The candles placed around the tree looked like something from a movie or a storybook. I must admit, in a way I quite liked it. Leila and her mother looked like people who were used to doing things by candlelight. In our house we only used candles during power outages, and that usually led to a mad search for the candles and matches.
I spread the blanket on the lawn and lay down on it.
The wind had gone quiet. Crickets were giving a concert in the dark; in the distance music played and dogs barked; and over in the street a car whizzed past occasionally.
One of the cars turned in at the park. I sat up and watched the lights slowly thread their way through the trees and come closer. The engine got louder and I had to hold my hand in front of my face to protect my eyes against the sharp light that suddenly fell on us. A door was flung open and someone approached.
‘Marnus?’
Oh no. I should’ve expected this. I jumped up and quickly climbed back into the tree.
‘Yes, Mum?’ I asked from the safety of the bottom branch.
Moths and dust were whirling in the sharp car lights. It looked like my mum’s work clothes had not creased one little bit since that morning, and every strand of her hair was still in place. She looked very different from Leila’s mother, with her creased, multicoloured floral skirt and tousled, limp ponytail.
‘Enough of this nonsense, Marnus. Come home. I’m going to strangle your father. I can’t believe he left you here.’
Actually, that shouldn’t have surprised her. One Saturday my dad took us three boys to a rugby game, and afterwards he forgot Adrian at the stadium. Though that wasn’t entirely Dad’s fault – Adrian had been taking orders and was queuing for people who didn’t want to go and buy refreshments while the game was on. At a solid profit, of course. Donovan and I didn’t say anything because we wanted to see how long it would take my dad to realize Adrian wasn’t in the car. We were parked in our garage when he finally noticed that there were only three of us in the car.
‘Marnus, get down from there. I won’t tell you again. This is your last warning.’
I took a deep breath. ‘Mum, I’m going to sleep here tonight. Leila and I are going to stay in the tree until the people from the municipality decide not to chop it down.’ I swallowed. ‘You always say you have to fight for what’s right. That’s what Leila and I are doing.’
I thought again of the caretaker’s story about the bulldozers, and for some reason I felt guilty.
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Marnus!’ she barked. ‘This isn’t like that at all.’
‘It is,’ I argued. ‘Only, we’re not fighting in a court – we’re fighting, erm, in a tree.’
Sometimes an idea makes a lot of sense while it’s still in your head, but as soon as it slips out of your mouth, it sounds like you’ve been sniffing toilet spray.
Mum sighed. ‘Please, Marnus, I don’t have the strength for this. It’s been a long and difficult day. I’ll call the municipality tomorrow and find out if all the correct procedures have been followed in order to fell the tree. Maybe there’s a loophole somewhere. There’s nothing that you or I, or…’ she looked at Leila’s feet peeping out from the leaves like two small, pale, nocturnal animals, ‘…anyone else can do about this right now. Come on down and get into the car.’
‘I’m not going home,’ I said resolutely. ‘No one at home ever notices me. I’m just everyone’s slave. If Donovan hadn’t split on me, you would only have found out that I was gone by tomorrow morning.’
‘Rubbish!’ said Mum. ‘You don’t have to climb into a bloody tree if you want attention.’ Her voice was rising dangerously.
I suddenly felt like telling her how Donovan bullied me and how Adrian blackmailed me, but if Donovan found out that I’d squealed on him, I would have to spend the rest of my life up there in the tree. And I was dependent on Adrian for pocket money for the rest of the holidays.
I folded my arms. ‘I’m staying right here.’
Checkmate.
>
Mum and I glared at each other.
Leila’s mother cleared her throat. ‘At least this is a safe neighbourhood,’ she said cautiously. Her voice sounded soft in comparison to my mum’s. ‘I won’t leave them alone tonight.’
Mum pinched the piece of skin between her eyebrows and closed her eyes. She always did that when she was trying to calm herself down. Then she shook her head and walked back to the car. I’d known her long enough to know that she hadn’t given up on this battle at all. But she was losing her temper, and my mum believed that a lawyer always stayed cool and collected.
The Renault’s engine sputtered angrily when she drove off.
When the noise of the car had faded, Leila said in the dark, ‘You and your mum are actually very alike.’
7
Noises in the Night
I guessed I must have fallen asleep because I was woken by someone softly calling my name.
‘Marnus!’ An anxious whisper.
Confused, I sat up. For a moment I had no idea where I was. Then I remembered the tree.
‘There’s…something here,’ Leila’s mother whispered.
I heard her fiddling around in the dark and then whoosh, a match was struck. Her face looked ghostly in the yellow spot of light, and her eyes were large and panicky. She held the burning match above the picnic basket.
‘Something – or someone – looted our picnic basket,’ she said.
I folded my arms in front of my chest and looked around. The match died and immediately everything was pitch-dark again. I could hear my heart beating in my ears. It felt as if the darkness was watching us. Suddenly I wished I was home and in my bed.
Mr Fourie said my compositions showed that I had a rich imagination. Sometimes a good imagination wasn’t such a good thing at all. In my mind’s eye I could see newspaper headlines about two children and a woman who were murdered in a park late at night.
Leila’s mother struck another match and struggled to relight one of the candles. At last the flame flickered faintly.
‘Maybe you should come and sit up here,’ Leila suggested.
