Prose

It is cool in the shade of the blue gum trees that are planted next to the river where they are eating some of the sandwiches that Maria had prepared earlier that morning, while sitting with their feet in the river.
 
“What made you decide to follow such a dangerous profession?   There are many safe and rewarding kinds of jobs that a man like you could be doing,” Maria asks while she is pulling petals one after the other from a yellow flower.

Although he had told her about himself, Ryno is caught off guard by her question.   “Do you want to know from the flower if I love you?  You already know the answer to that question.”

She shakes her head.  “No, I am wondering if we are going to see each other again.  I am wondering if we will again be together?”  He smiles reassuring and suddenly her hand is in his and he presses it lightly.

”I grew up on a game ranch and it was almost like my ancestors, with a rifle in the hand.  I was taught to respect nature and to appreciate the good gifts that the Father gives to us.”

She looks into his eyes and smiles at him.  “When I was small, I was given only one bullet and a point two-two rifle to hunt pheasants.  It had been different times without television and the hurry that life has today.  I never did shoot from the pleasure of killing.  This lifestyle however caused that I became a great shot and have learned to live from nature.  Then the pickup in which my mother and sister was travelling, drove over a landmine at our farm bordering on the Limpopo river.  The army called me up shortly after that,” he answers her earlier question and suddenly it’s as if his eyes are veiled and the colour of them changes from sky-blue to grey.

”I am sorry... I should have known better than to ask,” she says and they watch an eagle that hangs for a moment above the river.

”You are too old for a national serviceman...”  He wonders how to talk further about something that he has not discussed with anybody, not even his dad and suddenly it’s easy for him.

”I joined the parachute regiment out of my own choice and had completed their tough training.  Later after further evaluation at the Recognisance Commandos, I thought that I could then teach the enemy a lesson.  Oh, I know that it was very naive of me.  The thing is that revenge brings no answers and now that I have found you, I am tired of this kind of life...”

”Sometimes I wish that we could be free like the birds,” she remarks and they look at the eagle until it’s just a small dot against the blue sky above them.

”After the end of my national service, I had been asked to join the military on a short term basis.  At the outset it had been a great adventure for me, to move under the noses of the enemy and to watch them, or to do some sabotage work at times.  There however comes a time when a person has had enough and that is now.  This is my last mission.  When I walk out of the aeroplane tonight and have given my report for the final time, I am going to put on my civilian clothes and take a nice long holiday...”

From the look in his eyes she knows that the last part of the sentence, was addressed to her as a question and suddenly her heart beats wildly inside her.

It takes all of her willpower to shake her head denying.  “No.  How can I say no, to you?”  She wants to know more for herself than of him.  “We can go to Margate or Durban or even Mauritius for that holiday... just say where and when.”

”And when the holiday is past,” she wants to know and it’s clear to him that a big struggle is raging in her.  “First we farm and hunt on the farm and I will build the most beautiful villa that you have seen in your life.”

She draws him into her arms and kisses him all over his face and he is smiling happily, until he notices the tears running down her cheeks.  “You are wonderful and dear,” she whispers in his ear.

”And you are pretty and lovely,” he answers and his fingers go through her soft hair.  “Ryno, I would have given anything, to go with you but I cannot go.  The lives of too many people depend on me, but I will come to you as soon as it is possible.  This I am promising you...”

”There is just so much that your country can ask of you.  Good heavens woman, the KGB and the PJI are on your tracks!”  She shakes her head.  “They were onto Dumisani Gololo and at this time major Laranja might even be arrested.  I am really quite safe.”

It is with unbelief that he looks at her.  “Yes, you are right.  You are rather safe and one of these days rather dead.  The one or other time they are going to catch you and then that KGB colonel is not going to play with you.”

She watches him while he unscrews the top of the handle of his knife and he removes two hooks, some fishing line and a sinker.   He ties the sinker and hooks skilfully to the fishing line, before he washes his hands in the stream and presses two of the honey sandwiches to dough in his hands.

It is only three minutes after the fishing line had disappeared into the river that he suddenly jerks and pulls the line in.

When a big carp breaks through the surface, she shouts in a jolly mood and she wants to help him when he draws the fish out at the riverbank.

”Look out that the fins do not cut you,” he warns when she takes the twisting fish into her hands and skilfully removes the hook from the carp’s mouth, but in their time together he had taught her well to work with fishes and to catch them.


He kills the fish and runs a line through its gills, before he hangs it on a branch near to them.  “Can I also try,” she wants to know with shining eyes and he watches her while she puts some of the dough on the hooks and casts the line into the river with a quick twisting movement.

It is as if the line had barely touched the water, when she pulls it and he sees how it strains when she starts to take it in.  The water boils when two massive carps breaking through the surface and he notices how the line cuts into her hands.
 
“Wait let me help you,” he offers and takes the line from her.  “Are we going to try again,” she wants to know when they have the fishes on the riverbank.  “What, do you want food for a whole army,” he wants to know faking surprise.

She smiles sweetly at him.  “This morning you had said that its hard work to be with me and that it had made you very hungry.”
 
“I did not mean that you are exhausting,” he answers her smiling and kisses her on her lips.  “Come, let us fry those fishes before it gets late,” he says and she watches him while he cut the heads of the fishes off, cuts them open, removes the entrails and scratches off the scales.

He washes the fishes in the stream before he prepares a fire and cuts the fishes into pieces that he fries on the coals.  Although its still early afternoon, both of them are hungry when the fishes are ready to be eaten and they eat the hot pieces of fish greedily with their fingers.

It has almost become dusk when they hear the sound of a light aircraft, from where it comes out of a south-western direction, out of the direction of the sea.

They watch the aircraft while it lands on a field of grasses and turns about into the wind and it’s clear that the pilot wants to takeoff as soon as possible.

Ryno crushes her against him, when he embraces her as if he doesn’t want to let her go again and when she struggles for breath he relax his embrace a little.

Her lips are soft and wet under his when he kisses her, as if the world had suddenly stopped and only the two of them are on it.

When the aeroplane takes off, Ryno feels as if his heart is torn into pieces and he notices Maria who is waving bravely at him while she becomes smaller and smaller.