CHAPTER 44
“Mrs. Van der Merwe, please come with me.” Mike started walking slowly towards the old woman on the dark beach in front of us. She was barefoot and alone, silhouetted against the white clouds that were lit up by the bright, full moon. I climbed out of the car into the cold sea air. The wind was strong and it was whipping cold droplets of water off the crashing waves. The wind howled in a way that was eerie and loud.
She turned around briefly and looked at Mike, and then looked back out at the waves in front of her. The waves were black and the breeze coming off the sea was so icy that I shivered. She didn’t respond, and Mike took another step towards her.
“Petra,” he said, in a voice that was so soft and caring, it made my heart flutter. “Petra, can you hear me?” he asked.
She turned around, looked at him and then smiled. “Pierre, is that you?” she asked, happily.
“Yes,” he said. “Dis my, Ma.It’s me,” Mike said softly, speaking half Afrikaans and half English. I could tell from the way he spoke to her that he’d done this many times before.
“Pierre, where have you been?Waar?” she asked, and then rushed up and hugged him with all her might. My heart broke a little bit, just watching her.
“I’ve been right here,” he said, as the old woman took his face in her hands and looked at him happily.
“You need to shave.” She ran her hands over his chin and I smiled. “You know what Dad always said.”
He nodded. “Cleanliness and godliness,” Mike said.
And then Petra turned to me and smiled. “Bianca?” She rushed over to me and pulled me into a hug. “You look so well.” And then her hand reached down to my stomach and she laid it across it. I flinched and almost pulled away, but her words stopped me. “You’re hardly showing.”
“Uh . . . Sorry, what?” I looked up at Mike.
“The baby,” Mike said to me. “Ourbaby,” he reiterated, with a firm and pointed nod.
“Our . . . What? The what—?”
“Baby,” he said again, raising his eyebrows at me. “The one that you’re carrying.” He pointed at my stomach and I didn’t know whether to be offended or not.
“Baby. Yes! The baby—our baby.” I played along when I understood what was going on. I’d been cast in a strange movie that I had no idea I’d even auditioned for. I looked back at Petra. “Yes, I’m still small,” I said to her. “My mom was small, too—it’s a family trait, I think.”
“But you’re taking good care of her?” she asked, with great concern.
I nodded. “Of course, the best.” I looked up at Mike and gave him a shrug. He gave me a small, relieved smile. Our eyes locked and my mind decided to run down a very strange path, one where I was actually imagining what our child would look like, what with all those good, green-eyed genes that he was sure to pass on. I quickly looked away and turned my attention back to the woman in front of me.
“Have you thought of names?” She looked at me and then over to Mike. Her face was old, time had etched deep lines in it, but she was smiling.
I shook my head as Mike walked over to me. “Not yet; we’re still trying to decide.” I slipped my arm over Mike’s shoulders. It wasn’t totally necessary for the scene, but it felt like something I wanted to do.
Petra looked at us both. “You’d better hurry,” she said. “It will happen in the blink of an eye.” And then her smile faltered and she looked out over the sea again, as if she’d zoned out of this reality and into another one—one where she was remembering something. “Trust me, blink your eyes too many times and itallhappens. It happens so quickly that, soon, it’s all over.”
A knot formed in my stomach at her words. Mike slipped his arm around me, too. “We like Emily,” he said, and nudged me.
“Yes!” I said, playing along with this strange charade again. “And Abigail,” I added. “We like Katy, too.”
“Yes! And Jennifer,” he said.
“Jessica, even,” I added.
“Yes, Jessica,” he confirmed. “We like theJnames.”
I nodded. “Joanne.”
“And Jolene,” he said quickly.
“What?” I looked up at him. “Jolene?”
“Yeah, what’s wrong with Jolene?” he asked.
