Precious and Grace by Alexander McCall Smith

Author:Alexander McCall Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2016-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

THE FAT CATTLE CLUB

MMA MAKUTSI AND FANWELL looked at Mma Ramotswe with concern. She was seated on her verandah, her leg freshly bandaged just above the ankle; at her side, on a small, rather rickety table was a pot of red bush tea.

“We were shocked, Mma,” said Mma Makutsi. “Very shocked indeed.”

“Yes,” said Fanwell. “To our foundations, Mma. We were shocked to our foundations.”

Mma Ramotswe laughed. They were her fourth set of visitors that morning, and everyone had expressed much the same sentiments of shock; this was flattering, but had made her feel as if she was making a fuss about nothing. She felt completely well and had now decided that the doctor who said she should rest for two days had been far too cautious. After this visit from Mma Makutsi and Fanwell, she would bring her convalescence to an end and resume normal life.

“Tell us what happened,” said Mma Makutsi. “You were in your neighbour’s garden at midnight and…”

Fanwell frowned. “Why were you in your neighbour’s garden, Mma—especially at midnight?”

Mma Ramotswe made a gesture that implied that this was not a question they needed to bother about. “I’ll explain in due course,” she said. “It’s a bit complicated. I was there and my light ran out of power.”

“So you were in the dark?” prompted Fanwell.

“Yes, I was in the dark and couldn’t really see where I was putting my feet. And I trod on a snake—I think it was a puff adder.”

Mma Makutsi’s detection instincts came to the fore. “How could you tell in the dark, Mma?”

“I felt it,” said Mma Ramotswe. “You know how most snakes are thin and quite lean? Well this was fat and soft. That meant it was a puff adder—that is what they are like.”

“She’s right,” said Fanwell, nodding in agreement. “Those snakes are like that. They are two or three times as fat as ordinary snakes.”

Mma Ramotswe continued her account. “It struck, and I thought that I was dead. I thought: this is the end.”

Fanwell drew in his breath. “Ow, Mma! I have heard that your whole life flashes before you just before you die. Have you heard that? Did that happen?”

“She did not die,” Mma Makutsi pointed out. “So her life would not have flashed before her, Fanwell.”

“My neighbour took me to hospital,” said Mma Ramotswe. “He drove very fast and we almost went off the road, but we got there in a couple of minutes, I think.” She paused. “They put me on a trolley and wheeled me in. I told them what had happened and they fetched a doctor straightaway. He looked at my leg and said that he could not find the puncture wounds of a snake bite. He said that the snake must just have grazed my leg with its fang as it struck. He said this sometimes happens if the snake starts its strike from the wrong angle.”

“You were very lucky,” said Mma Makutsi. “If a puff adder gets its fangs into you, then it is very serious.

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