Читать книгу The Satanic Mechanic - Sally Andrew - Страница 14

CHAPTER EIGHT

When I’d finished cooking, I showered and put on my nice underwear. I dabbed a little perfume behind my ears and between my breasts.

The phone rang, and I went to answer it, wearing only my panties and bra. It was Henk. I blushed, even though I knew he couldn’t see me.

‘I’ve made a pudding for you,’ I said. ‘I’ve changed Japie se Gunsteling to Henk’s Favourite. I didn’t have enough orange juice, so I used my homemade Van der Hum instead.’ Henk just loved my naartjie liqueur.

‘I’m sorry, Maria. I can’t make it tonight.’

I sat down on the chair beside the phone table.

‘I have to leave town for a few days,’ he said.

‘Oh,’ I said. ‘Has something happened?’

He was quiet a moment, and then he said, ‘We agreed you wouldn’t get involved with my work. You know how I feel about dragging you into anything dangerous . . .’

We’d had this discussion a few times before. After the death of his first wife, he couldn’t face the idea of losing me. He’d been very upset when I was nearly killed by that murderer.

I asked, ‘Has someone been killed?’

He didn’t reply. It was getting dark now, and the first toads started calling in their deep cracked voices.

‘Did it happen in Oudtshoorn?’ I asked. I could smell the orange pudding caramelising.

‘Maria, this is what I wanted to avoid. I’m sorry, I must go now.’

In my underwear and oven gloves, I took out the hot pudding. It was perfect, all golden-brown on top.

‘I am so sorry,’ I said to Henk’s Favourite.

I phoned Jessie and told her about my call from Henk. ‘I’m worried about Slimkat,’ I said.

‘I’ve been a bit worried too,’ she said. ‘I called him just now but got no reply.’

‘Has Reghardt said anything to you?’ I asked. Reghardt worked with Henk and was Jessie’s boyfriend.

‘Just that he’s busy tonight,’ she said. ‘I’m going to Oudtshoorn first thing tomorrow. For the festival. I’ll find out what’s happening and let you know.’

I ate my diet dinner and listened to a frog calling for its mate.

The pudding cooled, and I put it in the freezer.

The frogs and crickets sang me to sleep. But then my nightmares woke me. I heard myself shouting, ‘No! No!’

It’s lucky my neighbours are far away, or they might have come running to see if someone was being killed.

When the sweating stopped, I was left with the shame shaking through my body. My body remembered things that my mind tried to forget. I went to the bathroom and wiped my face with a wet cloth. And then I went to the kitchen, because the kitchen was my best friend.

Although my hands were still shaking, they got the pudding from the freezer into the oven. My fingers and head felt far from each other, but I managed not to break anything. As I waited for the pudding to get hot, I watched Venus rising. The planet seemed so very far away.

When Henk’s Favourite was ready, I sat on the stoep and ate that warm orange pudding until my mouth and hands and belly came closer together; even Venus felt closer. Finally I was whole again, and the shaking stopped.