Jouna is sitting on Baby’s stoep in her emerald green dress and the earrings her son, Boetie, brought back from Greece. She has a strange, almost painful smile that Baby cannot fathom.
Baby gets up to feel the teapot. It’s cold. She goes to the kitchen to prepare fresh tea. When she returns, Jouna is still in pain. Baby pours a cup of tea and carries it over to her. Jouna absentmindedly accepts it.
Baby picks up her knitting. She’s supposed to be doing the rib for the front part of the jersey, but can’t get going. It’s hard to concentrate on knit-one-purl-one when an old friend is sitting opposite one with a new smile. Baby sighs and puts down her knitting.
“People are strange, aren’t they, Baby?” Jouna’s head is resting on her left shoulder and she’s shaping her words around her strange smile. Baby has difficulty in hearing the words clearly.
“We’re like leaves. Have you noticed how each leaf has its own shape?”
Baby moves around uncomfortably. As far as she knows, Jouna has never noticed leaves before, mind you being enthralled by their varied shapes. Baby gives a nervous cough. As far as she knows - and 10 years of knowing is far enough right now - Jouna is the one who had her whole yard paved. Jouna is the one who spends an hour each morning spraying every minute sign of plant life into oblivion. Jouna is the one who patrols her yard with a kettle of boiling water killing off the traces of moss on her paving.
One day, Baby gently suggested a pot plant or two for the sterile yard. Jouna - standing feet apart in her blood red dress - hissed out a threat that no weed, ant, slug or snail in its right mind could ignore. Only after Baby had reached the calming shade of her own stoep, did she realise that the ‘smoke’ she saw coming from Jouna’s mouth probably belonged to the steaming kettle in Jouna’s hand.
But the image remained.
Baby nervously glances in Jouna’s direction. She hopes Jouna isn’t going to go stark raving mad among the teacups and koeksisters right here on the stoep.
Jouna is talking: “This morning at Meisie’s - you know, the new girl - Ou-Koos and her were looking at a painting some foreign chappie did of a woman called ‘Mona Lisa.’ She’s also foreign because I don’t recognize the name.
Ou-Koos was saying he would give his false teeth to know what this Mona Lisa-woman is smiling about. When I walked closer they both stared at me. Ou-Koos came right up to me and stared into my face. ‘Meisie,’ he said, ‘why does Jouna remind me of this painting?’
After that he kept looking at me: little sidelong glances that I wasn’t supposed to notice. You know how men are! I must say it was strange for me when Ou-Koos came so close to me. My body felt suddenly warm. At first I thought I was having a hot flush, but then I remembered I went through ‘that stage’ (She gives Baby a between-us-women-look) years ago.
Baby? What if … just say … I mean, what if Ou-Koos has been carrying a torch for me all these silent years?”
Baby chuckles and shrugs, smiling at Jouna. That’s the puzzle then. Jouna’s strangeness and smile is all about falling in love. Baby relaxes and takes up her knitting again. What Jouna has on her face is a Mona Lisa smile. It is pleasure that Baby has been misdiagnosing as pain, even madness. Looking over at her old friend Baby supposes that as one ages, it becomes more and more difficult to see the difference.
“He’s a fine man our Ou-Koos,” Jouna is saying. “He’s healthy, gets a good pension and is handy at fixing things. And he has a good body: a nice strong virile body.”
Jouna blushes when she realizes what emphasis she put on the word ‘virile.’ Baby laughs.
“Don’t get me wrong, Baby. I won’t allow him to touch more than my hand - virile or not. I was brought up to know right from wrong. It’s just that …”
And Jouna’s face gets twisted up into that smile again.
After Jouna has left and Baby is washing the teacups, she’s thinking that there is something strange about Jouna today. She agrees with Ou-Koos. Somehow she does look foreign - sort of surprised …
Then it dawns on her. Jouna forgot to paint her eyebrows this morning! That must be the Mona Lisa something Ou-Koos recognized in her.
A laughter that Baby cannot control takes hold of her. She collapses against the fridge and allows the laughter to take its course.
Ou-Koos and Wagter pause in the street when they hear Baby’s laughter. Ou-Koos smiles and pats Wagter’s head. The two of them walk on home with Baby’s joyous laughter following them all the way.
In South Africa today security plays a vital part in any business or private home. This book and the volumes to follow, will guide you step by step through the essential precautionary measures to be taken in protecting your family and valuables. From employing security guards, evacuation of your site and security measures to burglar bars and alarms in your private home.
a Book compiled by me from experience gained after 10 years in the security industry as Industrial relations officer with Nosa qualifications, 1st Aid, fire protection and also S.O.B. grade A.
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