Charlize and Amina were sitting on the stoep of the Victorian house looking at the clear South African night sky. Through the opened front doors and larges windows illuminated from the interior, they could hear Maggie squealing with pleasure at Hennie’s magic tricks while Ma Gugu and Mbali were preparing dinner in the back. Kwanele sat by the doors of the servants’ house enjoying his pipe.
– “Where’s Clark?” Amina asked.
– “He went with Stephen to help out on the farm. Jakobus wants him there permanently. He said Clark has a way with the farmworkers. I was surprised to learn that he can speak Zulu.” said Charlize laughing, then added, “But they should be back before dinner.”
Charlize too was disappointed not to find Clark at home. After the lecture, she had declined Greene’s invitation to lunch. Pieter Coetzee wanted to call a press conference the next day to tell the world how his Institute had discovered a fatal flaw in what was supposed to be the ultimate theory in Physics while Trevor Plato wanted to marry her for showing the world that Greene wasn’t the smart man everyone else thought him to be. Hennie had caught up with her in the parking lot and simply said, “I’m following you home. I want to meet your servant.”
By the time they arrived, Amina was playing with Maggie on the lawn and Hennie had taken them in right away.
– “He’s really quite unlike most of the men I know.” Amina said.
– “I would say that’s an understatement.”
The two women remained silent.
– “He spends a lot of time with you too, am I right?” Charlize said.
– “Yes, he does and those times are real nice memories.”
– “Amina, may I ask you a personal question?”
– “Sure.”
– “Is there, umh, is there something—”
Amina turned to Charlize with a smile, “—something going on between me and Clark?”
Charlize nodded.
– “I wish, but no. I think he just enjoys being with me, that’s all. I’ve never felt that reaction that I get from almost every man I meet from him, you know? But I think I know why.”
– “You do?”
– “Yes. I think he knows that deep down inside, I will end up marrying a Hindu man in a Hindu traditional way and become a perfect Hindu wife because, otherwise, it will break my parents’ hearts. I think he understands that. You see, sometimes, I understand him without him saying a word. That’s weird, isn’t it? And I am always right. It’s like—it’s like between him and Maggie. Have you noticed?”
– “No, but I know he’s reading stories to Maggie every night.”
– “Oh, you should see them together. It’s like Clark is talking to her through telepathy. I swear.”
– “Really?”
– “Really, and there are times when I really, really think that Clark can sense things that we cannot.”
– “Like what?”
– “That’s what bothers me. I can’t put my finger on it.”
Charlize lifted her head. Amina was right. Something is peculiar about Clark. Something, she too, can’t put a finger on it.
– “You shouldn’t be worried, you know?” Amina said softly, looking straight ahead.
Charlize turned to look at her. “Worried about what?”
– “I saw the way he looks at you, Charlize.”
– “What do you mean?”
– “What I mean is that I know a lot of women, me included, that can only hope that one day, Clark would look at them the way he looks at you.”
– “That’s really nice of you, Amina. Thank you.”
– “I hate you but you’re welcome.”
Both women laughed until Maggie came out to throw herself in their arms, giggling.
