The Avoidable Orphan by T.M. Clark

Author:T.M. Clark
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780645919202
Publisher: Wilde Press

CHAPTER 5

IT TAKES MORE THAN BLOOD

Rodger stopped by the door and gazed at Peta sitting on the deck overlooking the sparkling water of Kariba, sipping a bottle of Coke, her feet propped on the upright of the wooden fencing. He always liked to think she took after him and tended to forget that his child had become a young woman. Women wanted to complicate everything by overthinking and being overly emotional. Helene used to be like that, and now Peta was too. Courtney hadn’t learned that skill yet, but he knew she would, given time.

Peta looked up, pursing her lips. A sure sign of mixed emotions, either confused or mad. He could never tell which. Her face looked flushed as if she’d recently cried, and his heart broke knowing that once again he’d been unable to shield her from the harshness of the world.

‘Is it safe to approach?’ he asked.

‘Of course, Dad. I don’t have an infectious disease because I’m mad,’ Peta said.

‘At something I did or mad at the elephants?’

‘I don’t know,’ Peta said, and she sniffed.

Rodger walked the rest of the way, pulled out a chair and sat down next to her.

‘If you don’t know, how am I supposed to be able to tell?’ he asked.

She shook her head as a smile tugged at her lips, and continued to look out over the water.

‘Your mum used to get that same look, especially when she was mad at me.’

After a long pause, Peta said, ‘I’m not mad at you, Dad. I’m mad at Mum.’

‘Why are you mad at Mum?’ Rodger asked, and he reached across and took her hand in his.

She turned towards him. ‘I know it’s irrational, but she died and left us, and everything changed. If she’d fought harder, tried more treatments, not given up! Instead, she abandoned us all. And that stupid elephant herd, they did the same to Ndhlovy. They came and saw her, and then left.’

‘Oh Peta, come here,’ he said, and she stumbled out of her chair and into his lap. ‘It wasn’t your mother’s fault she died. She never gave up. She fought right to her very last breath. There was nothing she could do to stop the cancer. It was eating her, and nothing the doctors did could stop it. The cancer was too aggressive. She never wanted to die. She never wanted to leave us. You knew your mum, she was always a fighter. Think back. Do you ever remember her backing down in an argument?’

Peta shook her head.

‘She still left us, Dad. She abandoned us while we still needed her. She waited for me to go away, and then she died. If I had stayed at home, and not gone for my second semester, I could’ve helped her, done more for her—’

‘She was so proud of you going to university. Never doubt that she wanted you to carry on with your studies. She didn’t want her illness interfering with your life.’

‘But if I’d been home to help her, she might still be alive.

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