Prose

“What do you want from me,” Petrofski wants to know from Ryno while he buttons his pants with shaking fingers.  “Do not move, Petrofski,” Ryno remarks before he removes the makrof pistol from the holster on Petrofski’s belt.
 
There is shock on Petrofski’s face, when he notices that it’s a white man that is pointing the rifle at him.  “Are you a mercenary that is working with the UNITA-rebels,” Petrofski asks while he is shaking his head, as if Ryno’s presence with the Heckler and Koch 417 that is peeping at him is unexplainable to him.

Suddenly Ryno’s reference to Cassinga comes to his consciousness.  “So the South Africans have sent you once more, to rescue Maria Ramos, or is it Joanna Lerdo?”  “No Petrofski.  It is destiny and this time I am here for personal reasons,” Ryno answers the Russian and it’s as if he is looking into death itself.  “From where do you know the bitch?”  He wants to know astonished.

The Heckler and Koch 417 coughs suddenly barely audible past Petrofski’s shoulder and the three black men tumble down jerking and Petrofski is now very anxious when Ryno’s slap makes him taste blood.
 
“Talk about Maria like that again and it will be my pleasure to teach you some manners,” Ryno threatens.  “For what you have done to Maria, I feel like carving you up bit by tiny bit with the survival knife.  It will however be much too good for you.”

Panic is suddenly written all over Petrofski’s face.  “No you cannot do a thing like that,” the Russian protests.  “Just try and disarm me and then we will really see what I can and cannot do,” Ryno threatens.  For a moment the Russian is silent.  “You are a Christian; you will not lay a hand on me.” “Like I did not lay a hand on those black men.  You are the pig that had tortured Maria?”  “I just did my job.  I did not have a choice.  You have got understand that it was my duty,” the Russian almost begs as he does not know what to expect from Ryno.
 
“Petrofski, the great God has fixed it for me to be here tonight at the right place, on the right time.  I am here fighting my own private war.  I do not belong to any side but my own and I am sick of war.”

”What are you going to do with me?  I swear that eventually I will have let Maria go.”  “After a whole brigade of soldiers at the Grifanel barracks had raped her?”

The Russian pales noticeably, as its clear to him that Ryno can be nothing less than a special forces soldier and that Ryno is in love with Maria is more than obvious.  “Now walk back to Maria and do not try anything,” Ryno orders and the Russian can hardly believe it that Ryno did not kill him there and then, like he had done to the black men and this holds nothing good to come.

Maria is still unaware of what is going on around her and she sits on the ground more like a zombie than a person, caught into her own thoughts, her own world.  Ryno forces Petrofski to unlock her cuffs, before they both walk to where a massive termite ness is taller than a man.

Ryno forces Petrofski to undress to his underpants and cuffs him and binds his feet together and then ties him with a piece of rope, as well as is possible to the termite nest.  “Are you just going to leave me here,” Petrofski wants to know incredulously, but it’s not very long before the termites, starts to gnaw on him and he starts screaming very agitated.

It is as if Maria is in such a condition, that she does not recognize Ryno immediately and when she realises that it’s really Ryno she is astonished and glad and laughs and cries at the same time.  “Ryno,” she screams and stumbles into his arms.  Her body is wet and cold against him and he feels her shaking and hears her teeth knocking on each other.  They embrace and he presses her close to him, while one hand strokes through her hair that hangs in trails.

The “Maria” song of the three tenors suddenly comes to his mind and every word of it, to him is true and touches them.  In English he sings to her the words that he remember of that song, that the word Maria is the most beautiful thing and that he has just met a girl called Maria and that suddenly the word Maria will never be the same again and then he kisses her first softly and then more intimate.

Tears flow down her cheeks and there is love and faith and suddenly hope and joy in the way that she looks at him and she touches her meddled hair and draws him still closer to her.

There is something vulnerable to her and her lips are cold and wet under his.  “I am so happy that you came back for me.  I am so happy,” she says and cries again while she clings to him as if her life is depending on it.

”What did that Russian do to you?”  He wants to know worried.  She smiles bravely at him.  “It was terrible, but I will tell you later,” she answers and some distance away they hear the Russian screaming more anxious that before.

”It seems as if you are wet at every time that we meet,” he teases her, whereupon she smiles spontaneously at him.  “Come let’s find you some dry clothing before you catch a cold or something,” Ryno remarks caring.

He finds two blankets in the boot of the Mercedes and tells her to undress.  Ryno watches her while she undresses and notices the hairs on her arms rising from the cold when she is totally naked.

”Ryno, you haven’t changed a bit.  Are you just going to stand there looking at me,” she wants to know and starts blushing.

”You are just as beautiful as I remember you,” he remarks and her eyes glitter mischievously.   

Her skin is soft and cool under his fingers and he has to force himself, to keep his hands from caressing her body.  She follows his commands mechanically to dress in the clothes that he had stripped from one of the dead soldiers and he then wraps the other dry blanket around her.

”Why...how did you get here,” she wants to know unexpectedly.  “I could not do any other thing.  It was destiny.  I have told you that we are meant for each other,” he answers and tells her how the Mig fighter had tried to shoot the light aircraft down and how he had got there.

”Ryno, promise me that you will take me away from here,” she whispers and when she starts to cry again, he wraps his arms around her neck and draws her against his body.

The powerful engine of the car roars reassuring under the bonnet and dirt shoots up from under the car, when they drive away and after travelling some distance Ryno turns off from the road and parks the car under the shelter of some trees.

”Maria, do you know where we are?”  “We are somewhere on the coastal road,” Maria recons and looks in the cubby-hole where she finds a map.

”To where are we going to drive and what are we going to do when the car runs out of fuel,” she asks and its the first time that Ryno notices pain on her face and under the roof light Ryno treats her wounds with disinfectant, some salve and plaster and he even gives her some antibiotics that he finds in the first aid kit that he has brought from the aircraft.

”Do you know anybody nearby who can help us to leave the country?”  She shakes her head and tells him how she was captured.  “It’s now much too dangerous,” is Maria’s opinion and they decide to try and reach some UNITA-soldiers which may also be a very dangerous thing to do.