Read Online White Dog Fell From the Sky by Eleanor Morse - Free Book Online Page A

they are such a
beautiful color, they will make your heart sing. And here,” he skirted a hole,
“I will block this opening and find the exit, so you need not fear snakes any
longer. And there is another hole over there.”
    “Those are snake holes?”
    “
Ee.
I haven’t seen
them. But never come out here in the darkness,
mma
, without a flashlight. If
you get a cat, they will rid the garden of small snakes.”
    “My husband is allergic to
cats.”
    “The cat can live outside.”
    “Cats hunt snakes?”
    “Yes, madam … 
Not
madam. You are
not
madam.” He smiled. “They hunt the young snakes
and kill them before they grow large.”
    He walked to the rear of the house, about
three paces in front of her. “With your permission, I wish to leave the aloes,
even though they are untidy. The birds have made several nests. See? Here and here?
These aloes have been growing for many years. They are keeping history.” He was
thinking that the new part of Gaborone had no history, only bulldozers and more houses
every day. “It is good for people to remember what Africa once
was …”
    “Before Europeans turned
up?”
    “I didn’t mean that. Most
especially I did not mean to say it to you.”
    “Let me tell you something, Isaac. If
you offend me, I’ll tell you. And if I offend you, you can tell me.”
    He was quiet a moment. His eyes went still
as stones.
Never
, his face said.
    She glanced at him and thought, Why
would
he trust me? “Never mind.”
    “I beg your pardon,
mma
?” She didn’t answer.
    He led the way to the barren side of the
house, where the almost dead tree stood. “The crested barbets live here. With your
permission, I will trim the dead parts here and here and put animal manure around the
base. Perhaps it will grow stronger.”
    She wanted to say, “Do whatever you
like.” She knew nothingabout supervising. The very idea of a
gardener was appalling. Why should she be a madam and he be asking her permission every
time he turned around?
    “Here,” he said, “I would
like to dig a large hole, at least two meters down.”
    “A hole?”
    “A sunken garden where you and your
husband can sit.” He moved about ten feet away, and made an oval with his arms.
“At the bottom will be flat rocks. On the sides, bigger rocks and many plants.
Sometimes they will bloom, sometimes they will be quiet, with just their leaves. And
I’ll plant trees all around. There are rocks near the dam if you can drive me
there.”
    “And the plants?”
    “An old man will give some to
me.”
    “It’s a lot of work.”
    “Yes. You would pay me the same
whether I do a lot or a little work. If I just wander around and splash a little water
here and there, the day will go by so slowly, I’ll fall asleep under a tree, and
you’ll fire me.”
    She laughed. He was a handsome man with an
open, intelligent face. She wondered what his story was, whether she’d ever know.
“Have you eaten anything today?”
    “No, I have not.”
    “How do you plan to work without
eating? I’ll ask Itumeleng to give you porridge in the mornings. And food for your
dog. And you don’t need to work tomorrow or Sunday.”
    “I wish to work all seven
days.”
    “I’ll pay you the same
amount.”
    “You cannot pay me for the days
I’m not working.” He was quiet a moment, looking at the ground. “If I
work seven days a week, I earn thirty rand a month. If I work five days a week, I will
earn twenty-three rand a month.”
    “How do you figure that?”
    “Five over seven is equal to the
unknown divided by thirty. Therefore, seven times the unknown equals one-fifty.
One-fifty divided byseven equals a little less than twenty-three
rand.” He stopped, realizing he’d said too much.
    “You never worked in a garden before,
did you?”
    He hesitated. “No,
mma
.”
    “How far did you go in
school?”
    “I completed university. Before I came
here, I was in fact in my first year of medical school.”
    “Why didn’t you