Read Online I Heart Beat by Edyth; Bulbring - Free Book Online Page B

We’ll get back to him if the other two targets crash.
    Toffie says whatever. He has to download
Sleepless in Seattle
for his ma and can’t talk. I shut the laptop and check out the action outside.
    Grummer, Pastor Aitch, Mr du Plooy and a very old man (outside the target market) who Pastor Aitch calls Oom are wandering around the guava trees. I don’t think the old man is Pastor Aitch’s uncle, but that’s what she respectfully calls him.
    â€œ
Kyk, seun. Kyk hierso
,” the old man says, and he’s pointing at the thickest trunk of a very old guava tree at the edge of the garden. Mr du Plooy looks and smiles. There are some words carved on the tree:
K and G Forever 1966
.
    â€œ
Ek onthou.
Of course I remember that day,” Mr du Plooy says and he puts his big (hairy) hand on the old man’s shoulder. Mr du Plooy has a funny look on his face. But it looks like some of the things he’s thinking aren’t funny at all. And I don’t feel like laughing either.
    Mr du Plooy and Mr September go into one of the shacks and leave me and Grummer and Pastor Aitch to chatter outside.
    Pastor Aitch is telling Grummer about this crèche she and the other ladies from Die Skema are trying to start for the Die Trein children, and Grummer sounds very interested. She says it sounds like a good cause. She would like to do her bit. And I don’t say anything ’cos I’m so not interested. Not one little bit.
    They finally come out of the shack and Mr September tells Grummer he found some things he wants to keep. Grummer sees that these things are some old photographs and she says of course.
    I notice that there isn’t the photo of two kids I saw before but I don’t say anything, and Mr du Plooy doesn’t say anything, and I think I know why: ’cos he nicked it when he was last here.
    Mr du Plooy is looking very hot. His face is a big red tomato. Grummer offers to get him some cold water but he says, nonono, he’ll be fine in a minute.
    Pastor Aitch says she thinks we should pray about things and Mr du Plooy says he thinks he should leave and I say I think it’s not a bad idea. We leave Grummer, Pastor Aitch and Mr September praying by the quince trees.
    When Grummer comes inside she says we need to talk about tomorrow. And I say we definitely need to talk about tomorrow. Tomorrow is the night of the skop. Tomorrow is when she meets Dr Simon Fridjohn at the party. Let’s talk, Grummer.
    About tomorrow.

Chapter 15
    WHEN I GO to bed on Friday night I enter the “talk about tomorrow” discussion in my file of some of my grossest conversations ever. It goes like this:
    Beatrice says: “Grummer, the pubbingrill’s having a dance tomorrow night.”
    Grummer replies: “Yes, Beatrice.” Awkward silence.
    Beatrice says: “I want to go.” (And Beatrice thinks: I so do not want to go.)
    Grummer asks: “Are you going to go on a date with Christoffel?”
    Beatrice says: “It’s a sort of date.” (And Beatrice thinks: I’m so definitely not going on a date with Christoffel, or Toffie or any of his relatives. But you’ve got a date, Grummer, with Dr Simon Fridjohn.)
    Grummer says: “I’m not sure if you’re old enough for this sort of thing.”
    (Beatrice thinks: But you’re old enough.) And Beatrice says: “But I badly want to go.”
    Grummer says: “I can’t let you go out alone at night. It’s not the right thing.”
    Beatrice says: “You’re right, Grummer. I think you must come with me.”
    And then Grummer decides and says she’ll come — but just for a short time. But we have to go shopping and buy “something pretty” to wear. I think that’s an excellent idea. Grummer could do with something a little more jazzy. Her wardrobe really is on the dull side of dowdy.
    Then Grummer has her turn to “talk about tomorrow”. This also