The next day Ma Saida took Alicia and Ryno to their aunt and uncle with whom they were supposed to stay for a while. All the Saida kids had to come along for a duty visit. “It’s going to be the most boring day of my life,” Hummel said to me. “You’re lucky that there isn’t enough space in the car for you to come along as well.”
Pa Saida, who had been up all night to deliver twin calves, had gone back to bed. I went for a swim in the reservoir near the big shed. On the top the water was warm with bright green algae floating like clouds, but deeper down it was real cold. I splashed around and watched the dragonflies and practiced walking on my hands. After about half a dozen mozzies had bitten me, I decided to go back into the house.
The parents Saida’s bedroom door stood open. Pa Saida was lying in bed reading a mag. He put the mag on the floor and called me in.
“There is nothing like a good snooze, my girl. Makes you feel like new, especially after that hell of a night I had.” He scratched his hairy chest. “Mathilda, come and sit here,” he patted the bed.
“I’ve got a wet cozzie on.”
“That doesn’t matter. Poppie can change the sheets. Seen the calves yet?”
“Ja, a little bull and a heiffer. They’re cute.”
“Come and look what we had to do last night.” He took a book from his night table and opened it on his belly. I sat down tailor fashion next to him on the bed. The book had drawings of twin calf embryos in it and the different stages of distangling and rearranging them in the womb to get them safely out.
“Well, the boys and I did a good job,” Pa Saida sighed satisfied. “The calves look all right and the mother’s ok.” He put the book back on the night table and reached for the mag he had been reading “Ever seen one of these before?” He tapped his index finger on the cover.
A Playboy!!
This was totally unexpected.
“Yeah sure,” I played it cool. “In Germany the bookshops are full of them.”
Pa Saida opened the mag. “Mmh, but I mean have you ever really looked at one?”
Heidewitzka. This is going to be an interesting little conversation.
“Ja, the guys in my class sometimes get hold of one and the biggest kick we get out of it is that it is absolutely completely against the school rules because we are still minors, so everybody looks at it.”
“And do you also read the stories?”
“Sometimes.”
“And what does it do to you?”
I couldn’t believe my ears. I nearly got up. But it was like a game now and I felt like playing it – just a little bit longer. “It’s like with all other stories. Some are good and some are shit.”
“I think most of them are brilliant,” Pa Saida turned the pages breathing fast. “And how d’you like these photos, Mathilda?”
Ho ho ho. Mebbe I should leave right now. How far are you going to go, Pa Saida? Just a little bit longer…
I stayed. There was a double page of kaalgat girls in all sorts of weird positions nobody in their right mind would take. A typical total macho set up.
“They are degrading women, turning them into pieces of meat.”
“No, you’ve got it all wrong,” Pa Saida said with a strange look in his eyes. “It’s a form of art. These shots can get your emotions going. You can’t tell me they are not doing anything to you. Come a bit closer and tell me what you feel.”
Hells bells. That’s it. I’m going.
I could see that something was moving under the sheet, right there between his legs. I stared at the growing bulge.
Hell, I better go and look into the mirror. I seem to be in big demand here. Mebbe it’s the hair under my arms that does the trick.
I got up and left. Before I reached the door, Pa Saida snapped back into his normal self. “Mathilda, I didn’t mean it. Forget that it ever happened. Holy Mother of God. Mathildaaaa, don’t tell anybody about it.”
Phhh. You think you can get into my pants by showing me some pictures of kaalgat girls…It’ll take a bit more than that, my boy.
The next few days Pa Saida was a worried man. He turned pale under his tan every time I opened my mouth and he tried to be invisible most of the time.