Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller

Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller

Author:Alexandra Fuller
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781101517703
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2011-07-19T07:00:00+00:00


PEOPLE OFTEN ASK why my parents haven’t left Africa. Simply put, they have been possessed by this land. Land is Mum’s love affair and it is Dad’s religion. When he walks from the camp under the Tree of Forgetfulness to the river and back again, he is pacing a lifelong, sacred commitment to all soil learned in childhood. “Bring me my Bow of burning gold,” Dad is singing again. Now he pauses and turns to Mum. “How does that hymn go, Tub?”

“Bring me my Arrows of desire,” Mum sings. “Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!”

“That’s right,” Dad says.

“Bring me my Chariot of fire!” they sing together.

Both my parents want to be buried on their farm in Zambia when the time comes. Accordingly, Dad has picked a baobab tree above the fish ponds for the site of his grave. “Just wrap me in a bit of sorry cloth and put me deep enough in the ground that Mum’s bloody dogs don’t dig me up,” he says.

Mum has picked a tree within shouting distance of Dad’s. “On the other hand,” she says, “I expect a big, elaborate funeral. Sing ‘The Hallelujah Chorus,’ wear large expensive hats and fling yourself into the grave after me.”



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