Inside the magnificent living room of the Victorian house on the outskirts of Elizabethtown, Charlize de Vries had just finished talking to her parents on their wedding anniversary trip to Vredefort, the site of the largest impact crater on Earth and the most popular tourist attraction in South Africa, 74 miles southwest of Johannesburg. As a physicist, Charlize had often wondered about the proximity of the Vredefort crater to the Sterkfontein Caves, a site located some 30 miles northwest of Johannesburg where some of the oldest hominid fossils had been found and which had been designated by UNESCO as The Cradle of Humankind. Was it simply a coincidence or was there instead an inevitable cause to effect relationship? Charlize walked over to the Steinway piano and sat down to play her favorite piece, The heart asks pleasure first by Michael Nyman. She could not help but feeling for her country. South Africa was so behind in theoretical physics that it was ludicrous. So, when the government had decided to create the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Johannesburg, it had only selected the brightest minds in the country without any regards to skin color, gender or affirmative action policies. She knew what others were saying about her, that she’d got the job only because of her looks and her father’s money and influence. Let them talk, she thought.
She had arrived at a difficult passage in the piece when Ma Gugu appeared at the door. “Lizzie! You’ve barely touched your dinner!” her voice boomed inside the room.
Charlize kept playing, “I’m not hungry.” she replied without turning her head.
Ma Gugu, a large heavy-set black woman in her mid-forties complete with apron and headwrap, crossed the distance between them like a charging elephant and was now standing close to her, fists on her hips. “What did you say?” she snarled, “You didn’t like my potjiekos?”
Charlize stopped playing and turned to her nanny. “No, Ma. I’m not hungry that’s all. I had a sandwich in Jo’burg.”
Ma Gugu turned almost blue. “A sandwich? You prefer a sandwich to my cooking?”
Charlize stood up to comfort her nanny. “Ma, you know I prefer your cooking to anything else but my colleagues from the Institute were meeting at a bar after work on Fridays and we—”
Ma Gugu put both hands on her bosom, “A bar? You went to a bar in that awful city with strangers?”
– “Ma, I’m not nine anymore and they’re not strangers—”
The arrival of her old black gardener saved her. He stood by the door, hat in hands. “What is it, Stephen? What do you want?” shouted Ma Gugu, her head tilted to one side.
– “There’s a woman asking for you at the gate.”
Ma Gugu seemed to be thinking but then relaxed. “Oh, it must be Lindiwe. I was expecting her this afternoon.” Then to Stephen, “Take her to the kitchen, I’d see her in a few minutes.”
The old man put his hat back on. “Okay, Ma.”
– “Poor Lindiwe, she was fired simply because she asked for a raise and now she’s alone without money and no place to stay. They didn’t even let her take her clothing. Some people just have no hearts.” Ma Gugu explained to Charlize.
– “She can work for us.” said Charlize.
Ma Gugu shook her head. “No, what we need is another man for the hard work but I’ve already talked to the Janssenses’ cook and she said they could use another maid.” Then, she lifted a finger and pointed right at Charlize, “As for you young lady, don’t think that because your parents are not here that I will let you do whatever you please!” and Ma Gugu stormed out of the room.
