Empire Settings: a Novel of South Africa by David Schmahmann

Author:David Schmahmann
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2010-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

I told Gladys that she and Mr. Boisey, this Adam that she is married to, should stay with me for two days because my house is bigger than my sister-in-law’s house, and because she is not proud she said that she would. I made a bedroom for them, a big bed for the white man and the Zulu girl to sleep together in, and that night they went to bed in the bed I had made and I went to bed in the room next door thinking about it.

And I was thinking, this is not a terrible thing, this is a good thing. They will have children, nice children who are a little bit brown and a little bit white, with nice noses, I think, and big brown eyes. It is not such a sin, after all. And I could not help thinking how shocked I was, how angry, when Ambrose told me those things about Danny and Emily’s girl, how I thought it was so bad like a crime against God even, and I told him so, and I told Emily too. Now I cannot stop thinking how you can be so wrong even when you think you are so right. Danny and that girl. I am thinking, and it is an old woman’s dream I know, would have had children even more beautiful than Gladys and this Mr. Boisey.

So when they woke up the next morning at eight o’clock I was already awake and I made breakfast for them, a nice breakfast with eggs and pancakes and all the things I used to make for breakfast at Gordonwood, the best kind of breakfast I know how to make, and in the back of my mind I was thinking about other things too, other breakfasts, how I could make such a breakfast for Danny too in my house, him and whoever he chooses to bring with him. Whoever. Honest to God.

“You should not have gone to so much trouble, Aunty,” Mr. Boisey said.

I knew when I said those things to Bridget about Emily’s girl that they were not true, that she was not a rubbish but a nice girl, but I only wanted them to be true, thought they must be true or she would not be making trouble in my house. I think now that maybe she was good, good to like my Danny, and if because of me Bridget made Danny forget her I wish I could take it back, make it not happen. But only God can do that. Past days do not return.

After breakfast they went, Gladys and Mr. Boisey and the other son of my sister-in-law in Mr. Boisey’s car to Mtunzini beach for a swim. After six, they came back for supper. Mr. Boisey was very happy for my good supper, sweets, baked pears and jelly, custard and plums, all kinds of puddings made the same way as when I used to cook at Gordonwood. Now they have gone back to Klerksdorp.

And I

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