Afrika (16 page)

“I'm sure she is,” answered her uncle. “I will leave you in town with her and go on to where they need help controlling the fire.”

“When will we get there?” Kim asked.

“Twenty minutes or so.”

There was still a bit of light left in the distance on the very tops of the purple-blue mountains. Her mother's Karoo spread out for miles around them. It swallowed them up with its vastness. It was still a desert even after a rainstorm.

“Did your ma tell you our town now has a colored mayor?” Oom Piet said after awhile. “The new flag flies in front of the police station. I was telling Riana that things have changed now and she can come home.”

Home is Canada
, Kim thought. But she was numb and tired and not up to any more arguments tonight. Oom Piet had already done enough for her by not being furious and taking her straight back to the farm.

He blew smoke out the open window and spoke. “While we were growing up, Riana's vision of a melting pot made no sense to me, or to our family. But history has proved us wrong.”

Kim began to tap her foot against the side of the car. On the roadside, two black women walked one behind the other. They balanced shopping bags on their heads and had a long walk ahead of them.
Could this have been my life?
she wondered.

Oom Piet smoked and kept his eyes on the road. “I thought about going overseas. Your ma's
flight had me thinking: Man, maybe I should take my family and leave, too.”

Small winged creatures, larger than any insect Kim knew, plunged headfirst into the windshield. “Why didn't you go?” Kim asked.

After a moment her uncle turned to her. “I knew that to leave South Africa would be death for me. I can't leave. This is my home.”

“It couldn't have been easy for Riana to leave either,” Kim said in a rigid voice. “She loves this country too, you know. She would have stayed here forever if she could have. I mean if I hadn't happened.”

“She would have left anyway, I think,” Oom Piet said.“She was very unhappy with our country.”

Kim's shoulders were tense and she had trouble swallowing.“A kid didn't make her escape any easier.”

Oom Piet nodded solemnly.

Kim turned to him. “I know about my father. Why didn't she marry Hendrik? Was it because Oupa forbade it?”

Oom Piet crushed out his cigarette.“Oupa forbade it, yes. But the law at the time also forbade it.”

“Why?” Kim asked.

Oom Piet stared at the road. “There was to be no mixing between Whites and Non-whites. That was the law. But your ma was in love with Hendrik.”

Her mother had broken the law to have a relationship with the man she loved. Suddenly Kim was alert. The numbness she had felt earlier disappeared.

“Is that why Oupa burned down the compound and Lettie's house?” Kim asked.“Because my mom had broken the law?”

Her uncle pulled out a packet of gum. After Kim refused, he unwrapped a piece for himself. “Your grandfather was not thinking when he did that,” he said as he bit down on the gum. “He was out of his mind with anger and fear. He had just lost Ouma, his wife, and he was blinded by his fear that he would lose his only daughter too.” Oom Piet paused, chewed, and thought through his words. “Oupa could not harm his own daughter so he took it out on Lettie. He blamed Lettie for helping Riana and Hendrik. When everyone was away at church he set Lettie's room and all her belongings on fire. Then he banished her from the farm. Afterwards he was ashamed of what he had done, but was too proud to ask Lettie back. A few months later, with his approval, I bought the cottage in Cape Town and gave Lettie the job there. I agreed to pay for her children's school fees, anything, just to make it come right.”

Kim angled the brooch that her grandfather had given her so it wouldn't dig into the flesh of her
leg. She remembered how Themba had criticized Oom Piet for paying his school fees. Kim saw now that Oom Piet and her grandfather were trying to right their wrong. Without the money Themba would never have been able to go to a good school, have new uniforms, and expensive books.

“Why didn't Hendrik and my mom leave together for Canada?” Kim asked. “Why didn't they get married in Canada?”

Oom Piet shrugged. “That is a good question. Sorry. I don't know the answer. That was between your ma and Hendrik.”

They drove without speaking. They could smell the fire now and Kim worried about her mother's safety.

“Why did the townspeople set the fires?”

“A few extremists did this. They don't trust the Truth Hearings,” said her uncle. “They think it stirs up hatred for us, for the Afrikaners.”

Kim glanced across at him. He frowned as he stared at the road.

“Luckily, the rains have begun,” her uncle continued. “We have lived through many droughts. We know how the rain makes the land, the animals, and the people rejoice. Tomorrow you will see how the Karoo will have sprung to life. It will be a magnificent green. The rain, if it falls as far north as the town,
might lessen the fire, too. Your mom will be safe,” he added. “I promise you.”

The light was almost gone. For the first time Kim felt close to her uncle. She was grateful that he was taking her to her mom and that he had answered so many of her questions, even though he could not answer the key ones about her father.

Oom Piet was searching for news but couldn't get a station to tune in properly. One channel played a jingle in Xhosa and Kim remembered all the times she had gone to Lettie's room and how Lettie always found a way to make her feel better. How could Lettie be so kind to Kim and Riana, after all the pain that Oupa had inflicted on her?

The radio station vanished into silence. Oom Piet flicked on his headlights as it had gotten quite dark.“Kim,” he said. “Riana paid her price in leaving and we paid our price by staying. It is my hope that when you return to Canada, you remember where you come from.”

Kim adjusted her great-grandmother's brooch deeper into her pocket.

“What do you see when you close your eyes?” he asked in a strange voice. He lit another cigarette and added, “I asked your mother that question the other day. She told me that when she closes her eyes she sees your yard in Canada all dressed up in snow.
How about that? What do I see when my eyes are shut? Our little baby girl Katie – gone.”

Kim lifted her turtleneck up to her nose and smelled the fear from the wild ride on Willem trapped in the cloth.“What happened to Katie?” she whispered.

Uncle Piet's fingers that held the cigarette trembled. “It was during the time when there was a lot of unrest in the country. Many people were unhappy with apartheid. Your Tannie Reza was driving Elsie into the township when the car was stoned by black youths. Little Katie was strapped into the backseat of the car. She was hit in the head by a stone the size of a brick. My daughter did not suffer. She died instantly.”

Kim's stomach squeezed tight and she could not speak. She thought of how Tante Reza always wore black and moved through the house like a ghost. How mean she had been to deride her aunt for her strange behavior.

A sudden blast of static from the radio unit interrupted Kim's thoughts.
“Piet, kom in! Piet, kom in!”
Piet grabbed the handset and adjusted a knob. “Piet here!” The line crackled and a male voice spoke in Afrikaans.

Kim let her turtleneck slip back into place. “What is happening?” she asked.

“It is good news,” her uncle said pulling hard on the steeling wheel. “The wind has changed and the town is no longer being threatened.”

A truck rumbled by. It was open in the back and filled with black and white men. “Look,” said her uncle. “Those are volunteers. They will hack a firebreak with axes and spades.” Her uncle pointed. “Look there, on the mountain.”

They had come around a bend in the road and could finally see where the fire was. Red molten patches crisscrossed the mountainside. The mountain resembled an outraged volcano pouring out its lava.

For a few seconds Kim watched the fire spread its ruby-red destruction. “When will we get there?” she asked.

“Soon,” said her uncle as he pressed his foot down on the gas pedal.

“W
hat are you doing here?” Riana cried as they rushed onto the veranda of the Lion's River Hotel. Behind Riana, brilliant pink and magenta flowers bloomed on the wall.

“I came to help with the fire,” Piet explained.

Riana looked in outrage from Kim to her brother. “You shouldn't have brought Kim.”

“Mom,” Kim pleaded. “Don't blame him. I hid in the back without his knowing. I was worried about you.”

“It's not a problem,” said Piet.

Riana pushed her larger-than-life glasses up on her nose. “Don't make light of it,” she snapped. “Don't do that to me, okay?”

Kim tried to keep her voice normal. “Please. Riana. You're always fighting with each other.”

“We are not,” insisted her mother, through clenched teeth.

“I heard you,” said Kim. “Last week. You were screaming at Oom Piet and you were screaming at Oupa. You had my stuff spread out all over the table.”

“Well, I needed photos!” Riana exclaimed. “Remember that first flat we lived in?”

“No, I don't.” Kim reminded her. “I was only six months old!”

Oom Piet stepped forward, put his arm around Riana, and tried to calm her. Riana looked like she would wiggle away, but then Kim saw the space between them grow smaller and smaller. Riana blinked her doe eyes and allowed her brother to hug her.“You don't think I knew?” he said to her quietly. Then he turned to Kim, “Your ma needed to show us those photos so I would understood how very brave you both are,” he said.

Kim looked at her feet. She was embarrassed to watch this rare exchange of affection.

“Well, maybe it's better that you're both here,” Riana said as she pulled away. “I guess it really is. This has become a much bigger story than we first thought. I won't have time to return to the farm.”

Piet met her eyes. “Riana, are you sure?”

“Pa and I talked. We did. I think he began to understand.”

“All right. Then I'll say your good-byes for you when I get back.”

Riana smiled at her brother.
“Ag, boetie
, thank you.”

“Always my pleasure,” he said. Then he hugged
Kim close to him. “Don't forget about us when you return to Canada. My girl, you are always welcome on the Milky Way Farm.”

“Wait,” said Kim as her uncle walked down the stairs of the veranda. Her throat was tight and suddenly, she didn't want him to leave. “I thought the fire was under control.”

“Well, they still need help with it.” He walked to his vehicle. “Bye-bye, hey,” he said as he climbed inside and slammed the door.

I won't cry, I won't cry
, Kim told herself. But right there on the hotel veranda, her eyes were blurred with tears. Her uncle was the first relative she had ever met. She did not know when she would see him again.

She cleared her throat and shouted, “Be careful, Oom Piet.” But he had already started the Land Rover and did not near her. Cigarette between his teeth, he waved good-bye.

Kim rubbed her face on her shirt and watched her uncle disappear down the main street. Riana slipped her arm around Kim and they strolled past a white church with a spire and continued walking until they reached the outskirts of the town. It was dark and the stars were beginning to show in the sky. After a moment Kim spoke.“Oom Piet told me about Hendrik.” There was a pause. “And he told me about Katie,” Kim added.

Riana found Kim a tissue. “I was going to tell you about Katie when I thought you were old enough. Piet wrote to me about the funeral. Oupa bought a few boards of pine and built the small coffin himself. Afterwards Oupa retreated to his ark, pulled up the tall ladder, and would not come out for days.”

Kim ignored the tissue and brought her sleeve up to her cheek.“Why didn't you go to the funeral?”

“You were only a month older than Katie at the time. I couldn't afford the air ticket. Besides, it was not a good time for them to see me.”

Not a good time for them to see me either
, thought Kim, shoving the unused tissue into her pocket. She felt the brooch that her grandfather had given her and took it out.

“Why would Oupa want me to have this?” she asked as she showed the heavy silver ornament to her mother. “Is it because he feels guilty about the past?”

Riana drew in her breath as she studied the brooch. “This was Great-Ouma's and was passed down to my mother. Oupa is getting old. I imagine he wanted to make amends before it's too late.”

Suddenly in the darkness there was a drawn-out wail ending in a bark. “What was that?” Kim asked. She slipped the brooch in her pocket and moved closer to her mother.

“Just a jackal.”

Kim shivered and looked up at the sky. There were more stars than Kim had ever seen, but there was no Big Dipper, no Little Dipper, and no constellation that Kim recognized. For a moment they stood saying nothing.

“Mom, are you going to be okay?”

“Yes. Yes I am. And I'm glad we decided not to stay an extra three months.”

“And Andries?”

“Oh, that was nothing,” Riana said quickly.“I'll be finished with this story tomorrow and we can leave the next day.”